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[German version] (from the adjective τετράστυλος/ tetrástylos, 'four-columned'). Modern architectural term describing, in analogy to the established term hexastylos ('six-columned'), a temple or column construction with only four frontal columns. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography Lit. vgl. Tempel (V. A.3)

[German version] (λέσχη; léschē). An architectural structure, belonging to the category of Greek assembly buildings, where citizens met for negotiations, transactions and discussions (the term lesche is derived from the Greek λέγω/ …

[German version] A funerary monument on the west bank of the Tiber; construction began around AD 130 under Hadrianus and was completed in AD 139 by Antoninus Pius. In a solemn dedication ceremony Hadrian's remains were transferred from …

[German version] (κενοτάφιον; kenotáphion, Lat. cenotaphium, literally ‘empty grave’). In classical archaeology, …

[German version] A modern term of classical archaeology, borrowed from Latin, Italian and French, for a half-pillar built into a wall. This architectural element consists, in analogy with a column or a half-column, of a capital, a shaft and a base. Rare in Archaic and Cl…

[German version] Centrally-located, spacious, steep-sided hill - at 51 m, however, relatively modest in height - at Rome. Probably settled from as early as the 10th cent. BC (Iron Age wattle-and-daub huts), the MP was an important nucleus of what was to become the world city of Rome. At first, an aristocratic residential area extended between two places of worship (Temple of Magna Mater, from 204 BC; Temple of Jupiter Victor, from 295 BC, as yet not archaeologically identified); numerous remains of prestigious houses have been discovered in excavations since the 18th cent. As the residence of Augustus and his family, the MP saw its character begin to alter in the 1st cent. AD from a residential district to the imperial seat of the Roman emperors. The house of Livia [2], the house of Augustus and the Temple of Apollo built as an annex to the latter became the core of an imperial residence which soon covered the entire hill, ever expanding and encompassing widely-differentiated functions (Palace of Tiberius, Flavian palace, Severan palace extension). The modern term ‘palace’ is derived from the MP, as…

This item can be found on the following maps: Theatre | Dark Ages | Oracles | Persian Wars | Aegean Koine | Education / Culture (Δωδώνη; Dōdṓnē). [German version] I. Topography, historical development Sanctuary and settlement in Epirus, 22 km south-west of today's Ioannina in the 640 m high plain of Hellopia beneath the Tomarus [1. 85-87, 92]. D. is the oldest oracle site in Greece attested in literature (myth of its founding in Hdt. 2,54f. [2. 51-54]), already known to the Homeric epics (Il. 16,233-235; Od. 19,296-301). The or…

(Θεόδοτος; Theódotos). [German version] [1] Greek architect, c.370 BC Mentioned several times in the construction records for the temple of Asclepius at Epidaurus as its architect; his origins are as unknown as his subsequent whereabouts. T.’ salary during the project amounted to 365 drachmae per year, together with further payments of unknown object. It is uncertain whether he is the same person as the sculptor T. named in IG IV…

[German version] The Theatre of Pompey, Rome's first stone theatre, interrupted a long sequence of predominantly wooden theatres which had previously been built temporarily for reasons of public safety in Rome and throughout Italy (Amphitheatre; Theatre II.); it was begun by the triumvir Pompeius [I 3] after his triumph (in 61 BC) and dedicated with lavish games in 55 BC, the second year of his consulship. The…

(κλίμαξ/ klímax, Latin scalae, plural). [German version] I. Ancient Orient and Egypt …

[German version] [1] Greek archit…

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[German version] ('crematorium'). An architectural cremation place for Roman rulers, of which often only an altar remains. The best-known example is the Ustrinum of Augustus on the Field of Mars in Rome (Campus Martius; Roma III.) near the Mausoleum Augusti; Strabo (5,3,8), describes it as lavishly built and preserved, after the act of cremation, as a monument. Remains of other ustrina on the Field of Mars are assigned to the emperors Hadrianus, Marcus Aurelius and Antoninus Pius. Höc…

[German version] Passed down in Vitruvius [1. s.v. l.], an architectural technical term, on many occasions there also designated as lacunaria (pl.), for the sunken panels that decorated the ceiling between wooden beams crossing one another ( Roofing), the Greek equivalent being phátnōma, gastḗr, kaláthōsis [2. 45-52 with additional terms for details of the lacunar]. Lacunaria were as a rule three-dimensionally recessed and decorated with paintings or reliefs (mostly ornamental). In the temple or col…

[German version] Wall decoration with a structure imitating architecture misleadingly described in Vitruvius (7,5) as stucco facing in the sense of the 1st Pompeian style ( Stucco;  Wall paintings); as an archaeological technical term incrustation (from Latin   crustae sc. marmoreae, Greek πλάκωσις/ plákōsis) in contrast describes solely the interior facing of walls of lesser material with marble slabs (however, the relationship of this ‘genuine’ incrustation to the 1st Pompe…

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[German version] (πνύξ/ pnýx). Conspicious large hill built with houses in the urban area of Athens to the west of the Acropolis (Athens II. 3, Hill of the Muses). From the late 6th century BC this was the place of the people's assembly (Ekklesia). Initially they held sessions on a gently sloping piece of ground following a natural semi-circle, which was almost undeveloped; the only structure was a rostrum (βῆμα/ bêma). In the late 5th century BC the whole site was architecturally shaped and …

[German version] Distinct  ornamentation in the decorative canon of Ionic architecture, in modern architectural terminology also known as the ‘Ionian  kymation’: a profiled ledge with an arched cross section whose relief or painted ornamentation consisted of an alternation of oval leaves and lancet-shaped spandrel tips and which often concludes at the lower end with pearl staff (astragal) corresponding to the rhythm of the egg-and-dart moulding. Apart from decorating the  epistylion or the  frieze, egg-and-dart-…

[German version] According to Varro (Ling. 5,161) and Vitruvius (6,3,1f.) the customary formation of the roof opening of all types of the  atrium in the Roman  house. The funnel-shaped roof surfaces of the compluvium, which slope inward, conduct rainwater into the  impluvium, a basin at the atrium's centre. In the older displuvium the roof surfaces slanted outwards. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) …

I.Near East and Egypt [German version] A. Near East From the earliest times clay was the most important building material in Mesopotamia, along with reeds in the marshlands of the extreme south. With only a few exceptions, stone architecture, in a fairly strict sense of the term, is not found either in Babylon, which was lacking in raw materials other than limestone lodes, or in Assyria. When stone was used it was mainly for functional purposes, e.g. in laying foundations. Only in late Assyrian monumental architecture fro…