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[German version] Ancient technical term used in  construction technique. According to Vitruvius (2,8,7 and passim), a term for the frames or facings of walls made from cast cement (  opus caementicium ), later used generally for the covering of floors, roofs and walls with  stucco, marble, travertine or  mosaic. In  toreutics crusta also refers to the relief-adorned ‘jacket’, the ‘shell’ surrounding the body of the receptacle proper. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography Georges 1, s.v. c., 1775f. A. Rumpp, s.v. C., KlP 1, 1336 H.-O. Lamprecht, Opus Caementicium Bautechnik…

[German version] Architectural term recorded at Vitr. De arch. 3,2,3, denoting one of the temple forms listed in that work (Temple). According to Vitruvius' description, a prostylos is an ante temple with one row of columns in front of the pronaos (Cella). An extended variant of the prostylos is the amphiprostylos. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography W. Müller-Wiener, Griechisches Bauwesen in der Antike, 1988, 217 s. v. P.

[German version] Architect or building craftsman from Naxos, active around 600 BC. Pausanias (5,10,3) concluded from a supposed epigram that B. was the first to produce roof tiles of marble. An inscription on a marble roof tile from the Athenian Acropolis (CY=BY in the Naxian  alphabet) was interpreted as a reference to B. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography H. Svenson-Evers, Die griech. Architekten archa. und klass. Zeit, 1996, 374.

[German version] Steep trapezoidal hill in Rome, stretching from the southernmost point of the city to the Tiber. It includes the Augustan regio XIII and parts of regio XII. The MA consists of two hilltops connected by a ridge (Aventinus Maior and Aventinus Minor). Until the regency of the emperor Claudius it was outside the Pomerium (but within the Servian walls). The MA was inhabited early, evidently Ancus Marcius [I 3] settled there natives of various Latin localities he had conquered and devastated. Subsequently the MA…

[German version] Modern collective term for various phenomena of Greek column construction, coined by the American archaeologist W.H. Goodyear in 1912. They include specifically: (a) solution of the angle triglyph problem; (b) entasis (outward curvature of the column shaft); (c) inclination (inward leaning of columns and cella walls); (d) curvature (slight arching of the stylobate, sometimes also of all other superstructures, e.g. in the Parthenon); (e) increased diameter of corner columns as opposed to the central columns. Some of these phenomena were described by Vitru…

[German version] (περιστύλιον/ peristýlion, Latin peristylium). Representational element of ancient public and private architecture: Peristylion is used to describe a colonnade (Column) surrounding a court or square. In Greek architecture, peristyles can increasingly be found in private houses from the late 4th cent. BC onwards, also in numerous representational public buildings, e.g.gymnasia, palaistrai, libraries, theatres and various assembly buildings (bouleuterion and prytaneion). From their beginning,…

[German version] (Lat. 'slat', 'bar', or 'guideline'). Architectural technical term used in Vitr. De arch. 4,3,4 et alibi to refer to a slat with guttae on the epistylion (architrave) of a building of Doric structure. In width, the regula corresponds to the triglyphos and forms its lower end which structurally belongs to the architrave (and not to the frieze). Furthermore, the regula corresponds to the blocks of the geison that are resting on the frieze. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography D. Mertens, Der Tempel von Segesta und die dorische Tempelbaukunst des griechisc…

[German version] I. Ancient Near East Mouldable, quickly hardening material of gypsum, lime, sand and water, occasionally with stone powder, which was used in many places (in Egypt from the Old Kingdom onwards, c. 2700-2190 BC) to smooth walls and as a base for painting. Figurines, vases and moulds for casting metal were also made from stucco. From the Parthian period onwards (1st cent. BC), figured or geometric stucco reliefs covering long walls are attested. They were modelled by hand or using templates; in the Sassanid and early Islamic periods they were also carved. Nissen, Hans Jörg…

Roman family name, attested since the 2nd cent. BC [1. 189-203]. Several artists belonged to this gens. [German version] [1] Architect mentioned by Vitruvius The  architect C., whom Vitruvius (7, praef. 15ff.) called a civis romanus, probably under  Antiochus [6] IV Epiphanes (ruled 176/5-164 BC) in  Athens ‘took over the construction of the Olympieion using a large measure according to Corinthian symmetries and proportions ’(Vitr. De arch. 7, praef. 17). The late archaic new construction of the Zeus temple, which was begun unde…

[German version] Derived from Latin puteus ('well'), a term for enclosures around profane draw-wells, some of which were covered, or for stones pointing out sacred lightning marks. Particularly in the neo-Attic art of Hellenistic times, puteals were  a popular place for relief sculpture. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography E. Bielefeld, Ein neuattisches Puteal in Kopenhagen, in: Gymnasium 70, 1963, 338-356  K. Schneider, s. v. P., RE 23, 2034-2036  O. Viedebantt, s. v. Forum Romanum (46. Das Puteal Libonis), RE Suppl. 4, 511.

[German version] I. General Private sphere as a term denotes that area of life possessing an individual quality, and contrasts with the public sphere by virtue of its intimate character. While the term derives from the Latin privatim/privatus ('personal, discrete, private'), the pair of opposites denoting a polarization of two more or less strictly segregated spheres has existed only since the advent of a middle-class conception of standards in the late 18th cent. Before that, even events such as a ruler's toilet visits or dressing…

[German version] I. Definition of terms, state of research In what follows, road is used to denote a way that is at least partly of artificial construction, i.e. of architectural fashioning in the broadest sense, but not those more or less established, traditional trade and caravan routes and intercontinental links such as the Silk Road. The term covers long-distance roads as well as smaller trails and mule trails connecting towns and regions, but not intra-urban streets (on which see town planning). The…

This item can be found on the following maps: Writing | Theatre | Byzantium | Caesar | Christianity | Wine | | Commerce | Ḫattusa | Hellenistic states | Ionic | Asia Minor | Asia Minor | Asia Minor | Limes | Marble | Peloponnesian War | Pergamum | Persian Wars | Pilgrimage | Pompeius | Rome | Rome | Athletes | Delian League | Aegean Koine | Education / Culture | Mineral Resources I. History [German version] A. Site City (today Turkish county seat Selçuk) at the mouth of the Caystrus in the Aegean Sea, 80 km south of Izmir. The river sedimentation moved the coastline by abou…

[German version] A building in Rome ([III] with map 2, no. 62), probably built or dedicated in 78 BC under the consul Q. Lutatius [4] Catulus, after the fire of 83 BC, as a place of safe-keeping for public and private documents (CIL I2 736; 737). It was originally primarily public monies that were kept here, later numerous archived materials of state and city administration. According to a funerary inscription found in 1971, its architect was probably a certain Lucius Cornelius. The huge structure, almost 74 m long and, together with the…

[German version] The sundial with calendrical functions described by Pliny (HN 36,72f.), which was built on the Field of Mars in Rome ( Roma) in the reign of Augustus and renovated many times in the 1st and 2nd cents. AD. The gnomon ( Clocks) consisted of an obelisk which threw its shadow on to a paved area with a network of lines marked with bronze inlays. The reconstruction by [1] suggested as a result of various excavations and interpretations of the ancient and modern written records, assumed …

[German version] I. Ancient Orient and Egypt Ancient oriental houses usually had small highly placed window slits. Internal spaces in larger architectural complexes required special lighting by means of a clerestory or openable skylights in the ceiling. Findings in Egypt are in principle similar. Some wider window openings there had richly decorated grilles. Sievertsen, Uwe (Tübingen) Bibliography D. Arnold, s.v. Fenster, Lexicon der ägyptischen Baukunst, 80-82 G. Leick, A Dictionary of Near Eastern Architecture, 1988, 242-244. [German version] II. Greece and Rome As a means …

(Μεγακλῆς; Megaklês). A name that was increasingly common in the Athenian house of the Alcmaeonids in the 7th-5th cents. BC. [German version] [1] Árchon (632/1? B.C.) according to Plutarch The first historical M. Plutarch (Solon 12,1) designates him by name as the árchōn (632/1?), allegedly responsible for the defeat of the Cylonian revolution ( Cylon [1]) and the subsequent curse of the Alcmaeonids (Hdt. 5,71; Thuc. 1,126). Peisistratids Kinzl, Konrad (Peterborough) Bibliography Develin, 30f. PA 9688 Traill, PAA 636340. [German version] [2] Politican and strongman in 6th-ce…

[German version] (ἀκρωτήριον; akrōtḗrion) Akroteria are sculptured figures or ornamental pieces that decorate the ridge (middle akroterion) or the sides (side akroterion) of  gables of representative public buildings. Akroteria can be made of clay or stone (poros, marble). Initially, in the 7th/6th cents. BC, round, disc-like akroteria with ornamentation dominate (e.g. Heraeum of Olympia) while later on, three-dimensionally crafted plant combinations (volutes and palmettes) or statue-like figures a…

I. Ancient Orient [German version] A. General Points Despite its central importance to the origin and development of settlements, the supply of water for drinking and other uses in the cities of the ancient Orient has to date not been systematically studied. The analysis of the numerous archaeological discoveries is made difficult by the fact that in most cases they have not been adequately recorded, in others not at all. Individual exceptions are the water installations in the cities and fortresses of ancient Israel, which have been accurately recorded and studied in depth [5]. A.M.B. …

[German version] Modern term, derived from French, for a horizontal support protruding from a wall or pillar, and serving as a ledge for an arch, statuary, or as the base of a corbel or  geison. As multi-storey buildings became more frequent with the increasing range of constructional forms available to Hellenistic architects, the console could form the transition to the roof of a building while still serving as a structural element of the multi-storeyed façade. The combination of console and corb…

[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/ légō, ‘to speak/to talk’); usually located in the vicinity of the agora or - as a consecrated building - in sanctuaries, and, especially in the latter location, occasionally serving as a hostel. The lesche of the Cnidians at Delphi ( Delphi), described in Paus. 10,15ff., a long, rectangular hall structure with eight internal column…

[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 Puteoli where he had been buried provisionally. Although the MH was located in the horti Domitiae it directly was connected with the Campus Martiusthrough the newly constructed pons Aelius (dedicated AD 134). The two-storied circular building (diameter: c. 64 m; original height: c. 21 m) stood on a square base with massive projecting cor…

[German version] (κενοτάφιον; kenotáphion, Lat. cenotaphium, literally ‘empty grave’). In classical archaeology, kenotaphion refers to a tomb structure without the remains of a burial; a kenotaphion is usually a monument for a deceased person whose body was either no longer at hand, e.g. warriors who died in foreign lands or at sea, or a special form of the heroon ( Hero cult). The erection of a kenotaphion often constituted an outstanding way for a community or family to honour those warriors or generals whose remains were known to be in a specific place, but…

[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 Classical Greek architecture (but cf. Ante), pilasters increasingly appear in Hellenistic and especially Imperial Roman architecture and find an application as structural elements of large wall complexes, and also in door and window …

[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 o…

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 IV2 102 (B 1 line 97) as having, for 2,340 drachmae, fashioned the acroteria for the pediment; it is possible that the name T. has been in…

[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 gigantic complex on the western part of the Field of Mars (Campus Martius) outside the c…

(κλίμαξ/ klímax, Latin scalae, plural). [German version] I. Ancient Orient and Egypt Stairways were installed to overcome differences in height, but in the form of monumental constructs, they also created distance between buildings and people. There is evidence from the Ancient Orient of stairways ranging from a few steps between street level and a house or stairs inside houses and palaces, through monumental staircases in temples and palaces to stairways in funerary architecture. The materials used were dr…

[German version] [1] Greek architect, 3rd cent. BC Greek architect of the 3rd cent. BC; according to Str. 10,5,7 and 13,1,13, he built a state altar, 1 stadium long ( Measures), from the material of an abandoned temple near Parium; it is presumably depicted on coins (London, BM) and could be compared with the Hieronian monumental altar of  Syracusae. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography Overbeck, 2086-2087 (sources) G. A. Mansuelli, s.v. H., EAA 4, 1961, 13 (with fig. 18). [German version] [2] Epigrammatist, 3rd cent. BC Epigrammatist whose existence cannot be proven with…

[German version] (αὐλή; aulḗ) In Homer (Od. 14,5) the enclosed, light courtyard of a  house. Since the 7th cent. BC, the aule is a central part of the Greek courtyard house, where the multi-room house is grouped around the aule, which can be used agriculturally, for example as stables. The development of the courtyard house marks an important point in the development of Greek house architecture; it displaces the until that time usual form of the one-room house (megaron, oval and apsidal house). The aule was usually paved; from classical times, it is present in nearly all houses…

[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. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography A. Danti, s. v. Arae Consecrationis, LTUR 1, 1993, 75 f.  H. …

[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 columned building, the place where they were first app…

[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 Pompeian style which imitates incrustation and therefore is frequen…

[German version] 1. Central room in the ancient Italian and Roman house with lateral cubicula (sleeping chambers) and rear tablinum (room serving as passage between the atrium and the peristylion) flanked by the   alae which had no door. Early forms of the atrium are reproduced in Etruscan chamber tombs (Cerveteri), the oldest evidence is represented by Etruscan domestic architecture at the end of the 6th cent. BC in Rome (the Palatine) and in the Etruscan Marzabotto. The early Roman atrium served as a reception room for the clientes whom the patron received while sitting on the solium. In …

[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 in the process turned through c. 180°. The lavishly and representatively built orchestra-sha…

[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…

[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) Bibliography E. M. Evans, The Atrium Complex in the Houses of Pompeii, 1980 R. Förtsch, Arch. Komm. zu den Villenbriefen des jüngeren Plinius, 1993, 30-31.

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 monumenta…

[German version] I. General Town planning is the designing of urban settlements (Town, city) on an organizational basis, with the central and particular functions of the town, e.g. as a port or a political centre, having an effect on its external and internal form. Most towns and cities in the Middle East and Egypt arose in the earliest times (in the Middle East from the 5th millennium onwards) at economically or strategically important points (trade routes, river crossings, anchorages). Towns and c…

(Ἀπολλόδωρος; Apollódōros). Political figures [German version] [1] Athenian politician (4th cent. BC) Son of  Pasion of Acharnae, Athenian rhetor and supporter of Demosthenes (394/93, died after 343 BC). A. was one of the richest Athenian citizens after 370. He undertook costly trierarchy liturgies (cf. IG II2 1609,83 and 89; IG II2 1612, b110; Dem. Or. 50,4-10; 40 and 58) and in 352/51 gained a victory as   choregos (IG II2 3039,2) but had only limited success in obtaining a political post commensurate with his wealth. From 370 to 350 BC he indulged in litigat…

(Σώστρατος/ Sṓstratos). [German version] [1] Of Cnidus, Greek architect, 1st half of 3rd cent. BC Son of Dexiphanes of Cnidus; architect of the early Hellenistic period (1st half of 3rd cent. BC), mentioned several times in ancient literature (Plin. HN 36,83; Lucian, Amores 11; Lucian, Hippias 2). He was also diplomatically active, as one of the philoi of Ptolemaeus [3] II (Str. 17,1,6). As well as with various canal constructions linked to the conquest of the Egyptian city of Memphis and buildings at Cnidus and Delphi (FdD III/1 nos. 198 and 299), h…

[German version] Ancient technical term related to  building technology (IG VII 3073, 121; 142). In Greek stone block construction, anathyrosis refers to the partial removal of material from contact surfaces between two stone blocks or column sections (usually by picking). By this minimization of the contact zone between two construction elements, not visible from the outside, their fit could be improved; viewed from the outside, the joints formed a network of superfine lines. The disadvantage of the anathyrosis is an increased pressure on the reduced bearing surfaces, w…

[German version] Architectural term recorded in Vitruvius (3,2,6; 3,8-9), used to label one of the forms of temple listed there. The pseudodipteros type was, according to Vitruvius (7 praef. 12), developed at the Temple of Artemis at Magnesia [2] on the Maeander by the architect Hermogenes [4], who omitted the inner row of columns of a dipteros. The characteristic result of this is the unusually wide ambulatory (Greek pterón) around the cella. In this sense e.g. the temple at Sardis, which also is dedicated to Artemis, is likewise considered a pseudodipteros.…

[German version] A. I. Middle East Since Neolithic times, the most important building material in Mesopotamia has been the unkilned clay brick. A more extensive use of stone can be found in western regions of the Old Orient, in particular Asia Minor, and in Iran during Persian times. The typical New Assyrian house is divided into two sections: a forecourt with utility rooms and an inner courtyard with residential quarters. By contrast, rooms in a Babylonian house as of the 3rd millennium are usually …

[German version] Gates that went beyond purely military aspects (for these cf.  Fortifications) are to be found in Greek architecture from the 6th cent. BC onwards ─ initially as imposingly designed entrances to sanctuaries, and from about 400 BC also in secular contexts (entrances to the  Agora,  Gymnasium,  Stadium or  Assembly buildings, e.g. in Miletus, Priene, Olympia). The development and extension of the própylon as a decorative entrance gate to a  sanctuary can be reconstructed, for example, from the Acropolis of Athens (cf.  Athens II. with locati…

[German version] Modern term for various buildings of the dynasty of the Ptolemies serving the ruler cult; the first Ptolemaeum is considered to be a building built by  Ptolemy [3] II adjacent to the tomb of  Alexander [4]  the Great (later amalgamated by Ptolemy [7] IV with Alexander's tomb into a connected mausoleum complex). There are further Ptolemaea e.g. in Athens (Gymnasion), Limyra (?) and Rhodes (Temenos). Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography J. Borchardt, Ein Ptolemaion in Limyra, in: RA 1991, 309-322  Will, vol. 1, 329.

[German version] (Χερσίφρων; Chersíphrōn) from Cnossus. Father of  Metagenes; these two being the  architects of the archaic  dipteros of Artemis at Ephesus (2nd half of the 6th cent. BC), as recorded in Strabo (14,640), Vitruvius (3,2,7) and Pliny (HN 7,125; 36,95). Both of them wrote about this temple in a work which was evidently still known to Vitruvius (Vitr. De arch. 7,1,12), and is one of the earliest formulations of ancient architectural theory ( Architecture, theory of); through his develo…

(Μεταγένης; Metagénēs). [German version] [1] Attic poet of the Old Comedy, 5th/4th cent. BC Attic poet of the last years of the Old Comedy (end of the 5th and early 4th cent. BC), listed among the winners at the Lenaea with two victories, immediately before Theopompus [1. test. 2]. The Suda mentions the titles of five plays: Αὖραι ἢ Μαμμάκυθος , Θουριοπέρσαι, Φιλοθύτης, Ὅμηρος ἢ Ἀσκηταί (or Ὅμηρος ἢ Σοφισταί [1. fr. 11]) [1. test. 1]. The plays have been lost, except for a few fragments. In the most extensive fragment (11 V. from the Θουριοπέρσαι) the na…