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[German version] From Latin ceno; originally the dining room on the upper floor of the Roman  house. From time to time the term cenaculum includes the entire upper floor (Varro, Ling. 5,162; Fest. 54,6); the rooms described as cenacula were for accommodating guests of an inferior rank or slaves. They could also be the object of a lease; cenaculum became in this context synonymous with shabby housing. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography Georges, 1, 1067, s.v. c. (sources) G. Matthiae, s.v. Cenacolo, EAA 2, 467 (bibliography).

[German version] Greek ἀ(ι)ετός/ a(i)etós (architectural inscriptions: [1. 33f.]); Latin fastigium, fronton; triangular front, framed by the horizontal and raking cornices, of the saddleback roof of a typical Greek columned building; sacred architecture, the gable field (tympanon, for the terminology see: Vitr. De arch. 3,5,12; 4,3,2) is frequently decorated with sculptures; cf.  architectural sculpture. The pitch and hight of a gable in  proportion to the columns and the entablature provide some indicati…

[German version] (ναΐσκος/naḯskos, ‘little temple’). A small temple-shaped building without a surrounding peristyle. In the technical terminology of classical archaeology the term is used for small free-standing architectural structures (e.g. well houses; wells) as well as (occasionally) for specially designed cella constructions within a temple (e.g. in the temple of Apollo at Didyma), occasionally also synonymous with naós (Cella). Also used of tomb reliefs with seemingly architectural wall ends, which protruded because of their spatially deepened surroundings. Höcker…

[German version] The headquarters or commander's office of a Roman legion camp or fort, located at the heart of the facility as its administrative and religious centre, at the intersection of the two main streets (Cardo, Decumanus). The principia consisted of an open courtyard with a sanctuary for the standards, enclosed by the grouping of the legion's administrative buildings, arsenal and assembly rooms for the officers. Castra; Praetorium Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography A. Johnson, Roman Forts of the 1st and 2nd Century AD in Britain and the German Provinces, 1983  H. von …

[German version] (παστάς; pastás). Transverse hall that in the Greek house (with fig.) connects the courtyard with the residential block behind it; an extension of the porch (prostas) issuing from the courtyard in older residential buildings, e.g. the houses of Priene, into a type of corridor and therefore a typologically determining element of the more modern, late Classical residential dwellings like those of Olynthus. The pastas house forms the nucleus of later, large-scale peristyle houses. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography W. Hoepfner, E.L. Schwandner, Haus und St…

[German version] Apart from defensive and protective installations (Fortifications) and funerary architecture, towers are found in Graeco-Roman architecture primarily in domestic constructions, particularly in rural areas. They were used there partly as representational buildings, but also as safe places of refuge in period of crisis and also as well ventilated places for storing agricultural produce which were difficult for pests to reach. The significance of 'Greek tower farmsteads' as a type of…

[German version] Stone theatre on the Campus Martius in Rome (Rome III.), begun by L. Cornelius [I 7] Balbus on the occasion of his triumph over the Garamantes in 19 BC and dedicated in 13 BC (Suet. Aug. 29,5; Cass. Dio 54,25,2). Significant remains survive in modern Rome in the area around the Piazza Paganica, some of them unexcavated. The theatre, which was rebuilt several times and after the fire of AD 80 probably entirely reconstructed, held an audience of about 8000 and was therefore the smal…

[German version] The term central-plan building (CB) describes an edifice -- either detached or integrated into an architectural ensemble - with main axes of equal or nearly equal lengths, so that none is dominant. The basic shapes of a CB are a circle, a square, or a regular polygon, sometimes with an additional projection to set off the entrance. According to this definition, the Greek  tholos is a centralized building, as are various other examples of circular  funerary architecture ( Tumulus; …

[German version] [1] Technical term in history of art and architecture (from Latin spolium, 'arms stripped from an enemy, booty'). Technical term of archaeology and art history, denoting parts of earlier buildings or monuments reused in constructive or decorative contexts. Scholars long saw the use of spolia in architecture and decoration as a symptom of decline in architecture, of the dissolution of the Classical Orders (Column) and of a lack of imagination and technical ability in respect of architectural …

(δελφίς/ delphís and δελφίν/ delphín, Lat. delphinus and delphin). [German version] [1] Representative of the small viviparous whale A frequent representative in the Mediterranean of the small viviparous  whale, with a spout (αὐλός; aulós), articulation of sounds, and pulmonary respiration (Aristot. Hist. an. 1,5,489a 35-b 5; 4,9,535b 32-536a 4; 8,2,589a 31-b 11 with a discussion of its role as an aquatic animal, ἔνυδρος; énydros), was admired chiefly by the Greeks as ‘king of marine animals’ (or of fishes; Ael. NA 15,17; Opp. Hal. 1,643 and 5,421 or 441). …

[German version] (Στασικράτης; Stasikrátēs). A Hellenistic architect recorded only in Plutarch (Plut. Alexander 72; Plut. Mor. 335c ff.); probably confused by Plutarch with Deinocrates or miswritten and identical with him (Deinocrates [3], also with bibliogr.). Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)

[German version] (αἴθουσα; aíthousa). In Homer (Od. 17,29; 18,102; 22,466; Il. 6,243; 20,11, the term for the entrance hall of a  house, which is adorned with columns and joined to the court gate. The portion located in front is called   prothyron (Il. 24,323; Od. 3,493). Entrance halls of this type can already be found on palaces of the 2nd millennium and in the early Greek house architecture; they then become a common element on Greek  temples. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography F. Noack, Homer. Paläste, 1903, 53 H. L. Lorimer, Homer and the Monuments, 1950, 415-422 H. Drerup, A…

(Ἐχῖνος; Echînos). [German version] [1] Town on the northern shore of the Gulf of Malia Town on the northern shore of the Gulf of Malia near today's village of Achino. Originally part of the Achaea Phthiotis, Echinus was granted by Philippus II to the Malieis in 342 with whom E. belonged to the Aetolian league from c. 235. In 210, E. was conquered by Philippus V (Pol. 9,41; [1]) who refused to return it to the Aetolians; after 193, the Romans conquered it and assigned E. to Malis again in 189. In Roman times, E. was considered part of Achaea Phthiot…

[German version] I. Ancient Orient In Middle Eastern archaeology intarsia is the term for the laying of decorative elements of different materials onto or into a substratum. To achieve better colour contrasts, combinations of different materials, especially coloured stones, shells, bones, ivory, metals, ceramics, glass and silicate were used; the most common substrata were stone, metal, wood and clay/ceramics. The binder was usually bitumen. The oldest examples of intarsia were found in the preceramic Neolithic of Palestine ( c. 8000 BC; e.g. gypsum-coated human skulls wi…

[German version] (Greek δίπτερος; dípteros: two-winged; building equipped with double pterón = gallery or perambulatory). Technical term for a Greek  temple with a frontage of at least eight columns, whose  cella is enclosed on all sides by at least two, on the ends even three rows of columns; the term is only known from Vitruvius (3,1,10; 3,2,1; 3,2,7; 3,3,8; 7 praef. 15), but not elsewhere in Greek architectural terminology. In comparison with a  peripteros with its simple set of columns, the dipteros ─…

[German version] [1] Part of the Roman atrium house Part of the Roman atrium house ( House;  Atrium). The term ala designates two opposing rooms, open in their full width and height, that form the cross axis in front of the tablinum or main room of the house. Alae were very common in Roman home construction; Vitruvius lists the correct proportions for design (6,3,4). The origin of the design type is unclear. The conjecture that, in Vitruvius' description of the Tuscan temple (4,7,1), the term for the two outer cellae of the Etruscan temple ( Temple) is alae (instead of aliae, as the text has…

[German version] (τελεστήριον/ telestḗrion; teletḗ ). In Greek usage a general term for a temple of mysteries or a chapel of devotion for the Eleusinian gods, named after the Telesterion in the sanctuary of Demeter in Eleusis (on the building there see Eleusis [1] C.; cf. also Mysteries B.2.). Besides the site at Eleusis there is evidence of telestḗria in the Attic town of Phlya, the Heraion at Argos [II 1] and the Kabeirion at Thebes [2]. In Eleusis the Telesterion changed from a small megaron-shaped temple between the early 6th cent. and the late 5th…

[German version] This architecturally designed sea mark, Greek φάρος/ pháros, Lat. pharus, had its precursors in the open fires mentioned as early as Homer (Od. 10,30 et passim). These were raised on pillars or struts, and marked the entrances of harbours (Piraeus, 5th cent. BC; Harbours, docks) or (rarely) dangerous coastal features (at the same time, misleading coastal fires had been a means used by pirates from time immemorial to cause ships to be stranded, with the aim of plundering them; Navigation;…

[German version] Latin for shell, snail (Greek κόγχη/ kónchē), also describes shell-shaped vessels or large drinking-bowls as well as the snail-shaped horn of Triton (Verg. Aen. 6,171; Plin. HN 9,9). In early Christian literature concha designates the upper half-dome of the  apse and the water basin used for baptisms and baths. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography G. Matthiae, s.v. Conca, EAA 2, 779.

[German version] I. Ancient Orient and Egypt Because of the state of preservation of buildings, roofing methods in the ancient Near East can generally only be inferred from pictorial representations. Depictions on cylinder seals and remains of beams ('Temple C' in Uruk; end of the 4th millennium BC) are early evidence for flat roofs as the normal roofing method for public and private buildings in southern Mesopotamia and other parts of the Near East. In mountainous parts of the Near East, the existence…

(στοά; stoá). [German version] [1] Structure Ancient description for a long covered walkway, gallery or portico resting on columns and structurally enclosed at the back. The earliest examples in Greek architecture occur around 700 BC; the derivation of its style is unclear: features recalling the early Greek architecture of the Geometric Period can no more be substantiated than connections with Oriental tent construction. In the Archaic Period the stoa was largely restricted to sanctuaries; here, as i…

[German version] ('Temple of peace'). A square (Forum) in Rome, designed and consecrated in AD 71 - after the capture of Jerusalem - under Vespasianus in analogy to the Fora of Caesar and Augustus whose nearly square, column-encircled court leads to a temple on the south-eastern side. The space between the TP and the Forum Augustum was probably kept open originally - a measure intended to avoid a direct ideological-political analogy between the Fora of Caesar and Augustus on the one hand and this …

[German version] Modern technical term of scholarship devoted to ancient architecture; it describes the krepidoma observable in some Doric peripteral temples from the middle of the 6th cent. BC (e.g. temple of Apollo of  Corinth = earliest evidence; Aphaea Temple of  Aegina;  Parthenon; great temple of  Segesta) and rarely also in Ionic buildings (e.g. temple of Apollo of  Didyma) -- and resulting from this -- the arrangement ascending to the entablature. This phenomenon mentioned by Vitruvius (3,4,5), as wel…

[German version] Modern technical term, commonly used since the 17th cent. in the history of art and architecture (from French frise), which, as an architectonical term, designates that part of the stone entablature that rests on the architrave ( Epistylion) in Greek column construction. The frieze of Doric buildings consists of an alternating sequence of  metope and  triglyphos (the whole of which is in Greek building inscriptions referred to as τρίγλυφος, tríglyphos [1. 29-30]), the frieze of Ionian buildings, which can (in contrast to that of the Doric order) b…

[German version] Term used by Pollux (3,154 and 9,43), Athenaeus (12,518d) and other late sources for the open courtyard, often strewn with sand, of the Greek gymnasium; cf. also Palaistra. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)

[German version] I. Egypt and the Ancient Orient As a statically significant building element, whether in wood or modelled from stone or brick, the column played different roles in Egypt and the Ancient Orient. In Egypt columns were a component of almost every form of architecture, from roof-bearing wooden posts in family residences to extravagantly shaped stone columns in temples and palaces. Having bases and capitals, the latter, too, betrayed the evolution from wooden columns. Columns frequently took on the shape of plants; they were probably always painted. Columns were used sp…

[German version] Ancient name for a dḗmos / district of Athens ( Athens II.7), stretching from north of the Athenian agora to the Academy; originally a swampy plain crossed by the Eridanus [2], in which lay the Athenian potters' district, but above all, the chief cemetery of the city since the sub-Mycenaean period. In the 6th cent. BC, it developed into the central necropolis of Athens, crossed by various roads, and divided by the Themistoclean Wall (479/8 BC); the Dipylon Gate la…

[German version] [1] Ligurian city in the valley of the upper Chero (Βελεία, Βελία/ Bel(e)ía; Οὐελεία/ Oueleía). Ligurian city (but in Regio VIII) in the valley of the upper Chero (tributary of the Po), c. 30 km to the south of Placentia; modern Velleia. Possibly an Augustean colonia, tribus Galeria (Plin. HN 3,47; ILS 1079, l. 8: res publica Velleiat[ium]; ILS 5560: municipes); according to the archaeological finds evidently destroyed in the 4th/5th cent. AD and abandoned. Parts of the forum survive (drainage system; paving, cf. CIL XI 1184; basilica; po…

[German version] (Ἥραιον; Hḗraion). General term for sanctuaries of the goddess  Hera; more important Heraia are found, among others, in  Argos,  Olympia,  Paestum, Perachora and on the island of  Samos. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)

[German version] [1] Building panel In Greek building inscriptions μετόπιον/ metópion i.e. μετόπη/ metópē (supporting documents: [1. 29-32]), in Vitruvius metopa (cf. [2]) is the opening or gap, which in Greek columned buildings is framed by two triglyphs ( triglyphos) in a Doric Frieze. In wooden buildings metopes were openings next to the projecting beam ends that were finished as carved triglyphs and probably served to ventilate the roof truss. The space between the triglyphs was already closed up in early Greek…

[German version] (νεώρια/ neṓria, neut. pl.; Lat. navalia, neut. pl.). There is no evidence of dockyards as permanent structural establishment for  shipbuilding in the early Greek period; shipbuilding took place as a specialized part of the   materiatio at places chosen on an ad hoc basis in each case close to coasts or harbours (Pylos [1]; cf. Hom. Od. 6,263-272). At the latest since the early 6th cent. BC, as a feature of the autonomy of the Greek  polis, dockyards were part of the infrastructure of the navy ( navies) in the same way as…

[German version] I. Near East and Egypt Near East: the lack of preliminary studies makes a comprehensive account of the Old Oriental building world across several periods impossible; investigations exist for only a few selective periods. It is the Neo-Assyrian period (1st half of the 1st millennium BC), which to date provides the clearest insight because of the availability of extensive source material in respect of the architecture of palaces, temples and fortifications. Royal inscriptions prove the i…

[German version] One of the seven hills of the city of Rome (Rome III A with map 1), between the Mons Quirinalis and the Esquiliae. In the early Imperial period an elegant residential quarter (Mart. 7,73,2); at the turn of the 3rd/4th cents. AD in the northeastern part of the hill enormous thermae were built, founded by the emperor Diocletianus (Thermae [1 II D]). Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography Richardson, 431, s. v. V. (with sources).

(Παρθενών; Parthenṓn). [German version] I. Function Temple-shaped building on the Acropolis of Athens (II.1. with map; Temple); named after the 12 m high chryselephantine statue of Athena Parthenos by Phidias inside the building (Gold-ivory technique with fig.), which was mentioned by Pausanias (1,23,5-7) and others. The cultic purpose of the Parthenon is a subject of lively controversy in archaeological research. However, to date it has remained impossible to find evidence for a cult of Athena Parthe…

[German version] (Ἱππόδαμος; Hippódamos) of Miletus. Greek architect, town planner and author of writings on political theory; the ‘Hippodamian system’, which was erroneously named after him, a right-angled urban grid, was already known in archaic times in the colonies in the West and in Ionia ( Insula;  Town planning). H.'s lifetime and period of activity is uncertain; the rebuilding of  Miletus (479 BC), which was destroyed in the Persian Wars, is connected to him as well as the building of the c…

[German version] Ancient Latin technical term (Varro, Rust. 3,5,13; Vitr. De arch. 4,1,2; 4,2,5 et passim) for part of the corbel block on the geison of Doric Greek temple rafters. A Greek analogue of this special technical term is unknown. The individual components of the block were probably collectively called the geíson. The mutulus is the overhanging plate with usually 3 × 6 drops ( guttae), which appears in a regular sequence above the metope triglyph frieze and supports its rhythm. The length of the mutulus is equivalent to the measure of the triglyph ( tríglyphos …

[German version] Modern technical term of archaeological construction research; what is described here is the noticeable slight inwards pitch of the  columns in the outer column circle in some Doric peripteral temples of the classical period (e.g.  Parthenon); together with the  entasis, the increased diameter of the corner columns and the  curvature, it is one element of the  optical refinements in Greek column construction. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography D. Mertens, Der Tempel von Segesta und die dor. Tempelbaukunst des griech. Westens in klass. Zeit…

[German version] In Rome, together with the Curia, the assembly place of the Roman Senate ( Senatus ) at the Comitium (Forum [III 8] Romanum); beyond this specific location in the City of Rome and independent of it, a general term for a place where the Senate met. Assembly buildings Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography Richardson, 348.

[German version] Representative  altar complex on the   campus martius near the Via Flaminia in  Rome; together with the  Ustrinum and the mausoleum of Augustus, it is possibly a part of the  Horologium Augusti. Finds since 1568, systematic excavations at the ancient site under the Palazzo Fiano at the Via in Lucina in 1903 and 1937/38. With its details in dispute, the opening of the reconstruction, which was relocated to the banks of the Tiber near the Augustus mausoleum (by using cas…

(Greek ταινία/ tainía). Term for bindings of all kinds. [German version] [1] Headband for festivals (Head)band, worn at Greek festivals (Pl. Symp. 212d.e, 213d; Xen. Symp. 5,9). Even gods wore, or bound their heads with, tainiai. (Paus. 1,8,4). Furthermore, cult images (Paus. 8,31,8; 10,35,10), trees (Theocr. 18,44), monuments [3], urns, sacrificial animals and deceased (Lucian, Dial. mort. 13,4) had tainiai wound round them. The Romans adopted tainiai from the Greeks (e.g. Ov. Met. 8,724 f.). As a sign of a victor and of success (Paus. 4,16,6; 6,20,10; 9,22,3…

[German version] Tunnel-building is encountered in Classical Antiquity in two fundamental contexts: water supply or irrigation/drainage and - less often - road-building (Roads and bridges, construction of). Tunnels built in the context of siegecraft or military defences in fortifications (undermining city defences, such as in the Persians' attack on Barce: Hdt. 4,200; underground countermines as a defensive measure against siege ramps: Caes. B Gall. 6,24; escape or rescue tunnel) should - for a de…

[German version] There are repeated references in Roman written sources (Varro, Rust. 3,1,10; Plin. HN 36,184, among others) to the decorative floor covering made from irregular variously coloured small marble stones found in buildings. It must be distinguished from mosaic (cf. Pavimentum). Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography W. Müller-Wiener, Griech. Bauwesen in der Ant., 1986, 109-110.

[German version] Architectural term, recorded in Vitruvius (4,8,6), describing Italo-Roman temples (Temple) in which the side columns of the porch continue as half-columns on the central wall around the cella, and thus form a  'false' peristyle without a true ambulatory (Greek pterón) (Peripteros). The best-known examples are the Maison Carrée in Nîmes (Nemausus [2]) and the Ionic temple in the Forum Boarium in Rome. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography Ch. Balty, Études sur la Maison Carrée de Nîmes, 1960 (on this type)  R. Amy, P. Gros, La Maison Carrée de Nîmes (Gallia S…

[German version] Steep crag at the southeast of the Capitol (Capitolium) in Rome; named after Tarpeia. Place of execution, where delinquents accused of various crimes were thrown from the rock to their deaths. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography Richardson, 377 f. s. v. Tarpeia Rupes.

(θόλος/ thólos, fem.; Lat. tholus) rotunda; here, the term will refer to the monopteros as well. [German version] I. Greece In the architecture of the ancient Greek world, the circular shape of the tholos was always a peculiarity that stood out optically. Overall, the tholos was rather rare in Antiquity and was used as a striking and deliberately used architectural type. Building designs and details were not developed in a canonical way and the functions of the tholoi were varied: cult building; heroon/funerary building, memorial, treasurey, banquet/assembly hall; at tim…

(Διοσκουρίδης; Dioskourídēs). [German version] [1] Son of Polemaeus, naval commander in 314-313 BC Son of Polemaeus, nephew of  Antigonus [1] Monophthalmus. Led the fleet to a few victories as naval commander in 314-13 BC. Nothing further is known about his life. Badian, Ernst (Cambridge, MA) Bibliography R. A. Billows, Antigonus the One-Eyed, 1990, 381f. [German version] [2] Polyhistor of the 4th and 3rd cents. BC Polyhistor of the 4th and 3rd cents. BC, pupil of Isocrates (Ath. 1,18,11 A). Of his works, the following titles are known (cf. FGrH 3 B 594): 1. Apomnēmoneúmata (‘Memorabil…

[German version] Latin term for ‘arch’. As a technical term in ancient architecture, fornix describes the arch of a vault, the vault itself, or the masonry arch of a bridge or aqueduct; also arched gaps in masonry walls for doors and  windows (cf. also  vault and arch construction). A cellar vault or cellar floor may also be meant; the dirt and alleged disreputability of cellars are presumably the origin of the new meaning of the term fornix in the 1st cent. AD as ‘brothel’ (e.g. Hor. Ep. 1,14,21 and passim) or as a label for any form of misconduct. Presumably because of this negati…

[German version] According to Tac. Ann. 14,22,2 and Plin. HN 3,109 one of the emperor Nero's (Nero [1]) villas downstream from a chain of lakes created by damming the Anio (cf. Frontin. Aq.}} 93). Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography F. Cavalliere (ed.), Sublaqueum-Subiaco. Tra Nerone e S. Benedetto, 1995.

[German version] Collective term for underground architecture. In modern terms hypogaeum is mainly a part of  funerary architecture, in which case hypogaeum refers to architecture below the earth's surface and not that which is built above ground and then covered with earth in the sense of the tumulus with a tomb chamber inside; moreover heroa, which are closely related to tombs in character (e.g. that of  Calydon) as well as structures for special cult facilities (e.g. the nekromanteion of  Ephyr…

[German version] Large quantities of purposefully worked, quarried stone were first required by the ancient cultures of Italy and Greece in the Mycenaean Period (2nd half of the 2nd millennium BC), and subsequently not until beginning in c. 600 BC with the onset of major projects for the construction of temples and infrastructure. It is a common feature of the two phases, widely separated in time, that the quarry used, that is to say the origin of the stone, was ideally located in the immediate vicinity (Corinth), seldom further th…

[German version] (Εὐθυντήρια; euthyntḗria) Rare ancient Greek architectural technical term; according to IG II2, 1668, l. 15-18 ( syngraphe of Philo's arsenal), euthynteria described the levelled top of the foundations, the base for the rising walls of a building; from the euthynteria rose the  orthostates. Modern archaeological terminology customarily uses the term euthynteria in a more general sense in Greek columned buildings, referring to the top and thus the first levelled layer of the foundations, which is just proud of the soil level and upon which the  krepis rises. Höcker, …

[German version] A term transmitted by Vitruvius (3,3,13), a term, that however is not documented in Greek architectural inscriptions, for the swelling of the  column, which is to express the tension of this architectural part under the load of the entablature. Together with the  inclination and the  curvature, the entasis forms the most important element of the  optical refinements in Greek column construction; the entasis turns up in an extreme form in the archaic architecture of Western Greece …

[German version] An artificial hill, like modern rubbish dumps, to the south of the mons Aventinus in Rome, a heap of rubble dating from classical times measuring about 30m in height and a good 1000m in circumference. It consists for the most part of shards (lat. testa, testaceum -hence the name) of container amphorae (Earthenware vessels) which accumulated as breakages in the nearby port and storage facilities. The greater part of the shards, which were brought there via a ramp, originate from around AD 140 to 250. As a complete archaeologi…

[German version] The most northern of the seven great hills of Rome; in classical antiquity it was actually called collis rather than mons. It has been inhabited since the Iron Age; the Sabines are said to have settled there under Titus Tatius. The Quirinal was mainly a residential area up until the late Imperial era, with a mixed social structure in the west but a more impoverished one in the east. (The poet Martialis [1] describes very vividly the conditions in which he lived here on the 3rd floor of a block of fla…

[English version] The polis of Poseidonia, founded in the late 7th cent. BC by colonists from Sybaris, was transformed into a Roman veterans colony named Paestum ( P.) in 274/3 BC, with profound consequences for its urban profile and the social composition of its populace. Early in the Roman Imperial period, it began to fall increasingly into decline, firstly because of the new north-south major travel routes which now bypassed it, and secondly because the plain to the south of Salerno, already ment…

[German version] (τροχίλος; trochílos). Cavetto moulding, a concavely curved element in a Classical Attic/Ionic column base separating the upper and lower convex shaped tori (Torus); also current in Archaic/Ionic architecture as a formative element of representational column bases (Column II. B.3. with ill.). The contours of the trochiloi of the column bases in the archaic Temple of Hera on Samos [3], turned on a lathe and of remarkably varied shape, are famous. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography Ebert, 26 (terminology and etymology)  Ch. Höcker, Sekos, Dipteros, Hyp…

[German version] (τρίγλυφος/ tríglyphos, feminine). The triply grooved panels on the  frieze of the Doric order (cf. Angle triglyph problem, with ill.; Column II. B.). According to an assumption recorded by Vitruvius (4,2,2), that the basic forms of the Doric order derive from a transition from building in wood to building in stone, the tríglyphos marks the notched end of roof beams lying horizontally on the architrave. The indentations of the ends in wooden constructions were (primarily) due to technical rather than decorative reasons; they, together with the roof overhang and the mu…

[German version] (γυναικωνῖτις; gynaikōnîtis). In contrast to the   andrṓn [4], gynaikonitis describes the introverted women's wing in the Greek  house that as a rule was closed off in the upper floor from the rather extroverted area of the world of men and that also held the tools of economic production of the woman (weaving stool, spinning wheel etc.); the inferior position of the  woman in the patriarchal society of Greece was expressed in this hierarchization of building conditions. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography W. Hoepfner, E. L. Schwandner, Haus und Stadt im kla…

[German version] I. Ancient Orient and Egypt Apart from their architectural function as the transition between inside and outside or between spatial units of a building, doors possessed a symbolic and magical meaning in the Ancient Orient and Egypt. For example, in the Neo-Assyrian period (9th -7th cents. BC), doors and passages of public buildings were flanked by apotropaic hybrid creatures. In the Ancient Orient doors mostly consisted of wooden posts to which a panel of wood or reed was firmly attached. The post, which was anchored at the top, turned on…

[German version] Particular form of funerary architecture in Classical Antiquity, following the Pharaonic pyramid of Egypt in form and purpose. Rare in Classical Antiquity, but always used with high aspirations to grandeur; the best-known example is the pyramid of Cestius in Rome near the Porta San Paolo (built as a monument to the tribune and praetor C. Cestius [I 4] Epulo, d. 12 BC). Further examples, primarily in the area from Asia Minor to Egypt. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography F. Coarelli, Rom. Ein archäologischer Führer, 1975, 307 f.  C. Ratté, The Pyramid Tomb at Sa…

[German version] (γεῖσον; geîson). Ancient architectural term (instances from Greek antiquity in [1. 32f.]) designating the cornice, the upper section of the entablature, originally in columned buildings with a hipped or saddleback roof, later also in storey and wall construction. The compact, monolithic or many-stone, horizontal cornice runs around the whole colonnade. Used since the first Doric peripteral temples, imitates the overhang of roof beams providing shelter from rain water in buildings …

[German version] Hearth of limekiln or furnace; also central heating chamber in Roman thermal bath systems. Baths; Heating; Thermae [1] Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)

[German version] A. Concept Collective term used in Vitruvius (4,2,1) for all kinds of timber construction and the carpentry trades necessary in building. Materiatio thus comprises the field of constructional wood building, including the construction of framework structures, roof-trusses ( Roofing), galleries and inserted ceilings but also the manufacturing of the necessary tools and implements (dowels, wooden nails, wedges, rafters, pegs) as well as, finally, the provision of temporary scaffolding for moving stone in…

[German version] Modern technical term in urban studies derived from Latin insula (‘island’, ‘residence’) that in  town planning describes an area surrounded on all sides by streets and marked for development because of this structure. Insulae are not exclusively the products of comprehensive town planning. Within an orthogonal street grid they are usually rectangular or trapezoid, and rarely square, but the cut-out section of the irregular street system of a ‘grown’ town is also called an insula (e.g. in Delos or parts of Pompeii). In Greek town planning the insula as the resu…

[German version] Roughly hewn, unfinished external surface of a piece of work in stone ( Sculpture or  Architecture). The final shaping of the external surface constituted the final phase of work in both construction and sculpture; up to that point the boss provided protection from damage ( Construction technique;  Sculpting, technique of). Unremoved bosses on buildings may indicate incompleteness, but at times a ‘boss style’ was also seen as a distinct aesthetic element in construction art and wa…

[German version] General term for an ornament ( Ornaments) shaped like a strip or a ribbon, which is encountered in all the plastic arts from antiquity, above all in relief sculpture or architectural sculpture, painting/vase painting, and toreutics. Scholars distinguish the Doric kymation, consisting of a double band of orthogonal elements not dissimilar to the maeander, the Ionian kymation, with its sequence of egg and darts ( Egg-and-dart moulding), as well as the Lesbian kymation with its heart-shaped leaves, separated by lance-like darts. Especially Ionian and Lesbian kymatia …

[German version] [1] Name to describe the plurality of gods In modern scholarship on religious history, the term 'pantheon' is used in systematizing the plurality of ancient gods (Polytheism). In the following, it will be used accordingly to denote all the many deities worshipped in a particular geographical area and socio-historical context. Richter, Thomas (Frankfurt/Main) [German version] I. Mesopotamia Sumerian does not have its own expression for a collective of gods corresponding to the term 'pantheon'. The Sumerian term A-nun-na, 'seed of the prince' (i.e. of Enki, …

[German version] [1] Vitruvius Vaccus, Marcus According to Livy (8,19,4-8,20,10), V. was an influential citizen of Fundi (Fondi) who led the revolt against Rome that was undertaken by Privernum (Piperno) with the support of Fondi in 330/329 BC.  After the failed insurrection he was executed in Rome.  It is difficult to explain V's role in this revolt, given that he was clearly not an unimportant figure in Rome and owned a house there, which was then destroyed by decree of the Senate (Cic. Dom. 101 sti…

(θησαυρός/ thēsaurós; 'treasure', 'treasure house'). [German version] [1] Treasure house A treasure house in the sense of a protective structure within a sanctuary that housed a valuable object crafted from delicate materials, e.g. a votive offering (votive practice), although in ancient Greek terminology, thesauros not only referred to the location or the structural container but to the actual content (the respective piece of value) as well. In Greek sanctuaries esp. from the 7th to the early 5th cents. BC, thēsauroí were the generally common form of votive offerings. Th…

[German version] (πρόθυρον; próthyron). The entrance hall of the Greek house in the form of a roofed vestibule leading to the courtyard, marking the connection of the private and the public areas and thus used as a communicative, connecting element (because the próthyron could also serve as a shelter or meeting place for passers-by). Sometimes, the próthyron was even equipped with benches. The próthyron could usually be closed from the inside by a wooden folding door . Numerous próthyra have been preserved in the houses of Olynthus. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography W. Hoepfner,…

[German version] (eaves). Upturned edge of the roof (together with the waterspouts needed to carry water off the roof) of a Greek columned building on the slopes of the pediment and the long sides of the roof. The name is recorded as a Latin technical term in Vitruvius (3,5,12 et passim) [1; 2]. In archaic architecture, particularly in Doric columned buildings, the sima was a favourite location for architectural decoration; it is part of the roof and has no essential static function. Initially - probably in the tradition of wooden buildings - terracotta simae were predominant; they were…

[German version] A. Definition In this article, masonry will be understood as the various construction and design techniques of the structure of the walls of buildings, terraces, and defensive architecture (city walls, etc.) in ancient stonework, but not the various areas of application of woodworking; cf. construction technique; materiatio; on Roman cement construction cf. also opus caementicium. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) B. Greece [German version] 1. Simple masonry The walls of simple early Greek buildings were first made of wood or wattle work. From the 8t…

[German version] Modern technical term which in the archaeology of buildings denotes the interaxial distance between two columns (as different from the free interspace, which has been known as the intercolumnium since Antiquity, cf. [1]). The interaxial space was a clearly defined subset of the axial distances, i.e. the distances between the centres of the four corner columns and as such served as one of the crucial design parameters in temple architecture (Temple; Building trade). This goes especially for the peripteral temp…

[German version] Modern architectural term, borrowed from French, for a spiral or helical decorative element on corbels, pediments and capitals usually of the Ionic order (Column). The much-admired precise incision of a High or Late Classical capital volute with its often painted or inlaid decoration (Intarsia) was presumably produced with the help of a pair of compasses uniformly decreasing in diameter; a corresponding instrument can at least hypothetically be reconstructed. The V. also appears a…

[German version] Ancient technical term, frequently appearing In Greek architectural inscriptions as well as in Vitruvius (4,3,4 and passim); applicable to all ancient orders of column construction, it refers to that part of the entablature of the peristasis which rests immediately on top of the columns. Modern architectural terminology often refers to the epistylion as ‘architrave’, whereas the entablature in its entirety ─ i.e. architrave,  frieze, and cornice ( geison) together ─ are referred to as epistylion. The translation of the initially wooden epistylion to stone rep…

[German version] (γραμμή; grammḗ). A component of the start and finish line in the Greek stadium (  balbís ), which indicated the start and finish marking. It usually consisted of two parallel lines carved into stone and sunk into the ground. Examples are preserved, e.g., in Olympia, Delphi, Epidaurus and Priene. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography W. Zschietzschmann, Wettkampf- und Übungsstätten in Griechenland I. Das Stadion, 1960, 35-39 O. Broneer, Isthmia II, 1973, 137-142 P. Roos, Wiederverwendete Startblöcke vom Stadion in Ephesos, in: JÖAI 52, 1979/80, 109-113.

[German version] The most important church of Constantinople, built on the site of the church Μεγάλη Ἐκκλησία ( Megálē Ekklēsía; 1st half of the 4th cent.). It was destroyed in AD 532 in an uprising, instigated and paid for by Justinian based on designs by the architect Anthemius of Tralles and  Isidorus [9] of Miletus as a combination of nave and  central-plan building of gigantic dimensions. The huge dome rests on four pillars with foundations in rock. Dedicated on 27 December 537 in the presence of the emperor …

[German version] I. Ancient Orient In Egypt and the Near East, the history of the brick and its predecessor, the mud brick, dates back to the 8th/7th millennia BC. The raw material was generally a local mixture from clay/loam and sand/gravel, in Egypt the silt deposits of the Nile. The mixture, made lean through the addition of vegetal (chopped) straw, chaff, mineral (crushed stones or potsherds) or waste material (animal dung), was shaped into bricks in wooden frames. After drying out in the sun, th…

[German version] (ξυστός/ xystós; Latin xystus). In Roman Antiquity a walkway ( ambulatio) or a terrace, usually an element of a hortus (garden) and hence part of a villa. According to Vitr. 5,11,4 such a xystus consisted of an unroofed path edged by plane trees. In a Greek gymnasiun, the original context of a xystus (in evidence there since the 5th cent. BC), in contrast, a covered running track was meant. There is disagreement about the precise definition of a xystus in Roman architecture; sometimes (Varro Men. 162; Cic. Att. 1,4,2) it is only the course of a sp…

[German version] Latin for drops (pl.); in the architectonic sense, ancient technical term only attested in Vitruvius (4,1,2 and 4,3,6) for the drop-like cylindrical shapes that are found on parts of the stone entablature of the Doric building style and that as imitated nails or nail heads attest to the anachronistic transformation of the only wooden building form into the canonical Doric stone temple [1. 53-55; 3. 10-13]. Guttae are to be found (mostly) in three parallel rows of six on the   mutulus of the   geison and on the architrave as the bottom completion of the   regula …

[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…