Search

[German version] A. Definition and function The Graeco-Roman altar (ἐσχάρα, βωμός; eschára, bōmós; Lat. ara, ‘fireplace’) is defined by its function and not as an object of a certain type. An altar can be an ephemeral natural or artificial elevation, hearth or building for sacrifices involving fire, drink or other elements (in contrast to the sacrificial pit dug into the ground, the βόθρος [ bóthros], Hom. Od. 10, 517; Lucian Char. 22) and marks the centre of a sacrificial act. There are sanctuaries without a  temple, but never without an altar ([23. 150]; a…

[German version] (Angiportus). Lane; synonymous with vicus. According to Vitr. De arch. 1,6,1, a narrow lane or side street in contrast to platea and via, sometimes a cul-de-sac in Roman city layouts. Larger houses had a rear entrance accessible from the angiportum. Cf.  Town planning;  Roads;  Construction of Roads Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography W. H. Groß, s. v. Angiportus, KlP 1, 352.

This item can be found on the following maps: Achaeans, Achaea | Education / Culture (Φιγάλεια/ Phigáleia, Φιγαλία/ Phigalía, from the Hellenistic Period Φιάλεια/ Phiáleia). [German version] I. Location and historical development Town in southwest Arcadia on a very remote mountainous site above the north bank of the Neda (Pol. 4,3,5ff.; Str. 8,3,22; Paus. 8,39,1-42,13; Ptol. 3,16,19; Hierocles, Synecdemus 647,13), near present-day Figalia, and with close geographic and historical connections to Messana [2]. The town has a well…

[German version] A rostrum (Greek βῆμα/ bêma; Latin plural rostra,) is an elevated podium, a pulpit (early Christian  ámbōn, Lat. ambo), or a type of stand, shaped in a variety of forms, which raises the speaker above his audience. This is useful not only from an acoustic point of view, but also lends importance to the protagonist acting on the podium, as it 'lifts' him in a significant way over his surroundings. Rostrum-like devices must already have been present in the archaic Greek citizen communities, as in all larger communities of colonists which had to decide…

[German version] I. Nomenclature and definition Roman triumphal arches (TA) as a free-standing monument were originally called fornix . Around the beginning of the Common Era the word ianus came into use, followed with increasing regularity by arcus. The term arcus triumphalis came into use in the 3rd cent. AD, leading in the early 19th cent. to the problematic modern concept of 'triumphal arches'. This refers to an imposing arch structure, generally free-standing, but sometimes also to an arch that spans a roadway and connects two bui…

[German version] Theatre on the Campus Martius in Rome; probably already begun under Caesar and completed by Augustus in 17 BC for the Saecular Games ( Saeculum III), but dedicated only in 13 or 11 BC in the name of the nephew and first - early deceased - 'heir' of Augustus, M. Claudius [II 42] Marcellus. It was built on the place on which a large wooden temporary theatre was customarily constructed only for performances, and so takes its place in a tradition which was well-known in the Rome of the time. The complex, wh…

[German version] Modern architectural term describing the ideally identical spacing between mutuli (Mutulus) - sometimes also the distance between the guttae of mutuli - on the geison in the Doric entablature of a peripteral temple (Angle triglyph problem; Column). Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)

[German version] I. Definition Assembly buildings (AB) are in the following defined as any building of Greek and Roman antiquity, which within the framework of the social, political, or religious organization of a community served as the architectonically defined location for interaction and communication. However, it is not always possible to define the function of an AB unambiguously nor to assume its exclusive usage. Sometimes, buildings or parts of buildings fall under the above definition, whic…

[German version] [1] Barrier in a Roman circus Term for the massive elongated barrier that divided a Roman circus into two tracks running in opposite directions. A spina was usually walled and variously decorated (e.g. with statues); at its ends stood the metae (Meta [2]) that marked the turning point of the running track. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography J. Humphrey, Roman Circuses, 1986, Index s. v. S. [German version] [2] City at the mouth of the Spines This item can be found on the following maps: Venetic | Etrusci, Etruria | Colonization Etruscan city at the mouth of th…

[German version] A. Etymology, term, delimitation The term architect, not documented before the 5th cent. BC, derives from the Greek ἀρχιτέκτων ( architéktōn; Hdt. 3.60; 4.87); in turn, this term is derived from τέκτων ( téktōn); τεκτωσύνη ( tektosýnē; carpentry), which shows that the architect of early archaic times initially dealt with  wood and only later came in contact with stone as a building material. The Latin arc(h)itectus is a loan word from this Greek semantic field. An architect is associated with practical tasks carried out by tradesmen in the cont…

[German version] ‘Non-genuine’ dome constructions from layered corbel stone vaults ( Vaults and arches, construction of) are to be found throughout Mediterranean cultures from the 3rd millennium BC; they seem to have entered largely independently the architectural repertory of Minoan Crete (tholos graves at Mesara and Knossos), Mycenaean Greece (‘Treasure-house’ of Atreus in Mycenae; ‘domed grave’ at Orchomenus), Sardinia ( nuraghe), Thrace and Scythia (so-called ‘beehive’-domes on graves and also Etruria (domed grave at Populonia). This form is mostly …

(γυμνάσιον; gymnásion). [German version] I. Building style Public facility for sporting and musical leisure activities in the Greek polis; the term is derived from γυμνός/ gymnós (naked) and refers to the  nakedness at sports practices and competitions. Synonymous with gymnasium for the period from the 4th cent. BC in ancient written sources as well as in modern specialized literature is the concept of the  palaistra (cf. Vitruvius 5,11). This as the ‘Wrestler school’ originally referred only to a functionally determine…

[German version] (ὀπαῖον, opaîon). The opening in the roof or dome in the architecture of antiquity; an important element of lighting in ancient buildings. Rare in Greek architecture ('lantern' of the Lysicrates monument in Athens; Telesterion of Eleusis), but common in Roman dome building. Dome, Construction of Domes; Roofing Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography W.D. Heilmeyer (ed.), Licht und Architektur, 1990  C. Spuler, Opaion und Laterne. Zur Frage der Beleuchtung antiker und frühchristlicher Bauten durch ein Opaion und zur Entstehung der Kuppellaterne, 1973.

(Πύθιον/ Pýthion). [German version] [1] Term for Attic sanctuaries to Apollo A term rarely used in modern archaeology but common in Antiquity for various Athenian and Attic sanctuaries to Apollo: 1. in southeast Athens on the right bank of the Ilissus (inscriptions, tripod bases extant); 2. cave sanctuary in the cliff on the northwest side of the Acropolis (numerous finds; however, often denoted in ancient literature with the cult name of Apóllōn Hypakraîos); 3. near the Daphni monastery on the sacred way to Eleusis (of undetermined location but presumably the sourc…

[German version] District of the city of Rome, mentioned only by Suetonius (Suet. Tit. 1) as the location of the house in which the emperor Titus was born; presumably on the Quirinal. Often confused with the Septizodium. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography Richardson, 350 f.

[German version] I. General In archaeological scholarship monumental columns are defined as columns that are used as monuments. They are separated from their traditional architectural context and crowned by a sculpture, a group of sculptures or an object, and they are either free-standing or grouped together in rows. Common to both varieties is the emphasis on the object on top of the capital, which is created through the extreme elevation, vertical trajectory and high visibility of the column. From…

[German version] I. Persons (Δίων; Díōn) Meister, Klaus (Berlin) [German version] [I 1] Close friend of Plato and defender of his philosophy Son of Hipparinus, brother-in-law and son-in-law of Dionysius I of Syracuse, b. 409 BC, close friend of Plato and defender of his philosophy since Plato's first visit to Syracuse in 388. He gained prestige and wealth as Dionysius' I' trusted friend and advisor and also remained an influential person under Dionysius II. In 366, he arbitrated the peace with Carthage and called Pl…

[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…