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[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…

[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.

[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] 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 …

[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.

[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] As well as the column/monumental column, there was another possibility available for the displaying of monuments, in their placement on free-standing monumental pillars (on the incorporation of monumental pillars in buildings, cf. pilaster), a form of honouring rulers primarily found in Greece in the vicinity of sanctuaries. An early example of a pillar-mounted monument is the bronze Nike of the Messenians and Naupactians sculpted by Paeonius [1] and placed before the eastern front of the temple of Zeus at  Olympia, atop - and…

[German version] (μέγαρον; mégaron). Architectural feature mentioned several times in the Homeric epics (e.g. Hom. Od. 2,94; 19,16; 20,6). It was evidently the main room of the palace or house with the communal hearth in the centre. On later mentions of megara. in Greek literature (esp. Hdt. 7,140f.) cf. Temple. Scholarship on the archaic period contains considerably different ideas about the understanding of the term megaron and the derivation of the corresponding building forms connected with it at different times. On the one hand, the megaro…

[German version] A large rectangular square, surrounded by porticoes, on the Field of Mars (Campus Martius) in Rome, on which (allegedly since the time of the mythical kings) the citizens fit to bear arms met in the context of the c omitia centuriata in order to elect the magistrates; there is evidence of a structure from the 6th cent. BC onwards. Under Caesar the square (under the name of Saepta Iulia) was remodelled with architectural splendour, just as the political and functional body of the c omitia centuriata was reduced to a pseudo-Republican relic. Assembly buildings Höcker, Christ…

[German version] (πινακοθήκη/ pinakothḗkē: Str. 14,1,14; Lat. pinacotheca). Rooms designed for collections of pictures (cf. Varro, Rust. 1,2,10; 59,2; Vitr. De arch. 6,2,5; Plin. HN 35,4,148). According to Vitruvius (6,3,8; 1,2,7; 6,4,2; 7,3) the room or rooms should be large and, in consideration of lighting requirements, face north. There is a problem with this conceptualisation: the name pinacotheca for the north wing of the Propylaea on the Acropolis in Athens is not ancient; other buildings displa…

Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) [German version] A. General (CT) In architectural history the technical term Greek Revival (GR) refers to the copying and imitating of ancient Greek architectural patterns that took place in the late 18th and 19th cents. The term was coined after 1900 in the English-speaking world and usually only applies to Great Britain and the United States; there is no compelling reason, however, to exclude similar examples of Classicist architecture in other countries, especially in the …

[German version] Latin term for a villa or praetorium of Tiberius (Tac. Ann. 4,59,1; Suet. Tib. 39; Plin.  HN 3,59) to the east of Terracina in southern Latium. There is no agreement on whether S. is identical with the Sperlonga villa complex with its cave-like magnificent grotto. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography B. Andreae, Praetorium Speluncae, 1994  G. Hafner, Das Praetorium Spelunca bei Terracina und die Höhle bei Sperlonga, in: Rivista di Archeologia 20, 1996, 75-78.

[German version] Gallery above the tabernae at the Forum Romanum in Rome, named after the Roman censor M. Maenius [I 3], from where spectators could follow the gladiatorial fights. The principle, attested here for the first time, of building the edge construction of a forum in two stories and constructing it as a bleacher, resp. viewing area on the upper floor, became widespread in the 2nd and 1st cents. BC in Roman architecture ( Forum); thereafter, the tiers in the amphitheatre were known as maeniana ( Theatre). Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography W.-H. Gross, s.v. M., KlP 3, 864.

[German version] In Roman culture, aedicula either refers to a cult-related shrine ( Lararium), often in a sepulchral context ( Tombs), which contained urns or pictures of the deceased, or a building structure flanked by columns for the housing of statues or paintings. In the latter case either as an individual building usually placed on a podium as high as a man or as a niche integrated into a façade arrangement. Rear and side walls are without windows, the roof with a flat slope has a gable displaying ornaments. The   naiskos is comparable in Greek culture. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibl…