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[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…

[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] ‘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] 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 …

(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] (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] 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…

[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] (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…

[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] 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…

[German version] (σκευοθήκη; skeuothḗkē). Epigraphically documented Ancient Greek term for a store, arsenal or hall for storing the rigging of warships (esp. IG II2 1668 for a skeuotheke in Peiraeus near Athens). Skeuothekai belong to the Greek publicly funded sphere of useful architecture, which in the 4th cent. BC acquired an increasingly representational character; existing functional buildings of wood were sometimes lavishly rebuilt in stone. Typologically the skeuotheke largely corresponds in its construction to the ship-shed ( neṓrion), which is accessed by way of …

[German version] (Greek e.g. ἑπτὰ θεάματα/ heptà theámata 'seven spectacles': Str. 14,652; 656; 16,738; 17,808, among others; Latin e.g. [ septem] miracula: Plin. HN 36,30; Mart. de spectaculis 1,1; septem opera mirabilia 'seven wondrous works': Hyg. fab. 223; septem spectacula: Vitr. De arch. 7, praef.). In antiquity, magnificent human cultural achievements that were particularly notable for their technical construction and artistic ornamentation were referred to as "wonders of the world". The term was traced back by Gell. NA 3,10,16 to Varro's lost work septem opera in orbe …

[German version] Monument on the Forum Romanum in Rome, which already in antiquity was associated with various myths of Rome's early history ( Curtius [1]). Probably built in the Augustan period, the lacus Curtius (LC) was among the monuments on the Roman Forum that served as vivid, palpable manifestations of early Roman history and, as such, provided a means by which mythology could be given a role to play in the depiction of historical reality, which so far had been recorded primarily in the form of chronicles. The LC consist…

[German version] (στυλοβάτης/ stylobátēs, Lat. stylobates). Ancient term belonging to construction technique [1]; in Greek buildings with columns, the term for the surface of the uppermost step of the krepis [1] or the individual slabs of it on which the columns stand (not, as is commonly and mistakenly assumed, the uppermost step of the krepis as a whole). The stylobate was a central objective in planning temples (Building trade). In an archaic Doric temple it is mostly in the (usually very elongated) stylobate that one of the leading proportions o…

[German version] were an essential element of the water supply and the infrastructure of ancient cities. They brought fresh water over or under ground into the city from springs outside (Roman aqueducts of up to 130 km in length). As an underground network they formed the prerequisite for distributing water within the city. Water supply I C, II C, and E Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)

[German version] (‘hollow’). 1. Animal cage, beehive. 2. Grid rack placed by fullers over coal fires to dry materials. 3. Terrace-shaped rising seating area in the  amphitheatre,  odeum and  theatre, also common as a public meeting place (e.g. Athens, Pnyx). In larger facilities divided by ambulatories into prima, media and summa cavea that were allocated to various groups of people. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography W. A. McDonald, The Political Meeting Places of the Greeks, 1943 J. A. Hanson, Roman Theatre-Temples, 1959 D. B. Small, Social Correlations to the Greek…

[German version] Ancient topographical designation for an area in Rome the precise location of which is unclear or ambivalent. Apparently, S. at first referred to the area in the valley between Oppius and Caelius; S. marks the first of four urban regions (Varro, Ling. 5,48; Tribus). Later, in everyday language S. was used to refer to only one part of this regio IV, and that is the densely populated quarter between Quirinalis, Cispius, Viminalis and Esquiline which housed many craftsmen and stood in ill repute (Mart. 12,18; Juv. 11,51). Roma Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography Å. Fri…

[German version] Lat. term for kitchen. In Greek antiquity, an independent room in the  house with hearth and other infrastructure (smoke outlet, drainage) for preparation of meals was unknown for a long time; generally, the hearth served as a focal point in the main room of a house and was at the same time the centre of social communication. Kitchens in a more narrow sense, as functionally-defined, separate room components, are to be found first in the late Classical houses of Olynthus, then incr…

[German version] (ἀψίς; apsís). ‘Arch, vault’, Latin apsis or absida, cf. also  exedra. Semicircular, sometimes polygonal, roofed architectural element, normally used as a closure or part of a room. Early proof in Aegean house architecture ( House); houses with an oblong rectangular plan closed at the rear by a semicircular apse can already be found in the lowest layers at Troy (Troy I a), in the entire Aegean Bronze Age and also in the Geometrical architecture of Greece (i.a. Antissa, Lefkandi, Lerna, M…

[German version] An originally swampy area within the City of Rome (with plan 2), between the Capitol, the Palatine and the banks of the Tiber; the naming and the origin of the word (from Etruscan  vel, 'swamp'?) was already disputed in Antiquity (cf. Varro Ling. 5,43). The area was drained as early as the Republican period with the help of the Cloaca maxima , after the Neronic fire (64 AD) further raised and then densely built on as a significant mercantile quarter near the city centre. The Forma Urbis Romae shows the V. as a close-built inner-city district. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Biblio…

[German version] Starting- and finishing-line in the Greek  stadium. The balbis was a stone bump equipped with grooves and let into the ground; starting gates made of wooden posts were anchored into it. The grooves served as places for the feet to rest against when starting. Numerous examples are preserved such as in Olympia, Delphi, Nemea, Ephesus. Artistic representations in sculpture, relief art and vase-painting. In addition, balbis is also a term to describe the line to mark the throwing off of discus and javelin. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography W. Zschietzschmann, Wet…

[German version] Private family sanctuary or cult memorial - most commonly situated in the atrium, sometimes also in the kitchen, peristyle or garden of the Roman house - for the lares familiares ( Lares; Personification), either in the form of a niche, a small temple ( Aedicula) or even in the form of a wall painting creating an architectural illusion. Lararia were originally decorated with statuettes and additional votive offerings, depending on wealth, and served a vital purpose within the larger context of social interaction as each family's representative focal point. Numerous lar…

[German version] One of the seven hills of Rome ( Roma), located on the right bank of the Tiber and already during the Republican period connected to the  Campus Martius by four bridges. Because of its military significance, the I. was incorporated into the ager Romanus at an early date (Cass. Dio 37,27,3 - 37,28,1). The name I. probably refers to a cultic site of Ianus. In the later Republic this hill, which was traversed by the via Aurelia was the location of several large  gardens ( horti Agrippinae; horti Caesaris). Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography P. Liverani, s.v. I., LTUR …

[German version] (Καρυάτιδες; Karyátides). Female figures, mostly in long robes, used as supports for various utensils (i.a. mirror handles) or in an architectural context ( Architectural sculpture), where they replace columns, semi-columns or pilasters. According to Vitruvius (1,1,5), the term was derived from the Peloponnesian town of  Caryae [2]; it cannot be found in Greek before the 4th cent. BC (Lynceus in Ath. 6,241d). In inscriptions on buildings of the 5th cent. BC (Erechtheion), caryatids are referred to as κώραι ( kṓrai). The earliest architectural caryatids occ…

[German version] Roman mosaicist, signed a figural mosaic found at Oberwenigen near Zurich ( Attillus fecit). Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography A. Blanchet, La mosaïque, 1928, 56 L. Guerrini, s.v. A., EAA 1, 906.

[German version] Modern term for the problem arising in Greek stone constructions of the Doric order in the attempt to effect a regular sequence, around a corner of,  triglyph and  metope in the  frieze above a row of columns. In canonical Doric structure, every other triglyph rests over the centre of a column. At angles this becomes unfeasible where the depth of the architrave ( Epistylion) exceeds the breadth of a triglyph, since in that case either the architrave is no longer centred on the aba…

[German version] Modern term coined by the ancient historian Ch. Meier [1. 435-439], which refines, in a democratic-pluralistic context, the technical-qualitative self-image of the artisan class in the classical Greek period, as well the political self-awareness which interacts with it; Könnenbewußtsein encompasses in this sense an important aspect, resp. subarea of the Greek term téchnē (cf. also Demiourgos [2] and [3], Crafts, Artist, Art, Technique, technítai , Technology). Especially in the building trade of the 5th cent. BC, besides o…

(‘Chamber, room, cell, booth’). [German version] [1] Enclosed cella in an ancient temple Technical term coined by Vitruvius (4,1 and passim) for the space enclosed by walls within an ancient  temple (Greek: σηκός, sēkós). The formal development of the Greek temple cella from early Greek domestic architecture ( House), together with the related development of the peripteral temple ( Peristasis), is still a subject for debate. In monumental stone structures from the 7th cent. BC onwards, the cella served for the safe-keeping of the cult image or the image of the god, and…

[German version] (Latin). A primitive hut of perishable building materials; as a rule, a wood and clay construction, roofed with reeds, tree bark or turf (house), in Roman literature, originally described as humble housing (Varro Rust. 3,1,3; Verg. Ecl. 1,68; Plin. HN 16,35) and predominantly classified as for primitive peoples (cf. the huts of the Dacians and Marcomanni in reliefs on the columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius in Rome). The principle of the 'natural house', which had been described…

[German version] Ostentatious monumental facade, almost 90 m long, at the intersection of the Via Triumphalis and the Via Appia , which led into the city, near the Circus Maximus, forming the conclusion of the southeastern slope of the Palatine in Rome (and terminologically often confused with the Septizonium). The splendid facade, presumably of five storeys, consisted of three exedra side-by-side, which were provided with terminations at right angles towards the sides of the monument. The S. wa…

[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] 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] (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] (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] 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…

[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…