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[German version] According to Suetonius (Augustus 100,4; cf. Str. 5,3,8) one of the earliest buildings built under Augustus on the Campus Martius in Rome. It was probably begun in 28 BC, inspired in form and content by the Maussoleum and the tomb of Alexander [4] the Great, and completed around 23 BC. A circular building with a total diameter of 87 m, it consisted of an indeterminate number of concentrical walls made of tuff, that had been several stories high and were connected by radial walls. The entire building formed an elaborately constructed tumulus. While it had been intended as Augustus' tomb from the outset, …

[German version] (θάλαμος/ thálamos). According to the earlier archaic perception a non-specific term for various rooms inside of a Greek house; according to more recent definition a bedroom of the master of the house or the women's apartments (cf. Hom. Il. 6,321; Hom. Od. 10,340 et passim), usually on the upper floor of a Classical Pastas or Prostas house (House [II] B) and therefore also according to Greek understanding belonging absolutely to the private sphere (Private sphere and public sphere). The ancient terminology is unclear; thalamos can also be the term for a weapo…

[German version] The plan layout of Greek  temples. An amphiprostylos is an ante temple ( Ante) without perimeter hall, which in front of the pronaos as well as on its rear side has an even number of columns each which are spread across the entire width of the building (cf. Vitr. De arch. 3,2,4). In comparison to the   prostylos , where the rows of columns decorate just the entrance and not the rear as well, the amphiprostylos is the form occurring less frequently. The most famous example is the temple of Nike on the Athenian Acropolis. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography H. Knell, Grundz…

[German version] (περίπτερος; perípteros). Colonnaded temple with only a single circle of columns (Temple), in contrast to the dipteros. The term appears in the Latin form for the first time in Vitruvius (3,2,1 et passim). The peripteros rises from a stepped base (Krepis [1]; Stylobate), in the 5th cent. BC with canonical 6×13 columns (in the 6th cent. BC other concepts can be found, esp. elongated forms, primarily in western Greece). It is the standard form of the Greek temple. The regularity of the column positions (Spacing, i…

[German version] The water basin in the  atrium of the Roman house in which rainwater from the  compluvium, the opening of the atrium, was collected and which was often part of a  cistern. 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, 30f.

[German version] I. Ancient Orient The family in Mesopotamia was organized in a patrilineal manner; remnants of matrilineal family structures are to be found in Hittite myths, among the Amorite nomads of the early 2nd millennium BC and the Arab tribes of the 7th cent. BC. As a rule monogamy was predominant; marriage to concubines with lesser rights was possible, while there is evidence of polygamy particularly in the ruling families. The family consisted of a married couple and their children althoug…

[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…