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[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.

(Ἑρμόδωρος; Hermódōros). [German version] [1] Critic of his fellow citizens in a fragment of Heraclitus In a fragment of the philosopher  Heraclitus [1] of Ephesus, the latter criticizes his fellow citizens because they had banished H., the ‘most estimable man’ among them, with the justification that among them ‘no one should be the most estimable’ (Diels/Kranz 22,121 = Str. 14,1,25; Cic. Tusc. 5,105). According to later tradition, H., who went into exile in Italy, was involved in the drawing up of the Twelve …

This item can be found on the following maps: Theatre | | Dark Ages | Alexander | Ionic | Peloponnesian War | Pergamum | Pompeius | Delian League | Education / Culture (Ἁλικαρνασσός; Halikarnassós). [German version] I. Location Coastal city in the south of  Caria on the Gulf of Ceramus, modern Bodrum. The plan of the city (Str. 14,2,16; Steph. Byz. s.v. Ἁ.; Vitr. De arch. 2,8,10-14) resembled the seating arrangement of a theatre: a circular harbour bay, the ‘enclosed harbour’ (λιμὴν κλειστός, Ps.-Scyl. 98a), framed on both sides by …

[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…

(Λεωνίδας; Leōnídas). Cf. also Leonides. [German version] [1] Spartan king, 5th cent. BC Spartan king, Agiad ( Agiads), son of Anaxandridas, around 490/89 BC he succeeded his stepbrother Cleomenes [3] I. In 480, after the evacuation of the positions in the Vale of Tempe, L. was given the task of defending the gates of Thermopylae against the army of Xerxes, while the Greek fleet was to thwart the advance of the Persian squadrons at Artemisium (Northern Euboea) (Hdt. 7,175). At best, L. had 8,000 men at his disposal (among them 1,000 perioikoi and 300 Spartiates),…

[German version] (Μαυσ(σ)ωλεῖον; Maus(s)ōleîon; Lat. mausoleum). Monumental tomb for the satrap Maussollus of Caria (died 353 BC) and his wife Artemisia [2] (died 351 BC) near the city of Halicarnassus in Lycia, probably only completed during the time of Alexander. It was counted as one of the Wonders of the World and became eponymous for a standard type of representative funerary architecture. Modern archaeology has focused much on the monument, which was frequently discussed and described in ancient literature (Str. 14,656 ff.; Diod. Sic. 16,45; Plin. HN 36, 30-31 and passim). Scan…

[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] I. Near East and Egypt In the Near East, the residential ground plan was usually of a rectangular shape containing multiple cells. Clay bricks were the most important building material in Mesopotamia, while stone was more frequently used in Iran, Syria and Asia Minor. The typical Babylonian residential house consists of rooms around a central courtyard. It usually has only one entrance and a main hall located to the south, directed away from the midday sun. The Neo-Assyrian residence, …

[German version] I. Ancient Orient and Egypt Ancient Near East and Egypt In Near Eastern archaeology, orthostats are standing stone slabs, which in the Anatolian region originally protected the base of walls from backsplash. From the 9th cent. onwards, especially in the Neo-Assyrian palaces, they were used as mounts for static and narrative reliefs. The narrative cycles in the palaces of the rulers Assurnaṣirpal II. in Kalḫu, Sennacherib and Assurbanipal in Nineveh (Ninos [2]) are famous. In the contemporar…

(στάδιον; stádion). [German version] [1] Unit of length (Doric σπάδιον/ spádion). Greek unit of length equal to 6 pléthra ( pléthron ; cf. Hdt. 2,149,3) or 600 pous (foot). Depending on the underlying standard of the foot ( pous), this corresponds to a length of c. 162-210 m; the Attic stadion is equal to 186 m. The stadion for the race at Olympia had a length of 192.3 m, at Delphi 177.3 m, at Epidaurus 181.3 m, and at Athens 184.3 m. 8  stadia correspond approximately to 1 Roman mile ( mille passus) of 1500 m. In Greek literature, larger distances are generally indicated in stádia; if other…

[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] I. Mesopotamia The Sumerian term é and the Akkadian term bītu, meaning 'temple' or 'house (of the deity)', were not restricted to 'dwellings' of deities of a particular size or importance. They applied to sanctuaries from small neighbourhood shrines in residential areas to large, freestanding, tall buildings, from one-room cult sites to temple complexes with extensive auxiliary buildings, and they could be used for temples where one or many deities were worshipped. Prehistoric structures are often classified as temples only because apparently they nei…

[German version] [1] Architectural term (κρηπίς/ krēpís, κρηπίδωμα/ krēpídōma). Ancient term, documented frequently in building inscriptions, for the stepped base which served as the foundation for various edifices, but particularly for Greek colonnade construction (sources: Ebert 7-9). The krepis rests on the euthynteria (the top layer of the foundation, the first to be precisely planed) and ends in the stylobate, the surface on which the columns stand. The shaping of the initially one- or two-stepped krepis in the early 6th cent. BC is an important result of the comi…

[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] I. Introduction Polychromy is a term of modern art theory for the phenomenon of colour composition in sculpture, relief, architecture and pots and tablets of clay, stone, etc. It is the opposite of monochromy (Monochromata, Ornaments, Painting, Pigments). The Greek adjectives polýchroos (πολύχροος) and polychrṓmatos (πολυχρώματος), which denote material (Emp. fr. B23 DK) or surface (Aristot. Gen. an. 785b 19) polymorphy, are not terms of ancient art terminology [5. 38, 129 ff.]. Rather the procedures of coloration are named…

[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] I. General Cisterns as storage for rain water or as reservoirs for spring and well water were customary and necessary for a regulated and sufficient  water supply in the climatically unfavourable regions of the southern and eastern Mediterranean, both as small systems for individual houses and farms and as communal systems for settlements. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) [German version] II. Ancient Orient s.  Water supply I. D. Niemeyer, Hans Georg (Hamburg) [German version] III. Phoenician-Punic region Systems for securing the water supply by collecting …

[German version] I. Ancient Orient and Egypt There is evidence of vaults and arches in western Asia, chiefly in crypts and on canals. There are only few surviving examples of the vaulting of above ground spaces. Both true and corbelled vaults are documented, over quite small or passage-like rooms, posterns, staircase substructures and doorway, gateway and bridge arches. Barrel vaults and domes were comparatively common, primarily on storage spaces and furnaces. For the most part techniques were used in…

[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] In Classical Antiquity, the playful and wasteful use of water – already known occasionally from the Near East – became a factor within the context of a secured water supply, an unrestrictedly enjoyed, at least in part positively defined, public and/or private luxury and especially in the framework of a specifically Roman understanding of nature (Environment II.); it was also reflected in the architecture relevant for them. Waterworks were uncommon in the Greek polis world. Waterworks are first recorded in connection with opulently designed gardens. Parti…

Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) I. Material Remains (CT) A. General (CT) [German version] 1. Introduction (CT) The present article offers a survey of the ways in which material remains from the ancient world have been transmitted to the modern age. Not included are the active acquisition of antiquities for display or their representation in art museums, or the systematic post-Classical acquisition of remains for research purposes (cf. Antiquarianism; Antiquities, collections of; Classical Archaeology;  Art works, acquisition of/ Art theft; Museum). Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) …

[German version] The first toilet facilities connected with sewers in the Graeco-Roman cultural area are to be found in Minoan Crete (sit-down latrines in the palace of Knosos), then not again until the Hellenistic period; in archaic and classical Greece, latrines that consisted of a seat over a transportable vessel were predominant. This comparably primitive principle is also further encountered in Roman culture (for instance in the multi-storey tenement blocks in the large cities), whilst from…

[German version] Scratched or scored lines in architecture (Construction technique; Building trade). The architect's plan was successively transmitted to the emerging building at a scale of 1:1 by tracing. Tracings are recorded from the pre-Greek era in Mesopotamian and Egyptian architecture; in Graeco-Roman architecture, tracing long made scale construction drawings unnecessary. Well-preserved or documented tracings are found, among other places, on the Propylaea in Athens, the large tholos in Delphi and the more recent temple of Apollo in Didyma. Höcker, Christoph (Kissi…

Näf, Beat (Zürich RWG) [German version] I. History and interpretation (CT) Näf, Beat (Zürich RWG) [German version] A. Introduction (CT) Among the great places of antiquity that are of decisive importance for the culture and heritage of the western world, Athens (A.) plays a most important role. Nonetheless, it should be noted that the historical influence of Rome is greater. Since time immemorial Jerusalem, in particular, has been in competition with A. with respect to the question of which city was the foundation…

[German version] (περίστασις; perístasis). Ancient Greek term for a ring of columns (Column), and hence a colonnade in a Greek temple or other ancient buildings with surrounding columns [1]. The colonnade can be formed of a single row (Peripteros) or a double row (Dipteros) (cf. also Peristylion. On formal problems relating to peristaseis in Greek temple construction: Angle triglyph problem; Inclination; Curvature; Proportion). Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography 1 F. Ebert, Fachausdrücke des griechischen Bauhandwerks I. Der Tempel, Diss. Würzburg, 1910, 23…

[German version] of Megara, son of Naustrophus, as an  architect and engineer, presumably under the tyrant  Polycrates, was responsible for the construction of a  water supply system for the town of  Samos (modern Pythagoreion on the island of Samos) described by Herodotus (3,60) as one of the great feats of Greek engineering; there is no evidence of further work by E. The system that was rediscovered in 1853 consists of four building complexes connected with each other: a fountainhead building situated high in the mountain ( Wells) with a great covered water reservoir, a pipeline c. 840…

(Κόροιβος; Kóroibos). [German version] [1] Hero founder of Tripodiscus in the Megaris Hero founder of Tripodiscus in the Megaris. The legend is told in Callim. Fr. 26-31 in connection with an Argive aition according to the local historians Agias and Dercylus (FGrH 305 F 8 to) [1]:  Linus, the son of Apollo and  Psamathe, is torn apart by dogs, and Psamathe is killed by her father  Crotopus. As a punishment Apollo sends a child-murdering demon, the Poineḗ or   Ker , to Argus. When the brave C. kills the monster, the god sends a further plague, whereupon…

[German version] ( tector albarius). According to Vitr. De arch. 2,8,20 a Roman craftsman who was responsible for plastering walls, as a rule in three layers, the top layer of which could be painted or stuccoed while still moist. Construction technique; Fresco; Stucco; Wall-painting Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)

[German version] I. Architecture 'Proportion' is a modern technical term in the archaeological research of monuments. In the description of a structure, a proportion represents the ratio of two lines or the ratio of the sides of a rectangular area, in the mathematical sense of a division (x:y). The proportions of a building are determined based on its detailed measurement. Increasingly precise and generally binding procedures for obtaining and evaluating the relevant data have been developed by W. Dörpfeld; K. Koldewey; O. Puchstein i.a. since the late 19th century. The extent to wh…

[German version] (also Lauretum, from laureus, ‘bay-tree’). Place on the Aventine Hill in Rome ( Roma) where bay-trees grow. According to legend the burial place of Titus Tatius (Festus 496 L.). Already at the time of Varro (Varro, Ling. 5,152) the site could no longer be located with certainty. The possibility that L. was divided into two parts ( L. minor and L. maior) is a matter for discussion because of two corresponding street names in Regio XIII (cf. CIL 6,975). Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography Richardson, 234f.

(Ἄνδρων; Ándrōn). [German version] [1] One of the 400 (end of the 5th cent. BC) From Gargettus, son of an Androtion and father of the Atthidographer  Androtion (FGrH 324), with sophistic interests (Pl. Grg. 487C; Prot. 315C). About a debt affair Dem. Or. 22,33 and passim. Probably identical with A., one of the 400 (500: [1]), author of a   psephisma against Antiphon [4] 411 BC (Craterus FGrH 342 F5). Kinzl, Konrad (Peterborough) Bibliography 1 G. Pesely, in: Illinois Class. Stud. 20, 1995, 66-76. Davies, 913 Traill, PAA 129265, 129130 P. Harding, Androtion and the Atthis, 1994, 14 f. …

[German version] Architect of Samos. For a considerable fee he built the pontoon bridge over the Bosporus (Hdt. 4,87,1ff.) for Darius [1] I in 513/2 BC in the context of the campaign against the Scythians. M. attained fame through a votive offering in the Heraeum of Samos: a panel painting described in detail by Herodotus (4,88,1-89,2), which depicted the (pontoon) bridge and praised the architect in an epigram. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography H. Svenson-Evers, Die griechische Architekten archaischer und klassischer Zeit, 1996, 59-66 (with additional literature).

[German version] From the Greek κρυπτή ( kryptḗ); in the description of the Nile barge of Ptolemy IV, transmitted in Athenaeus 5, 205a, it designated a closed walkway lit by windows. In Lat. texts cryptoporticus could cover various items of architecture such as cellars (Vitr. De arch. 6, 8), vaults (Juv. 5, 106) or even subterranean, vaulted cult or grave structures. In modern archaeological terminology the term cryptoporticus is used synonymously with crypta; this compound word from crypta and   porticus that comes to us only from Pliny (Ep. 2,17,20; 5,6…

[German version] The cylinder, in some cases lavishly sculpted and sometimes decorated with a double trochilus and convex and concave sections, that forms the 'middle layer' of a conventional old-Ionic column base (Samos, Heraion; Column). The spira supports the equally sculpted and convexly curved torus . The spira customarily rises from a plinth. A special form of Ionic basis is developed in late 6th- and 5th-cent. BC Attic architecture, consisting of a torus as base surface, a concavely curved trochilus lying on it and a further torus on top of that, and dispenses with the spira as an …

[German version] Architectural component, i.e. a tongue-shaped projection from the face of a wall. A widespread practice in the ancient art of building (altars, temples, house architecture etc.). In stone construction, the ante stands out against the wall surface with profiled elements, usually rests on an ante foot (ante base) and is crowned by a special ante capital ( Column). As of late classical times, the ante is occasionally separated from the wall by a monolithic execution and thus overly e…