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Angiportum

(61 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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.

Rostrum

(669 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Triumphal arches

(1,191 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Theatrum Marcelli

(181 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Via

(44 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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)

Assembly buildings

(1,652 words)

Author(s): 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…

Architect

(1,476 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Dome, Construction of domes

(844 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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 …

Opaeum

(83 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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.

Septizonium

(44 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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.

Monumental columns

(1,545 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Greek Revival

(1,791 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
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 …

Spelunca

(74 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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.

Maenianum

(99 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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.

Aedicula

(140 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Skeuotheke

(182 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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 …

Wonders of the world

(657 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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 …

Lacus Curtius

(156 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Stylobate

(307 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Water pipes

(64 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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)

Cavea

(118 words)

Author(s): 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…

Subura

(115 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Culina

(277 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Apse

(560 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Velabrum

(115 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Balbis

(117 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Lararium

(225 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Ianiculum

(104 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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 …

Caryatids

(390 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Attillus

(31 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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.

Angle triglyph problem

(861 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Könnensbewußtsein

(301 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Cella

(722 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
(‘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…

Tugurium

(141 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Septizodium

(368 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Waterworks

(318 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Latrines

(182 words)

Author(s): 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…

Tracing (in full size)

(140 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Peristasis

(95 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Eupalinus

(359 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Tector

(48 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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)

Loretum

(87 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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.

Mandrocles

(87 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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).

Crypta, Cryptoporticus

(212 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Spira

(158 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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 …

Ante

(172 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Palaistra

(191 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] (παλαίστρα, Latin palaestra). The palaistra developed in the 6th cent. BC as a core element of a gymnasium (with illustration) and, together with a dromos (an elongated running-track) and various long colonnades and covered walkways,  forms a  constitutive part of this type of architecture. A palaistra consists of a roughly square court, surrounded by a peristyle, and various suites of adjacent rooms. Palaistrai were used as places for wrestling; the associated rooms were used for exercising, changing and storing equipment. Greek palaistrai were public spaces,…

Villa

(2,230 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] I. Definition In contrast to the townhouse ( domus) or the cottage ( casa; tugurium ), in Latin usage villa describes a combined residential and commercial building in the context of agriculture (V.), and occasionally an agricultural establishement including all facilities (usual term for this : praedium ). This connection with agriculture gradually dissipated in the 2nd cent. BC, a fact which is reflected in the increasingly differentiated range of terminology; along with the 'classical' v. rustica ('country house', 'country estate') which continued to …

Regia

(288 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] A two-part building complex on the via sacra on the edge of the Forum Romanum (Forum [III 8]) in Rome, which, according to the ancient Roman mythologizing historiography, was supposed to have been built as his residence and place of office by the legendary king Numa Pompilius (Ov. Fast. 6,263 f.; Tac. Ann. 15,41; Cass. Dio fr. 1,6,2; Plut. Numa 14; Fest. 346-348; 439; cf. also [1. 328]). The excavated building of striking structure, with a three-roomed core facing the via sacra and a court annexe ([2] with illustration; presumably this court is what was meant by regium atr…

Mausoleum Augusti

(422 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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. T…

Thalamos

(145 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Amphiprostylos

(107 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Peripteros

(421 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Impluvium

(60 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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.

Cenaculum

(85 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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).

Gable

(306 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Naiskos

(98 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Principia

(102 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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 …

Pastas

(103 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Tower

(181 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Theatrum Balbi

(202 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Central-plan building

(740 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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; …

Spolia

(532 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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 …

Stasicrates

(40 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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)

Aithousa

(107 words)

Author(s): 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…

Dipteros

(668 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] (Greek δίπτερος; dípteros: two-winged; building equipped with double pterón = gallery or perambulatory). Technical term for a Greek  temple with a frontage of at least eight columns, whose  cella is enclosed on all sides by at least two, on the ends even three rows of columns; the term is only known from Vitruvius (3,1,10; 3,2,1; 3,2,7; 3,3,8; 7 praef. 15), but not elsewhere in Greek architectural terminology. In comparison with a  peripteros with its simple set of columns, the dipteros ─…

Telesterion

(181 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] (τελεστήριον/ telestḗrion; teletḗ ). In Greek usage a general term for a temple of mysteries or a chapel of devotion for the Eleusinian gods, named after the Telesterion in the sanctuary of Demeter in Eleusis (on the building there see Eleusis [1] C.; cf. also Mysteries B.2.). Besides the site at Eleusis there is evidence of telestḗria in the Attic town of Phlya, the Heraion at Argos [II 1] and the Kabeirion at Thebes [2]. In Eleusis the Telesterion changed from a small megaron-shaped temple between the early 6th cent. and the late 5th…

Lighthouses

(338 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] This architecturally designed sea mark, Greek φάρος/ pháros, Lat. pharus, had its precursors in the open fires mentioned as early as Homer (Od. 10,30 et passim). These were raised on pillars or struts, and marked the entrances of harbours (Piraeus, 5th cent. BC; Harbours, docks) or (rarely) dangerous coastal features (at the same time, misleading coastal fires had been a means used by pirates from time immemorial to cause ships to be stranded, with the aim of plundering them; Navigation;…

Concha

(61 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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.

Roofing

(1,496 words)

Author(s): Hausleiter | Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Stoa

(796 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
(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…

Templum Pacis

(280 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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 …

Curvature

(279 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Frieze

(280 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Konistra

(35 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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)

Kerameikos

(154 words)

Author(s): 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…

Heraion

(35 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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)

Dock­yards

(346 words)

Author(s): 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…

Viminalis

(71 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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).

Parthenon

(964 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
(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…

Hippodamus

(554 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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 city facilities of  Piraeus (around 4…

Mutulus

(171 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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

Inclination

(112 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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, Christo…

Senaculum

(56 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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.

Ara Pacis Augustae

(957 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Tunnels, Tunnel construction

(635 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Lithostroton

(56 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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.

Pseudoperipteros

(95 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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) …

Tarpeium saxum

(44 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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. H…

Tholos

(626 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
(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…

Fornix

(238 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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

Sublaqueum

(47 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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.

Hypogaeum

(290 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] Collective term for underground architecture. In modern terms hypogaeum is mainly a part of  funera…

Quarries

(1,012 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Euthynteria

(127 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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

Entasis

(273 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Mons Quirinalis

(201 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…

Paestum

(1,940 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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 increasing…

Trochilos

(108 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[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…
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