Famous Ancient Roman Buildings | Early European History And Religion

FAMOUS BUILDINGS IN ROME

Roman Forum
Palatine Hill (near the Arch of Titus, overlooking the Forum) is a plateau with a 75-acre park with the remains of palaces belonging to many Roman emperors and important Roman citizens such as such as Cicero, Crassus, Mark Antony and Augustus. The word palace and “palazzo” come from the name "Palantine." According to legend Palatine Hill is where Romulus and Remus were suckled by their she wolf mother and where Rome was founded in the 8th century B.C., when Romulus killed Remus there. Augustus was born on Palantine Hill and lived in a modest house there that was recently excavated, revealing extraordinary frescoes that mostly likely came from Egypt after the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra.

Most of the great imperial Roman palaces have been reduced to foundations and walls but are still impressive, if for no other reason than their immense size. One of the largest and best preserved complexes is the ruined Palace of Domitian which shares the top of hill with a garden and is divided into an official palace, private residence and stadium. The walls are so high, archaeologists are still unsure how the roof was put one without making the walls collapse. In the House of Livia (August's wife) you can still the remnants of wall paintings and black and white mosaics. Next to the Domus Flavia is the ruin of a small private stadium and fountain so large it occupies an entire square.

Fori Imperiali (across Via dei Fori Imperiali from the Forum) is a collections of temples, basilicas and other buildings dating back to the A.D. 1st and 2nd centuries. Established by Caesar, it contains the Forum of Caesar, the Forum of Trajan, the Markets of Trajan, the Templeto Venis Gentex, Forum of Augustus, Forum Transitorium, and Vespasian's Forum (now part of the Church of Santo Cosma e Damiano).

Hadrian's Tomb (on the east side of the Tiber River, not far from Piazza Navona) was built in the A.D. 2nd century. The fortress-like impregnability of this massive round block has made it useful for more than just entombing bodies. It has also been used as a palace, prison and fortress for Popes and rival nobles. It now houses military and art museums. Mausoleum of Augustus (adjacent to the Altar of Peace) is a circular brick mound. It once housed the funerary urns of the Roman emperor and his family.

The Ara Pacis (near the Ponte Cavour on the Tiber River) contains some of the finest bas reliefs from the Roman period. Dedicated in A.D. 9 and housed in a glass case, this beautiful box shrine is decorated on the outside with reliefs of Roman myths, families and toga-clad children enjoying processions and celebrations. On the inside is a simple altar with a set of stairs. There are ornamental and allegorical panels more reminiscent of something you would find decorating a mosque or a manuscript not a Roman shrine, which is dedicated to the period of peace after the Roman victories in Gaul and Spain. “Ara Pacis” means the Altar of Peace.

The Palestrina is the home of the majestic Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia, a massive complex built in the first century B.C. with six different levels organized like steps. The first consists of a broad road hidden from view by a sloping triangular wall. The second two levels are formed by a series of ramps that are supported by arched colonnades. The fort level consists of a courtyard surrounded by buildings and capped by a the fifth level, a long tower.

Other Roman Ruins include the massive ruined arches of a bridge on the island of Tiber; the Bath of Diocletian near the Train Station; the remnants of the Aurelian Wall; 83-foot-tall embellished Column of Marcus Aurelius (built after his death to honor his military victories); and a portion of the base of Milliarium Aureum (the "golden milestone"), the gilded bronze column raised in 20 B.C. by Augustus that listed the mileage between Rome and her principal cities.

Buildings in the Roman Forum

Sacred Way is a stone-paved walkway that runs from Titus's Arch to the Arch of Septimius Severus near Capitoline Hill. The oldest street in Rome and the main thoroughfare of the Forum, it is where chariot-borne emperors rode past worshipping crowds and where victorious Roman generals once paraded their troops. Most of the main buildings of the Forum face the Sacred Way.

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Roman Forum
Buildings in the Roman Forum included the Arch of Septimius Severus (Capitoline Hill side of the Forum), erected in A.D. 203 to commemorate Severus's victories in the Middle East; Civic Forum, the home of the some of most important buildings in the Forum: the Basilica Aemilia, curia and commitium; Basilica Aemilia (next to the Arch of Septimius Severus), a large structure built in 179 B.C. for money changers to operate (remains of melted bronze coins can be seen in the pavement); and the Basilica Julia (next to the Temple of Saturn), an ancient courthouse. Today it consists mostly of the pedestals and the remains of foundations.

The Curia (next to the Basilica Aemilia) is a partially restored brick structure that once housed the Roman Senate. In front of the curia is the “commitium” , an open space where representatives of the plebeians (ordinary people) met and the Twelve Tablets, inscribed bronze tablets on which the first codified laws of the Roman Republic were kept. The large brick platform on the edge of the commitium is the Rostrum. Erected by Caesar shortly before his death on 44 B.C., it was used for giving speeches.

Market Square (below the Civic Forum) is where you can find the Lapis Niger, a black marble slab that reputedly marks the tomb of Romulus, the legendary, wolf-reared founder and first king of Rome. It contains the oldest known Latin inscription (a warning not desecrate the shrine). In the middle of square the Three Sacred Trees of Rome (olive, fig and grape ) have been replanted. Nearby is a well-preserved single column that was built in honor of Phocas, a 7th century Byzantine emperor.

The Basilica of Maxentius (in the Velia area, near the Arch of Titus on the Colosseum-side entrance of the Forum) is one of the largest Forum monuments. Also known as Basilica of Constantine, it is an A.D. fifth-century structure with towering brick walls and three huge barrel-vaulted arches. The design of the basilica reportedly inspired St. Peter's basilica. Parts of the gigantic statue that were once inside are now kept in the Palazzo die Conservatori on Capatoline Hill). Nearby is the Forum Antiquarium, a small museum with a display of funeral urns and skeletons from the necropolis.

Temples in the Roman Forum

The Lower Forum (below Palantine Hill on the Capitoline Hill side of the Forum) is the home of the Temple of Saturn, Temple of Castor and Pollex, the Arch of Augustus and the Temple of Deified Julius. Temple of Saturn (below Palantine Hill on the Capitoline Hill side of the Forum) is a structure with eight standing columns where wild orgies honoring the god Saturn were held.

city of Rome during the time of the Republic

The Temple of Castor and Pollex (next to the Basilica Julia) honors the Gemini twins, the equivalent of patron saints for armies and commanders. According legend they appeared at the Basin of Juturna at the temple and helped the Romans defeat the Etruscans at a pivotal battle in 496 B.C. The most noticeable part of the temple is a group of three connected columns. Down the road from the Temple of Castor and Pollex is the Arch of Augustus and the Temple of Deified Julius, which Augustus built to honor his father. Behind the Temple of Deified Julius is the Upper Forum.

Upper Forum (Colosseum-side entrance of the Forum) contains the House of Vestal Virgins, the Temple of Antonius and Fustina (near the Basilica of Maxentius. The House of Vestal Virgins (near Palantine Hill, next to the Temple of Castor and Pollex) is a sprawling 55-room complex with statues of virgin priestess. The statue whose name has been scratched is believed to belong to a virgin who converted to Christianity. The Temple of the Vestal Virgins is a restored circular buildings where vestal virgins performed rituals and tended Rome's eternal flame for more than a thousand years. Across the square fromm the temple is the Regia, where Rome's highest priest had his office.

The Temple of Antonius and Fustina (left of the Basilica of Maxentius) contains a firm foundation and well-preserved ceiling lattice work. Nearby is an ancient necropolis with graves that date back to the 8th century and an ancient drainage sewer that is still in use. The Temple of Romulus contains its original A.D. 4th century bronze doors, which still have a working lock.

Nero's Golden Palace

Nero's Golden Palace (in a ratty-looking park on Esquiline Hill near the Colosseum Metro station) is where Nero built a sprawling palace "worthy of his greatness" that once covered about a third of Rome. Nero's most monumental construction project, it was completed in A.D. 68, the year Nero committed suicide during a revolt, when the whole city was invited inside.

Built more for carousing and relaxing than to live in, the Golden House (Domus Aura) is a ruin today but in Nero's time it was a magnificent pleasure garden decorated with gold, ivory and mother-of-pearl and statues gathered from Greece. Buildings were connected by long columned colonnades and surrounded by a vast expanse of gardens, parks and forests stock with animals from the far corners of his empire.

Nero's Golden Palace

The main palace was built overlooking an artificial lake made by flooding the area where the Colosseum now stands; Caellian Hill was the site of his private garden; and the Forum was made into a wing of the palace. A 35-foot-high colossus of Nero, the largest bronze statue ever made, was erected. The palace was encrusted in pearls and covered with ivory,

"Its vestibule," wrote Suetonius, “was large enough to contain a colossal statue of the Emperor a hundred and twenty feet height: and it was so extensive that it had a triple portico a mile long. There was a pond too, like a sea, surrounded with buildings to represent cities; besides tracts of country, varied by tilled fields, vineyards, pastures and woods, with great numbers of wild and domesticated animals.”

"In the rest of the palace all parts were overlaid with gold and adorned with gems and mother-of-pearl. There were dining rooms with fretted ceilings of ivory, whose panels could turn and shower down flowers, and were fitted with pipes for sprinkling the guests with perfumes. The main banquet hall was circular and constantly revolving night and day, like the heavens...When the palace was finished...he dedicated it...to say...at last he was beginning to be housed as a human being."

The Golden House was surrounded by a vast country estate right in the middle of Rome that was laid out like a stage, with woodlands and lakes and promenades accessible to all. Some scholars say that Suetonius only hinted at it splendor. Nero revisionist Ranieri Panetta told National Geographic, “it was a scandal, because there was so much Rome for one person. It wasn’t only that it was luxurious—there had been palaces all over Rome for centuries. It was the sheer size of it. There was graffiti: ‘Romans, there’s no more room for you, you have to go to [the nearby village of] Veio.’” [Source: Robert Draper, National Geographic, September 2014 ~]

area around Fori Imperiali

The Pantheon

The Pantheon is crowned with a massive brick and concrete dome that was the first great dome ever built and an incredible achievement at the time. It was built to honor multiple Roman gods and originally housed images of Roman gods and deified emperors. The huge rises up to 43 meters (141 feet) tall and is supported on eight thick pillars arranged in a circle underneath it, with the entrance occupying one of the spaces between the pillars. Between the other pillars are seven niches, each of which was originally occupied by a planetary god. The pillars are out of view behind the wall of the interior. The thickness of the dome increases from 20 feet at the base to seven feet at the top.

In the seventh century the temple was converted into a Christian church. The structure still stands today and is used as a Catholic church. It is one of the longest used religious buildings in existence. [Source Owen Jarus, Live Science April 11, 2023]

While the exterior looks like a linebacker the interior soars like a ballerina, as one writer put it. The only source of light is a 27 foot wide window at the top of the 142 foot-high coffered dome. The hole lets in an eye of light that moves across the interior during the day. Around the round window are coffered panels and below them are arches and pillars. Slits have been place in the marble floor to drain off the rainwater that pours in through the hole.

Nine tenths of the Pantheon is concrete. The dome was poured over "hemispherical dome of wood" with negative molds to impress the shape of the coffer. The concrete was carried up by laborers on ramps and bricks were lifted with cranes. This was all supported on "a forest of timbers, beams, and struts." The eight walls that supported the dome consisted of brick walls filled in with concrete. "Modern architects," the historian Daniel Boorstin, “are awed by the ingenuity that uses an intricate scheme of concrete reinforced arches to overarch so vast an opening and for eighteen hundred years for the dome's enormous weight."

Studies have shown that concrete was strengthened near the foundation with large heavy rocks or aggregate and lightened with pumice (light weight volcanic rock) at the top. Medieval architects could not figure out how the building was made. They believed the dome was poured over a huge mound of earth which was removed by laborers looking for pieces of gold that the "ingenious Hadrian" had scattered in the dirt. The roof of the Parthenon at one time had gilded bronze roofing tiles, but these were taken by a Byzantine emperor whose Constantinople-bound ship in turn was robbed off the coast of Sicily. ["The Creators" by Daniel Boorstin]

Pantheon features

Described by Michelangelo as "an angelic not human design," the Parthenon avoided being destroyed like other Roman temples because it was consecrated as the church Sancta Maria ad Martyrs church in A.D. 609. Around the walls today are Renaissance and Baroque designs, granite columns and pediments, bronze doors, and a lot of colored marble. In the seven niches of the rotunda that once held Roman deities are altars and the tombs of Raphael and other artists and two Italian kings. Raphael painted the monuments popular cherubic angels in the 16th century.

Tivoli and Hadrian’s Villa

Tivoli (25 kilometers northeast of Rome) is the home of Villa Adriana, a huge sprawling villa built by the Roman Emperor Hadrian. Completed after 10 years of work, Tivoli contains 25 buildings built on 300 acres of land, including an elaborate bath house fed by water piped in from the Apennines. The buildings are now ruins. Tivoli has been a popular retreat since Roman times. It embraces the ruins of several magnificent villas including Villa Adriana, a lavish complex built by Emperor Hadrian, and Villa d' Este, known for its lavish gardens and plentiful cascading fountains. A pool at the banquet hall is surrounded by columns and statues of gods and caryatids.

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art: “The architecture and landscape elements described by Pliny the Younger appear as part of the Roman tradition of the monumental Villa Adriana. Originally built by Emperor Hadrian in the first century A.D. (120s–130s), the villa extends across an area of more than 300 acres as a villa-estate combining the functions of imperial rule (negotium) and courtly leisure (otium).” [Source: Vanessa Bezemer Sellers, Independent Scholar, Geoffrey Taylor, Department of Drawings and Prints, Metropolitan of Art, October 2004, metmuseum.org \^/]

Hadrian's villa was completed in A.D. 135. The temples, gardens and theaters are full of tributes to classical Greece. Historian Daniel Boorstin it "still charm the tourist. The original country palace, stretching a full mile, displayed his experimental fantasy. There, on the shores of artificial lakes and on gently rolling hills groups of buildings celebrated Hadrian's travels in the styles of famous cities he had visited with replicas of the best he had seen. The versatile charms of the Roman baths complemented ample guest quarters, libraries, terraces, shops, museums, casinos, meeting room, and endless garden walks. There were three theaters, a stadium, an academy, and some large buildings whose function we cannot fathom. Here was a country version of Nero's Golden House."

Villa Adriana is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. According to UNESCO: “The Villa Adriana (at Tivoli, near Rome) is an exceptional complex of classical buildings created in the 2nd century A.D. by the Roman emperor Hadrian. It combines the best elements of the architectural heritage of Egypt, Greece and Rome in the form of an 'ideal city'. The Villa Adriana is a masterpiece that uniquely brings together the highest expressions of the material cultures of the ancient Mediterranean world. 2) Study of the monuments that make up the Villa Adriana played a crucial role in the rediscovery of the elements of classical architecture by the architects of the Renaissance and the Baroque period. It also profoundly influenced many 19th and 20th century architects and designers. [Source: UNESCO World Heritage Site website]

One of the most interesting features in the Vatican's Egyptians Museum is a the recreation of an Egyptian-style room found in the palace of the Roman Emperor Hadrian. Among the many Egyptian-style Roman pieces here is a Pharaoh-like rendering of Hadrian's male lover Antinoüs.

area around Fori Imperiali

Great Baths of Ancient Rome

The largest baths covered 25 or 30 acres and accommodated up to 3,000 people. Large city or imperial baths had swimming pools, gardens, concert hall, sleeping quarters, theaters, and libraries. Men rolled hoops, played handball and wrestled in the gymnasium. Some even had the equivalent of modern art galleries. Other baths had areas for shampooing, scenting, hair curling, manicure shops, perfumeries, garden shops, and rooms for discussing art and philosophy. Some of the greatest Roman sculptors such as the Lacoön group were found in ruined bathes. Brothels, with explicit pictures of the sexual services offered, were usually located near the baths.

The Baths of Caracalla (on a hill not far from the Circus Maximus in Rome) was the largest baths built by the Romans. Opened in A.D. 216 and covering 26 acres, more than six time the space in St. Paul's Cathedral in London, this massive marble and brick complex could accommodate 1,600 bathersand contained playing, fields, shops, offices, gardens, fountains, mosaics, changing rooms, exercise courts, a tepidarium (warm-water bathing hall), caldarium (hot-water bathing hall), frigidarium (cold-water bathing hall), and natatio (unheated swimming pool). Shelley wrote much of “Prometheus Bound” while sitting among the ruins at Caracalla.

Some of the the first domes were built over public bathes. Finished in A.D. 305, the baths of Diocletian contained a high vaulted ceiling that was restored with the help of Michelangelo and later turned into a church. Harold Whetstone Johnston wrote in “The Private Life of the Romans”: “The irregularity of plan and the waste of space in the Pompeian thermae just described are due to the fact that the baths were rebuilt at various times with all sorts of alterations and additions. Nothing can be more symmetrical than the thermae of the later emperors, as a type of which is the plan of the Baths of Diocletian, dedicated in 305 A.D. They lay in the northeastern part of the city and were the largest and, with the exception of those of Caracalla, the most magnificent of the Roman baths. [Source: “The Private Life of the Romans” by Harold Whetstone Johnston, Revised by Mary Johnston, Scott, Foresman and Company (1903, 1932) |+|]

“The plan shows the arrangement of the main rooms, all in the line of the minor axis of the building; the uncovered piscina (1), the apodyterium and frigidarium (2), combined as in the women’s baths at Pompeii, the tepidarium (3), and the caldarium (4), projecting beyond the other rooms for the sake of the sunshine. The uses of the surrounding halls and courts cannot now be determined, but it is clear from the plan that nothing known to the luxury of the time was omitted. In the sixteenth century Michelangelo restored the tepidarium as the Church of S. Maria degli Angeli, one of the largest in Rome. The cloisters that he built in the east part of the building are now a museum. One of the corner domed halls of the Baths is now a church and a number of other institutions occupy the site of part of the ruins. An idea of the magnificence of the central room, showing a restoration of the corresponding room in the Baths of Caracalla. |+|

Bath of Caracalla plan

House of the Vettii in Pompeii and Its Garden

The House of the Vettii is one of the most famous houses in Pompeii. Dr Joanne Berry wrote for the BBC: “ The house is named for its possible owners, the Vettii brothers, whose signet-rings were discovered during the excavations; they are thought to have been freedmen and may have been wine-merchants. The ornate and formal garden would have been glimpsed through the front door of the house, allowing passers-by a glimpse of the wealth and taste of its owners. [Source: Dr Joanne Berry, Pompeii Images, BBC, February 17, 2011 |::|]

“The garden was full of marble and bronze statues, 12 of them fountain-heads that spouted water into a series of basins. The garden is enclosed on four sides by an elaborately decorated portico, onto which open a series of rooms that were probably used for entertaining guests. |::|

“The excavation of this house heralded a new approach to the archaeological record of Pompeii. The statuary, and some of the household artefacts, that were uncovered were restored to their original contexts within the house, rather than removed to the museum in Naples. The idea was that modern visitors to the town could see what the house would have looked like before it was destroyed by the eruption of A.D. 79. |::|

Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum

Villa of the Papyri (500 meters west of Herculaneum) is a large mansion thought to have been owned by Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, the father-in-law of Julius Caesar and a wealthy statesman who was a consul of the Roman Republic in 58 B.C. Named for its immense library of scrolls, it contained a swimming pool more than 200 feet long and frescoes, mosaics and more than 90 statues. It was known as one of the grandest homes in the world. The Villa dei Papiri was discovered in 1750. Its excavation was supervised by a Swiss architect and engineer named Karl Weber, who dug a network of tunnels through the subterranean structure and eventually created a sort of blueprint of the villa’s layout, which was used as a model for the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, California.

John Seabrook wrote in The New Yorker: “The huge house, at least three stories tall, sat beside the Bay of Naples, which at that time reached five hundred feet farther inland than it does today. The villa’s central feature was a long peristyle—a colonnaded walkway that surrounded the pool and gardens and sitting areas, with views of the islands of Ischia and Capri, where the Emperor Tiberius had his pleasure palace. The Getty Villa, in Los Angeles, which was built by J. Paul Getty to house his classical-art collection, and opened to the public in 1974, was modelled on the villa and offers visitors the opportunity to stroll along the peristyle themselves, as it was on that day in 79. [Source: John Seabrook, The New Yorker , November 16, 2015 \=/]

“More than three-quarters of the Villa dei Papiri has never been excavated at all. It wasn’t until the nineteen-nineties that archeologists realized that there are two lower floors—a vast potential warehouse of artistic treasures, awaiting discovery. A dream held by papyrologists and amateur Herculaneum enthusiasts alike is that the Bourbon tunnellers did not find the main library, that they found only an antechamber containing Philodemus’ works. The mother lode of missing masterpieces may still be there somewhere, tantalizingly close. \=/

“On my visit to the Villa dei Papiri. Giuseppe Farella, who works for the Soprintendenza, the regional archeological agency, which oversees the site, took us inside the locked gates and led us into some of the old tunnels made by the Bourbon cavamonti in the seventeen-fifties. We used the lights on our phones to guide us through a smooth, low passageway. An occasional face emerged from the faint wall frescoes. Then we came to the end. “Just beyond is the library,” Farella assured us, the room where Philodemus’ books were found. Presumably, the main library, if one exists, would be near that, within easy reach. \=/

Getty Museum in Los Angeles modeled after the Villa dei Papiri

“But for the foreseeable future there will be no more excavations of the villa or the town. Politically, the age of excavation ended in the nineties. Leslie Rainer, a wall-painting conservator and a senior project specialist with the Getty Conservation Institute, who met me in the Casa del Bicentenario, one of the best-preserved structures in Herculaneum, said, “I am not sure excavations will ever be opened again. Not in our lifetime.” She pointed to the paintings on the walls, which the G.C.I.’s team is in the process of recording digitally. The colors, originally vibrant yellows, had turned red as a result of the heat from the volcano’s eruption. Since being uncovered, the painted architectural details have been deteriorating—the paint is flaking and powdering from exposure to the fluctuating temperature and humidity. Rainer’s project analyzes how this happens. \=/

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons, The Louvre, The British Museum

Text Sources: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Rome sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Late Antiquity sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; “Outlines of Roman History” by William C. Morey, Ph.D., D.C.L. New York, American Book Company (1901) ; “The Private Life of the Romans” by Harold Whetstone Johnston, Revised by Mary Johnston, Scott, Foresman and Company (1903, 1932); BBC Ancient Rome bbc.co.uk/history/ ; Project Gutenberg gutenberg.org ; Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Live Science, Discover magazine, Archaeology magazine, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, The New Yorker, Wikipedia, Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopedia.com and various other books, websites and publications.

Last updated October 2024