Roman Imperial Architecture

As my guidebook I choose Lonely Planet. The Lonely Planet guide to Rome, “divides” Rome into 6 main important landmarks. The Vatican City, The Pantheon, Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Museo e Galleria Borghese, Ancient Rome and Tivoli. For the purpose of this assignment I will be concentrating on the Ancient Rome section which is divided into Roman Forum, Palatine and the Colosseum. In the guidebook, a lot of important sites are mentioned. From the information from the guidebook the readers gets a lot of information around the history of the sites like what period they were built or which emperor was in power during those times but there is not a substantial knowledge on the architecture. The guidebook limits this kind of knowledge to the shape, size and the material used for each site. The features of the physicality, terrain and so on are not mentioned enough in the guidebook that I choose, although architecture is the most visible legacy of any culture, and often survives other elements of the culture that have sunk into oblivion. Throughout the classical world the Empire of the Romans was littered with enduring monuments to their gods and military leaders, even the ruins of which still possess the capacity to awe their observers. In an era where pagan deities are blasé and military triumph eschewed, those monuments have instead become hallowed testaments to the engineering skill of the architects who designed them. Indeed, the Roman legacy has dominated Western architecture until fairly recently.

I would like the reader to ponder the architectural achievements of other cultures. Consider the Taj Mahal, considered the most beautiful building in India, built by a prince as a tomb for his lost queen. Or consider the Pyramids, those structures meant to help a Pharaoh’s soul ascend to Ra. Magnificent? Certainly in their own ways. But does the average person really care about some Indian prince’s wife, or if some Egyptian ruler finds his way to his solar deity? Not likely. This is what makes Rome as an empire and an aesthetic ideal different than most powers before or since. The Romans were first and last a practical people, and their engineering feats were meant to actually run an empire. Sewers, aqueducts, temples, baths, markets, amphitheatres, (all these sites in the Forum Area) they were all meant for use by the people. Logistically, Roman architecture in the imperial era depended on the use of an amazing new building material: concrete or at least something very similar to that, that emerged again in the 18 century. Economically, Roman architecture owed to the empire’s ability to organize large labor groups with the same efficiency as they organized their legions (indeed, in the provinces it was often the legions responsible for construction. In Rome proper, however, colleges of skilled labor were employed). In my opinion these facts make the imperial architecture of Rome so special and unique. Below are some pictures of ancient Rome important sites.

In this Picture we can see, a lot of temple clustered together

This picture is a reconstruction of the Forum. We can see that is very dense, typical Roman Imperial Architecture. We can see the Statue of The Emperor in the middle and that is the influence of power in the imperial Roman architecture. The streets are paved with stones.