The Founding Rome

The founding of Rome remains shrouded in myth. From Plutarch, Virgil, Titus Livius
(Livy), and other Roman authors, there emerge colorful tales that ascribe the
founding to Aeneas’s descendant Romulus. Aeneas, after fleeing the burning Troy and
various adventurous voyages, arrived on the Latin shores, where he founded a
dynasty with Livia, daughter of Latinus. From them sprang, generations later, the
twins Romulus and Remus, with Romulus eventually founding Rome, an event that is
said to have occurred around 750 BCE. The judgment of modern scholars is that the
tales constitute a summary of folk memories enhanced by wishful thinking.
Nonetheless, archaeological evidence has not yet been able to undermine this
general narrative.

Around the 4th century BCE, Rome became conquest-oriented, and one by one, the
neighboring cities and tribes were brought under its control. When the Greek city of
Tarentum in southern Italy (Apulia) fell in 272 BCE, Rome enslaved all its citizens. The
fall of Syracuse in Sicily followed in 212 BCE. The sack of the Greek city of Corinth in
146 BCE brought Greece itself under Roman control, and with the conquest of
Carthage on the north coast of Africa, Rome assumed uncontested control over the
Mediterranean basin.
• The civic heart was the Comitium (whence comes the word committee), a
meeting place located on the forum just below the Capitoline Hill. It had a
speaker’s platform, the rostra, named after the ships’ prows that were
hung there following the Battle of Antium in 338 BCE. It was a shallow
circular amphitheater in front of the council chamber, or curia. Though not
a building, it was nonetheless a templum, or sacred space laid out on a
north-south axis.

• To maintain control over its far-flung territories, Rome built garrisons,

fortifications, and even cities, like Cosa, which was laid out in 273 BCE. It
occupies a high, rocky site on the coast of Etruria, 100 kilometers north of
Rome. It was connected to its harbor below by a road leading down a
sharp incline. Roughly trapezoidal in plan, at its highest point the city
contained a long rectangular forum in its northeastern corner. The forum
was an enclosed outdoor space, accessed by gates and containing the
religious, mercantile, and governmental institutions. The Comitium, with
its circular steps and a curia behind it, on the model or Rome, was on the
longer northeastern side of the forum. Near it was a basilica, built in 150
BCE, and used as a law court.
 Basilica Porcia

Curia Hostilia
Prison

Comitium

Rostra

0 30m
 Pompeii
The history of Pompeii before the Roman takeover in 80 BCE is
obscure. It was probably founded in the 7th or 6th century BCE by
central Italian tribes and subsequently came under Greek control.
Thus, long before the Roman period, it was an old and flourishing
town. The Romans transformed it into a bustling port and resort until
its life was snuffed out by an eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 CE.
Dimulai pada 80 SM, Roma mulai membangun kembali forum nya. Di ujung
selatan yang sempit adalah kota kantor, termasuk rumah senat, dan ke sudut
timur, bangunan berbentuk persegi,tanpa atap dengan Temenos sendiri,
digunakan sebagai pengadilan hukum. Dibangun sekitar 100 SM, dibuat tanpa
atap, agar tidak melanggar Aturan kuno Yunani bahwa uji coba akan digelar
di tempat terbuka udara.
Di tengah forum, orang-orang Romawi menambahkan Temple of Jupiter (80
SM), meninggikan podiumnya, dengan dua patung berkuda mengapit jalan
dan altar di depan. Dilihat dari ujung selatan forum, ruang terbuka,
menggambarkan Mt. Vesuvius, di belakangnya. Bangsa Romawi juga
membangun ulang bagian timur forum, menambahkan pasar sayur dan toko-
toko (macellum), dan cagar alam.
Salah satu aspek penting dari arsitektur sipil Romawi adalah basilika. Jenis
bangunan ini muncul di Roma-rupanya penuh-dengan Basilika di forum (184
SM). Sebuah basilika umumnya terdiri dari ruang lebar memanjang dengan
dua atau empat gang-gang samping dipisahkan dari ruang utama dengan
kolom. gang samping ini lebih rendah dari aula tengah untuk memungkinkan
Jendela clerestory pada bagian tinggi ditengah. Gorden digunakan untuk
menciptakan ruang yang lebih pribadi untuk pertemuan dan fungsi.
 Macellum

Temple of Jupiter

Sanctuary
of city lares

Cloth traders’ hall

Temple of Apollo

Comitium

Basilica
Curia
 Kuil Fortuna di Praeneste
The town of Praeneste (Palestrina), which has existed since the 8th or 7th
century BCE. The temple built there was dedicated to the goddess Fortuna
Primigenia. One of the reasons for the longevity of the building—and of
subsequent examples of Roman architecture—was the use of concrete.
Though concrete had been known to Romans since 190 BCE, it was not able
to support great weight. During the period of Praeneste’s construction a new
form of cement came into use. Pozzolana was made from a volcanic ash from
the Vesuvius area—especially from the city of Pozzuoli, from which it took its
name. Roman architects might not have understood the chemistry causing
the bonding of concrete, but they were well aware of its exceptional
properties—especially of its ability to set underwater, which facilitated the
design of ports and harbors.
Though the famous Roman architectural theorist Vitruvius was still highly
suspicious of the material when he wrote his treatise in 40 BCE, the architects
of the Temple of Fortuna Primigenia showed no lack of confidence. The
temple’s symmetrical arrangement, inspired by Hellenistic design notions,
rose up the side of a hill 60 meters from the bottom. The uppermost terrace
was crowned by a double L–shaped Corinthian colonnade that framed a
semicircular theater, which was itself surmounted by a colonnade.
Behind this, on the central axis, stood a small round temple, or tholos, cut partially out
of the rock, indicative of a particularly sacred site. The upper terrace and the theater
were used for festivals, dances, and rituals. Except for the columns and other
architectural elements, the structure, including the support vaults, was built entirely of
concrete. Exploiting the potential of the new material, several kinds of vaults were
used, including ramping and annular forms. That the facade of the upper level rested
on a vault, rather than on the wall beneath it, would have been unthinkable in the days
before concrete.
The Colosseum
The Colosseum