Classical Cities

of
Roman and Greek
Period
 GREEK
ARCHITECTURE
( 650 BC-30BC)
 GREEK ARCHITECTURE
Ancient Greek architecture is best known from its temples, many of which are
found throughout the region, mostly as ruins but many substantially intact.

The second important type of building that survives all over the Hellenic world is
the open-air theatre, with the earliest dating from around 350 BC.

Other architectural forms that are still in evidence are the processional gateway
(propylon), the public square (agora) surrounded by storied colonnade (stoa),
the town council building (bouleuterion), the public monument, the
monumental tomb (mausoleum) and the stadium.
 GREEK TOWNS
Greeks built small towns appropriate for human
scale
• Natural borders for the town
• Parts of the town were planned according to
geometrical patterns and others according to
defensive measures
• Democracy,
• Buildings of poor and rich,
• public baths.
HIPPODAMUS
•Gridded roads
•House blocks (rectangular)
•Imp roads parallel to shore (Straight & Wide)
•Outline of town – not necessarily rectangular
 THE GREEK POLIS
• The Greek Polis
• Source of Greek Creativity
• Each citizen was expected to participate in the polis in regard to
its: Political life
• Economic relations
• Spiritual worship
• Social events (e.g. dramatic performances)
• A self-governing city-state
• Not large cities
• ‘Plato’ thought ideal city should have 5,000 citizens
• Athens at its peak had a bit over 1,00,000 citizens
 GREEK TOWNS
Agora
•Gathering place and market
•Place for public event
•Agora on the road from the harbor, in
the center and includes :
•Assembly hall
•Council hall
•Chamber hall
•Bordered by temples, workshops,
vendors’ stalls, statues
Acropolis
•Elevated temple district
•Contained various temples
•Architectural “vocabulary” used well into the
20th c. for banks, courthouses, town halls, etc.
•Periodic processions to Acropolis also
celebrated the polis
•Separation of church and state was indicated
by distance
 ATHENS
• the leading city of Ancient Greece in the first millennium BC and its
cultural
•Athens is one of the oldest named cities in the world, having
been continuously inhabited for at least 7000 years.
•Situated in southern Europe, Athens became achievements
during the 5th century BC laid the foundations of western
civilization
 PLANNING
• Athens grew from its focal point, the Acropolis, which became the
ceremonial center of the city-state, decked with temples including
the Parthenon.

• Propylea, is the main entrance gate at Athens.

• Agora was the center of Athenian life. Laid out in the 6th century
B.C., northwest of the Acropolis, it was a square lined by public
buildings, which served Athens' needs for commerce and politics.

• The streets of Athens as narrow and tortuous, unpaved, unlighted,

and more like a chaos of mud and sewage than even the usual
Greek road.
Classical Athens
• The placement of buildings were decided on natural
factors such as the morphology of the land

• For eg. The theatres were generally built around a slope

to provide natural seating.

• The Agora was built over a flat surface.

• The houses were generally placed along the southern
slope and part of Acropolis facing the sea.
PRIENE CITY
 roman
civilization
Introduction –
The Etruscan were the early settlers of west – central part of
Italy. But latter on, the roman occupied the whole part of it. The
ancient capital Rome founded near river Tiber was protected by
seven surrounding hills.

The country is located centrally in Europe and is very

mountainous.

The romans were not seafaring people and colonists like the
Greeks. They did not depend on mere colonization but they
conquered first by war and then ruled by law.
 Roman architecture
The architecture of romans was essentially an art of shaping space
around rituals. Many structures were utilitarian type such as
acqueducts and bridges.

the plans were complex in appearance and hidden in design and

display in impression of vastness. for example ‘thermae’
‘amphitheaters’ ‘basilicas’ etc.
 TOWN PLANNING
The provinces, and above all the western provinces of the Roman
Empire, tell us even more than Italy about Roman town planning.

They contain many towns which were founded full-grown, or re-

founded and at the same time rebuilt, and which were in either case
laid out on the Roman plan.

But the modern successors of these towns have

rarely kept the network of their ancient streets in recognizable detail.
Though walls, gates, temples, baths, palaces, amphitheaters still stand
stubbornly erect amidst a flood of modern dwellings, they are but the
islands which mark a submerged area.
 C H A R A C T E R I S T I C F E AT U R E S O F
A ROMAN TOW
•Roman colonial or camp plans were
especially developed for the military
engineers.
•Such plans had necessarily to be
simple to set out & the building blocks
easy to measure.
•In this case the grid iron plan proved
to be successful.
•Practice of leveling a hill to make the
site confirm to the plan.
•Roman planning was like the chess
board system having the principal
streets rounding across the length
THE FORUM

•The focal point of the city was its

forum.
•An open area bordered by
colonnades with shops.
• Functioned as the chief meeting
place of the town.
•Usually situated in the centre of
the city at the intersection of the
cardo and the decumanus
 Timgad
The town of Thamugadi, now Timgad, lay on the northern skirts of
Mount Aurès, halfway between Constantine and Biskra and about a
hundred miles from the Mediterranean coast.
The town grew. Soon after the middle of the second century it was
more than half a mile in width from east to west, and its extent from
north to south,
 diminished by the space needed for public buildings, though it
is not easy to tell how great this space was in the original town.

The blocks themselves measured square of 70 Roman feet (23 x 23

yards), and may have contained one, two, three, or even four houses
apiece, but they have undergone so many changes that their original
arrangements are not at all clear.

The streets which divided these blocks were 15 to 16 ft. wide;

the two main streets, which ran to the principal gates, were further
widened by colonnades and paved with superior flagging. All the
streets had well-built sewers beneath them.
 It was entered by four
principal gates, three of
which can still be traced
quite clearly, and which
stood in the middle of
their respective sides; the
position of the south gate
is doubtful.
 STREET PATTERN
The interior of the town was divided by streets into a chess-board pattern of small square
house-blocks; from north to south
there were twelve such blocks and from east to west eleven—not twelve, as is often stated.
 TORINO - ITALY
•Plenty of towns in invaded areas medium towns to keep agriculture around. Division
of agricultural land into rectangular parcels.
•Grid pattern for most of Roman cities
•The city was divided into neighborhoods and quarterswith their own centers Two
major and central intersected roads : Cardo: North South Decomanus: East West *
The Forumat the intersection of the two major roads : the central public space
•Torino - Italy

The city was divided into quarters by the creation of two perpendicular streets: the
Cardo and the Decumanus
A ROMAN “CASTRA” &TYPICAL ROMAN TOWN
•Plenty of towns in invaded areas medium towns to
keep agriculture around.
•Division of agricultural land into rectangular parcels.
•Grid pattern for most of Roman cities
•The city was divided into neighborhoods and quarters
with their own centers
•Two major and central intersected roads :
oCardo: North South
oDecomanus: East West
•* The Forumat the intersection of the two major roads :
the central public space

ROADS
•When it came to roads, the Romans understood the highway better than the city street
•The intersection of the cardo and the decumanus created a terrible traffic jam in the
middle of the city
•Wheel rims on stone streets made a terrible racket (1st known traffic law was a ban on
wheeled traffic during daylight hours imposed by Julius Ceasar)
•Night-time noise was reported to be deafening
 GREEK vs ROMAN
Conquered Greek by 133 Not as playful or moderate as
BC and cloned many of their the Greeks
urban design concepts Inclined toward violence,
Theater exploitation and gross excesses
of consumption
Amphitheater
Their greatest achievements
Temples built on the Greek often bear the mark of excess
model, with prominent but also considerable
colonnades engineering skill
Agora was appropriated Rome was basically supported
and became the forum by forced tribute & taxes
includes :
Assembly hall
Council hall
Chamber hall
Bordered by temples,
workshops, vendors’ stalls,
statues
THANK YOU