Classics: Architecture

The art of building that arose on the shores of the Aegean Sea and flourished in the ancient world.

Structures produced by the ancient Romans. The origins of Roman architecture can be traced to the Etruscans, who migrated from Asia Minor to Italy in the 12th century B.C.E.

[Gr.,=high point of the city], elevated, fortified section of various ancient Greek cities. The Acropolis of Athens, a hill c.260 ft (80 m) high, with a flat oval top c.500 ft (150 m) wide and 1,150 ft (350 m) long, was a ceremonial site beginning in the Neolithic Period and was walled before the 6th century BCE by the Pelasgians.

[Gr.,=the virgin's place], temple sacred to Athena, on the acropolis at Athens. Built under Pericles between 447 and 432 BCE, it is the culminating masterpiece of Greek architecture.

Also known as the Flavian amphitheatre, the Colosseum in Rome was the largest of the ancient amphitheatres. Elliptical in plan, it measures 188 × 156 m and is 48.5 m in height (620 × 515 × 160 ft).

Line of fortifications built by the Roman emperor Hadrian across northern Britain from the Cumbrian coast on the west to the North Sea on the east.

Constructed during the reign of the emperor Hadrian between 118 and 125 ce in the Campus Martius district of ancient Rome, the imposing Pantheon still dominates its surroundings today.

The spanning of a wall opening by means of separate units (such as bricks or stone blocks) assembled into an upward curve that maintains its shape and stability through the mutual pressure of a load and the separate pieces.

Market and meeting place in ancient Roman towns in Italy and later in the provinces, corresponding to the Greek agora. By extension the word forum often indicates the meeting itself in modern usage.

[Lat.,=conveyor of water], channel or trough built to convey water, chiefly for providing a densely populated region with a supply of freshwater. The flow in aqueducts is ordinarily by means of gravity, although pumps are often used.

In classical tyles of architecture the various columnar types fall, in general, into the five so-called classical orders, which are named Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan, and Composite.

Earliest of the orders of architecture developed by the Greeks and the one that they employed for most buildings.

One of the early orders of architecture. The spreading scroll-shaped capital is the distinctive feature of the Ionic order; it was primarily a product of Asia Minor, where early embryonic forms of this capital have been found.

Most ornate of the classic orders of architecture. It was also the latest, not arriving at full development until the middle of the 4th century B.C.E.