SOME NOTES ON ROMAN ARCHITECTURE. 
[With 4 plates. ] 
By F. T. Baae@anay, F.R.1.B.A. 
Roman buildings, after remaining for three centuries the sole in- 
spiration of the architects of all Europe, have for a long time now 
received far less attention from English students than is their due, 
whether they are judged on their merits or by the fact that they are 
the direct ancestors of all such modern architecture as can claim 
ancient descent. 
Our attention has lately been directed once more to Roman work— 
first, by the fact that when last English architects examined it they 
were content to look at a part only, and hardly went below the surface 
even there; secondly, I think, by our growing acquaintance with M. 
Choisy’s illuminating work on Roman building methods; and, lastly, 
by a half hope that, as the Imperial Roman system of construction 
was largely a monolithic concrete system, it may contain some sugges- 
tions for dealing with ferro, or reenforced, concrete: all the more since 
Roman concrete was almost always itself in a sense reenforced with 
brickwork. It is true that to call the brickwork used with concrete 
by the Romans “ reenforcement ” is somewhat misleading; at best it 
has but little resemblance to what we call reenforcement now; and 
much is merely centering or facing. On the whole, however, the cause 
for paying special attention at the present time to Roman architecture 
is strong enough, I hope, to excuse me for bringing the subject before 
you, although I have no fresh information and little new to say about 
it. I should like to treat it historically; for, although the dry facts 
connected with an architectural style or system of building can be 
learned without reference to the historical point of view, they can 
only be really interesting or fruitful when seen in chronological se- 
quence and in connection with the circumstances that molded them. 
Without the help of history we see only the effect and not the cause, 
“Read before the Birmingham Architectural Association, February 19, 1909. 
Reprinted by permission, after revision by the author, from Journal of the 
Royal Institute of British Architects, London, third series, vol. 16, No. 20, 
October 16, 1909. 
651 
