384 



THE POPULAE EDUCATOR. 



as well as in Greece itself, are all rigorously constructed upon 

 this principle, as may be seen in the Parthenon at Athens, a 

 representation of which was given in page 129 of this volume. 



The Etruscans first carried the arts into Italy, and were the 

 instructors of the Romans even before the Greeks. This 

 ingenious people constructed the first Roman edifices, and built 

 their arches and vaults as they still exist in the Cloaca Maxima, 

 or Great Sewer of Rome, and the Mamertine Prison, which may 

 be considered as the foundation of a style of architecture pecu- 

 liarly Roman. Before the period of the Etruscans, the Pelasgians 

 had attempted to construct arches ; but 

 they went no farther than the pointed arch, 

 the difficulty of centering an arch having 

 completely arrested their progress. In 

 fact, their pointed arches, formed by suc- 

 cessive courses of horizonal stones, could 

 only be considered as the two abutments 

 of a semi-circular arch approaching each 

 other. This fact is established by an exa- 

 mination of the gate of Arpino, the build- 

 ings of Alba Fucensis, of Tiryns, and of the 

 Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae. The Ro- 

 mans, on the other hand, after the example 

 of the Etruscans, entered fully into the 

 construction of the semi-circular arch ; and 

 this new principle led to the grandest re- 

 sults. By this means, the architects and 

 builders of old Rome were enabled to use 

 materials which were of a moderate size, 

 and easy to raise to great heights ; and 

 to construct immense vaults, which agreed 

 with the arch in their circular form. 



The period of Roman invention is one of the most brilliant 

 in the history of art. Of the many edifices with which the 

 Romans covered their provinces, there still remains a sufficient 

 number to prove the excellence of their architectural system, 

 and the perfection to which they brought the science and 

 skill of the practical builder. Arches and vaults raised by 

 them of rough stone and bricks, and even of rubble, preserve 

 their primitive solidity to this day. Their temples were con- 

 structed, like those of the Greeks, on the principle of the 

 architrave; but the remains of their aqueducts, their baths, 

 those edifices so imposing from their great extent, their trium- 

 phal arches, their circuses, and their theatres, show us how 

 extensively the Romans employed the arch and the vault in 

 their edifices. But of all their remarkable works, the amphi- 

 theatres were those in which the multiplied and varied use of 

 these most frequently occur; those immense buildings in the 

 elliptical form, with rows of seats placed round and round, and 

 rising 1 gradually above one another, in which the spectators 

 assembled to witness their barbarous spectacles. The style 

 of architecture employed in these buildings was of a vigorous 

 and substantial character, adapted to 

 its use. Two or three stories of im- 

 mense arcades, or rows of arches, 

 divided by piers ornamented with 

 columns or pilasters, admitted light 

 into the corridors or long passages 

 which surrounded the edifice. Other 

 galleries, more or less numerous, and 

 parallel to the preceding, were con- 

 structed below the seats. From floors 

 on a level with these galleries, or by- 

 numerous flights of steps, they were 

 admitted to the seats by entrances so 



arranged as to prevent crowding and confusion. Four open 

 passages disposed along the axes of the building, which, as we 

 have said, was in the form of an ellipse, gave admittance to the 

 arena from without; round the arena were placed the cells which 

 contained the animals. Behind these cells were constructed, 

 also, corridors or long passages communicating with every part 

 of the building, and placed under the first row of arches, or 

 the first row of seats for the spectators. 



The rain-water was carried off by water-courses and drains, 

 which ran into an aqueduct passing under the arena ; while 

 other aqueducts were employed to inundate it when nautical 

 entertainments were brought before the spectators. At the 

 top of the building, and all round it outside, were placed con- 



ROMAN AQUEDUCT. 



AMPHITHEATRE OF THYSDRUS, IN AFRICA. 



soles, or projecting ornaments in stone, fitted so as to receive 

 vertical rods, upon which was spread a velarium or large 

 curtain, covering the seats and the arena, in order to defend 

 the spectators from the heat of the sun. Thus we see how 

 the long corridors, the numerous flights of steps, the cells for 

 animals, and the aqueducts, required arches and vaults of all 

 dimensions and of all forms. These edifices are unquestion- 

 ably such as do the greatest honour to the architectural and 

 constructive genius of the Romans. Many of them still 

 remain, and some are in such a high state of preservation as 

 to enable us to examine their minutest de- 

 tails. The finest example is the famous 

 Amphitheatre of Flavian at Rome, which 

 was capable of containing more than 100,000 

 spectators ; those of Pola, in Istria, of Nimes 

 and Aries, in France, and of Thysdrus in 

 Africa. 



But although the Romans displayed their 

 greatest science in the building of amphi- 

 theatres, they exhibited their greatest art 

 in the construction of their public baths ; 

 for in these the building of arches and 

 vaults was most extensively employed. In 

 those of Diocletian and Caracalla at Rome, 

 and that of Julian at Paris, we see arches 

 of such large dimensions, and vaults of such 

 great extent, that we are struck with asto- 

 nishment and admiration at works so noble 

 in structure and so bold in design. 



As to the origin of the arch, we have 

 attributed it to the Romans, or rather to 

 their original instructors, the Etruscans. 

 But it must be mentioned that brick arches are said to have 

 been found buried in the tombs of Thebes, in Egypt ; and that 

 Mr. Hoskins describes one eight feet six inches in span, which 

 was regularly formed. Among the ruins of Meroe, the capital 

 of ancient Ethiopia, he found a semi-circular arch of stone 

 covering a portico, and at Gibel el Berkel a pointed arch, 

 which was over the entrance to a pyramid. Under these cir- 

 cumstances, it appears remarkable that the use of the arch in 

 building should not have passed from Ethiopia, or from Thebes 

 itself, into the ordinary architecture of Egypt. As neither 

 the latter country nor Greece adopted the arch in their con- 

 structions, the merit of introducing it into general architecture 

 must still remain with the Romans; for although Pericles 

 adorned the city of Athens with splendid edifices, it was left 

 for the Romans to construct a stone arch over the small river 

 Cephisus, upon the most frequented road to that city. It 

 appears that the construction of the arch was also known to 

 the Chinese long before it made its appearance in Europe. It 

 covers the gateways in their great wall ; it is seen in the con- 

 struction of their sepulchral monuments ; and it was employed 

 in the construction of their bridges. 

 Kircher, in his account of China, 

 speaks of some three and four miles 

 long, and of an arch of the incredible 

 span of 600 feet. 



There are numerous specimens of 

 Roman architecture in France, the 

 ancient Gaul, which, by their stabi- 

 lity and the excellence of their con- 

 struction, have long survived the era 

 of their architects. One of the finest 

 of these is the bridge over the Vi- 

 dourle, at Sommieres, in the depart- 

 ment of the Gard. It is composed of seventeen arches, of which 

 nine have been encroached upon by the town, and are sunk 

 under the principal street, so that the water now flows under 

 eight arches only. Every pier is hollowed out into a small arch, 

 in order to increase the water-way during floods. This bridge is 

 supposed to have been built in the reign of Tiberius Caesar. 



The bridge of Ceret, over the Tech, in the department of 

 the Eastern Pyrenees, is a remarkable specimen of the age in 

 which it was supposed to be built, which ascends to the time 

 of the Visigoths, and is still within the domain of ancient 

 Roman history. The middle arch is about 154 feet, and the 

 abutments are relieved by arches, which contribute to the 

 elegance and beauty of the whole. 



