1850.] 



THE CIVIL EXGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURXAL. 



305 



LECTURES ON THE HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE, 



By Samuel Clegg, Jun., m.i.o.e., f.g.s. 



Delivered at the College for General Practical Science, Putney, Surrey. 



(president, his grace the dukk of buccleuch, k.g.) 



Lecture IX.— ROME. 

 The Fiw Orders— Masonry— Temples— Sepulchres. 



Having already described Rome as it existed under Etruscan 

 domination or influence, it is needless to revert to its early history 

 After the expulsion of the Kings, the stern republican spirit that 

 prevailed caused the Romans to neglect the fine arts as tending to 

 enervation and a love of luxury: a nation of warriors, their sole 

 aim was to increase the territory and power of Rome. That the 

 buildings of republican Rome, however, were thought worthy of 

 attention, is proved by the appointment of adiles or magistrates 

 who had the care of their preservation, an oifice first created in 

 the 206th year of Rome: jut they were for tlie most part simple 

 and unadorned. The solid and plain Tuscan order satisfied the 

 taste of the people; nor did they seek for farther embellishment. 



I he materials within the power of the Romans in the time of 

 the commonwealth were by no means favourable to decorative 

 architecture; the dark peperino, the tufa of the Campagna, and 

 the porous travertine, could not vie with the marbles of Greece 

 and Asia; and Rome was not yet enriched with foreign spoils 



In the time of Camillus, who died 365 b.c, Rome was reduced 

 to ashes; and the rude cottages of the city of Romulus were after- 

 wards replaced by buildings of a more solid and convenient 

 description. But a still greater change took place on the con- 

 quest of (ireece mid Sicily. Horace says, '-Greece, when sub- 

 dued, captnated tlie fierce conqueror, aid brought the arts into 

 rustic Latium. 



Notwithstanding the persuasive influence of beauty, the old 

 simple habits did not at once give way, and Cato still railed 

 against the importation of statues and paintings as the introduc- 

 tion of so many enemies to Rome. But when a more refined and 

 cultivated taste once made good its entrance, no censor could lon<r 

 stay Its progress, and soon the victorious generals emulated each 

 other in despoiling the conquered provinces for the adornment of 

 their native cities. Metellus Maeedonicus is said to have been the 

 first to build a marble temple in Rome: he also erected a portico, 

 in which he placed twenty-five equestrian statues, brought from 

 Macedonia His contemporary, Lucius Mummius, also brought 

 rich spoils from Corinth; but betrayed his ignorance of what he 

 had acquired, by threatening that those who had charge of the 

 transport of the splendid statues and paintings, should be made 

 to replace any that were lost or injured. At the triumph of 

 Faulus .Emilius, on his return from Greece and Macedonia, 2.50 

 chariots were barely sufficient to carry the works of art brought 

 in his tram. M hen we consider that these continued to be accu- 

 mulated year alter year, we read without surprise that the number 

 ot statues in Rome formed another population 



The first mention we find of the quarries of Luna or Carrara, is 

 in the time of Julius Cssar. The prefect of Cesar's army in 

 Gaul caused his house to be lined with this beautiful material, and 

 every column to be sculptured in solid Carrara or Carystian 

 marble In a few years the residences of the Roman patricians 

 vied with those of the eastern potentates in magnificence. Rich 

 marbles were brought at an enormous expense from Greece, Asia, 

 and Egypt. H here these could not be afforded, painted imitations 

 were substituted, or inferior marbles were stained to represent 

 those ot a more costly description. 



In the time of Augustus Cajsar, a second conflagration devastated 

 the city; after which it was restored with iucu-eased splendour 

 £.vt^ ■■'? 1 V^.^ saying of Augustus, that he had found Rome of 

 fllpvin r • ^" " "/ ""ble. The architects and artists of Greece 

 Zf!.t 'T'^"^' Rome where they were sure of finding patron- 

 age and employment, and principaUy under their superintendence 



Palatine, and others, besides the theatre of Marcellus, and se eral 

 porticoes, public ibraries and other buildings. The celebrated 

 Vitruvius (better known by his writings than bv his arcliTtectura 

 works) belongs to this period. His treatise on'architecture is the 

 only book on the subject remaining to us from the classical age. 

 The example of Augustus was followed by his successors, who 

 emulated each other in the embellishment, not only of Rom^, bu? 

 ako of the provincial cities. Another and most disastrous con- 

 flagration occurred in the reign of Nero, when fourteen quarters 

 No. 157.— Vol. XIII.— October, 1850. 



or districts of the city were utterly destroved. Rumour pointed 

 to the emperor himself, as the wilful author of this calamity. 

 Ruffians were seen while the fire was raging rushing about with 

 lighted torches, throwing them where most like to ignite the sur- 

 rounding materials, and preventing the wretched populace from at- 

 tempting to extingush the flames. Nero, to remove the odium of 

 the deed from himself, accused the Christians, who were conse- 

 quently made to suff'er unheard-of tortures. Many valuable spe- 

 cimens of Greek art were lost in this fire, but a great improvement 

 was apparent when the city was rebuilt, in the increased regularity 

 and width of the streets, and greater conimodiousness of the 

 houses. Magnificent, however, as were the restorations of Nero, 

 art could not be expected to flourish in its pristine purity under a 

 patron who gilded some of the statues and cut off the heads of 

 others, in order to substitute his own. 



During the reigns of Trajan, Hadrian, and the Antonines, 

 Rome still continued to increase in opulence and splendour; it was 

 indebted to Trajan for some of its noblest monuments, erected by 

 the architect Apollodorus. The Emperor Hadrian was an archi- 

 tect himself, and a great builder. Many structures were erected 

 by him in Italy and the provinces of the empire; and in several 

 places whole cities arose at his command, as at Athens and Jerusa- 

 lem. Unfortunately, vanity and cruelty were united with taste 

 and magnificence in the mind of tliis emperor. He was accus- 

 tomed to employ an architect of the name of Detrianus to execute 

 his designs, who was too good a courtier to criticise; but wishing 

 for the approval of the more celebrated Apollodorus, Hadrian 

 submitted to this great artist a plan for a Temple of Venus: the 

 too candid Apollodorus dared to laugh at the design, saying that 

 if the statues seated there were inclined to get up, they would 

 knock their heads against the disproportionately low ceiling. This 

 censure cost the unfortunate architect his life. He was put to 

 death by order of his offended master. 



From the time of the Emperor Decius (250 a.d.) Rome rapidly 

 declined. Incessant wars drained the revenue, and required the 

 presence of the emperor abroad. Under Dioclesian, the seat of 

 government was removed to Nicomedia, on the sea of Marmora; 

 and to Milan, where Maximian held his court; and in 330 a.d., the 

 final blow was given to ancient Rome by the foundation of the 

 new capital of Constantine the Great. 



Gibbon quotes the following passage from the writings of 

 Roggius, who described Rome in 11-30, a.d.:— "Her primeval state, 

 such as she might appear in a remote age, when Evander enter- 

 tained the stranger of Troy, has been delineated by the fancy of 

 Virgil. This Tarpeian rock was then a savage and solitary thicket. 

 In the time of the poet, it was crowned with the golden roofs of a 

 temple: the temple is overthrown, the gold has been pillaged, the 

 wheel of fortune has accomplished her revolution, and the sacred 

 ground is again disfigured with thorns and brambles. The hill of 

 the Capitol on which we sit was formerly the head of the Roman 

 empire; the citadel of the earth; the terror of kings; illustrated 

 by the footsteps of so many triumphs, enriched withlhe spoils and 

 tributes of so many nations. This spectacle of the world, how is 

 it fallen.'— how changed.?— how defaced.?- the path of victory is 

 obliterated by vines, and the benches of the senators are concealed 

 by a dunghill. Cast your eyes on the Palatine hill, and seek 

 among the shapeless and enormous fragments, the marble theatre, 

 the obelisks, the colossal statues, the porticoes of Nero's palace. 

 Survey the other hills of the city: the vacant space is interrupted 

 only by ruins and gardens. The forum of the Roman people, 

 where they assembled to enact their laws and elect their mao-is- 

 trates, is now enclosed for the cultivation of pot-herbs, or thrown 

 open for the reception of swine and buffaloes. The public and 

 private edifices that were founded for eternity lie prostrate, naked, 

 and broken, like the limbs of a mighty giant; and the ruin is the 

 more visible, from the stupendous relics that have survived the 

 injuries of time and fortune." 



Notwithstanding many new architectural features, the offspring 

 of new wants, the Romans were far from being an inventive peo- 

 ple; they were indebted for their peculiar style to the united 

 influence of Greece and Etruria: from the former they received the 

 Orders, from the latter the arch and the knowledge of vaulting. 

 In Roman architecture we find five orders; the Tuscan, Doric, 

 Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite. The Tuscan order appears to 

 have fallen into disuse after the time of the Commonwealth, for 

 though described at length by Vitruvius, scarcely an ancient ex- 

 ample remains. The Greek-Doric was superseded by the Roman, 

 of a more light and ornamental character; the height of the 

 column was increased from four or five to eight, or eight and a 

 half diameters; the shaft was finished by an astragal and fillet; the 



41 



