By Diana E E Kleiner | Roman Architecture Lecture 20 of 24 Lecture Description Professor Kleiner discusses the rebirth of Athens under the Romans especially during the reigns of the two philhellenic emperors, Augustus and Hadrian. While some have dismissed the architecture of Roman Athens as derivative of its Classical and Hellenistic Greek past, Professor […]

By Diana E E Kleiner | Roman Architecture Lecture 19 of 24 Lecture Description Professor Kleiner features the baroque phenomenon in Roman architecture, in which the traditional vocabulary of architecture, consisting of columns and other conventional architectural elements, is manipulated to enliven building facades and inject them with dynamic motion. This baroque trend is often

By Diana E E Kleiner | Roman Architecture Lecture 18 of 24 Lecture Description Professor Kleiner discusses two Roman cities in North Africa: Timgad and Leptis Magna. Timgad was created as an entirely new colony for Roman army veterans by Trajan in A.D. 100, and designed all at once as an ideal castrum plan. Leptis

By Diana E E Kleiner | Roman Architecture Lecture 17 of 24 Lecture Description Professor Kleiner discusses the increasing size of Roman architecture in the second and third centuries A.D. as an example of a "bigger is better" philosophy. She begins with an overview of tomb architecture, a genre that, in Rome as in Ostia,

By Diana E E Kleiner | Roman Architecture Lecture 16 of 24 Lecture Description Professor Kleiner focuses on Ostia, the port of Rome, characterized by its multi-storied residential buildings and its widespread use of brick-faced concrete. She begins with the city’s public face–the Forum, Capitolium, Theater, and Piazzale delle Corporazioni. The Piazzale, set behind the

  By Diana E E Kleiner | Roman Architecture Lecture 15 of 24 Lecture Description Professor Kleiner features the architecture built in and around Rome during the reign of Hadrian. The lecture begins with the Temple of Venus and Roma, a Greek-style temple constructed near the Colosseum in Rome, which may have been designed by

By Diana E E Kleiner | Roman Architecture Lecture 14 of 24 Lecture Description Professor Kleiner analyzes the major public architectural commissions of the emperor Trajan in Rome. Distinguished by their remarkably ambitious scale, these buildings mimic Trajan’s expansion of the Roman Empire to its furthest reaches. Professor Kleiner begins with Trajan’s restoration of the

By Diana E E Kleiner | Roman Architecture Lecture 13 of 24 Lecture Description Professor Kleiner investigates the major architectural commissions of the emperor Domitian, the last Flavian emperor. She begins with the Arch of Titus, erected after Titus’ death by his brother Domitian on land previously occupied by Nero’s Domus Transitoria. The Arch celebrated

By Diana E E Kleiner | Roman Architecture Lecture 12 of 24 Lecture Description Professor Kleiner features the tumultuous year of 68-69 when Rome had four competing emperors. Vespasian emerged the victor, founded the Flavian dynasty, and was succeeded by his sons, Titus and Domitian. The Flavians were especially adept at using architecture to shape

By Diana E E Kleiner | Roman Architecture Lecture 11 of 24 Lecture Description Professor Kleiner features the architecture of Augustus’ successors, the Julio-Claudian emperors, whose dynasty lasted half a century (A.D. 14-68). She first presents Tiberius’ magnificent Villa Jovis on the Island of Capri and an underground basilica in Rome used by members of