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Elaborate monument erected by Octavian (later Augustus) in 29–27 bc on the Preveza Peninsula in Western Greece, north of the present-day town of Preveza, overlooking Cape Actium, to commemorate his naval victory over Mark Antony at Actium in 31 bc. The nearby city of Nikopolis (Gr.: ‘city of victory’) was founded for the same purpose at about the same time.

According to the historian Dio Cassius (Roman History LI.i.3), after his victory Octavian laid a foundation of square stones on the spot where he had pitched his tent, which he then adorned with the captured ships’ rams. On this foundation, according to Dio, Octavian established an open-air shrine dedicated to Apollo. Suetonius (Augustus xviii.2) and Strabo (Geography VII.vii.6) corroborate this evidence, although the trophy itself (with the ships’ rams) was, according to Suetonius, dedicated to Poseidon and Mars, presumably for their help during the battle. The hill itself was, according to Strabo, sacred to Apollo, and therefore the shrine was dedicated to him....

Roman and Early Christian city at the east end of the plain of the Veneto, c. 90 km north-east of Venice and 5 km from the Adriatic coast. Founded as a Roman colony in 181 bc, it received full town status in 89 bc and became the regional capital of Venetia et Histria. It was strategically sited on the River Natissa, which was navigable to the sea, and at the intersection of routes leading north-west over the Alps and north-east to the Balkans. Written sources indicate that several emperors, including Constantine the Great, had a residence in Aquileia; from ad 294 to the 5th century it also had its own mint. In 313 it became a bishopric and in 381 it was the venue of a council before which followers of Arianism were tried. Civil wars and the invasions of the Huns (452) and the Lombards (568) led to the migration of most of the population and the transference of the see to Grado....

[anc. Augusta Raurica]

Swiss town on the Rhine near Basle, formerly a Roman colony. The well-preserved and extensively excavated Roman town is important for the study of urban planning and civic architecture. It was founded by a close colleague of Julius Caesar, L. Munatius Plancus, c. 44 bc in order to establish a bastion of Romanization in the region. The earliest surviving remains date from the Augustan period, and there was much building activity throughout the 1st and 2nd centuries ad, a period that marks the floruit of the colony. The centre of Augst was dominated by its forum–basilica–capitolium complex, laid out in the format typical of Gallic towns and one of the best examples of its type (see Rome, ancient, §III, 2). Considerable rebuilding during the 2nd century included the addition of a circular curia. The axis of the complex was the same as that of the surrounding street grid. At the temple end of the forum, however, the axis changed orientation and led to a second major group of monuments, including a theatre, which faced a second large Classical temple (am Schönbühl). The theatre originated in the early 1st century but was transformed into an amphitheatre in the later 1st century and then back into a theatre in the mid-2nd century. The Schönbühl temple (2nd century), positioned on a low hill and aligned with the theatre, would have been a major backdrop to theatrical performances. It succeeded a group of much smaller Romano-Celtic temples. The town as a whole is notable for its religious remains....

(Rome)

Janet DeLaine

Basilica erected on the site of the earlier Horrea Piperataria (Spice Market), in a prominent position overlooking the eastern end of the Forum Romanum. It was begun by the Emperor Maxentius (reg AD 306–12), possibly following the fire of AD 307, which severely damaged the nearby Temple of Venus and Rome, but was only completed, in slightly altered form, after his death in the Battle of the Milvian Bridge (AD 312). The Senate subsequently dedicated it to his victorious rival Constantine. The collapse of the nave and south aisle in the medieval period created the imposing ruin visible today (see fig.). It was a popular subject for Renaissance artists, who identified it mistakenly as the Templum Pacis, and it may have inspired Bramante’s design for St Peter’s in Rome.

Unlike most earlier basilicas, which had internal colonnades and trabeated timber roofs, the Basilica of Maxentius was built with brick-faced concrete walls and concrete vaults, to a design based on the ...

(Rome)

Janet DeLaine

Vast baths south of the Porta Capena. Known in Latin as the Thermae Antoninianae, they are the best preserved of the Imperial thermae (see also Rome, ancient §II 1., (i), (d)) and the only ones in which the combination of monumental architecture and garden setting can still be appreciated. Begun c. AD 211, the baths were dedicated by Caracalla (reg AD 211–17) in AD 216, although the outer precinct was not completed until the reign of Alexander Severus (reg AD 222–35). There were several later restorations, and an apse was added to the caldarium in the 4th century AD. Fifth-century AD sources record the baths as one of the wonders of Rome, while brick-stamps of the Ostrogothic king Theodoric (reg AD 493–526) suggest that they continued in use into the 6th century AD.

The site chosen for the baths was terraced to create a platform (328×323 m) from which rose the bathing block proper, surrounded by gardens. Incorporated in the platform were extensive subterranean service areas, including a water-mill and a large Mithraeum. Two tiers of barrel-vaulted chambers formed an impressive façade overlooking the Via Nova, while a monumental staircase led down from the Aventine Hill at the rear. The hillside was buttressed by a series of cisterns fed from an aqueduct built especially to serve the baths. Tiered rows of seats masked the cisterns and provided an area for performances; flanking this were libraries. Either side of the garden between the bathing block and the theatre area were broad exedrae housing other halls for cultural and social activities....

(b Lugano, March 26, 1787; d Naples, Dec 6, 1849).

Italian architect and archaeologist, of Swiss origin. He was a pupil of Luigi Cagnola and attended the Accademia delle Belle Arti in Milan, graduating in architecture at Pavia in 1806. He lived in Rome and between 1810 and 1814 was superintendent of the excavation of the Colosseum, which was being directed by Giuseppe Valadier. In 1812 Bianchi published the Osservazioni sull’arena e sul podio dell’Anfiteatro Flavio … in Rome, and he also carried out excavations on the Forum Romanum.

As a member of the Accademia di S Luca, Bianchi was put forward to design the layout of the Largo di Palazzo (now the Piazza del Plebiscito), Naples; the commission was awarded him by Ferdinand I of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (reg 1759–1825). Ferdinand had in fact announced a competition in 1817 for the completion of this work, which had been initiated by Joachim Murat, King of Naples, in ...

Roman town in Italy on the southern slope of Mt Vesuvius immediately to the north of Pompeii, sometimes identified with the ancient Pagus Augustus Felix Suburbanus (one of the town's outer districts). Excavations carried out mainly in the later 19th century brought to light some thirty villae rusticae, part of an intense network of smallholdings situated on the lower slopes of the volcano and the adjacent Sarno plain, and plentiful evidence of intense agricultural activity, principally the production of wine and olive oil. Probably due to its fertility, the area was resettled after the eruption; baths dating to the 2nd or 3rd century ad were discovered in Via Casone Grotta. Most of the villas were reburied after the excavations and documentation tends to be sparse. Finds are now mostly in the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, the Louvre in Paris and the Metropolitan Museum in New York, as well as a number of private collections; more recent discoveries are exhibited in a new local museum. The nearby Villa Regina is the only structure that can be visited; it has wine production facilities and large storage areas....

In 55 bc Julius Caesar landed in Britain, and the following year returned with a substantial army. He did not attempt to conquer territory, but on his second expedition he installed a client king, and so inaugurated the process whereby Britain established ever closer political and commercial relations with Rome. Caligula attempted an invasion in ad 39 or 40, but it was aborted before his army left Gaul. In ad 43 the army of Claudius invaded successfully, and gradually large tracts of Britain were conquered and incorporated into the Empire. The Roman province was known as Britannia. The northern limit of Roman expansion was achieved in ad 84, when Agricola defeated the Caledonians at the Battle of Mons Graupius, the location of which is unknown. Thereafter the Romans retreated to the narrow expanse of land between the Clyde and the Forth (later to be fortified with the Antonine Wall). Some 30 years later the Romans retreated south to another isthmus, this time between the Solway and the Tyne. When ...

(b Casale Monferrato, Oct 24, 1795; d Florence, Oct 17, 1856).

Italian architect, archaeologist and architectural historian. He studied architecture at the University of Turin (1810–12) under Ferdinando Bonsignore (1767–1843) and his assistant Giuseppe Talucchi (1782–1863). After serving (1812–14) in the fortress of Alessandria, he resumed his studies and obtained a degree in architecture in 1814. He served a period of apprenticeship under Talucchi, who helped him obtain a three-year grant from the Court of Turin for further study in Rome, where Canina settled in January 1818. He worked on engravings of Roman monuments under the antiquarian, scholar and publisher Mariano Vasi (1744–1820), and at the end of his three-year period as pensionato, he presented a survey of the Colosseum (Anfiteatro Flavio descritto, misurato e restaurato; dispersed) to the architects of the Accademia di S Luca, including Giuseppe Valadier, who were much impressed.

In 1824 Canina was appointed to execute his scheme for the expansion of the park of the ...

The Latin name of the smallest of Rome's seven hills, known in English as the Capitoline Hill. The term was subsequently used to denote the monumental Temple of Jupiter on the hill, and is now used to denote any citadel on the head or top of a hill, and especially temples dedicated to Capitoline Jupiter such as the one at ...

[now Capri]

Island in the Bay of Naples, Italy. Its name is derived from the ancient Greek for ‘boar’. The island remained insignificant until the emperor Augustus (reg 30 bc–ad 14) visited it in 29 bc and fell in love with it; he and his successor, Tiberius (reg ad 14–37), who withdrew from public life to live there permanently between ad 27 and 31, constructed a number of villas there—12 if Tacitus is to be believed—of which there are substantial surviving remains of three. Least well preserved, but the favoured residence of Augustus, is the ‘Palazzo a Mare’ in the middle of the north coast, spread out on a series of terraces over a strip c. 800 m long and 200 m wide. The main residential block lies to the east with a bath suite immediately behind it; there is also an adjacent artificial harbour for ease of access....

(b Paris, baptAug 28, 1721; d Auteuil, Jan 19, 1820).

French architect, archaeologist and painter. He was an important if controversial figure associated with the development of the Neo-classical style of architecture and interior design and its dissemination throughout Europe and the USA. He studied at the Académie Royale d’Architecture, Paris, under Germain Boffrand and won the Grand Prix in 1746. He spent the years 1749 to 1754 at the Académie Française in Rome but left after an argument with the director Charles-Joseph Natoire over his refusal to make his Easter Communion; this may have been due to his Jansenist sympathies. He nevertheless remained in Italy until 1767. During these years he became a close friend of Piranesi, Winckelmann, Cardinal Alessandro Albani and other members of the international circle interested in the Antique.

In his early student days in Rome, Clérisseau became acquainted in particular with English travellers and began to sell them his attractive topographical drawings of Roman architecture. Initially these were influenced by his studies with ...

(Rome)

Officially called the Amphitheatrum Flavium, but soon nicknamed after a nearby colossal statue of the sun god, the Colosseum became the principal amphitheatre in the Roman Empire (see fig.). Its construction finally gave Rome a venue for its gladiatorial games and wild beast hunts (venationes) worthy of the imperial capital. Work was begun by Vespasian (reg AD 69–79) early in his reign on the site of the artificial lake of Nero’s Domus Aurea and continued by his son Titus, who inaugurated the amphitheatre in AD 80. Late sources attributed the top storey to Domitian, but this is disputed, though it is generally believed that he was responsible for the subterranean service corridors.

The building is the largest of all Roman amphitheatres, with a regular elliptical plan measuring 188×156 m externally on its major axes (see fig.). The foundations are a ring of concrete 13.5 m high and 54 m wide, set 9 m deep into the clay bed of the former lake. The superstructure is composed of a network of radial and annular barrel-vaulted passages on three levels, linked by staircases, with the seating supported on raking barrel vaults, a pattern established already in the Theatre of Pompey (...

An islet to the west of Paros and Antiparos in the centre of the Cyclades. It has been identified as ancient Prepesinthos, mentioned by Strabo (Geography X.v.3) and Pliny (Natural History vi.66). The archaeological remains of Despotikon were first explored in the late 19th century by pioneer Greek archaeologist Christos Tsountas, who excavated Early Cycladic (c. 3200–2000 bc) cemeteries at Livadi and Zoumbaria, and identified remains of a prehistoric settlement at the site of Chiromilos. Sixty more graves of the Early Cycladic period, as well as one of the Roman period, were discovered in the mid-20th century by the Greek Archaeological Service. Rescue excavations were initiated again in 1997, focused on the site at Mandra, where an extensive sanctuary dedicated to Apollo has been located. The excavation has yielded a great number of finds, many of which are of prime importance as to the interpretation of the site, its role in the Aegean and its relations with the Near East, from the Archaic to the Roman period....

Greek city situated at the foothills of Mt Olympus in northern Greece (district of Pieria), 14 km south of modern city of Katerini. It was an important Macedonian political and cultural centre from the Classical to the Roman periods (6th century bc–4th century ad). By the 6th century bc it seems that the Macedonians were gathering at Dion in order to honour the Olympian gods, chiefly Zeus; according to myth, Deukalion, the only man to survive the flood at the beginning of time, built an altar to Zeus as a sign of his salvation. His sons, Macedon and Magnes, lived in Pieria, near Olympus, and became the mythical ancestors of the Macedonians. The altar allegedly erected by Deukalion remained the centre of the cult life at Dion throughout its history.

King Archelaos of Macedon (c. 413–399 bc) organized athletic and dramatic contests in the framework of the religious celebrations, following the practice of the Greeks in the south, such as at the great sanctuaries of Olympia and Delphi. Philip II (...

(Rome)

Great imperial palace built by Nero. The Domus Aurea (Lat.: ‘Golden House’), spreading between the Palatine, Caelian, and Oppian hills, is among the most evocative Classical buildings, and its painted decorations inspired many artists from the Renaissance onwards. It was designed soon after the Great Fire of Rome (AD 64) by the architect-engineers Severus and Celer (see Tacitus: Annals XV.xlii) to replace Nero’s earlier Domus Transitoria, but was apparently never completed. It was largely destroyed in a fire of AD 104, and shortly afterwards the substantial remains of a domestic wing on the Oppian hillside were incorporated into the substructures of the Baths of Trajan. This ensured the preservation of their painted decoration and, together with literary sources, these remains provide a reasonably detailed impression of the original appearance of the Domus Aurea.

The main palace buildings were erected on a series of terraces above a vast artificial lake, later drained for the construction of the Colosseum in ...

[Satra]

Greek city situated on the island of Crete, by the north-west foothills of mount Psiloritis (anc. Ida), 30 km south-east of the present-day city of Rethymnon. It was a centre for Aegean and Greek culture from the Prehistoric to the Byzantine periods (4th millennium bc–7th century bc).

Ancient Eleutherna is a typical example of a Cretan polis (city) inhabited continuously from at least from the 9th century bc (the so-called ‘Dark Age’ of Greek history) to the late Roman and Byzantine period (6th–7th century bc). Even before that, archaeological finds suggest the existence of a continuous presence on the site from the late Neolithic (4th millennium bc) through to a flourishing Minoan site of the 3rd to 2nd millennia bc. Although later construction all but eliminated traces of prehistoric architecture, there is still significant evidence to confirm unbroken habitation. In historical times (9th century...

English harbour village in West Sussex, 3 km west of Chichester. It is the site of a Roman palace excavated (1961–9) by B. W. Cunliffe. After occupation as a base for military stores from the time of the Roman invasion in ad 43 to c. 50, a substantial masonry house was built (c. 60–65) with a peristyle courtyard and a bath suite. This ‘proto-palace’ was decorated with painted plaster, stucco, opus sectile, mosaics and Corinthian columns, exceptional luxury in Britain at that date. It was far surpassed, however, by the magnificent palace built c. 75, which incorporated the known part of the proto-palace. It had four colonnaded wings arranged round a rectangular peristyle garden (100×76 m); the north and east wings had suites of rooms grouped around internal courtyards. The monumental entrance in the middle of the east wing led across the garden courtyard, through an avenue of hedges, trees and fountains formally laid out, to the central audience chamber (...

(Rome)

Diane Favro

Administrative, juridical, and commercial centre of Republican Rome, which continued to receive increasingly elaborate public buildings throughout most of the Imperial era (after 27 bc). The Forum Romanum came to symbolize Roman power, and its basic form was copied throughout the Roman world. Its buildings have inspired artists for over two millennia. Rome’s earliest settlers occupied the hills and plateaux to the east of the River Tiber. Gradually, however, they moved down into the lowlands, and by the mid-7th century bc the central depression between the hills, formerly used for burials, had become a communal assembly and trading place or Forum. It eventually became known as the Forum Romanum to distinguish it from other gathering points such as the Forum Boarium and Forum Holitorium (the cattle and vegetable markets respectively). The general layout of the site was established under the Etruscan kings in the 6th century bc...

(b Cologne, June 15, 1790; d Paris, Dec 31, 1853).

French architect, writer and archaeologist of German birth. In 1810 he left Cologne with his lifelong friend J. I. Hittorff for Paris, enrolling at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1811 under the tutelage of the ardent Neo-classicists Louis-Hippolyte Lebas and François Debret. But from the beginning Gau was exposed to a wider field of historical sources, first as assistant site architect under Debret on the restoration of the abbey church of Saint-Denis (1813–15) and then from 1815 in Nazarene circles in Rome, where he met the archaeologist and philologist Barthold Nieburh (1776–1831), who arranged a scholarship for him from the Prussian government and a trip through the eastern Mediterranean. In Egypt Gau undertook an arduous trip down the Nile to visit and record the monuments of Nubia, which he published as the lavish folio Antiquités de la Nubie. He noted assiduously every trace of colour on the remains, just as he was to do in ...