Early European History Part 53

BASILICAS

Roman basilicas, of which only the ruins are now in existence, were once found in every city. These were large, lofty buildings for the use of judges and merchants. The chief feature of a basilica was the s.p.a.cious central hall flanked by a single or double row of columns, forming aisles and supporting the flat roof. At one end of the hall was a semicircular recess--the apse--where the judges held court. This arrangement of the interior bears a close resemblance to the plan of the early Christian church with its nave, choir (or chancel) and columned aisles. The Christians, in fact, seem to have taken the familiar basilicas as the models for their places of wors.h.i.+p.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLAN OF THE ULPIAN BASILICA The hall measured 360 feet in length and 180 feet in width.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: INTERIOR VIEW OF THE ULPIAN BASILICA (RESTORATION) Built by the Emperor Trajan in connection with his Forum at Rome.]

AQUEDUCTS

Perhaps the most imposing, and certainly among the most useful, of Roman structures were aqueducts. [36] There were sixty-eight in Italy and the provinces. No less than fourteen supplied the capital city with water. The aqueducts usually ran under the surface of the ground, as do our water pipes. They were carried on arches only across depressions and valleys.

The Claudian aqueduct ran for thirty-six miles underground and for nine and a half miles on arches. Though these monuments were intended simply as engineering works, their heavy ma.s.ses of rough masonry produce an inspiring sense of power.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A ROMAN AQUEDUCT The Pont du Gard near Nimes (ancient Nemausus) in southern France. Built by the emperor Antoninus Pius. The bridge spans two hilltops nearly a thousand feet apart. It carries an aqueduct with three tiers of ma.s.sive stone arches at a height of 160 feet above the stream. This is the finest and best preserved aqueduct in existence.]

THERMAE

The abundant water supply furnished by the aqueducts was connected with a system of great public baths, or _thermae_. [37] Scarcely a town or village throughout the empire lacked one or more such buildings. Those at Rome were constructed on a scale of magnificence of which we can form but a slight conception from the ruins now in existence. In addition to many elaborate arrangements for the bathers, the _thermae_ included lounging and reading rooms, libraries, gymnasia, and even museums and galleries of art. The baths, indeed, were splendid clubhouses, open at little or no expense to every citizen of the metropolis.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE COLOSSEUM]

TRIUMPHAL ARCHES AND COLUMNS

A very characteristic example of Roman building is found in the triumphal arches. [38] Their sides were adorned with bas-reliefs, which pictured the princ.i.p.al scenes of a successful campaign. Memorial structures, called columns of victory, [39] were also set up in Rome and other cities. Both arch and column have been frequently imitated by modern architects.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A ROMAN CAMEO Portrait of a youth cut in sardonyx. Probably of the first century A.D.]

CIRCUSES, THEATERS, AND AMPHITHEATERS

The palaces of Roman emperors and n.o.bles, together with their luxurious country houses, or villas, have all disappeared. A like fate has befallen the enormous circuses, such as the Circus Maximus [40] at Rome and the Hippodrome [41] at Constantinople. The Roman theaters that still survive reproduce, in most respects, the familiar outlines of the Greek structures. In the amphitheaters, where animal shows and gladiatorial combats were exhibited, we have a genuinely Roman invention. The gigantic edifice, called the Colosseum, in its way as truly typifies Roman architectural genius as the Parthenon represents at its best that of the Greeks.

ROMAN SCULPTURE

Roman sculpture owed much to Greek models. However, the portrait statues and bas-reliefs show originality and ill.u.s.trate the tendency of the Romans toward realism in art. The sculptor tried to represent an historic person as he really looked or an historic event, for example, a battle or a triumphal procession, as it actually happened. The portrait statues of Roman emperors and the bas-reliefs from the arch of t.i.tus impress us at once with a sense of their reality.

WALL PAINTINGS

Our knowledge of Roman painting is almost wholly confined to the wall paintings found at Rome, Herculaneum, and Pompeii. What has survived is apparently the work of ordinary craftsmen, who, if not Greeks, were deeply affected by the Greek spirit. Most of the scenes they depict are taken from cla.s.sical mythology. The coloring is very rich; and the peculiar shade of red used is known to-day by the name of "Pompeian red." The practice of mural painting pa.s.sed over from the Romans to European artists, who have employed it in the frescoes of medieval and modern churches.

100. ARTISTIC ATHENS

ART CENTERS OF ANTIQUITY

Athens and Rome were the artistic centers of the cla.s.sical world.

Architects, sculptors, and painters lavished their finest efforts on the adornment of these two capitals. Here there are still to be seen some of the most beautiful and impressive monuments of antiquity.

ROADS AND SUBURBS OF ATHENS

Athens lies in the center of the Attic plain, about four miles from the sea. [42] The city commands a magnificent view of purple-hued mountains and the s.h.i.+ning waters of the Aegean. Roads approached the ancient city from all parts of Attica. Among these were the highway from Piraeus, running between the Long Walls, [43] and the Sacred Way from Eleusis, where the famous mysteries were yearly celebrated. [44] The suburbs of Athens included the Outer Ceramicus, part of which was used as a national cemetery, and a pleasure ground and gymnasium on the banks of the Cephissus, called the Academy. Another resort, known as the Lyceum, bordered the little stream of the Ilissus.

WALLS OF ATHENS

The traveler who pa.s.sed through these suburbs came at length to the great wall, nearly five miles in circ.u.mference, raised by Themistocles to surround the settlement at the foot of the Acropolis. [45] The area included within this wall made up Old Athens. About six centuries after Themistocles the Roman emperor Hadrian, by building additional fortifications on the east, brought an extensive quarter, called New Athens, inside the city limits.

HILLS OF ATHENS

The region within the walls was broken up by a number of rocky eminences which have a prominent place in the topography of Athens. Near the center the Acropolis rises more than two hundred feet above the plain, its summit crowned with monuments of the Periclean Age. Not far away is the hill called the Areopagus. Here the Council of the Areopagus, a court of justice in trials for murder, held its deliberations in the open air.

Beyond this height is the hill of the Pnyx. This was the meeting place of the Athenian a.s.sembly until the fourth century B.C., when the sessions were transferred to the theater of Dionysus.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map, ATHENS]

THE AGORA

The business and social center of an ancient city was the agora or market place. The Athenian Agora lay in the hollow north of the Areopagus and Acropolis. The square was shaded by rows of plane trees and lined with covered colonnades. In the great days of the city, when the Agora was filled with countless altars and shrines, it presented a most varied and attractive scene.

PUBLIC BUILDINGS

Not all the splendid structures in Athens were confined to the Agora and the Acropolis. On a slight eminence not far from the Agora, rose the so- called "Theseum," [46] a marble temple in the Doric order. Another famous temple, the colossal edifice known as the Olympieum, lay at some distance from the Acropolis on the southeast. Fifteen of the lofty columns with their Corinthian capitals are still standing. The theater of Dionysus [47]

is in a fair state of preservation. Beyond this are the remains of the Odeum, or "Hall of Song," used for musical contests and declamations. The original building was raised by Pericles, in imitation, it is said, of the tent of Xerxes. The present ruins are those of the structure erected in the second century A.D. by a public-spirited benefactor of Athens.

THE ACROPOLIS

The adornment of the Acropolis formed perhaps the most memorable achievement of Pericles. [48] This rocky mount was approached on the western side by a flight of sixty marble steps. To the right of the stairway rose a small but very beautiful Ionic temple dedicated to Athena.

Having mounted the steps, the visitor pa.s.sed through the superb entrance gate, or Propylaea, which was constructed to resemble the front of a temple with columns and pediment. Just beyond the Propylaea stood a great bronze statue of the Guardian Athena, a masterpiece of the sculptor Phidias.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS (RESTORATION)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS FROM THE SOUTHWEST]

THE ERECHTHEUM

The Erechtheum, a temple which occupies part of the Acropolis, is in the Ionic style. It may be regarded as the best existing example of this light and graceful order. Perhaps the most interesting feature is the porch of the Caryatides, with a marble roof supported by six pillars carved in the semblance of maidens. [49] This curious but striking device has been often copied by modern architects.

ARCHITECTURE OF THE PARTHENON

The other temple on the Acropolis is the world-famed edifice known as the Parthenon, the shrine of the Virgin of the Athena. [50] The Parthenon ill.u.s.trates the extreme simplicity of a Greek temple. It had no great size or height and included only two chambers. The rear room stored sacred vessels and furniture used in wors.h.i.+p, state treasure, and the more valuable offerings intrusted to the G.o.ddess for safekeeping. The second and larger room contained a colossal gold and ivory statue of Athena, the work of Phidias. It faced the eastern entrance so that it might be bathed in the rays of the rising sun. Apart from the large doors a certain amount of light reached the interior through the semi-transparent marble tiles of the roof. The Doric columns surrounding the building are marvels of fine workmans.h.i.+p. The Parthenon, because of its perfection of construction and admirable proportions, is justly regarded as a masterpiece of architecture.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLAN OF THE PARTHENON The larger room (cella) measured exactly one hundred feet in length.]

SCULPTURES OF THE PARTHENON

The Parthenon was also remarkable for its sculptures [51] executed under the superintendence of Phidias. The subjects of the pediment sculptures are taken from the mythic history of Athena. The frieze of the Parthenon consists of a series of sculptured slabs, over five hundred feet in length. The subject was the procession of the Great Panathenaea, [52] the princ.i.p.al festival in honor of Athena. At this time the sacred robe of the G.o.ddess, woven anew for each occasion, was brought to adorn her statue.

The procession is thought of as starting from the western front, where Athenian youths dash forward on their spirited steeds. Then comes a brilliant array of maidens, matrons, soldiers, and luteplayers. Near the center of the eastern front they meet a group of divinities, who are represented as spectators of the imposing scene. This part of the frieze is still in excellent condition.

THE GLORY OF ATHENS

It was, indeed, a splendid group of buildings that rose on the Acropolis height. If to-day they have lost much of their glory, we can still understand how they were the precious possession of the Athenians and the wonder of all the ancient world. "O s.h.i.+ning, violet-crowned city of song, great Athens, bulwark of h.e.l.las, walls divine!" The words are those of an old Greek poet, [53] but they are reechoed by all who have come under the magic spell of the literature and art of the Athenian city.