About this course: Roman Architecture is a course for people who love to travel and want to discover the power of architecture to shape politics, society, and culture.
Created by: Yale University
Taught by: Diana E.E. Kleiner, Dunham Professor of History of Art and Classics at Yale University
History Of Art
| Level | Beginner |
| Language | English, Subtitles: Chinese (Simplified) |
| How To Pass | Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. |
| User Ratings |
Syllabus
WEEK 1
Introduction to Roman Architecture
Roman urbanism and introduction to the wide variety of Roman buildings covered in the course.
4 videos, 7 readings
- Reading: Welcome to the Course!
- Reading: Syllabus
- Reading: Glossary of Terms
- Reading: Suggested Readings
- Reading: Grading
- Reading: Welcome to Week 1
- Discussion Prompt: Who Are We and Why Study Roman Architecture?
- Video: 1.1 Introduction: Roman Urbanism
- Video: 1.2 The Urban Grid and Public Architecture
- Video: 1.3 Bathing, Entertainment, and Housing in the Roman City
- Video: 1.4 Roman Tombs, Aqueducts, and the Lasting Impact of Roman Architecture
- Reading: Lecture 1 Image Sources
It Takes a City: The Founding of Rome and the Beginnings of Urbanism in Italy
Evolution of Roman architecture from the Iron Age through the Late Republic with emphasis on city planning, wall building, and early Roman temple architecture.
5 videos, 1 reading
- Video: 2.1 Romulus Founds Rome
- Video: 2.2 The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus Capitolinus
- Video: 2.3 Defensive Stone Walls and Regular Town Planning
- Video: 2.4 The Hellenization of Late Republican Temple Architecture
- Video: 2.5 The Advent of the Corinthian Order
- Reading: Lecture 2 Image Sources
Technology and Revolution in Roman Architecture
The Revolution in Roman Architecture through the widespread adoption of opus caementicium (concrete) used for expressive as well as practical purposes.
5 videos, 1 reading
- Video: 3.1 Roman Concrete and the Revolution in Roman Architecture
- Video: 3.2 The First Experiments in Roman Concrete Construction
- Video: 3.3 Sanctuaries and the Expressive Potential of Roman Concrete Construction
- Video: 3.4 Innovations in Concrete at Rome: The Tabularium and The Theater of Marcellus
- Video: 3.5 Concrete Transforms a Mountain at Palestrina
- Reading: Lecture 3 Image Sources
WEEK 2
Civic Life interrupted: Nightmare and Destiny on August 24, A.D. 79
Civic, commercial, and religious buildings of Pompeii buried by the devastating eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79 and later rediscovered. Daily life in Pompeii is illustrated through its bakeries and fast food stands and a moving account dramatizes what happened when disaster struck.
6 videos, 2 readings
- Reading: Welcome to Week 2
- Video: 4.1 Introduction to Pompeii and the City's History
- Video: 4.2 The Early Settlement and the Forum at Pompeii
- Video: 4.3 The Capitolium and Basilica of Pompeii
- Video: 4.4 Pompeii’s Entertainment District: The Amphitheater, Theater, and Music Hall
- Video: 4.5 Bath Complexes at Pompeii
- Video: 4.6 Daily Life and the Eruption of Vesuvius
- Reading: Lecture 4 Image Sources
- Discussion Prompt: What’s with Pompeii’s Stepping Stones?”
Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous: Houses and Villas at Pompeii
Domestic architecture at Pompeii from its beginnings to the eruption of Vesuvius with emphasis on the development of the domus italica and the Hellenized domus and featuring the House of the Faun and Villa of the Mysteries.
6 videos, 1 reading
- Video: 5.1 Introduction and the Ideal Domus Italica
- Video: 5.2 Early Pompeian Houses and the Ideal Hellenized Domus
- Video: 5.3 Hellenized Houses in Pompeii
- Video: 5.4 The House of the Faun
- Video: 5.5 Additional Pompeian Houses
- Video: 5.6 Villa of the Mysteries
- Reading: Lecture 5 Image Sources
Habitats at Herculaneum and Early Roman Interior Decoration
What befell the city of Herculaneum’s inhabitants when they tried to escape Vesuvius. The development of the city’s domestic architecture, especially the Houses of the Mosaic Atrium and the Stags, is traced as is the evolution of First and Second Style Roman wall painting, the latter transforming the flat wall into a panoramic window.
6 videos, 1 reading
- Video: 6.1 Introduction and the History of Herculaneum
- Video: 6.2 Houses at Herculaneum and the Samnite House
- Video: 6.3 Further Developments in Domestic Architecture at Herculaneum: The House of the Mosaic Atrium and the House of the Stags
- Video: 6.4 First Style Roman Wall Painting
- Video: 6.5 Second Style Roman Wall Painting
- Video: 6.6 Second Style Roman Wall Painting and the Family of Augustus
- Reading: Lecture 6 Image Sources
Graded: What Does Pompeii Tell Us About the Architecture of Daily Life in Ancient Rome?
WEEK 3
Gilding the Lily: Painting Palaces and Villas in the First Century A.D.
Third Style Roman wall painting in villas belonging to elite patrons. Third Style painting is characterized by departure from perspectival vistas and return to a flat wall decorated with panel pictures and attenuated architectural elements. The Fourth Style is a compendium of all previous styles. Both coexist in Nero’s Domus Aurea.
6 videos, 2 readings
- Reading: Welcome to Week 3
- Video: 7.1 Introduction to Third and Fourth Style Roman Wall Painting
- Video: 7.2 Transition from Second to Third Style at Oplontis
- Video: 7.3 The Mature Third Style at Boscotrecase
- Video: 7.4 A Third Style Garden and Fabullus Paints the Domus Aurea in Rome
- Video: 7.5 Fourth Style Eclecticism and Display in Pompeii
- Video: 7.6 Scenographic Painting in Herculaneum
- Reading: Lecture 7 Image Sources
- Discussion Prompt: Week 3: The Ixion Room: Commonplace Compilation or Masterwork?
Exploring Special Subjects on Pompeian Walls
Painted renditions of special subjects inserted into Second through Fourth Style Roman wall paintings. These include mythological, landscape, genre, still life, and history painting, as well as painted portraiture. Highlights include the Dionysiac Mysteries paintings and the Riot in the Amphitheater, both from residences in Pompeii.
6 videos, 1 reading
- Video: 8.1 Initiation in the Villa of the Mysteries
- Video: 8.2 A Mystical Marriage
- Video: 8.3 The God of Wine and His Brides
- Video: 8.4 Conclusion to the Initiation Rites
- Video: 8.5 The Wanderings of Odysseus
- Video: 8.6 Genre, Historical, and Portrait Painting
- Reading: Lecture 8 Image Sources
WEEK 4
From Brick to Marble: Augustus Assembles Rome
Transformation of Rome by Augustus. Claiming to have found Rome a city of brick and leaving it a city of marble, Augustus exploited marble quarries at Luna (modern Carrara) to build his Forum, decorating it with replicas of Greek caryatids associating his era with Periclean Athens. The contemporary Ara Pacis served as the Luna marble embodiment of Augustus’ new hegemonic empire.
7 videos, 2 readings
- Reading: Welcome to Week 4
- Video: 9.1 From Republic to Empire: Julius Caesar
- Video: 9.2 Julius Caesar, Venus Genetrix, and the Forum Iulium
- Video: 9.3 The Ascent of Augustus and Access to Italian Marble
- Video: 9.4 Augustus Assembles His Marble City
- Video: 9.5 The Forum of Augustus and Its Links to the Greek Past
- Video: 9.6 The Ara Pacis Augustae
- Video: 9.7 Mussolini, The Meier Museum, and a Jewel on Lungotevere
- Reading: Lecture 9 Image Sources
Accessing Afterlife: Tombs of Roman Aristocrats, Freedmen, and Slaves
Sepulchral architecture in Rome under Augustus. Roman tombs were built in a variety of personalized forms among them the pyramidal Tomb of the aristocrat Gaius Cestius, and the trapezoidal Tomb of Marcus Vergilius Eurysaces, probably a former slave who made his fortune overseeing the baking and public distribution of bread for the Roman army.
7 videos, 1 reading
- Video: 10.1 Augustus' Family Mausoleum
- Video: 10.2 Etruscan Antecedents of the Mausoleum of Augustus
- Video: 10.3 The Tomb of Caecilia Metella on the Via Appia
- Video: 10.4 The Pyramidal Tomb of Gaius Cestius
- Video: 10.5 The Tomb of the Baker Eurysaces and His Wife Atistia
- Video: 10.6 Atistia's Breadbasket and Eurysaces' Achievements
- Video: 10.7 Tombs for Those of Modest Means and the Future of Concrete Architecture
- Reading: Lecture 10 Image Sources
Notorious Nero and His Amazing Architectural Legacy
Architecture under the Julio-Claudian emperors: Tiberius' Villa Jovis on Capri, and, in Rome and at Portus, the eccentric architecture of Claudius with its unique combination of finished and rusticated masonry. The culminating masterwork is Nero’s Domus Aurea with its octagonal room, one of the most important rooms in the history of Roman architecture.
6 videos, 1 reading
- Video: 11.1 Tiberius and the Villa Jovis on Capri
- Video: 11.2 Caligula and the Underground Basilica in Rome
- Video: 11.3 Claudius and the Harbor at Portus
- Video: 11.4 Claudius' Porta Maggiore in Rome
- Discussion Prompt: Week 4: Claudius’ Columns: Unfinished or Deliberately Rusticated?
- Video: 11.5 Nero and the Domus Transitoria in Rome
- Video: 11.6 The Golden House of Nero and the Octagonal Room
- Reading: Lecture 11 Image Sources
Graded: Did Nero’s Megalomania Shape the Domus Aurea or was Nero’s Palace in Rome Just Another Step in the “Roman Architectural Revolution?”
WEEK 5
The Creation of an Icon: The Colosseum and Contemporary Architecture in Rome
The Flavian dynasty of Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian. Vespasian linked himself to Divus Claudius by completing the Claudianum, distanced himself from Nero by destroying part of the Domus Aurea, filling in the artificial lake and replacing it with the Colosseum. Titus commissioned Rome's first preserved example of the "imperial bath type," characterized by grand scale, axiality, and symmetry.
6 videos, 2 readings
- Reading: Welcome to Week 5
- Video: 12.1 The Year 68-69 and The Founding of the Flavian Dynasty
- Video: 12.2 The Claudianum or The Temple of Divine Claudius
- Video: 12.3 The Colosseum: Icon of Rome
- Video: 12.4 The Colosseum as a Post-Antique Quarry
- Video: 12.5 The Forum or Templum Pacis
- Video: 12.6 The Imperial Baths of Titus
- Reading: Lecture 12 Image Sources
The Prince and the Palace: Human Made Divine on the Palatine Hill
The Domitianic Arch (and Tomb) of Titus celebrating the Flavian victory in the Jewish Wars; the Stadium of Domitian, its shape now preserved in Rome's Piazza Navona, the Imperial Palace on the Palatine Hill, designed by Rabirius and featuring Domitian as dominus et deus, and the Forum Transitorium, a narrow space with undulating columnar bays announcing the beginning of a "baroque" phase in Roman architecture. First Quiz is located here!
6 videos, 1 reading
- Video: 13.1 The Jewish Wars, the Flavian Dynasty, and the Arch of Titus
- Video: 13.2 The Arch of Titus: Triumph and Tomb
- Video: 13.3 Domitian's Succession and Stadium (The Piazza Navona)
- Video: 13.4 Domitian as Dominus et Deus in the Palatine Palace
- Video: 13.5 Rabirius' Architectural Innovations
- Video: 13.6 The Forum Transitorium and Incipient Baroque Architecture
- Discussion Prompt: Week 5: Was Rabirius the Frank Gehry of his day?
- Reading: Leture 13 Image Sources
WEEK 6
The Mother of All Forums: Civic Architecture in Rome under Trajan
Trajan’s monumental architecture in Rome references his expansion of the Roman Empire to its furthest reaches. Highlights include the Baths of Trajan and the Forum and Markets of Trajan, built on land that engineer/architect Apollodorus of Damascus created by cutting away part of the Quirinal Hill. The complex also includes the celebrated 125-foot Column of Trajan with a spiral frieze commemorating the emperor's military victories in Dacia.
6 videos, 2 readings
- Reading: Welcome to Week 6!
- Video: 14.1 Trajan Expands the Empire and Initiates Public Architecture in Rome - 7:55
- Video: 14.2 The Baths of Trajan
- Video: 14.3 The Forum of Trajan
- Video: 14.4 The Basilica Ulpia
- Video: 14.5 The Column of Trajan
- Video: 14.6 The Markets of Trajan and The Succession of Hadrian
- Reading: Lecture 14 Image Sources
Rome and a Villa: Hadrian's Pantheon and Tivoli Retreat
Architecture in and around Rome during Hadrian’s reign: the Temple of Venus and Roma possibly designed by Hadrian; the Pantheon, combining the marble porch and pediment of a traditional Greco-Roman temple with a vast concrete cylindrical drum, hemispherical dome, central oculus, and theatrical light effects; the Villa of Hadrian at Tivoli, where the emperor recreated buildings and works of art observed during his empire-wide travels; and the Mausoleum of Hadrian (Castel Sant'Angelo).
5 videos, 1 reading
- Video: 15.1 The Temple of Venus and Roma: A Greek Temple in Rome
- Video: 15.2 The Pantheon: A Temple to All the Gods
- Video: 15.3 The Pantheon and Its Impact on Later Architecture
- Video: 15.4 Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli: Travelogue and Retreat
- Video: 15.5 Unique Designs at Hadrian's Villa and the Castel Sant' Angelo in Rome
- Discussion Prompt: Was Trajan’s Forum an Expression of the Empire’s Expansion and was Hadrian’s Villa a Map of His Travels the Empire?
- Reading: Lecture 15 Image Sources
The Roman Way of Life and Death at Ostia, The Port of Rome
Tour of Ostia, characterized by multi-storied residential buildings and widespread use of brick-faced concrete. The city's public face features the Forum, Capitolium, Theater, and Piazzale delle Corporazioni with its black-and-white mosaic shipping company advertisements. The Insula of Diana, a four-floor brick apartment building, and warehouses like the Horrea Epagathiana highlight the Ostian appreciation of the aesthetic qualities of exposed brick facing.
7 videos, 2 readings
- Video: 16.1 Ostia: Rome's First Colony
- Video: 16.2 Civic Architecture in Ostia
- Video: 16.3 Transacting Business at the Piazzale delle Corporazioni
- Video: 16.4 Residential Architecture at Ostia: The Insulae
- Video: 16.5 The Warehouses of Ostia
- Video: 16.6 Painted Decoration and Mosaic Floors
- Video: 16.7 Re-emergence of the Domus at Ostia and Tombs at Isola Sacra
- Reading: Preparing for the Roman Architecture Mastery Quiz
- Reading: Lecture 16 Image Sources
Graded: Mastery Quiz 1
Graded: Design Your Own Roman City
WEEK 7
Bigger is Better: The Baths of Caracalla and Other Second-and Third-Century Buildings in Rome
Exploration of a "bigger is better" philosophy; exposed brick tombs with painted stucco and architectural elements; the Temple of Divine Antoninus Pius and Faustina and its post-antique afterlife as the Church of S. Lorenzo in Miranda; the earliest surviving triple-bayed Arch of Septimius Severus in the Roman Forum; the Septizodium, a lively baroque-style façade for Domitian's Palace on the Palatine Hill; and the colossal Baths of Caracalla
6 videos, 2 readings
- Reading: Welcome to Week 7
- Video: 17.1 A Brick Tomb for Annia Regilla on the Via Appia
- Video: 17.2 Second-Century Tomb Interiors in Rome
- Video: 17.3 The Tomb Of the Caetennii in the Vatican Cemetery
- Video: 17.4 The Temple of Antoninus Pius and Faustina the Elder in the Roman Forum
- Video: 17.5 The New Severan Dynasty and The Parthian Arch in the Roman Forum
- Video: 17.6 Biggest Is Best: The Baths of Caracalla in Rome
- Reading: Lecture 17 Image Sources
Hometown Boy: Honoring an Emperor's Roots in Roman North Africa
Timgad, Trajan’s colony for Roman army veterans, was designed as a castrum; Leptis Magna, with Carthaginian roots, was developed first under Augustus. Leptis-born Septimius Severus renovated his hometown featuring a forum, basilica, and arch. Entrepreneurs, providing animals to Rome's amphitheaters, commissioned Hunting Baths with intimate vaulted spaces revealed on the outside and silhouetted against the sea, suggesting that they knew how to innovate and enjoy life.
5 videos, 1 reading
- Video: 18.1 Timgad: The Ideal Second-Century Colony in Roman North Africa
- Video: 18.2 Leptis Magna in the Age of Augustus
- Video: 18.3 The Augustan Theater and the Hadrianic Baths at Leptis Magna
- Video: 18.4 Septimius Severus Sheathes Leptis in Imported Marble
- Video: 18.5 The Severan Temple and Basilica, the Arch of Septimius Severus, and the Unique Hunting Baths
- Reading: Lecture 18 Image Sources
Baroque Extravaganzas: Rock Tombs, Fountains, and Sanctuaries in Jordan, Lebanon, and Libya
The baroque phenomenon in ancient Roman architecture where the traditional vocabulary of architecture (columns, pediments, et al) is manipulated to enliven building façades and inject them with dynamic motion. Appearing in Rome in the late first century A.D., baroque architecture was foremost in the Greek East where high-quality marble and expert marble carvers made it the architectural mode of choice. It foreshadowed Borromini’s showpieces of seventeenth-century Rome.
6 videos, 1 reading
- Video: 19.1 Baroque Architecture in the Roman Empire
- Video: 19.2 Exploring Baroque Elements in Italy
- Video: 19.3 Baroque Facadism at Petra
- Video: 19.4 The Baroque in Ancient Asia Minor
- Video: 19.5 The Theater at Sabratha, North Africa
- Video: 19.6 The Temples of Jupiter, Bacchus, and Venus in Baalbek, Lebanon
- Reading: Lecture 19 Image Sources
- Discussion Prompt: Define the “baroque phenomenon” in ancient Roman architecture
WEEK 8
Roman Wine in Greek Bottles: The Rebirth of Athens
The rebirth of Athens under Rome’s foremost philhellenic emperors, Augustus and Hadrian. High quality Greek marble and expert Greek stone carvers produced notable edifices in Roman Greece dependent on a mutual exchange of architectural ideas and motifs between Rome and Athens. These include the Monument of Philopappos, the Library and Arch of Hadrian, and architectural additions or transformations made to the Acropolis and the Greek and Roman Agoras.
6 videos, 2 readings
- Reading: Welcome to Week 8
- Video: 20.1 Introduction to Greek and Roman Athens
- Video: 20.2 Augustus and the Athenian Acropolis
- Video: 20.3 Agrippa's Building Program in Athens
- Video: 20.4 The Roman Agora and the Tower of the Winds
- Video: 20.5 Architecture in Athens under Hadrian
- Video: 20.6 The Monument of Philopappos on the Mouseion Hill
- Reading: Lecture 20 Image Sources
Making Mini Romes on the Western Frontier
Romanization was meant to provide amenities to Rome’s new colonies while, at the same time, transforming them into miniature versions of Rome. The focus here is on western frontier sites in what are now North Italy, France, Spain, and Croatia. Highlights include: the Theater at Orange, the Maison Carrée and the Pont-du-Gard at Nîmes, and the Trophy of Augustus at La Turbie.
6 videos, 1 reading
- Video: 21.1 Roman Colonies in the West
- Video: 21.2 Urban Planning in North Italy and the South of France
- Video: 21.3 Augustan Temples at Vienne and Nimes
- Video: 21.4 The Pont du Gard and the Aqueduct at Segovia
- Video: 21.5 Augustus' Pacification of the Alpine Tribes and his Trophy at La Turbie
- Video: 21.6 Funerary and Commemorative Architecture
- Reading: Lecture 21 Image Sources
- Discussion Prompt: What Did Roman Aqueducts Contribute to an Increasingly Connected Urban Empire?
WEEK 9
Rome Redux: The Tetrarchic Renaissance
Except for the Aurelian Walls, Rome’s third century was an "architectural wasteland.” Diocletian created a new form of government called the Tetrarchy (four-man rule) with leaders in East and West. Public and private building campaigns in Rome and the provinces reflected the Empire's renewed stability and centered on enhancing or restoring buildings in the Roman Forum and constructing the Baths of Diocletian in Rome and Diocletian’s Palace at Split.
7 videos, 3 readings
- Reading: Welcome to Week 9
- Video: 22.1 Crisis in the Third Century and the Aurelian Walls
- Video: 22.2 The Rise of the Tetrarchy
- Video: 22.3 The Decennial or Five-Column Monument in the Roman Forum
- Video: 22.4 The Senate House or Curia Julia
- Video: 22.5 The Baths of Diocletian
- Video: 22.6 The Palace of Diocletian at Split
- Video: 22.7 Tetrarchic Palaces Around the Empire
- Reading: Preparing for the Roman Architecture Mastery Quiz
- Reading: Lecture 22 Image Sources
Graded: Mastery Quiz 2
Rome of Constantine and a New Rome
Constantine commissioned buildings linked to the pagan past (Baths of Constantine) and others (Aula Palatina,Trier) looking to the Christian future. New architectural ideas abound. The "Temple of Minerva Medica" is decagonal and the Basilica Nova modeled on the frigidaria of Roman imperial baths. The Arch of Constantine commemorates Constantine's victory at the Milvian Bridge and serves as a compendium of Constantine's accomplishments matching those of “good” second-century Roman emperors.
6 videos, 1 reading
- Discussion Prompt: Post your Roman City Projects!
- Video: 23.1 The End of the Tetrarchy and the Rise of Constantine the Great
- Video: 23.2 The Baths of Constantine in Rome and the Porta Nigra at Trier
- Video: 23.3 The Basilica or Aula Palatina at Trier
- Video: 23.4 The Temple of Minerva Medica in Rome
- Video: 23.5 The Basilica Nova in Rome
- Video: 23.6 The Arch of Constantine and the Enduring Impact of Roman Architecture
- Discussion Prompt: Did Roman Architecture Decline in the Late Empire?
- Reading: Lecture 23 Image Sources
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Ratings and Reviews
A really good course. Very insightful. And the teacher transmits her passion for Rome in all her lectures.
It was a really good course
I've completed most of this course. I really like the thoroughness and depth of the material. This is not an easy course. The quizzes are challenging. The essays and projects require a bit of research. However, the instructor does a great job of organizing everything and presenting it in a very coherent, orderly manner. I'm an aspiring architecture graduate student and this course has been a great introduction to the field and some of its common vernaculars.
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It is an incredible and very useful course to know the Roman architecture.