CLASS NOTES: The Forum of Augustus and the Temple of Mars (Roman Architecture)

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Notes on video lecture:

The Forum of Augustus and the Temple of Mars

Roman Architecture

Diana Kleiner, Yale University

Notes taken by Edward Tanguay on February 18, 2014 (go to class or lectures)

Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:

rectangular, park, Roman, judicial, Subura, reign, Philippi, sheathed, Mars, Fori, hemicycles, 28

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Forum Augustum

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building this was on his mind from the beginning of his

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even though there were already two forums, the Forum and the Forum of Julius Caesar, the population of Rome was growing as was the need to try cases

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more likely Augustus before the Battle of where Octavian and Mark Antony joined to defeat Brutus and Longinus, Augustus vowed that if he won, he would build a temple to the Avenger to help him avenge the death of Julius Caesar

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that temple needed an environment, a common practice, hence a good excuse to build his forum around it

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after the Battle of Actium, he had time

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BC begun

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2 BC dedicated Temple of Mars

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space, open to the sky

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built it onto Caesar's Forum

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colonnades

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added two

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Temple of Mars

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Estrucan design

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flat back wall

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large porch

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steps on the front

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high podium

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steps in Cararra marble

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columns also made of Cararra marble

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sculpture in the pediment

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elaborate capitals

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zoomorphic scultures on column capitals

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seen these in Greece a bit earlier

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the Via dei Imperali built by Mussulini

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plan is to remove this street again and reunite all of these archeological forums in some great archaeological someday

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precinct wall protecting the : the rickety wooden structures of the city that could easily burn

Vocabulary:

hemicycle, n. a semicircular, or horseshoe shaped, debating chamber where deputies sit to discuss and pass legislation ⇒ "The only major change from Augustus' Forum from Julius Caesar's Forum was the addition of two hemicycles, one on either side of the forum."

pediment, n. a classical architectural element consisting of a triangular section or gable found above the horizontal superstructure which lies immediately upon the columns ⇒ "The building is circular with a portico of large granite Corinthian columns (eight in the first rank and two groups of four behind) under a pediment."

zoomorphic, adj. representative of animals, or of their characteristic forms, as a work of art, especially representing or symbolizing the conception of a god under the form of an animal whose characteristic traits or habits suggest the idea attached to the god ⇒ "Containers for water to wash with often took fantastic zoomorphic forms, surviving examples are mostly in brass."