Tiberius also put up a series of arches to his relatives, and also a camp for the Praetorian Guard.īut what we’ll see about Tiberius is that his real passion was not the public architecture that Augustus had been so fond of–think the Forum of Augustus and the Temple of Mars Ultor, or the Ara Pacis Augustae, which were among Augustus’ most important building projects. These included a Temple to the Divine Augustus, Temple to Divus Augustus, his divine adoptive father, because Augustus was made a god, as Caesar had been before him, at his death. Tiberius also initiated some new building projects in Rome. He also was responsible for restoring Republican buildings that had fallen into severe disrepair by his reign, and this included several temples, a basilica, warehouses, and also a theater. Tiberius was emperor of Rome from 14 to 37 A.D., and with regard to architecture, he completed projects begun by Augustus. And the portrait that you see here is a marble portrait of Tiberius that is now in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek in Copenhagen. Tiberius, again the son of Livia by a former marriage, the elder son of Livia by a former marriage, who becomes emperor of Rome right after Augustus. And you see a portrait of Tiberius now on the screen, just to give you a sense of what he looked like. I want to begin though with the first of the Julio-Claudian emperors, and that is with Tiberius. So a very spectacular interior indeed, and one again that had an important impact, as we’ll see, on the architectural designs of the Roman emperor Nero. And down here, at the left, a view of the interior of the monument, and I remind you of the way in which is that designed so that light streams through the oculus in the dome, down onto the sides of the wall, creating light effects: a circle that corresponds to the shape of the opening above, and then falling initially on the pool of water that would have been located there, as well as across the walls, which probably would have been–that were certainly stuccoed over–and probably would have been covered with mosaic. The so-called Temple of Mercury, we see it again with its dome made out of concrete construction, a view from the exterior. But we’ll also see that the single most important contribution, from the standpoint of Roman architecture, was by Nero, the notorious emperor Nero, which is why I do call this lecture “Notorious Nero and His Amazing Architectural Legacy.”Īn architectural legacy that would have been impossible without some of the earlier concrete constructions that we’ve already discussed, specifically the frigidaria of Pompeii and also the thermal bath at Baia, which I remind you of here. Every one of them, all four, made an important contribution to the evolution of Roman architecture, and we’ll talk about the contributions of those four today. These were Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero. And there were four emperors in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. That was Augustus’ wife from–her side of the family, excuse me, the Claudian side of the family. The name says it all: Julio-Claudian, Julio for the Julian side of the family, Julius Caesar and Augustus the Claudian for the Claudian side of the family. Augustus founded the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Roman Architecture HSAR 252 - Lecture 11 - Notorious Nero and His Amazing Architectural LegacyĬhapter 1. The construction of the Domus Aurea accelerates the shift in Roman building practice toward a dematerialized architecture that fully utilizes recent innovations in concrete technology and emphasizes interior space over solid form. Finally, Professor Kleiner highlights the luxurious architecture of the infamous Nero, especially his Domus Aurea or Golden House and its octagonal room, one of the most important rooms in the history of Roman architecture. She then turns to the eccentric architecture of Claudius, a return to masonry building techniques and a unique combination of finished and unfinished, or rusticated, elements. She first presents Tiberius’ magnificent Villa Jovis on the Island of Capri and an underground basilica in Rome used by members of a secret Neo-Pythagorean cult. Professor Kleiner features the architecture of Augustus’ successors, the Julio-Claudian emperors, whose dynasty lasted half a century (A.D. Lecture 11 - Notorious Nero and His Amazing Architectural Legacy Overview
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