2. ROMAN ART
Timeline
753 BC
Rome is founded
Rome was founded by Romulus. Romulus was the first of the seven Roman kings. The original
name of Rome was Roma.
509 BC
Rome becomes a Republic
The last king is expelled and Rome is now ruled by senators. There is a constitution with laws
and Rome becomes a complex republican government.
218 BC
Hannibal invades Italy
Hannibal leads the Carthage army to attack Italy. This becomes part of the Second Punic War.
45 BC
Julius Caesar becomes the first dictator of Rome
Julius Caesar defeats Pompey in a civil war. He becomes the supreme ruler of Rome. This is the
end of the Roman Republic. He hires Sosigenes, an Egyptian astronomer, to work out a new 12
month calendar.
3. 44 BC
Julius Caesar is assassinated
Julius Caesar is assassinated on the Ides of March by Marcus Brutus. They hope to
bring back the republic, but civil war breaks out instead.
27 BC
Roman Empire begins
Octavius appoints himself "Augustus", which means the first emperor.
64 AD
Much of Rome burns
Nero set fire to Rome and blames the Christians for it.
80 AD
Colosseum is built
The Colosseum was built in 80 AD. The completion of the Colosseum was celebrated
with 100 days of games. The Romans invade Scotland.
4. 122
Hadrian Wall is built
The Hadrian Wall was built in 122 AD. It was a long wall built across northern England in an
effort to keep the barbarians out.
306
Constantine becomes Emperor in 306 AD
Rome becomes a Christian empire. Before this, Rome persecuted the Christians. Constantius
dies. His son Constantine is the new vice-emperor of Galerius.
380
Christianity
Theodosius I proclaims Christianity as the sole religion of the Roman Empire in 380 AD.
395
Rome splits
In 395 AD, Rome split into two empires - the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman
Empire. Each side had a ruler in charge of it. The Roman Empire was split by Theodosius.
5. 410
The Visigoths sack Rome
This was the first time in 800 years that the city of Rome has fallen to an
enemy. It was a huge uproar.
476
End of the Western Roman Empire and the fall of Ancient Rome
The last Roman Emperor Romulus Augustus is defeated by the German
Goth Odoacer. This is the start of the Dark Ages in Europe.
1453
The Byzantine Empire ends
The Byzantine Empire comes to an end as it falls to the Ottoman Empire.
The Ottoman Turks capture Constantinople in 1453 A.D. It is renamed
Istanbul in 1930.
6. The three most popular forms of Roman art
Sculpture: Make or represent a form by carving or
casting or other shaping technique in 3D, has height,
depth and width
Mural: Painting or other work of art executed
directly on wall
Mosaic: A picture or pattern produced by arranging
together small pieces of stones, glass, tile etc
7. Roman Art
The Romans controlled such a vast empire for so
long a period that a summary of the art produced in
that time can only be a brief and selective one.
Roman artists copied, imitated, and innovated to
produce art on a grand scale, sometimes
compromising quality but on other occasions far
exceeding the craftsmanship of their predecessors.
8. The three most popular forms of Roman art:
sculpture, murals and mosaics.
Romans love Greek sculptures.
They bought, borrowed or stole vast quantities of
sculpture from Greece.
They also copied a lot of it, either in bronze or in
marble.
Although any material was fair game to be turned
into objects of art.
9. Immortalizing an individual private patron (client)
in art was a common artist’s commission.
Painting aimed at faithfully capturing landscapes,
townscapes, and the more trivial subjects of daily
life.
Realism became the ideal and the cultivation of a
knowledge and appreciation of art itself became a
worthy goal. These are the achievements of Roman
art.
10. Criticism
Roman art has suffered something of a crisis in
reputation ever since the rediscovery and
appreciation of ancient Greek art from the 17th
century CE onwards. Romans love Greek
sculptures. They bought, borrowed or stole vast
quantities of sculpture from Greece. They also copied
a lot of it, either in bronze or in marble.
11. About 200 B. C. the Romans conquered the Greeks
and began copying their arts style. During their
conquest of Greece, the Romans looted the towns.
They brought the art home. They also captured
sculptors and brought them to Rome as slaves.
When art critics also realized that many of the finest
Roman pieces were in fact copies or at least inspired
by earlier and often lost Greek originals, the
appreciation of Roman art, which had flourished
along with all things Roman in the medieval and
Renaissance periods, began to diminish.
12. Unlike Greek art, the vast geography of the Roman
empire resulted in very diverse approaches to art
depending on location. Although Rome long
remained the focal point, there were several
important art-producing centers in their own right
who followed their own particular trends and tastes,
notably at Alexandria, Antioch, and Athens.
As a consequence, some critics even argued there
was no such thing as 'Roman' art.
13. Artworks were looted from conquered cities and
brought back for the appreciation of the public,
foreign artists were employed in Roman cities,
schools of art were created across the empire,
technical developments were made, and workshops
sprang up everywhere.
Such was the demand for artworks, production lines
of standardized and mass produced objects filled the
empire with art.
And here is another factor in Rome’s favor, the sheer
quantity of surviving artworks.
14. . Such sites as Pompeii, in particular, give a rare insight
into how Roman artworks were used and combined to
enrich the daily lives of citizens.
Art itself became more personalised with a great increase
in private patrons of the arts as opposed to state
sponsors.
This is seen in no clearer form than the creation of
lifelike portraits of private individuals in paintings and
sculpture.
Like no other civilization before it, art became
accessible not just to the wealthiest but also to
the lower middle classes.
15. Inheriting the Hellenistic world (from the Greek word
Hella for Greece) forged by Alexander the Great’s
conquests, with an empire covering a hugely diverse
spectrum of cultures and peoples, their own appreciation
of the past, and clear ideas on the best way to
commemorate events and people, the Romans produced
art in a vast array of forms. Seal-cutting, jewellery,
glassware, mosaics, pottery, frescoes, statues,
monumental architecture, and even epigraphy( the study
and interpretation of ancient inscription) and coins were
all used to beautify the Roman world as well as convey
meaning from military prowess (skill or expertise in a
particular activity or field) to fashions in aesthetics.
17. Importance
Although Greek art had the greatest influence on
the Romans, other civilizations that they conquered
and encountered over their wide empire also had
influence.
These included the Ancient Egyptians, eastern art,
the Germans, and the Celtics(The Celts are an Indo-
European ethno linguistic group of Europe identified by their
use of Celtic languages and cultural similarities. Lived on
British islands).
Roman sculpture played an important part of
the Roman daily life.
18. Roman Sculpture
Roman sculpture blended the idealized perfection of
earlier Classical Greek sculpture with a greater
aspiration for realism and mixed in the styles
prevalent in Eastern art.
Roman sculptors have also, with their popular
copies of earlier Greek masterpieces, preserved for
posterity invaluable works which would have
otherwise been completely lost to world art.
19. The Romans favoured bronze and marble above all else for
their finest work. However, as metal has always been in high
demand for reuse, most of the surviving examples of Roman
sculpture are in marble.
The Roman taste for Greek and Hellenistic sculpture meant
that once the supply of original pieces had been exhausted
sculptors had to make copies, and these could be of varying
quality depending on the sculptor’s skills.
(The Hellenic World' is a term which refers to that period of ancient
Greek history between 507 BCE (the date of the first democracy in
Athens) and 323 BCE (the death of Alexander the Great). This period is
also referred to as the age of Classical Greece and should not be
confused with The Hellenistic World which designates the period
between the death of Alexander and Rome's conquest of Greece (323 -
146 - 31 BCE).)
21. Sleeping Hermaphrodite
There is nothing improper in this work, but it still
intrigues the viewer.
Hermaphroditos, son of Hermes (Gods messenger for
humans) and Aphrodite (godess of love and sexuality),
had rejected the advances of the nymph Salmacis.
Unable to resign herself to this rejection, Salmacis
persuaded Zeus to merge their two bodies forever, hence
the strange union producing one bisexed being with male
sexual organs and the voluptuous curves of a woman.
Shown on a matress in a sleeping position,
Hermaphroditos has only fallen half asleep: the twisting
pose of the body and the tension apparent down to the
slightly raised left foot are indicative of a dream state.
22. Roman sculpture
There was a school specifically for copying celebrated Greek
originals in Athens and Rome itself.
Roman sculptors also produced miniaturized copies of Greek
originals, often in bronze, which were collected by art-lovers
and displayed in cabinets in the home.
Roman sculpture did, however, begin to search for new
avenues of artistic expression, moving away from
their Etruscan and Greek roots, and, by the mid-1st century
CE, Roman artists were seeking to capture and create optical
effects of light and shade for greater realism.
The realism in Roman portrait sculpture and funerary art
may well have developed from the tradition of keeping
realistic wax funeral masks of deceased family members in the
ancestral home.
23. Transferred to stone, we then have
many examples of private portrait
busts which sometimes present the
subject as old, wrinkled, scarred, or
flabby; in short, these portraits tell
the truth. By later antiquity, there was
even a move towards impressionism using tricks of
light and abstract forms.
24. Sculpture also became more
monumental with massive, larger-
than-life statues of emperors, gods,
and heroes, such as the huge bronze
statue of Marcus Aurelius on horse
back now in the Capitoline Museum, Rome.
Towards the end of the Empire, sculpture of figures
tended to lack proportion, heads especially were
enlarged, and figures were most often presented
flatter and from the front, displaying the influence of
Eastern art.
25. Sculpture on Roman buildings and
altars could be merely decorative or
have a more political purpose.
For example, on triumphal arches(
Triumphal Arches. The triumphal arch was a type
of Roman architectural monument built all over the
empire to commemorate military triumphs and other
significant events such as the accession of a new emperor.) the
architectural sculpture captured in detail key campaign
events, which reinforced the message that the emperor
was a victorious and civilizing agent across the known
world.
26. A typical example is the Arch of Constantine in
Rome (c. 315 CE) which also shows defeated and
enslaved 'barbarians' to ram home the message of
Rome’s superiority.
27. Such a portrayal of real people and specific historical
figures in architectural sculpture is in marked
contrast to Greek sculpture where great military
victories were usually presented in metaphor, using
figures from Greek mythology like amazons and
centaurs such as on the Parthenon
(The Parthenon was an expression and embodiment of
Athenian wealth, and it was a symbol of Athenian political
and cultural preeminence in Greece in the middle of the
fifth century. It was larger and more opulent than any
temple that had been constructed on the Greek mainland
before.)
28. Altars could also be used to present important
individuals in a favorable light.
The most famous altar of all is the Ara Pacis
of Augustus (completed 9 BCE) in Rome.
29. The Ara Pacis Augustae is an altar in Rome dedicated
to Pax, the Roman goddess of Peace.
The monument was commissioned by the Roman
Senate on July 4, 13 BC to honor the return of
Augustus to Rome after three years in Hispania and
Gaul and consecrated on January 30, 9 BC.
The Ara Pacis Augustae or Altar of the Augustan
Peace in Rome was built to celebrate the return of
Augustus in 13 BCE from his campaigns in Spain and
Gaul.
30. a huge block of masonry
which depicts spectators
and participants at a
religious procession.
It seems as though the figures have been captured in
a single moment as in a photograph, a child pulls on
a toga, Augustus’ sister tells two chatterers to be
silent, and so on.
31. Roman Wall Paintings
The interiors of Roman buildings of all description were
very frequently luxuriously decorated using bold colours
and designs.
Wall paintings, fresco, and the use of stucco to create
relief effects were all commonly used by the 1st century
BCE in public buildings, private homes, temples, tombs,
and even military structures across the Roman world.
Designs could range from intricate realistic detail to
highly impressionistic renderings which frequently
covered all of the available wall space including the
ceiling.
32. Fresco, Livia's Villa, Rome
A detail of the garden fresco
from the winter triclinium
(dining room) from the Villa of
Livia, wife of Augustus, Rome.
The life-size representations of
trees, flowers, fruit and birds
decorate all four walls of the
room to create a continuous and
360° view of a garden which
adds perspective by increasing
clarity in the foreground subjects. (Palazzo Massimo,
Rome).
33. Colors
Roman wall painters (or perhaps their clients)
preferred natural earth colours such as darker
shades of reds, yellows, and browns.
Blue and black pigments were also popular for
plainer designs, but evidence from a Pompeii paint
shop illustrates that a wide range of colour shades
were available.
34. Subjects
Subjects could include portraits, scenes
from mythology, architecture using trompe-l’oeil (a
French phrase meaning deceive the eye, used for
painting to give illusion of reality), flora, fauna, and
even entire gardens, landscapes and townscapes to
create spectacular 360° panoramas which
transported the viewer from the confines of a small
room to the limitless world of the painter’s
imagination.
35. An outstanding example is the 1st century BCE
House of Livia on the Palatine hill in Rome which
includes a 360° panorama of an impressionistically
rendered garden. The scene runs around one room
and completely ignores the corners.
36. Another splendid example is the 1st century CE
private villa known as the House of the Vettii in
Pompeii.
37. As the art form developed,
larger-scale single scenes which
presented larger-than-life figures
became more common.
By the 3rd century CE one of the
best sources of wall painting
comes from Christian catacombs
(underground cemetery
consisting of a subterranean
gallery for religious practice)
where scenes were painted from
both the Old and New Testament.
38. Roman Mosaics
Roman mosaics were a common feature of private
homes and public buildings across the empire from
Africa to Antioch. Mosaics, otherwise known as opus
tessellatum, were made with small black, white, and
coloured squares of marble, tile, glass, pottery, stone,
or shells.
39. Typically, each individual piece measured between
0.5 and 1.5 cm but fine details, especially in the
central panel were often rendered using even smaller
pieces as little as 1mm in size.
Designs employed a wide spectrum of colours with
colored grouting to match surrounding tesserae.
40. This particular type of mosaic
which used sophisticated
coloring and shading to create
an effect similar to a painting
is known as opus vermiculatum, and one of its
greatest craftsmen was Sorus of Pergamum (150-
100 BCE) whose work, especially his Drinking Doves
mosaic, was much copied for centuries after.
42. Theme
Popular subjects included scenes from
mythology, gladiator contests, sports, agriculture,
hunting, food, flora and fauna, and sometimes they
even captured the Romans themselves in detailed
and realistic portraits.
43. One the most famous Roman mosaics today is one
from the House of the Faun, Pompeii, which
depicts Alexander the
Great riding Bucephalus and facing Darius III on
his war chariot.
44. Not just floors but also vaults, columns, and
fountains were decorated with mosaic designs too.
Roman mosaics artists developed their own styles,
and production schools were formed across the
empire which cultivated their own particular
preferences - large-scale hunting scenes and
attempts at perspective in the African provinces,
impressionistic vegetation and a foreground observer
in the mosaics of Antioch, or the European
preference for figure panels, for example.
45. The dominant (but not exclusive) Roman style
in Italy itself used only black and white tesserae (a
small block of stone, tile, glass, or other material
used in the construction of a mosaic), a taste which
survived well into the 3rd
century CE and was most often
used to represent marine
motifs, especially when used
for Roman baths.
46. Over time the mosaics became ever more realistic in
their portrayal of human figures, and accurate and
detailed portraits become more common.
Meanwhile, in the Eastern part of the empire and
especially at Antioch, the 4th century CE saw the
spread of mosaics which used two-dimensional and
repeated motifs to create
a 'carpet' effect, a style which
would heavily influence later
Christian churches and Jewish
synagogues(house of assembly).
47. Roman Architecture
Roman architecture took off right where the
esteemed builders from ancient Greece left after the
decline of Greek civilization.
But unlike their predecessors, the Roman
architecture gave far more priority to the practicality
of their architectural designs.
It was a major diversion from the contemporary
practice which gave primary focus to a structure’s
exterior design and aesthetic appeal.
48. The Greeks, Persians and Egyptians before them had
a number of monumental architectures, but their
magnificence was limited to the exterior only.
With the discovery of concrete, arches, and other
engineering marvels during the ancient Roman era,
the Roman builders could now build majestic
architectures with internal structures that were
previously deemed impractical and impossible.
49. Building Techniques: Arch, Vault, Dome
In architecture, however, the Romans absorbed some
important techniques from the Etruscans (Italy 6th
cent) before Greek influence was decisively felt.
This included the arch and the vault, which were
destined to carry Roman engineering into a
development directly away from that of ancient
Greece, who preferred "post-and-lintel" building
methods to arches and domes.
Thus was laid the foundation of the art in which the
Italic peoples were to surpass the Hellenes:
structural engineering.
50.
51. The vaulting techniques used by the Romans
were the simple geometric forms:
the semicircular barrel vault
53. the segmental vault.
The vault surfaces were typically covered with stucco
or tiles.
54. An excellent example of Roman vaulting is the
Basilica of Constantine (public building with
multiple purpose) and Basilica of Maxentius in
Rome.
55. A natural development of the vault was the dome,
which enabled the construction of vaulted ceilings
and the roofing of large public spaces such as the
public baths and basilicas.
The Romans relied heavily on the dome for much of
their architecture, such as Hadrian's Pantheon, the
Baths of Diocletian and the Baths of Caracalla.
57. Characteristic of Roman architectural design was the
construction of complex forms of domes to suit
multilobed (multilevel) ground plans.
The mastery by Roman architects and engineers of
the arch, vault and dome - further enhanced by
their development of concrete - helped them to
solve the first problem of monumental architecture,
which is to bridge space.
58. Roofing a great area means carrying heavy materials
across spaces impossible to span with the Greeks'
simple post-and-lintel system.
In the arch, and the vault that grew out of it, the
Romans had a means of thrusting the massive
Colosseum walls story above story, of covering a
luxurious bathing hall that could accommodate three
thousand persons, and of creating the majestic form
of the Pantheon.
59. Building Materials
The earliest buildings built in and around Rome
were made of tuff, a type of volcanic rock of varying
hardness, which could be worked mostly with bronze
tools.
Later, harder stones were used, like peperino and
local albani stone from the Alban hills.
During the empire, the most common stone used for
building was travertine, a form of limestone quarried
in Tivoli, as used on the exterior of the Colosseum in
Rome.
60. Marble was used only for facing or decoration, or
sometimes in mosaics.
Colored marbles and stones like alabaster, porphyry
and granite, were also popular, as exemplified by the
remains of Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli.
The majority of domestic
homes were made with a
variety of unburned bricks
faced with stucco.
61. Urban Planning, Houses, Residential
Architecture
The city of Ancient Rome - at its height, a huge
metropolis of almost one million people - consisted
of a maze of narrow streets.
After the fire of 64 CE, Emperor Nero announced a
rational rebuilding program, with little success: the
city's architecture remained chaotic and unplanned.
Outside Rome, however, architects and urban
planners were able to achieve a lot more.
62. Towns were developed using grid-plans originally
drawn up for military settlements.
Typical features included two wide axis streets: a
north-south street, known as the cardo, and a
complementary east-west street called
the decumanus, with the town centre located at their
intersection.
Most Roman towns had a forum, temples and
theatres, plus public baths, but ordinary houses were
often simple mud-brick dwellings.
63. In very simple terms, there were two basic types of
Roman house: the domus and the insula.
The domus, exemplified by those discovered at Pompeii
and Herculaneum, usually comprised a collection of
rooms set around a central hall, or atrium.
Few windows overlooked the street, light coming instead
from the atrium.
In Rome itself, however, very few remains of this type of
house have survived.
One example is the House of the Vestals in the Forum
and the House of Livia on the Palatine Hill.
64. In Roman architecture, an insula (Latin for "island",
plural insulae) was one of two things: either a kind of apartment
building, or a city block.
An insula housed most of the urban citizen population of ancient
Rome, including ordinary people of lower- or middle-class status
(the plebs) and all but the wealthiest from the upper-middle class
(the equites).
The term was also used to mean a city block.
The traditional elite and the very wealthy lived in a domus, a large
single-family residence, but the two kinds of housing were
intermingled in the city and not segregated into separate
neighborhoods.
The ground-level floor of the insula was used for shops and
businesses, with the living space upstairs.
Like modern apartment buildings, an insula might have a name,
usually referring to the owner of the building.
65. In general, only wealthy citizens could afford houses
with courtyards, roofed atria, underfloor heating or
gardens.
Even then, space constraints in many provincial
towns meant that even well to-do houses were
relatively compact.
Rich cities were the exception.
66. The Judean port of Caesarea
(25-13 BCE), extended by
Herod the Great to please his
boss Augustus Caesar, and home
of Pontius Pilate, the regional Roman Prefect, posessed a
spacious network of gridded streets, a
hippodrome, public baths,
palaces and an aqueduct.
The wealthy Italian port of Ostia,
had brick-built apartment blocks
(called insulae, after insula the
Italian for building) rising five
floors high.
67. Public Baths
Probably the most popular Roman buildings among all classes
of citizens were the public baths (balneae or thermae) (akin to
Turkish steam baths) which by the end of the republic, were a
recognized feature of Roman life.
The term Balneae usually referred to smaller scale baths,
while Thermae described larger, wealthier establishments.
It was in the late Imperial thermae, like the Baths of
Caracalla, that the spirit of luxurious grandeur in Roman
architecture was best expressed.
The best of them were regular social meeting places of the
upper classes, and were lavished with the most stupendous
engineering creativity and the most vulgarly elaborate
architectural decoration.
68. Not only was an incredible number of pools, gymnasia, anointing
rooms, and lounging halls to be roofed over, but lecture and studio
rooms had to be included in the interior, and a stadium was to
adjoin it.
It is said that one thousand bath buildings existed in imperial
Rome, ranging from the simplest to the immense establishments
known by the names of the emperors who built them, Nero, Trajan,
Diocletian, and the like.
There are sufficient remains of the Baths of Caracalla to impress the
observer today with the daring of Roman engineers in roofing the
necessary spaces and buttressing the supporting arches.
There are traces of the marble sculpture as well as pavements and
mosaics, and contemporary descriptions that aid in building up a
picture of magnificent decorations and furnishings.
69. Theatres
The theatres of Rome itself were usually temporary
erections, but often were adorned with almost incredibly
rich displays of
sculpture and architectural
accessories, if one may
believe eyewitness reports.
Some surviving provincial
examples indicate, indeed,
that the architecture was
thought of as part of the
spectacle.
One Latin description mentions a stage wall with 360
columns, 3000 statues, and other "special" adornments.
70. Triumphal Arches
The commemorative arches, or arches of triumph, were a sort of
ceremonial architecture invented by the Romans in their passion for
the show of power, to commemorate an important event or military
campaign.
They merit hardly more attention than any other ornamental and
advertising monument, though there is considerable symmetry and
academic competence in the compositions.
Typically erected away from the main access road, they were
typically decorated with relief sculpture illustrating the events to be
commemorated.
The most famous example is the Arch of Titus, celebrating the
capture of Jerusalem, and the Arch of Constantine (c.315),
celebrating Constantine's victory over Maxentius at Milvian Bridge.
Famous triumphal arches erected in the Italian provinces included
those of Tiberius at Orange, of Augustus at Susa, of Trajan at
Benevento and Ancona, and Caracalla at Tebessa.
71. Temple of Baalbek
One of the major attraction and a remarkable
archaeological site in present day Lebanon, Baalbeck
is placed among some of the most spectacular
wonders of the ancient world.
It also happens to be one
of the largest,
prestigious and well
preserved Roman
temples built in the
ancient Roman era.
72. The first of the Baalbek temples were constructed in 1st century BC
and in the subsequent 200 years, the Romans built three different
temples – each dedicated to the god of Jupiter, Bacchus and Venus
respectively.
The largest temple among them was the temple of Jupiter, which
had 54 titanic granite columns lined up – each giant column was
around 70 feet tall.
Although only six of those columns survive today, the sheer scale of
their massiveness gives ample of reflection to the grandeur of
Baalbek temples.
After the fall of Roman civilization, the Baalbek temples suffered
from numerous thefts, war and natural calamities.
But fortunately, it is still able to reflect its majestic aura to this day,
with thousands of visitors visiting the famous Baalbek temples every
year
73. Library of Celsus
Named after the famous former governor of the City of
Ephesus, the Library of Celsus was actually a
monumental tomb dedicated to
Gaius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus.
This amazing piece of Roman
architecture was constructed
under the orders of Celsus’s son
Galius Julius Aquila.
It was also a popular repository
(storage area) for important
documents and at the height of its
use, the library of Celsus housed over 12,000 different
scrolls.
74. It had beautifully carved interiors and equally
mesmerizing architectural designs on the exterior –
making it one of the most impressive buildings in ancient
Roman Empire.
The architecture of the library is typically reminiscent of
the building style that was much popular during the rule
of Emperor Hadrian.
The entire structure is supported by nine-stepped
podium which is 21 meters long.
The surviving facade of the building retains its amazing
decorations and relief carvings that simply add to the
grandeur of the structure.
75. Pont du Gard
Pont du Gard or the bridge of the Gard (a literal
translation) is one of the surviving aqueducts
constructed by the Roman Empire.
Located in present day southern France, it was built
somewhere in the middle of first century AD.
76. This aqueduct was constructed without use of any mortar –
the Roman engineers built this three storey masterpiece by
fitting together massive blocks of precisely cut stones.
These huge blocks of stones weighed up to 6 ton, and the
bridge itself measured up to 360 meters at its highest point.
Pont du Gard was a pivotal structure in an aqueduct that
stretched over 50 kilometers in length.
The success of this engineering marvel was essential to make
the entire aqueduct functional which supplied water to the
city of Nimes.
In the end, the Roman engineers pulled off an outstanding
achievement in contemporary engineering and hydraulics.
Pont du Gard was used as a conventional bridge all along the
middle ages right up to the 18th century.
