GREEK • Among best soldiers in the ancient world –

HISTORY Hoplite Army defeated repeated invasions by

 The ancient Greek civilizations is divided into Darius and Xerxes of Persia
two eras: Hellenic period (650-323 B.C.) and the • Alexander the Great of Macedonia conquered
Hellenistic period (323-30 B.C.). Persia, Asia Minor, Egypt, Syria, Afghanistan
 Two major cultures dominated the region • Greek language and culture reached an
before the Hellenic period: the Minoan and the enormous area
Mycenaean. But both civilizations also came to Hellenistic Period (323 to 30 BC)
an end around 1100 B.C. because of volcanic • Hellenistic Empire established, Greek
devastation and invasion of Dorian people who civilization extended
lived on the Greek mainland. Following to these GEOLOGY & CLIMATE
events, there was a period from which few signs • On the mainland, rugged mountains made
of culture remain. This period is also often communication difficult
referred as the Dark Age. • Mountains separated inhabitants into groups,
The principal Greek deities, with their attributes are as clans, states
follows: • archipelago and islands: sea was the inevitable
Zeus – the supreme god, and ruler of the sky means of trade and communications
Hera – wife of Zeus, goddess of marriage • Between rigorous cold and relaxing heat
Apollo – god of law and reason, art, music and • Clear atmosphere and intense light - conducive
poetry to creating precise and exact forms
Athena – goddess of wisdom • Judicial activities, dramatic presentations,
Poseidon – the sea god public ceremonies took place in the open air
Dionysus – god of wine, feasting and revelry RELIGION
Demeter – goddess of earth and agriculture Aegean religion:
Artemis – goddess of the chase • Primitive stage of nature worship
Hermes – messenger of the gods • Priestesses conducted religious rites, sacred
Aphrodite – goddess of love games, ritual dances, worship on sacrificial
Hephaestus – god of fire altars
Ares – god of war Greek religion:
Heracles (or Hercules) – god of strength • A highly developed form of nature worship
Aegean Period (Minoan) • Gods as personifications of natural elements,
• Civilizations on Crete and Greek mainland from or deified mortals
1900 to 1100 BC • Gods could influence events in the human
• The first great commercial and naval power in world
the Mediterranean, founded on trade with the Greeks sought advice from oracles – oracle at Delphi
whole eastern seaboard: Asia Minor, Cyprus, ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER
Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Libya, even South  Dado – the portion of a pedestal between
Italy and Sicily on the west its base and cornice. A term also applied to
• Trade and communications produced a unity of the lower portions of walls when decorated
culture and economic stability separately.
• Knossos was the largest city, had a magnificent  Coffers – sunk panels, caissons or lacunaria formed
palace in ceilings, vaults of domes.
Mycenaean or Helladic (1550 to 1100 BC)  According to arrangement of the exterior columns
• Continuation of Cretan ideas and craftsmanship of the temple:
on mainland Greece  In antis – have one to four columns between
• Wealth due to their control of metal trading antae at the front.
between Europe and Middle East  Amphi-antis – have from one to four columns
Hellenic Period (800 to 323 BC) between antae at front and rear.
• City-states developed on the plains between  Prostyle – have a portico of columns at the
mountains – Sparta and Athens were most front.
important  Amphi-prostyle – have a portico of columns at
• The "polis" emerged as the basis of Greek front and rear.
society  Peripteral – have a single line of columns
• Each had its own ruler, government and laws surrounding the naos.
• A federal unity existed between city-states due  Pseudo-peripteral – have flank columns
to common language, customs, religion attached to the naos wall.
• Several different forms of government:  Dipteral – have a double line of columns
Oligarchic, Tyrannic, Democratic surrounding the naos.
• Under Pericles (444 BC to 429 BC), peak of  Pseudo-dipteral – are like the last but inner
Athenian prosperity range of columns is omitted on the flanks of the
• Outburst of building activity and construction, naos.
developments in art, law-making, philosophy Theatres
and science
• Philosophers – Socrates, Plato, Aristotle
  The Greek theatre, an open air structure, was • Earliest ones resembled megaron in plan and
generally hollowed out if the slope of a hillside, construction
in or near a city. • Number of columns at entrance:
DESCRIPTION 1 column – hemostyle 2 columns – distyle
Aegean 3 columns – tristyle 4 columns – tetrastyle
• Rough and massive 5 columns – pentastyle 6 columns – hexastyle
Hellenic 7 columns – heptastyle 8 columns – octastyle
• Mostly religious architecture 9 columns – enneastyle 10 columns – decastyle
• "carpentry in marble“ - timber forms imitated 12 columns – dodecastyle
in stone with remarkable exactness MOULDINGS
Hellenistic • Architectural devices, which with light and
• Not religious in character, but civic – for the shade, produce definition to a building
people • Could be refined and delicate in contour, due
• Provided inspiration for Roman building types to fineness of marble and the clarity of
• Dignified and gracious structures atmosphere and light
• Symmetrical, orderly • Certain refinements used to correct optical
CONSTRUCTION SYSTEM illusions:
• Columnar and trabeated • Horizontal lines built convex to correct sagging
• Trabeated – a style of architecture in Greek • Vertical features inclined inwards to correct
in which the beam forms the constructive appearance of falling outwards
feature. • On columns, entasis was used, swelling
• Roof truss appeared, enabling large spaces to outwards to correct appearance of curving
be unhindered by columns inwards
MATERIALS • Examples:
• Timber and terra cotta
• Stone
HOUSES
On islands:
• Flat roofing
• Drawn together in blocks
• Two to four storeys high
• Light admitted through light wells Cyma recta – which is often carved with
On mainland: honeysuckle ornament, whose outline
• Single-storeyed house with deep plan corresponds with the section.
• Columned entrance porch with central Cavetto – is a simple hollow.
doorway
• Living apartment proper with sleeping room METHODS OF NATURAL LIGHTING
behind • no windows
TOMBS • clerestory - situated between roof and upper
• rock-cut or chamber tombs - “tholos” tomb portion of wall
• Nereid Monument – typifies ionic sculptural • skylight - made of thin, translucent marble
luxuriance and the use in Asia Minor of a • temple door, oriented towards the east
temple form of tomb, elevated on a high GREEK ORDERS
podium. • Shaft, Capital, and Horizontal entablature
• Sarcophagus – taken from the tomb chamber, (architrave, frieze, cornice)
of the ornamental treatment given to a stone • Originally, Doric and Ionic, named after the two
coffin hewn out of one block of marble and with main branches of Greek race
sculptures of late period. • Then there evolved Corinthian, a purely
• Mausoleum, Halicarnassos – the most famous decorative order
of all tombs and one of the seven wonders of  Crepidoma – the steps forming the base of a
the world, was erected to King Mausolos by his columned Greek temple.
widow, Artemisia, and it is derived from the  Pediment – a triangular piece of wall above the
term “Masoleum”, applied to monumental entablature enclosed by raking cornices.
tombs.  Naos – the principal chamber in Greek temple
DOMESTIC BUILDINGS containing the statue of the deity.
The Greek word for the family or household, oikos, is DORIC ORDER
also the name for the house. Houses followed several  Doric Order – is recognized by its capital,
different types. It is probable that many of the earliest of which the echinus is like a circular cushion
houses were simple structures of two rooms, with an rising from the top of the column to the
open porch or "pronaos" above which rose a low square abacus on which rest the lintels
pitched gable or pediment. This form is thought to have • Without base, directly on crepidoma
contributed to temple architecture. • Height (including capital) of 4 to 6 times the
TEMPLES diameter at the base
• Chief building type
 • Shaft diminishes at top from 3/4 to 2/3 of base
diameter
• Divided into 20 shallow flutes separated by
arrises
• Doric capitals had two parts - the square
abacus above and circular bulbous echinus
below
Doric entablature:
• Height is 1 and 3/4 times the lower diameter in
height The Erectheion, Acropolis
3 main divisions:  The Erechtheion or Erechtheum is an ancient
• Architrave, principal beam of 2 or 3 slabs in Greek temple on the north side of the Acropolis
depth of Athens in Greece which was dedicated to
• Frieze both Athena and Poseidon.
• Cornice, mouldings  Caryatid – sculptured female figures used as
IONIC ORDER columns and supports.
 Ionic Order – is recognized by its voluted TEMENOS
capital, in which a curved echinus of similar • Enclosure designated as a sacred land
shape to that of the Doric order, but decorated • Entire groups of buildings laid out
with stylised ornament, is surmounted with a symmetrically and orderly
horizontal band that scrolls to the either side, The Acropolis, Athens
forming spirals or volutes similar to those of the  Acropolis is the supreme example, foremost
nautilus shell or ram’s horn. among the world-famous building-sites.
• Volute or scroll capital (derived from Egyptian 10 structures form a world-famous building group:
lotus and Aegean art) • Propylaea
Ionic column: Propylaea, or entrance gateways, marked the
• More slender than Doric approach to the sacred enclosure in many cities
• Needed a base to spread load such as Athens, Epidauros, Eleusis and Priene.
• Height was 9 times the base diameter • Pinacotheca
• Has 24 flutes separated by fillets • Statue of Athena Promachos
• Upper and lower torus • Erectheion
Ionic entablature: • Parthenon
• Height was 2 and 1/4 times the diameter of The Parthenon is a former temple on the
column Athenian Acropolis, Greece, dedicated to the
Two parts: goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens
• Architrave,with fasciae considered their patron. Construction began in
• Cornice 447 BC when the Athenian Empire was at the
• No frieze peak of its power.
CORINTHIAN ORDER Entasis – a swelling or curving outwards along
 Corinthian Order – a purely decorative variant the outline of a column shaft, designed to
which although invented by the Hellenic Greeks counteract the optical illusion which gives shaft
was only to attain its fully identity in the hands bounded by straight lines the appearance of
of the Romans. curving inwards.
• Decorative variant of Ionic Order • Temple of Nike Apteros
Corinthian column: • Old Temple of Athena
• Base and shaft resembled Ionic • Stoa of Eumeses
• More slender • Theater of Dionysus
• Height of 10 diameters • Odeon of Herodes Atticus
• Capital: much deeper than Ionic, 1 and 1/6 Public Buildings
diameters high  Agora – or town square, was the centre of
• Capital invented by Callimachus, inspired by social and business life, around or near which
basket over root of acanthus plant were stoas or colonnaded porticoes, temples,
3 parts: administrative, and public buildings, markets,
• Architrave, places of entertainment, monuments and
• Frieze, shrines.
• Cornice, developed type with dentils  Stoa – a long collonaded building, served many
purposes. Stoas were used around public places
and as shelters at religious shrines.
 Prytaneion – served as senate house for the
chief dignitaries of the city and as a place where
distinguished visitors and citizens might be
entertained.
  Bouleuterion – or council house was a covered
meeting place for the democratically – elected
councils.
 Assembly halls – for citizens in general, were
similar, but needed to be larger.
 Odeion – a kindred type to the theatre was a
building in which musician performed their
works for the approval of the public and
competed for prizes.
 Stadium – was the foot racecourse in cities
where games were celebrated.
 Hippodrome – was a similar though longer type
of building for horse and chariot racing and was
the prototype of the Roman circus.
 Palaestra – was a wrestling – school, the term is
usually used interchangeably with Gymnasium, GEOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY and CLIMATE
a place for physical exercises for all kinds. • Italian peninsula: Central and commanding
position on Mediterranean sea
ROMAN • Temperate in the north
HISTORY • Sunny in central Italy
• Many city-states on the Italian peninsula • Almost tropical in south
• From 800 -300 BC, among all cities in Italy, INFLUENCES
Rome became the most powerful The geological formation of Italy differs from that of
• 334 – 264 BC, Rome conquered all of Italy and Greece, where the chief and almost the only
established one of the strongest empires in building material is marble.
history In addition to marble the Romans could procure
• Was centrally-located on the northern terra-cotta, stone, and brick, all of which they used,
Mediterranean even for important buildings
• Not a sea-faring people In the neighborhood of Rome, there was
• Depended on conquest by land to extend their travertine, a hard limestone from Tivoli ; tufa, a
power volcanic substance of which the hills of Rome are
• Fought with Carthage in North Africa for mainly composed ; peperino, a stone of volcanic
control of the Mediterranean origin from Mount Albano ; lava from volcanic
• Hannibal led the Carthaginian army and its 38 eruptions, besides excellent sand and gravel
elephants across the Alps into Rome However, the great structural innovations was
2 periods: concrete formed of pozzolana, a clean, sandy earth
Etuscan or Etruscan (750 BC to 146 BC) found in thick strata, which has the peculiar
Roman (146 BC to 365 AD) property, when mixed with lime, of forming
• Developed constitutional republic exceedingly hard and cohesive concrete which
• Farmers & soldiers, concerned with efficiency rendered possible some of the finest examples of
and justice Roman architecture
• For 500 years Rome was ruled by elected
leaders called consuls ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER
• In 27 BC, Augustus crowned himself Emperor DESCRIPTION
with total power • Etruscans were great builders
• Succession of military dictatorships of which • Large-scale undertakings, like city walls and
Julius Caesar’s was most famous sewers
• Empire reached its greatest size in 114 AD • Draining marshes, controlling rivers and lakes
under Emperor Trajan - 4000km wide and 60 by using channels
million inhabitants • Romans had great constructive ability
• Used natural frontiers such as mountain ranges • Complex, of several stories
and rivers to define their empire • Utilitarian, practical, economic use of materials
• Otherwise they built fortified walls, such as MATERIALS
Hadrian’s Wall in England • Stone: tufa, peperino, travertine, lava stone,
• Provinces run by governors sand, gravel
• Latin was the official language • Marble, mostly white
• Applied roman system of laws • Imported marble from all parts of the Empire
• Was the intermediary in spreading art and to river Tiber
civilization in Europe, West Asia and North • Earth for terra cotta and bricks
Africa • Etruscans introduced the use of concrete (300
RELIGION AD to 400 AD):
• Polytheistic, several cults • Stone or brick rubble with pozzolana, a thick
• Roman mythology slowly derived attributes volcanic earth material as mortar
from those of Greek gods • Used for walls, vaults, domes
• Concrete allowed Romans to build vaults of a FORUM
magnitude never equaled until 19th century • Roman cities were well-planned with straight
steel construction streets crossing the town in a grid pattern
COLUMNS • In the town center was an open space called
• Orders of architecture, used by Greeks the forum
constructively, were used by Romans as • Surrounded by a hall, offices, law courts and
decorative features which could be omitted shops
Tuscan Order THERMAE
• Simplified version of Doric order • Romans liked to keep clean and fit
• About 7 diameters high • Built elaborate public baths throughout the
• With a base, unfluted shaft, moulded capital, empire
plain entablature • For as many as 30 men and women in the open
Composite Order Parts of the thermae
• Evolved in 100 AD, combining prominent • Apodyteria – dressing room
volutes of Ionic with acanthus of Corinthian • Laconicum (sudatorium) - sweat room, rubbing
• Most decorative with oil
CONSTRUCTION SYSTEM • Tepidarium – warm bath
• Adopted columnar and trabeated style of • Frigidarium – cold bath
Greeks • Unctuaria – oils and perfumes room
• Arch and vault system started by Etruscans - DOMUS
combined use of column, beam and arch • 2- or 4- storey tenement type buildings
(arctuated) INSULAE
• Were able to cover large spaces without the aid • 3- or 4- storey tenement type buildings
of intermediate support • Prototype for the modern condominium
TYPES OF VAULTS THEATERS and AMPHITHEATERS
Wagon/ Barrel/ Tunnel Vault: • Gladiators trained to fight each other at
• Semi-circular or wagon-headed, borne on two organized contests
parallel walls throughout its length • For the entertainment of the townspeople
Wagon Vault with Intersecting Vault: AQUEDUCTS
Cross Vault: • Carried water in pipes from the country to the
• Formed by the intersection of two semi-circular heart of the city
vaults of equal span - used over square • is a water supply or navigable channel
apartment or bays constructed to convey water.
Hemispherical Dome/ Cupola: • The word is derived from the Latin aqua
• Used over circular structures ("water") and ducere ("to lead").
DECORATION
Mosaics
• Thousands of small stones or glass tiles set in
mortar to form a pattern
• Showed pictures of roman life
• Opus Incertum - small stones, loose pattern
Hadrian’s Library in Athens The Pantheon
resembling polygonal walling
• Opus Quadratum - rectangular blocks, with or
without mortar joints
• Opus Reticulatum - net-like effect, with fine
joints running diagonally
• opus mixtum - this was a combination of opus
reticulatum with a layer (course) of horizontal Colosseum
brick every fourth course and at the edges of Domes
the wall. - allowed the Romans to build vaulted ceilings
• opus testaceum - used courses of brick only. without crossbeams.
• opus vittatum - used an alternative course of - also proved to be very useful in making ceilings
brick with two courses of tufa blocks with a for large spaces, like the public baths.
rectangular side facing outwards and - The ceiling of the Pantheon is a huge, elaborate
diminishing in size towards the inner surface. dome with a circular opening in the middle
known as the occulus, or the eye of the dome.
- A very good example of adoption of the dome
into modern architecture is the capitol
building's roof.