DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42778#0098
52 THE ARCHITECTURE OF ANCIENT ROME.
(Plate XXXI) was not symmetrically planned, until the alterations
made by Julius Caesar, to whom it owes its present form. He placed
the Rostra, the platform for the orators, at one of the narrow ends
of the trapezoidal open space in the centre ; the two long sides were
flanked by the Basilica Aemilia, which in its original form dated
from 179 b.c., but was frequently rebuilt, and the Basilica Julia,
which he himself erected. After his death, a temple in his honour
was erected at the opposite end of the open space to the Rostra,
across the line of the street which flanked the south-east long side
of the temple of Castor and Pollux. The temples on either side
or at the ends, varying as they did in plan, in dimensions and
orientation, and being interspersed with other monuments, presented
a much more magnificent effect than when enclosed in a court, and
so resembled more the accidental and picturesque arrangement
of the Greek shrines. The Greek not only selected beautiful sites,
but utilised their varying levels, and planned their buildings in
harmony therewith, thus wedding art to nature. This was not
always the case with the Romans, who, possessed of greater means,
invariably levelled their sites, and then set out plans of symmetrical
design in which a central axis formed the chief characteristic.
While the planning of open spaces is regular as far as possible,
and the rectangular form is preferred, other forms, which in Re-
publican times are only found in smaller rooms, make their appear-
ance in Imperial times—polygons (as at Baalbek), circles, and mixed
plans as in the Imperial Fora, where rectangles are combined with
hemicycles. When founding new cities, or in cases where the ground
was occupied by unimportant buildings only, which could be cleared
away, no great difficulties presented themselves; but in Rome,
where the ground in the vicinity of the Forum Romanum had already
in the first years of the Empire acquired an immense value, the sites
were frequently curtailed in size, and sometimes abutted on other
buildings or streets running at various angles, and as it was con-
sidered to be of importance that the new Forums should be con-
tiguous to the Forum Romanum, the only site available was that
under the cliffs of the Quirinal Hill; consequently, at all events on the
north-east side, they had to be enclosed with lofty walls in order
to mask the slopes of the hill behind and the buildings surmounting
them. The walls were, however, continued all round the Fora,
and their object was probably partly decorative and partly that of
protection from fire. The height of the walls round the Forum of
(Plate XXXI) was not symmetrically planned, until the alterations
made by Julius Caesar, to whom it owes its present form. He placed
the Rostra, the platform for the orators, at one of the narrow ends
of the trapezoidal open space in the centre ; the two long sides were
flanked by the Basilica Aemilia, which in its original form dated
from 179 b.c., but was frequently rebuilt, and the Basilica Julia,
which he himself erected. After his death, a temple in his honour
was erected at the opposite end of the open space to the Rostra,
across the line of the street which flanked the south-east long side
of the temple of Castor and Pollux. The temples on either side
or at the ends, varying as they did in plan, in dimensions and
orientation, and being interspersed with other monuments, presented
a much more magnificent effect than when enclosed in a court, and
so resembled more the accidental and picturesque arrangement
of the Greek shrines. The Greek not only selected beautiful sites,
but utilised their varying levels, and planned their buildings in
harmony therewith, thus wedding art to nature. This was not
always the case with the Romans, who, possessed of greater means,
invariably levelled their sites, and then set out plans of symmetrical
design in which a central axis formed the chief characteristic.
While the planning of open spaces is regular as far as possible,
and the rectangular form is preferred, other forms, which in Re-
publican times are only found in smaller rooms, make their appear-
ance in Imperial times—polygons (as at Baalbek), circles, and mixed
plans as in the Imperial Fora, where rectangles are combined with
hemicycles. When founding new cities, or in cases where the ground
was occupied by unimportant buildings only, which could be cleared
away, no great difficulties presented themselves; but in Rome,
where the ground in the vicinity of the Forum Romanum had already
in the first years of the Empire acquired an immense value, the sites
were frequently curtailed in size, and sometimes abutted on other
buildings or streets running at various angles, and as it was con-
sidered to be of importance that the new Forums should be con-
tiguous to the Forum Romanum, the only site available was that
under the cliffs of the Quirinal Hill; consequently, at all events on the
north-east side, they had to be enclosed with lofty walls in order
to mask the slopes of the hill behind and the buildings surmounting
them. The walls were, however, continued all round the Fora,
and their object was probably partly decorative and partly that of
protection from fire. The height of the walls round the Forum of