DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42497#0327
III.]
Opus Lateritium, or Brickwork.
21
made. There is a collection of some hundreds of these brick-stamps
in the Vatican Museum™, those of the time of Trajan and Hadrian
are among the most common. The brickwork of the time of Nero
and Titus is considered the best. These stamps can only be seen
when the brick has been detached from the wall, which is often no
very easy matter. Stamps of the time of the Antonines are the most
common, only four are known of the time of Nero.
From the time of Trajan it became customary to add the names
of the Consuls to that of the owner of the kiln, or of the slave who
made it. A sufficient number of stamped bricks were used in each
building to record its date with certainty, but after the seat of em-
pire was transferred to Constantinople, and the decay of Rome began,
this useful custom was gradually discontinued. During the time that
the custom lasted, the greatest persons in the Empire, even members
of the Imperial family, were not ashamed to have their names stamped
on the bricks made at their kilns, which were valuable property; and
the word pradium, which we so often meet with in the history of
that period, often includes the brick-kiln, or furnace. Among the
great personages, whose kilns are known by the stamps upon them,
are Domitilla Lucilla, wife of Annius Verus, and mother of Marcus
Aurelius Augustus, the head of the great family of Verus or Varius,
which resided in the palace called the Sessorium (now the monastery
of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme), for more than a century, and who
built the Circus Varianus now destroyed, and the Amphitheatrum
Castrense, the walls of which are still standing, having been incor-
porated in the walls of Rome n.
Another easy test of the date of a brick wall has been found by
the careful observation of Roman antiquaries. This consists in placing
a foot rule or a yard measure against the wall as it stands, and
counting the number of bricks in a foot or a yard, including the
mortar between them. They have laid this down as a useful general
rule to judge of the date of a building during the first four centuries
of the Christian era.
In the first century ten bricks to the foot (mortar included); as in
the Arches of Nero.
In the second century eight; as in the Villa of Hadrian.
In the third, six ; as in the Wall of Aurelian.
m There is also a selection of them in
the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
n On the subject of these Brick-
stamps, see the Appendix to this Sec-
tion. In the photographs of the con-
struction of walls prepared for this
work, a six-foot-rule is used, in which
each alternate foot is painted black and
white, so that the bricks can be mea-
sured in the photograph.
Opus Lateritium, or Brickwork.
21
made. There is a collection of some hundreds of these brick-stamps
in the Vatican Museum™, those of the time of Trajan and Hadrian
are among the most common. The brickwork of the time of Nero
and Titus is considered the best. These stamps can only be seen
when the brick has been detached from the wall, which is often no
very easy matter. Stamps of the time of the Antonines are the most
common, only four are known of the time of Nero.
From the time of Trajan it became customary to add the names
of the Consuls to that of the owner of the kiln, or of the slave who
made it. A sufficient number of stamped bricks were used in each
building to record its date with certainty, but after the seat of em-
pire was transferred to Constantinople, and the decay of Rome began,
this useful custom was gradually discontinued. During the time that
the custom lasted, the greatest persons in the Empire, even members
of the Imperial family, were not ashamed to have their names stamped
on the bricks made at their kilns, which were valuable property; and
the word pradium, which we so often meet with in the history of
that period, often includes the brick-kiln, or furnace. Among the
great personages, whose kilns are known by the stamps upon them,
are Domitilla Lucilla, wife of Annius Verus, and mother of Marcus
Aurelius Augustus, the head of the great family of Verus or Varius,
which resided in the palace called the Sessorium (now the monastery
of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme), for more than a century, and who
built the Circus Varianus now destroyed, and the Amphitheatrum
Castrense, the walls of which are still standing, having been incor-
porated in the walls of Rome n.
Another easy test of the date of a brick wall has been found by
the careful observation of Roman antiquaries. This consists in placing
a foot rule or a yard measure against the wall as it stands, and
counting the number of bricks in a foot or a yard, including the
mortar between them. They have laid this down as a useful general
rule to judge of the date of a building during the first four centuries
of the Christian era.
In the first century ten bricks to the foot (mortar included); as in
the Arches of Nero.
In the second century eight; as in the Villa of Hadrian.
In the third, six ; as in the Wall of Aurelian.
m There is also a selection of them in
the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
n On the subject of these Brick-
stamps, see the Appendix to this Sec-
tion. In the photographs of the con-
struction of walls prepared for this
work, a six-foot-rule is used, in which
each alternate foot is painted black and
white, so that the bricks can be mea-
sured in the photograph.