Start ||| The Philosophical Europe ||| The Political Progress ||| European Witness ||| EU News Blog ||| Special Homages: Meister Eckhart / David Copperfield

THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY

From Hutton Webster's, Early European History (1917); edited for this on-line publication, by ELLOPOS

IX. CLASSICAL CIVILIZATION

Em. Macron, Rediscovering the Path to Europe

» Contents of this Chapter

The Classical City   * Education and the Condition of Children   * Marriage and the Position of Women   * The Home and Private Life   * Amusements   * Slavery   * Greek Literature   * Greek Philosophy   * Roman Literature   * Greek Architecture   * Greek Sculpture   * Roman Architecture and Sculpture   * Artistic Athens   * Artistic Rome

Page 36

TRIUMPHAL ARCHES AND COLUMNS

A very characteristic example of Roman building is found in the triumphal arches. Their sides were adorned with bas-reliefs, which pictured the principal scenes of a successful campaign. Memorial structures, called columns of victory, were also set up in Rome and other cities. Both arch and column have been frequently imitated by modern architects.

CIRCUSES, THEATERS, AND AMPHITHEATERS

The palaces of Roman emperors and nobles, together with their luxurious country houses, or villas, have all disappeared. A like fate has befallen the enormous circuses, such as the Circus Maximus at Rome and the Hippodrome at Constantinople. The Roman theaters that still survive reproduce, in most respects, the familiar outlines of the Greek structures. In the amphitheaters, where animal shows and gladiatorial combats were exhibited, we have a genuinely Roman invention. The gigantic edifice, called the Colosseum, in its way as truly typifies Roman architectural genius as the Parthenon represents at its best that of the Greeks.

Previous / First / Next Page of this Chapter

THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY: Table of Contents

url: www.ellopos.net/politics/european-history/default.asp

IN PRINT

Cf. The Ancient Greece * The Ancient Rome
Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) * Western Medieval Europe * Renaissance in Italy