Blog ||| Special Homages: Meister Eckhart / David Copperfield
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Start |||
The
Philosophical Europe ||| The Political Progress ||| European Witness ||| EU News
Blog ||| Special Homages: Meister Eckhart / David Copperfield |
|
From Hutton Webster's, Early European History (1917); edited for this on-line publication, by ELLOPOS
IX. CLASSICAL CIVILIZATION
» Contents of this Chapter
Page 44
WALLS AND OPEN SPACES
Rome in early times was surrounded by a wall which bore the name of its legendary builder, Servius Tullius. The present fortifications were not constructed until the reign of the emperor Aurelian. The ancient city was closely built up, with only two great open spaces, in addition to the Forum. These were the Circus Maximus, in the hollow between the Palatine Mount and the Aventine, and the Campus Martius, stretching along the Tiber to the northwest of the Capitoline Hill.
PUBLIC BUILDINGS
Following the map of ancient Rome under the empire we may note the more important monuments which still exist in something like their original condition. Across the Tiber and beyond the Campus Martius stands the mausoleum of Hadrian. The most notable structure in the Campus Martius is the Pantheon. It is the one ancient building in the entire Roman world which still survives, inside and out, in a fair state of preservation. The depression between the Caelian and Esquiline hills contains the Flavian Amphitheater, better known as the Colosseum. It was begun by Vespasian and probably completed by Titus. No less than eighty entrances admitted the forty-five thousand spectators who could be accommodated in this huge structure. Despite the enormous mass of the present ruins probably two-thirds of the original materials have been carried away to be used in other buildings. Close to the Colosseum stands the arch erected by the Senate in honor of the victory of Constantine over his rival Maxentius. From this event is dated the triumph of Christianity in the Roman state. The ruins of the huge baths of Caracalla lie about half a mile from the Colosseum. Near the center of the city are the remains of the Forum added by Trajan to the accommodations of the original Forum. It contains the column of Trajan under which that emperor was buried.
THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY: Table of Contents
url: www.ellopos.net/politics/european-history/default.asp
Cf. The Ancient Greece * The Ancient Rome
Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) * Western Medieval Europe * Renaissance in Italy
