200 CE - Rome, Changan, and Teotihuacn were the worlds megacities

100 and 300 CE - the Roman Empire grew into one of the greatest and most
extensive empires in the world, and yet it was on the brink of disaster
Roman Urban Design:
Under Hadrian - North Africa was absorbed
Inroads were made to secure trade links to East
The paradigm for the city was the castrum, or military camp, which was divided by
two intersecting main streets, the cardo and decumanus
Unlike Greek cities, which were defined by a central agora and temple precincts. A
Roman city had streets, squares, fountains, gates, memorial columns, and public
buildings that formed a type of armature around which the rest of the city grew.

Djemila (96 CE)

its elongated shape is a result of the terrain
the north shows a relatively systematized layout, with the forum at the
center of the town along the main road

a new forum, temple, and theater were built in a southward extension that
followed
the curves of an existing road

Timgad (100 CE)

rigorous application of the grid, the original town soon outgrew its borders

the elements of the armature that were originally left out of the designthe
baths,
the gates, even a capitoliumwere grafted onto the fabric of the city
and

These urban extensions show a willingness to negotiate with the landscape

existing features such as roads

the planners adopted a flexible and additive approach in existing cities like
Miletus
and Lepcis Magna

Ephesus (9th century BCE)

the Romans were even willing to work within the Hellenistic design mold

a small town and religious center on the shores of the Cayster River near its
mouth on
the Turkish coast, developed into an important port
east

the city was abandoned and rebuilt at its current location 2 kilometers to the
around 270 BCE because the river was silting

Unlike, Pergamon from top to down, it was built horizontally, in a protected,

curving
valley that opens in dramatic fashion onto the new harbor

Miletus

First it was a Greek colony; then it was a quasiindependent city-state,

prospering during Hellenistic times; and finally, it became part of the Roman
Empire
During last phase, the designers worked sometimes with, and sometimes
against, the established pattern
an intricate web of public buildings, streets, gates, and spaces that linked
the old
harbor with the new extension to the south was introduced

Roman Vertical Surface

Egyptians - covered their temple walls with images or historical reliefs, thought of
wall as a definer of space
Greek - walls were often hidden behind columns, or the pilaster in the form of
columns in antis, and sometimes even articulated walls with shallow panels, they
never saw the wall as anything other than a wall
Romans - interested in complex articulations of vertical surfaces, the first time, the
wall became an architectural element per se
The technique of framing arches within engaged half-columns supporting an
entablature, called the fornix (means vault or arched room) system of
ornamentation (150 BCE)
Example: The amphitheater of Nmes (in France), the Arch of Titus
Aediculae and niches were added to the vocabulary, as can be seen at the Arch of
Trajan at Timgad (100CE)
The central arch is flanked by smaller arches surmounted by aediculae flanked by
their own columns. The two sides are then organized by enormous columns that
reach to the top of the aediculae and that, with the help of imposts, rise to a level
where the arches can spring over them. The two side elements are then united by

an entablature that is reduced to a thin projection.