ROME

VALENTINO, VAN JULIUS C.

The aim of this study is to have a better understanding of the Pantheon

in the context of its structure and what it meant for the people of
Rome, the empire, and modern day.

+ "παν-" meaning "all"

"θεῖον"= meaning "of or

sacred to a god"

The Pantheon is the best-preserved architectural monument of the Roman

period in Rome. Originally built by Agrippa around 27 BC under Augustus’s rule,
it was destroyed by fire under Domitian, then rebuilt and finally completed in its
present form during Hadrian’s reign, in ca. AD 128 (Hetland 2007).

The first Pantheon was part

of a massive plan that
included “Rome’s first public
bath building” by Marcus
Agrippa. It is believed to have
been created in 27 or 25 B.C.
by Agrippa. Agrippa’s
Pantheon and the Pantheon
that is currently standing
today were both located in
the Campus Martius, which
translates to “the field of the
war god Mars.

It was thought that Agrippa’s Pantheon had been small and

conventional: a Greek-style temple, rectangular in plan. However,
with more evidence arising it is now known that the Agrippa’s
Pantheon was a rotunda (circular hall) instead of a rectangle.

The Pantheon that stands today what is

known as Piazza della Rotunda, was the
Pantheon that is believed to have been
completed during the reign of Hadrian
around 125-128 A.D. Burned down from
a lightning strike in 110 A.D.. And had
been rebuilt by Domitian in 80 A.D. and
then it was destroyed again by
lightning in 110 A.D. and had begun to be
rebuilt by Trajan but was completed
by Hadrian.

Several scholars have now suggested

that the original Pantheon was not a
temple in the usual sense of a god’s
dwelling place. Instead, it may have
been intended as a dynastic sanctuary,
part of a ruler cult emerging around
Augustus, with the original dedication
being to Julius Caesar, the progenitor
of the family line of Augustus and
Agrippa and a revered ancestor who
had been the first Roman deified by the
Senate.
 The Pantheon’s basic design is simple and powerful. A portico with free-standing
columns is attached to a domed rotunda. In between, to help transition between
the rectilinear portico and the round rotunda is an element generally described
in English as the intermediate block. This piece is itself interesting for the fact
that visible on its face above the portico’s pediment is another shallow pediment.

The Pantheon’s great

interior spectacle—its
enormous scale, the
geometric clarity of the
circle-in-square pavement
pattern and the dome’s
half-sphere, and the
moving disc of light—is all
the more breathtaking for
the way one moves from
the bustling square (piazza,
in Italian) outside into the
grandeur inside.

The oculus is also believed to interact with the coffering in a celestial

aspect. The coffering of the dome is “divided into twenty-eight parts…and
twenty-eight was considered ‘perfect’” because it was one of the only
numbers “that equal the sum of their factors” and because twenty-eight was
an approximate estimation that the Romans had for the number of days in a
lunar cycle.

One approaches the Pantheon through the portico with its tall,
monolithic Corinthian columns of Egyptian granite. One approaches
the Pantheon through the portico with its tall, monolithic Corinthian
columns of Egyptian granite.

These parts of the architecture are interpreted by scholars as designed for

religious purposes. The Pantheon’s dome and oculus were not just to
“astound the Roman populace,” but also to represent “a universal
cosmology…[or] as Dio intuits the celestial home of the gods.”

The Pantheon was believed throughout antiquity to have been a location for
pagan worship or a temple to the gods. The Pantheon’s conversion into a
church can also be viewed as a reflection of the city of Rome itself, which
became Christian.

Pantheon underwent many different

restorations and embellishments,
not all of which lasted. These
changes began in the Middle Ages
and progressed through the
Renaissance period through
seventeenth century and so on until
today. The changes promoted the
Pantheon’s embrace of its identity
as a church instead of a Pagan
temple.

Because of these changes, the Pantheon is now a very elaborate hybrid of

both Christian and pagan elements. It contains both the history of
Christianity as well as antiquity’s pagan history.
 The Pantheon has exerted a tremendous influence on
architecture since the Renaissance like for examples the
monument that acts like a giant sundial that is well known
in the Roman world.

It represents the perfect synthesis of harmony and

constructive intelligence.

It has is an architectural feat that has influenced not only

buildings in antiquity, but buildings throughout history to
the present day. Its shape is a representation of power,
and in many respects a power that carries with it a
religious aspect.

The Pantheon (article) | Middle empire | Khan

Academy

Pantheon, Rome – Wikipedia

A Study of the Pantheon Through Time

(union.edu)

Pantheon of Agrippa of Rome - Useful

Information (rome-museum.com)

Microsoft Word - Ch09 CS2-3.doc

(astronomicalheritage.net)