2. It Takes a City: The Founding of Rome and the Beginnings of Urbanism in Italy

Roman Architecture (HSAR 252)

Professor Kleiner traces the evolution of Roman architecture from its beginnings in the eight-century B.C. Iron Age through the late Republican period. The lecture features traditional Roman temple architecture as a synthesis of Etruscan and Greek temple types, early defensive wall building in Rome and environs, and a range of technologies and building practices that made this architecture possible. City planning in such early Roman colonies as Cosa and Ostia is also discussed, as are examples of the first uses of the arch and of concrete construction, two elements that came to dominate Roman architectural practice. The lecture ends with an analysis of typical late Republican temples at Rome, Cori, and Tivoli.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Romulus Founds Rome
10:05 - Chapter 2. Defensive Stone Walls and Regular Town Planning
27:37 - Chapter 3. Early Republican Architecture
45:06 - Chapter 4. The Hellenization of Late Republican Temple Architecture
01:03:20 - Chapter 5. The Advent of the Corinthian Order

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Spring 2009.