Monumentality and the Roman Empire: Architecture in the Antonine Age

摘要

In his introduction, Edmund Thomas defines architectural "monumentality" (1-14). While moderns take the term to mean "either that the building is physically imposing or that it is a memorial of the past" (4), for the Romans of the age of the Antonines (AD 98-193) a moimmen-tum had other important qualities. It was durable; it perpetuated the name of a builder or patron; its character exceeded ordinary utility; it recalled and inculcated social norms; it represented and advanced the social ambitions of subjects and emperors. The large scale, rare and expensive foreign colored marbles, and gilding and gilded bronze of such buildings embodied the wealth and success of Antonine society. Amazing and visually edifying their visitors, these monuments, with their rational and elevated character, at once sacred and profane, were, for their builders, connected with the gods and with the very structure of the universe. Thomas's characterizations of these Antonine structures, particularly those in Asia Minor, attempt to demonstrate how their designers attained these lofty goals in three dimensions.