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Roman architects

by Egenia Salza Prina Ricotti

ROMAN ARCHITECTS
Architects in Rome and, in the great Rome, the triumph of architecture. As a matter of fact it was in Rome that a new architecture was born, here that huge arches curved itself over the doors of the grand halls and the roofs expanded itself in ample vaults. It was in Rome and it was for the employ of a special mix of chalk, tufa and “pozzolana” (a volcanic soil typical of the Latium’s area) that architecture was liberated from the trilitic system and could, thus, dispense of the forest of pillars that up to then had been necessary to sustain the coverings of temples and halls. It was just this mix, a splendid innovation, comparable to Monier’s 1849 discovery of reinforced concrete, that permitted to create aerial forms like the baroque Villa Adriana’s coverings and the great dome of the Pantheon, this hemispherical vault that fill with admiration modern engineers. Rome that already from the earliest times of its existence had built very important constructions and where, as the legend asserts, its first and most ancient architects had joined the two banks of the Tiber with the “Ponte Sublicio”, men who for this feat received dignity and gratification and who from the word “Ponte” took their name: “pontefici”: builders of bridges. But it was also in this Rome that at the beginning of the I cent. A.D. all the best architects of the world flowed in, here established themselves, and began to work without minding that Rome did not treat them with the same respect and recognition that in Greece and in Egypt were given to the architects.
As a matter of fact in Rome architects were not well paid. The reason of all this depended by the fact that, starting from a certain moment all the known and rich world had been conquered and, with it, all its enormous wealth. Then either one worked for the Romans or he would not find anything else. Rome was the place where a lot of building was going on and where the most important monuments of the world were done. Then it was here the place where all good architects came, people who nearly responded to all the very strict Vitruvius’ canons, but this produced a true overcrowding of planners and among them a ruthless competition.
Unavoidably this close fight to obtain the works, brought a heavy reduction of the fees. Architects struggled among them for any task that was offered on the place, and to obtain it they had to accept what was offered by the committer who, on his side, was free to pick up the best offer from this mass of pretenders. To sum it up there was a fall in prices that was not even repaid by the planners’ possibility to tie their name to their work or at least to work for the glory. As a matter of fact also in Rome as in the Middle East the architect was not allowed to connect his name with the building he had erected. On top of all the temples, theatres, baths and even bridges that he made, the only names that could appear were the Emperors’ or the committers’ ones.
Some planners, more daring than the others, broke this proscription, but they had to do it in very far away place as did Lacer, an architect of Trajan’s times, who on the river Tago erected a formidable six arches bridge built in granite blocks and with no mortar. When the work was completed, as it was prescribed, he fixed on the arch’s top the customary epigraph, with the names of Nerva and Trajan. But our good friend Lacer did want to leave a trace of himself and to claim that he had been the author of this technically splendid bridge, thus on the axis of it he built a little shrine, afterward transformed in a church and with a facade turned to the west. Today we see its rests on the river’s left bank and we discover that its pilaster strips sustained an epigram on which it was written that the shrine was dedicated to the imperial cult, but it was also asserted that Lacer had been the architect of both the shrine and bridge.
“C. Julius Lacer deos fecit et dicavit amico Curio Lacono Igaeditano”.
How we can see this attribution of merits is an exception to the rules, an exception forged by the cunning of the local architect who, building a shrine and dedicating it to a friend and probably to a fellow citizen, could write on it all that he wanted.
Also on the Libyan coast there was another architects who, at Leptis Magna dared to mark his name on Marc Aurelius’ arch, but he put it in a quite well hidden position and grafted it so lightly that now we can see it only under some very particular conditions of light. Not many are the other engravings of architects name that we can find among the ruins and they probably date back to the first periods of the empire.
Then it is only through the sources that we know the names of the principal architects who worked in Rome and what they did, but the lucky ones were very few. In the sources we find the names of Severus an Celer, Nero’s architects who for him built a residence worthy of the world’s master: the “Domus Aurea” with the splendid “triclinium” of the octagon hall, where at its back, a monumental water fall slid down reflecting the lights of the hall, two architects also good in landscaping who planned its extended park and collected in a central lake all the rills and small waterfalls existing in the place. The lake however was then drained out by the Flavian emperors, and then there they erected the Colosseum..
Always through the sources we hear the name of Rabirius, Domitian’s architect who for him built both the Villa Albana and the Flavian domus on the Palatine, both with their imposing halls, with their nymphaea and their multiform gardens included also the ones shaped as “stadia”. Great architect was Rabirius and to him is due the innovation to put a row of columns, a simple decorative motif, in front of any naked outer facades as in the (Foro Transitorio). Always to him is attributed the creation of a composite capital, but more interesting is the fact that Rabirius was one of the few who succeeded in evading the rules and signs his work. As a matter of fact, with a bright idea, he inserted two small rings between the dentils of his trabeations, only two small rings, but always the same and always present; an artistic particular that, used only by him, distinguished his works from all the others; a kind of logogram that, eluding all the emperors’ vetoes, allow now us to recognize him.
Then we have Apollodorus of Damascus, Trajan’s architect who following the emperor in his campaign erected for him the technically perfect bridge on the Danubius, and always for his emperor planned the Forum Trajaneum’s area in all its majesty, with its monumental arch and the commemorative column that he made as high as the hill that he had to destroy to realize this project.
As we can see all strangers were these architects. And stranger was Hermodorus who built the sea arsenal of Ostia; and also stranger was Alipius of Anthiochia. Well it is just so: all the artists who enclosed the great Fora’s areas, erected Roman temples, built their most beautiful Palaces and Rome’s more precious monuments were strangers. These planners who, exploiting the possibility offered by the new mix, curved grandiose vaults on the Roman splendid halls, came from all the parts of the Empire with a large majority of Greeks and a good number of Hellenists. Roman architects were very few. Now, it is of course true what Cicero wrote, saying that the profession of architect was not one of the liberal ones that a Roman Patrician could undertake, but we know that a certain number of Romans were interested in Architecture. Probably they never exercised this art as a profitable profession, and they only practised it to build dream palaces or luxurious villas for themselves. Maybe they also enriched with beautiful monuments the towns that were under their management. But that was all.
Among the Roman however, apart Vitruvius, there is another Roman who is also one of the greatest of all the times: Hadrian, the emperor, the author of the Pantheon, Villa Adriana and many other splendid temples and buildings. What can we ask more?



Bibliography
- E. SALZA PRINA RICOTTI, Gli architetti e progettazione di architettura nell'antichità in Archeo (Anno XI, nº 12 (142) December 1996, pp. 58 - 85.

Academic books and papers
- E. SALZA PRINA RICOTTI - Villa Adriana. Un singolare solaio piano in opus caementicium, in Palladio, Nuova serie, Anno I, N. 1, Giugno 1988. pp. 1-12.
- E. SALZA PRINA RICOTTI, Adriano: architettura del verde e dell’acqua in Horti Romani, Rome , 1995, pp. 363-399.
- E. SALZA PRINA RICOTTI – Hadrien, architecte, ingénieur et urbaniste, in Hadrien. Trésors d’une villa impériale, Italia 1999, pp. 37-46
- E. SALZA PRINA RICOTTI – Adriano, architetto, ingegnere e urbanista, in Adriano architettura e progetto, Italia 2000, pp. 41-45 e schede