Greek and Roman Architecture

The foundation of the classical Greek building, whether

temple, amphitheater or house rested on the foundations, grounded

in the Greek system of thought, of order, proportion and space.

In determining the order of Greek architecture, we may refer to its congruity with the Greek city-state and the needs of its citizens. In Greek urban life, Greek architecture was: "first and foremost, the expression of a community and, more, especially in its early stages, of the basic ties assuring unity." Thus, Greek architecture of the fifth' and sixth centuries B.C. was primarily reflective of the group life of the polis, rather than individual needs. Administrative buildings devoted to government and commercial needs, including agoras, defensive walls, markets and porticoes, predominate as do religious edifices. Housing of this time, even for the prosperous and prominent citizens of the polis, is simple, even austere, and not the subject of artistic emphasis.

With the rise of imperialism in the Greek city-stat r, in the third and fourth centuries B.C., the fundamental of

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the freedom of the entire house, its existence was intended to keep women under the control of the head of the house. Ischomachus, in a conversation with Socrates (Xen. Oec. IX 4) shows this as he recounts to Socrates how he showed his wife the plan of their new house: And I showed her the women's apartments cut off by a door with a bolt from the men's apartments so that nothing could be carried out which ought not to be. Other rooms in the Greek house included the kitchen with its hearths and even bathrooms, since plumbing was of a generally advanced type. Having surveyed components of Greek housing, it will be useful to discuss below the variations and styles found throughout Greece and the islands. Excavations of houses of the Minoan period in Crete reveal a method of construction and planning detail that were advanced. Houses customarily contained more than one story and were divided into separate rooms of a rectangular shape. Even in very early excavations, the evidence of flooring is apparent, whether plaster or flagstones. The early Aegean practice of communicating rooms side by side with the megaron or hearthroom was followed on Crete. At Kato Zakro on the east coast of Crete several wellpreserved houses
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Approximate Word count = 3679
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page)