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Marcus Agrippa

Marcus Agrippa, Consul for the third time, built this.

The above inscription is over the entrance to the Pantheon, although the first Roman Pantheon built by Augustus C'sar's architect and minister Marcus Agrippa was destroyed in the great fire of 80 A.D. Rebuilt by Domitian, the temple burned again in 110 A.D. and was rebuilt during the reign of Emperor Hadrian between 118 and 125 A.D., during the time when the Roman Empire "attained the zenith of its material prosperity" (Kostof 217). The Pantheon, the most significant representation of imperial Roman architecture of the Hadrian period, was conceived of as a temple to all the gods, and it reflects the political as well as the religious values of its time.

Although influenced by Greek models, Roman architecture had a style and shape all its own. Roman buildings such as the Pantheon were larger and more ornate than the Greek models, such as the Parthenon. In addition, Roman architecture had the advantage of concrete as a building material that was less expensive and more plentiful than marble and materials used by the Greeks. The discovery of Roman pozzolano cement was a big improvement over ordinary lime mortar. This essay will discuss the Pantheon's main architectural features, its purpose and use in ancient Rome, and the values it reflects.

As a technical achievement, the Pantheon is regarded as a culmination in Roman architecture, the "triumphant conclusion" of advances in technology and of the Imperial style of architecture (Ward-Perkins 137). "The Pantheon was considered the most harmonious interior of antiquity" (Benton & Dyianni 176), and the "most important part of the Pantheon is the interior" (Benton & Dyianni 176). Ward-Perkins points out that the idea of a temple as "something more than a rigidly enclosed rectangular box" was a "revolutionary innovation," and there was nowhere else that one could experience interior space of this scale (138). Many innovations ...

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Marcus Agrippa. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 10:24, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1686898.html