A book like this has been needed for some time. It is part of the Oxford History of Art series, which published Archaic and Classical Greek Art and The Art of the Roman Empire in 1998, Aegean Art and Architecture in 1999, and Classical Art: From Greece to Rome in 2001.Footnote ¹ Nor does the series have an aversion to architecture: there are volumes on early medieval, medieval, Renaissance, 19th-century, United States, Chinese, and modern architecture, but the absence, until now, of a volume dedicated to Roman buildings reflects a broader trend where anglophone readers are poorly served by short, authoritative introductions to the subject. Donald Robertson’s Reference Robertson1929 A Handbook of Greek and Roman Architecture was still being reprinted in 1992,Footnote ² Mortimer Wheeler wrote Roman Art and Architecture in the Thames and Hudson World of Art series 60 years ago,Footnote ³ Frank Sear’s Roman Architecture remains in print four decades after its publication in 1982,Footnote ⁴ John Bryan Ward-Perkins’s Roman Imperial Architecture is similarly 40 years old (and is based on a text from 1970),Footnote ⁵ and James Anderson’s Roman Architecture and Society is over 30 years old,Footnote ⁶ as are Ian Barton’s Roman Public Buildings (Reference Barton1989) and Roman Domestic Buildings (Reference Barton1996).Footnote ⁷ Wiley-Blackwell’s Companion to Roman Architecture and The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Art and Architecture fulfil a different purpose to the book under review (which is explicitly “not intended to be a manual or a handbook”(1)), and at nearly 900 pages, Fikret Yegül and Diane Favro’s 2019 Roman Architecture and Urbanism cannot be counted as an introduction.

Of course, there are numerous recent studies on all aspects of Roman architecture, which, if anything, is flourishing as a field of research. But there is little that is broad in scope, succinct in execution, academically rigorous, and accessible (and affordable!) to a non-specialist audience. A consequence of this is that outdated and oversimplified ideas about Roman architecture remain current among many but those studying the subject. Janet DeLaine’s new book serves as an excellent corrective to the lacuna. It should be welcomed by scholars, students, and general readers interested in not only Roman architecture and urbanism, but the Roman world in general. As set out by DeLaine in the opening sentence, “Architecture was fundamental to Roman culture – a culture which was essentially urban in nature, a culture of cities which found expression in, and was structured by, the built environment […] The Roman world was highly visual, and its buildings provided a framework for all of life” (1). Rather than being a study of buildings, the book uses the built environment as a “context for understanding Roman society” (1).

DeLaine’s approach is not chronological. The book is divided into seven thematic chapters (plus an Introduction), focusing primarily on a period from the 2nd c. BCE to the 3rd c. CE. Examples from earlier periods are occasionally mentioned (the “hut of Romulus,” the “Severian” Walls, the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus), but developments in Late Antiquity are deliberately not included. The city of Rome is central to each chapter, and DeLaine typically draws on examples from the capital to open a discussion, before then examining the situation elsewhere in the Empire, with particular (but by no means exclusive) attention to Asia Minor and North Africa.

The Introduction begins with the proposition that the Pantheon, the Colosseum, Hadrian’s wall and the Pont du Gard are “as symbolic of the world of Rome as they are in their different ways representative of Roman architecture” (1). The famous structures “belong to the highwater mark of the Roman Empire” and the purposes they served were central to Roman society. But beyond this, DeLaine argues that they are also ambiguous in their design and meaning, illustrative of the difficulties in defining “Roman.” Highlighting difficulties of definition and interpretation is something that recurs throughout the book, which avoids reiterating stock understandings of particular building types and instead trusts the reader with complexity and uncertainty where relevant.

Chapter 1: “An Empire of cities” asserts that the Roman world was essentially an urban one. It begins with a brief history of the city of Rome, followed by an account, again short, of urban centers across the Empire. This leads into an explanation of the importance of Hellenistic ideas and models in the development of Roman culture, and the complex relationship that Rome’s society and leaders had with Greek cultural achievements, from Augustus to the so-called Second Sophistic. The final paragraph of the Introduction sets out a key premise that will inform much of the later discussion: that the “pluralistic” nature of the Roman Empire was central to the development of Roman architecture, which is marked by experimentation and “infinite variety.” Despite there being a common “set of concepts” that informed the appearance of buildings (“it is usually easy to identify a building as being in some sense Roman”), it is rare to find two that are near identical. DeLaine posits that this is “the result of a whole series of individual human choices made within a framework of different geographical circumstances and in the context of different attitudes to society and different expectations of the role played by architecture within it” (21).

Chapter 2: “Architects and Roman society” introduces Vitruvius. DeLaine contends that those who dismiss Vitruvius as being wholly wrong on architecture are just as incorrect as those who assert he is the “only true authority” (25). DeLaine herself clearly sees immense value in the Augustan-era architect, whose observations and prescriptions in On Architecture inform much of the analysis both here and in later chapters. This chapter examines the responsibilities of Roman architects and their status in society, emphasizing the “seriousness of architecture as a profession” (27) (although one might also remember Martial’s jibe about dull sons becoming architects).Footnote ⁸ There is an extended discussion of design, including how spaces were visualized and represented, and how they were illustrated in different media, such as mosaic and the Severan marble plan of Rome. The chapter underscores the fundamental but sometimes overlooked point that the Empire’s buildings were not “the result of some kind of natural evolution”; rather, they were the creations of people, “the result of the choices made by individual patrons, whose desire for originality could only be met by the imagination and invention of individual architects working within but rising above the established conventions” (43).

Anyone familiar with DeLaine’s previous research will not be surprised to learn that Chapter 3: “Construction: The civilizing art” is particularly strong, and it examines the processes by which buildings are made, not simply the finished product. Again, it begins with Vitruvius, observing that his chapter on construction “is one of the few where his own observations and practical experience shine through [… and] it was also the one where he was possibly in the greatest danger of losing his audience” (45). The chapter moves beyond On Architecture to examine building materials and construction techniques through a rich range of physical examples from Italy and elsewhere in the Empire, including the block and brick lintels at Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli, the use of terracotta tubes for vaulting in the baths of Julia Memmia at Bulla Regia, and the stone barrel vault of the so-called Temple of Diana at Nîmes. The discussion also notes the difference in cost between building with ashlar or with reticulate masonry, the amount of travertine that was quarried in antiquity, the estimated number of masons involved in constructing the Pantheon, and the percentage of adult males engaged in the building projects of Severan Rome. Some scholars might quibble with particular figures (this reviewer is making no such claim), but for other readers, such examples are possibly an important introduction to the role statistical analysis can play in studying Roman architecture

Chapter 4: “Building for the gods” is on religious architecture, primarily monumental temples. It includes an interesting discussion of the development and significance of the Corinthian order in Rome, coupled with the prestige associated with the use of marble, told through the design of Augustus’s Temple of Mars Ultor and Tiberius’s rebuilding of the Temple of Castor and Pollux in the Roman Forum. DeLaine’s insistence on the “Trajanic Pantheon” underscores another important reason why an up-to-date introduction to Roman architecture is necessary – that the interpretation of even well-known buildings changes. While it is not essentially incorrect to refer to the “Hadrianic Pantheon” (he completed it), the very strong probability that it was started under Trajan undercuts the previous, still commonly repeated assertion that the design belongs to the former emperor, and all the attendant implications of this. The second part of the chapter looks at examples from the Eastern and Western provinces (including Egypt, Asia Minor, North Africa, and briefly Britain) highlighting the influence of the capital on architectural trends, but also the enormous potential for variation in design at the local level.

The subject of Chapter 5: “Housing the city” is public buildings. The first part adopts a more chronological approach to considering the origins and development of basilicas, baths, theaters, and amphitheaters during the mid/late Republic, before the focus shifts to fora, venues for spectacles, and luxury baths in the Imperial period. This discussion primarily depends on examples from Rome and Italy, but the second part of the chapter broadens out to consider these building types in the provinces, with examples from Ephesus, Aphrodisias, Lepcis Magna, Gaul, and Britain. In particular, it takes on the popular idea of “mini-Romes” being created across the Empire, automatically furnished with a standard set of public buildings based on those in the capital. DeLaine argues that the “direct linear development from Rome to the provinces that is sometimes assumed is very much an oversimplification” (143). Augusta Emerita in Spain is highlighted as an instructive case, where recent research has shown that rather than the veteran colony, which was founded by Marcus Agrippa, receiving its “Roman” buildings as part of an Augustan-era program, this was more of a “piecemeal development reflecting local conditions and circumstances” (143) that took place over decades.

Chapter 6: “Housing the individual” concerns domestic buildings. DeLaine provides an excellent discussion of the complications that surround the identification of the “typical” Roman house, utilizing both literary material (Vitruvius) and archaeological evidence to unpack the challenges associated with understanding the development of houses and labelling the spaces within them. As with other complications that DeLaine draws attention to in the book, such issues are well known to scholars working on Roman domestic buildings; however, the varied reality of ancient housing has yet to reach all audiences interested in how the Romans lived, among whom the notion of an unchanging, standard “atrium” house is often an accepted norm. As with other chapters, the situation outside of Italy is considered, although here only very briefly. High-density urban housing, specifically insulae, also receives attention, with an extended discussion of the so-called garden houses at Ostia. The second part of the chapter focuses on elite villas, specifically villae urbanae, as well as the imperial palaces of Nero and Domitian in Rome and the country retreat of Hadrian at Tivoli. The chapter concludes with an interesting but short section on funerary architecture (“Housing the dead”). The inclusion of the monuments of the Secundinii at Trier and of the Julii at Glanum nicely illustrates the potential inventiveness of tombs, leaving one wishing that the subject had received its own chapter.

The final, seventh chapter, “The language of ornament,” is on “commemorative monuments which had little or no practical function other than to celebrate in a decorative manner” (199). The first category addressed is city walls. While these have an obvious practical function, the discussion is about their enduring symbolism – how the image of crenelated walls and towers represented the idea of the city, their emblematic importance reflected in the increasing ornamentation of gates. This leads into a discussion of honorific arches and columns. Although DeLaine points to their function as marking boundaries in certain contexts, the discussion reminds readers that not every Roman arch is about liminality, with the author noting that they were “from the start intended as monumental statue bases” (203). Next is a section on monumental urban streets, specifically roads lined with colonnaded porticoes, such as those of Ephesus and Palmyra. The chapter continues with a reflection on the “Language of magnificentia.” DeLaine points to the Empire-wide existence of “a shared architectural language comprising a few easily recognizable motifs, based on the columnar orders and/or the arch: pediment, aedicule, and columnar display; gateway, triumphal arch, and ‘Theatre motif’; and tower.” However, in the application of these motifs to different buildings, she stresses that the choice appears to have been personal on the part of the builders, not necessarily ideological; hence the variety of design within the corpus of Roman architecture, as premised in Chapter 1. It is here that we get some of the most tantalizing thoughts about how meaning was conveyed (or not) through Roman architectural design (“Scale, location, and inscribed text carried the overt political message; form and ornament had more elusive connotations” (213)).

The end matter contains a useful glossary of architectural terms, a timeline relating buildings to political, social, and cultural events, and a bibliographic essay. There are over 150 color photographs, reconstructions, antiquarian prints, and plans in the book. The scholarship is up to date and it is packed with a richness of judiciously chosen examples of buildings from Rome and across the Empire. That the selection of material is personal is stated explicitly by the author (4–5), and readers are therefore provided with an insight into what one of the field’s leading scholars thinks about certain matters. In this sense, the book is not merely an update on previous introductions to Roman architecture but offers something unique. Importantly, it also underscores the centrality of architecture to Roman society and culture as a whole. It is not possible to fully understand Roman life without knowing where people lived, ate, bathed, did politics, worshiped, and were entertained – these activities happened within structures and structured spaces. Therefore, beyond being of use to readers interested in architectural history, this volume would be an excellent addition to reading lists for Classics, Ancient History, and Archaeology subjects not specifically concerned with the built environment.