1st-century Roman domes

Roman architectural feature While there are earlier examples in the Republican period and early Imperial period, the growth of domed construction increased under Emperor Nero and the Flavians in the 1st century AD, and during the 2nd century. Centrally planned halls become increasingly important parts of palace and palace villa layouts beginning in the 1st century, serving as state banqueting halls, audience rooms, or throne rooms.Krautheimer 1986 77 Formwork was arranged either horizontally or radially, but there is not enough surviving evidence from the 1st and 2nd centuries to say what was typical.Lancaster 2005 40 Nero thumb|left|alt=Bare concrete octagonal dome interior at Nero's palace showing flat sections springing from above square doorways and merging into a spherical shape that culminates in a large circular oculus at the top|The octagonal domed hall found in Nero's Domus Aurea The opulent palace architecture of the Emperor Nero (54 – 68 AD) marks an important development.Lehmann 1989 248, 250 There is evidence of a dome in his Domus Transitoria at the intersection of two corridors, resting on four large piers, which may have had an oculus at the center. In Nero's Domus Aurea, or "Golden House", planned by Severus and Celer, the walls of a large octagonal room transition to an octagonal domical vault, which then transitions to a dome with an oculus.Warden 1981 271Sear 1983 97, 101 This is the earliest known example of a dome in the city of Rome itself.Lancaster 2005 42 The Domus Aurea was built after 64 AD and the dome was over 13 m us in diameter.Adam 2013 187 The exterior diameter of the octagonal room was 14.65 m us meters and the diameter of the oculus was 5.925.92 m us meters. The height of the dome (4.79 m us) was about equal to the height of the supporting walls (4.91 m us). The dome transitions from an octagonal plan to a circular plan at about 2 m us above its springing.Hannah Magli Palmieri 2016 514, 519 This octagonal and semicircular dome is made of concrete and the oculus is made of brick. The radial walls of the surrounding rooms buttress the dome, allowing the octagonal walls directly beneath it to contain large openings under flat arches and for the room itself to be unusually well lit.Conti Martines Sinopoli 2009 3, 5 Because there is no indication that mosaic or other facing material had ever been applied to the surface of the dome, it may have been hidden behind a tent-like fabric canopy like the pavilion tents of Hellenistic (and earlier Persian) rulers. The oculus is unusually large, more than two-fifths the span of the room, and it may have served to support a lightweight lantern structure or tholos, which would have covered the opening. Circular channels on the upper surface of the oculus also support the idea that this lantern, perhaps itself domed, was the rotating dome referred to in written accounts.Hemsoll 1989 7–9, 14 A rainwater drainage manhole in the floor at the center of the room, beneath the open oculus, has since been covered.Hannah Magli Palmieri 2016 515 According to Suetonius, the Domus Aurea had a dome that perpetually rotated on its base in imitation of the sky.Sear 1983 101 It was reported in 2009 that newly discovered foundations of a round room may be those of a rotating domed dining hall.Pisa 2009 1 Also reported in contemporary sources is a ceiling over a dining hall in the palace fitted with pipes so that perfume could rain from the ceiling, although it is not known whether this was a feature of the same dome.Lehmann 1989 250–253 The expensive and lavish decoration of the palace caused such scandal that it was abandoned soon after Nero's death and public buildings such as the Baths of Titus and the Colosseum were built at the site.Erdkamp 2013 147 Domitian The only intact dome from the reign of Emperor Domitian is a 16.1 m us on wide example in what may have been a nymphaeum at his villa at Albano. It is now the church of Santa Maria della Rotunda it Santuario di Santa Maria della Rotonda.Adam 2013 187 Domitian's 92 AD Domus Augustana established the apsidal semi-dome as an imperial motif.Hourihane 2012 303 Square chambers in his palace on the Palatine Hill used pendentives to support domes.de Camp 1990 177 His palace contained three domes resting over walls with alternating apses and rectangular openings.Wilson 2001 433 Twin octagonal halls covered with cloister vaults were made by Rabirius.Roca Juan‑Vidal Cipriani Fantini 2024 573 An octagonal domed hall existed in the domestic wing.Melaragno 1991 28 Unlike Nero's similar octagonal dome, its segments extended all the way to the oculus.Hourihane 2012 303 The dining hall of this private palace, called the Coenatio Jovis, or Dining Hall of Jupiter, contained a rotating ceiling like the one Nero had built, but with stars set into the simulated sky.Dewdney 2008 278 The so-called "Baths of Nero" at Pisa included an octagonal cloister vault over the small sudatio, or hot room, with a central oculus surrounded by eight rectangular openings in the ceiling, one in each slice of the vault.Cipriani Fantini Bertacchi 2016 138-139 See also Domes History of architecture References Citations 25em 20em Sources 35em Adam Jean-Pierre 2013 Roman Building: Materials and Techniques Routledge London, England https://books.google.com/books?id=vchVyCrT9uYC 978-1-134-61869-9 Cipriani Luca Fantini Filippo Bertacchi Silvia 2016 Understanding Ancient Design through Survey: Examples from Hadrian's Villa SCIRES-IT-SCIentific RESearch and Information Technology 6 2 CASPUR-CIBER Publishing 2239-4303 10.2423/i22394303v6n2p133 http://caspur-ciberpublishing.it/index.php/scires-it/article/viewFile/12249/11194 133–150 2018-04-21 2026-02-21 https://web.archive.org/web/20180421184247/http://caspur-ciberpublishing.it/index.php/scires-it/article/viewFile/12249/11194 dead Conti Cinzia Martines Giangiacomo Sinopoli Anna Constructions Techniques of Roman Vaults: Opus Caementicium and the Octagonal Dome of the Domus Aurea 2009 Proceedings of the Third International Congress on Construction History http://www.bma.arch.unige.it/PDF/CONSTRUCTION_HISTORY_2009/VOL1/Conti-Cinzia_Martines-Giangiacomo_Sinopoli-Anna_Paper_layouted.pdf 2015-03-13 2015-09-23 https://web.archive.org/web/20150923193739/http://www.bma.arch.unige.it/PDF/CONSTRUCTION_HISTORY_2009/VOL1/Conti-Cinzia_Martines-Giangiacomo_Sinopoli-Anna_Paper_layouted.pdf dead Dewdney Christopher 2008 Acquainted with the Night: Excursions Through the World After Dark Bloomsbury Publishing USA New York, NY https://books.google.com/books?id=3XzC207BbV4C 978-1-59691-768-2 Erdkamp Paul 2013 The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Rome Cambridge University Press Cambridge, England illustrated https://books.google.com/books?id=yaM0AAAAQBAJ 978-0-521-89629-0 Hannah Robert Magli Giulio Palmieri Antonella Nero's "Solar" Kingship and the Architecture of the Domus Aurea 2016 Numen 63 5/6 Brill 511–524 10.1163/15685276-12341436 44505307 1312.7583 David Hemsoll Hemsoll David 1989 Reconstructing the Octagonal Dining Room of Nero's Golden House Architectural History 32 SAHGB Publications Ltd. Cardiff, Wales 1568558 1–17 10.2307/1568558 Hourihane Colum 2012 The Grove Encyclopedia of Medieval Art and Architecture Oxford University Press Oxford, England https://books.google.com/books?id=FtlMAgAAQBAJ 978-0-19-539536-5 Krautheimer Richard 1986 Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture Yale University Press New Haven, CT 4th https://books.google.com/books?id=WXwX7fQ2DkUC 978-0-300-05294-7 Lancaster Lynne C. 2005 Concrete Vaulted Construction in Imperial Rome: Innovations in Context Cambridge University Press Cambridge, England illustrated https://books.google.com/books?id=NsuQIZUDv7sC 978-0-521-84202-0 Lehmann Karl The Dome of Heaven Kleinbauer W. Eugène Modern Perspectives in Western Art History: An Anthology of Twentieth-Century Writings on the Visual Arts 25 University of Toronto Press Toronto 1989 1945 227–270 https://books.google.com/books?id=LTKSh3gXYFAC&q=modern+perspectives+in+western+art+history 978-0-802-06708-1 Melaragno Michele G. 1991 An Introduction to Shell Structures: the Art and Science of Vaulting Van Nostrand Reinhold New York, New York softcover https://books.google.com/books?id=IzToBwAAQBAJ 978-1-4757-0225-5 Pisa Nick Remains of Nero's Rotating Dining Area Found in Ruins of his Rome Pleasure Dome September 30, 2009 London Evening Standard Evening Standard Ltd October 22, 2013 https://www.standard.co.uk/news/remains-of-neros-rotating-dining-area-found-in-ruins-of-his-rome-pleasure-dome-6795548.html Roca Alicia Juan‑Vidal Francisco Cipriani Luca Fantini Filippo 2024 On Vaulting: Heron's Manuals and Their Role in Roman Dome Design Nexus Network Journal 26 3 Birkhäuser https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00004-024-00771-2.pdf 571–592 10.1007/s00004-024-00771-2 Sear Frank 1983 Roman Architecture Cornell University Press Ithaca, NY revised https://archive.org/details/romanarchitectur0000sear registration 978-0-8014-9245-7 Sprague de Camp Lyon 1990 The Ancient Engineers Barnes & Noble Publishing New York, NY illustrated https://books.google.com/books?id=cauMt9vJLs0C 978-0-88029-456-0 de Camp 1990 Warden P. Gregory December 1981 The Domus Aurea Reconsidered Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 40 4 University of California Press Berkeley, CA 989644 271–278 10.2307/989644 Wilson R. J. A. Boardman John Griffin Jasper Murray Oswyn Roman Art and Architecture 2001 The Oxford History of the Roman World Oxford University Press Oxford, England illustrated https://books.google.com/books?id=nUgLVyPlO7EC 978-0-19-280203-3 Category:Ancient Roman architectural elements Category:Domes Category:History of structural engineering Category:1st century in the Roman Empire