Discovering the humanities 3rd by henry m sayre 2016 chapter 03

or its affiliates All Rights Reserved Empire: Urban Life and Imperial Majesty in Rome, China, and India 3... Characterize imperial Rome, its dual sense of origin, and its debt to the Ro

Discovering the Humanities

by Pearson Education, Inc or its affiliates

All Rights Reserved

Empire: Urban Life and Imperial Majesty

in Rome, China, and India

3

Learning Objectives

1 Characterize imperial Rome, its dual

sense of origin, and its debt to the

Roman Republic

2 Describe the impact of the competing

schools of thought that flourished in early Chinese culture—Daoism,

Confucianism, and Legalism

Learning Objectives

3 Discuss the ways in which both

Hinduism and Buddhism shaped Indian culture

Colonnaded street in Thamugadi, North Africa View toward the Arch of Trajan.

Late second century CE Henri Stierlin/akg-images [Fig 3.1]

• One of the two sources for the Roman

culture is the Greek Hellenic culture,

which the Romans adopted for their

own

• The Greeks had colonized the southern

coastal regions of the Italian peninsula and Sicily since the eighth century BCE

City plan of Thamugadi (line drawing).

ca 200 CE

©1996 Harry N Abrams, Inc [Fig 3.2]

The Roman Empire at its greatest extent, ca 180 CE

[Fig Map 3.1]

• The other source for the Roman culture

is the Etruscan culture, which occupied modern-day Tuscany

• Women played a far more important

role in Etruscan culture than in Greek, and Roman culture would later reflect the Etruscan sense of women's equality

Republican Rome

• Traditionally, Romans distinguished

between patricians, the landowning

aristocrats who served as priests,

magistrates, lawyers, and judges, and

plebians, the poorer class who were

craftspeople, merchants, and laborers

She-Wolf ca 500–480 BCE Bronze with glass-paste eyes Height 33".

Museo Capitolino, Rome akg-images/Erich Lessing [Fig 3.3]

Video: Students on Site: She-Wolf

Republican Rome

• In republican Rome, every plebian

chose a patrician as his patron whose duty it was to represent the plebian in any matter of law and provide an

assortment of assistance in other

matters, primarily economic

• This paternalistic relationship—which

we call patronage—reflected the

family's central role in Roman culture

Head of a Man (possibly a portrait of Lucius Junius Brutus) ca 300 BCE

Bronze Height: 27-1/2".

Museo Capitolino, Palazzo dei Conservatori, Rome © Araldo de Luca/Corbis [Fig 3.4]

Roman Rule

• Whenever Rome conquered a region, it

established permanent colonies of

veteran soldiers who received

allotments of land

• The prosperity brought about by Roman

expansion soon created a new kind of

citizen, the wealthy equites, in Rome.

• The union of the First Triumvirate

ensured Julius Caesar's rise to power

A Divided Empire

• Caesar brought all of Gaul together

during his time as governor there,

declaring, "I came, I saw, I conquered."

• He assumed dictatorial control over

Rome after the defeat of the other two members of the Triumvirate

• On the Ides of March, 44 BCE, he was stabbed 23 times by a group of 60

senators

Cicero and the Politics of Rhetoric

• The rhetorician (writer and public

speaker, or orator) Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BCE) recognized the power of

the Latin language to communicate

with the people

• By the first century CE, Latin was

understood to be potentially a more

powerful tool of persuasion than Greek

Cicero and the Politics of Rhetoric

• Philosophically, Cicero's argument

extends back to Plato and Aristotle, but rhetorically—in the structure of its

argument—it is purely Roman

• Cicero's argument is purposefully

deliberate in tone, aiming at giving

sage advice

Portrait Busts, Pietas, and Politics

• A major Roman art form of the second

and first centuries BCE was the portrait bust

A Roman Man ca 80 BCE Marble Life-size.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Rogers Fund, 1912

(12.233) Image © The Museum/Art Resource/Scala, Florence

[Fig 3.5]

Document: Cicero (106–43 BCE ), Letters to Atticus I 9–

10 (67 BCE , Rome)

Portrait Busts, Pietas, and Politics

• Portrait busts are generally portraits of

patricians, and they share with their

Greek ancestors an affinity for

naturalistic representation, but they are even more realistic, revealing their

subjects' every wrinkle and wart

(verism).

Portrait Busts, Pietas, and Politics

• The essentially propagandistic Roman

busts claim for their subjects the

wisdom and experience of age

• These images celebrate pietas, the

deep-seated Roman virtue of dutiful

respect toward the gods, fatherland,

and parents

• Augustus was duty-bound to exhibit

pietas, the obligation to his ancestors

"to rule the people."

Augustus of Primaporta ca 20 BCE

Imperial Rome

• While Augustus is recognizable in his

sculptures, the sculptures are idealized

• He was over 70 years old when he died, yet he was always depicted as young

and vigorous, choosing to portray

himself as the ideal leader rather than

the wise, older pater.

Family Life

• With his commission of the Ara Pacis

Augustae, Augustus also addressed

what he considered a crisis in Roman society—the demise of the family

• The monument is preeminently a

celebration of family

• It demonstrates the growing

prominence of women in Roman

society

Ara Pacis Augustae, Rome, detail of Imperial Procession, south frieze 13–9 BCE

Marble Width: approx 35'.

© Photo Scala, Florence - courtesy of Sovraintendenza di Roma Capitale [Fig 3.7]

Literary Rome: Virgil, Horace, and

Ovid

• When Augustus took control of Rome,

he arranged for all artistic patronage to

pass through his office

• Virgil and Horace had lost all their

property, but Augustus's patronage

allowed them to keep on with their

writings

• He was far less supportive of the poet

Ovid, whom he banished from Rome

Virgin and the Aeneid

• Georgics was written in dactylic

hexameter, wherein every line

consists of six rhythmic units, or feet, and each foot is a dactyl (long-short- short) or a spondee (long-long).

• Virgil's message in the Aeneid is that civic duty should take precedence over private life

Virgin and the Aeneid

• In the Aeneid, Aeneas is driven off to

Carthage, where he meets queen Dido

• Dido, who has fallen in love with him, gives herself to him and assumes they are married

• Aeneas rejects Dido to resume his

destined journey, and Dido commits

suicide in her despair

The Horatian Odes

• Horace, a close friend of Virgil, was won

over to the emperor's cause with

patronage

• His Odes are lyrical poems of elaborate

and irregular meter

• Subject matter ranges from patriotic

pronouncements to private incidents in the poet's life, the joys of the

countryside and wine, and so on

Ovid's Art of Love and

Metamorphoses

• Ovid's talent was for love songs that

satisfied the loose sexual mores of the Roman aristocrats, who lived in

somewhat open disregard of Augustus

• Art of Love describes the poet's desire

for the fictional Corinna

• Metamorphoses is a collection of stories

rather than an epic, but it contributed importantly to later literature

Roman Idyllic Landscape, wall painting from a villa at Boscotrecase, near Pompeii.

First century BCE Fresco.

Museo Nazionale, Naples The Art Archive/Musée Archéologique Naples/Gianni Dagli Orti.

[Fig 3.8]

Augustus and the City of Marble

• Of all the problems facing Augustus

when he assumed power, the most

overwhelming was the infrastructure of Rome

Pont du Gard, near Nîmes, France Late 1st century BCE –early 1st century CE

Height 180'.

Walter Bibikow/Getty Images [Fig 3.9]

Augustus and the City of Marble

• He called for a series of public works,

which he also planned as a kind of

imperial propaganda, underscoring not only his power but also his care for the

people in his role as pater patriae.

• He built aqueducts to bring more water into the city

[Fig 3.10]

Architectural Simulation: Round Arch

Architectural Simulation: Barrel and Groin Vaults

Public Works: The Aqueduct and

the Arch

• In the round arch, the weight of

masonry above the arch is displaced by

supporting upright elements (piers or

jambs).

that form the supporting scaffolding of

the arch, topped with the keystone,

the last element put in place

Public Works: The Aqueduct and

the Arch

• The space inside the arch is called the

bay.

• Wall areas between the arches of an

arcade (a succession of arches) are

called spandrels.

• When a round arch is extended, it is

called a barrel vault.

Public Works: The Aqueduct and

the Arch

the downward pressure from the arches does not collapse

• When two barrel vaults meet one

another at a right angle, they form a

groin vault.

The Colosseum

• The Colosseum employed both barrel

and groin vaulting

• Gladiators, athletes, and wild animals would entertain an estimated audience

of 50,000

• Each level employed a different

architectural order

• All columns are engaged and purely

decorative—not structurally critical

Aerial view of the Colosseum, Rome Constructed 72–80 CE

© Patrick Durand/Sygma/Corbis [Fig 3.11]

Video: Students on Site: Colosseum

Architectural Panorama: Colosseum

The Imperial Roman Forum

• This vast building project was

undertaken in Rome by the Five Good Emperors

• Originally serving like a Greek agora,

the forum began to hold a symbolic function testifying to prosperity

• A basilica is a large, rectangular

building with a rounded extension,

called an apse, at one or both ends.

Model of Imperial Rome showing the Imperial Forums.

© Araldo de Luca/Corbis [Fig 3.12]

Reconstruction drawing of the central hall, Basilica Ulpia, Forum of Trajan, Rome 113 CE

Dr James E Packer (reconstruction drawn by Gilbert Gorski) [Fig 3.13]

Triumphal Arches and Columns

• Like all Roman monumental

architecture, triumphal arches and

columns were intended to symbolize

Rome's political power and military

might

Arch of Titus Rome ca 81 CE Robert Harding/Roberto Matassa/age fotostock [Fig 3.14]

Spoils from the Temple in Jerusalem, detail of the interior relief of the Arch of Titus.

ca 81 CE Height of relief approx 7'10".

Werner Forman Archive [Fig 3.15]

Column of Trajan, Forum of Trajan, Rome 106–13 CE

Marble Overall height with base, 125'.

© Dennis Cox/Alamy [Fig 3.16]

Closer Look: Column of Trajan

The Pantheon

• One of the most ambitious building

projects is Hadrian's Pantheon, a

temple to "all the gods."

lighten the weight of the roof

• The oculus, or "eye" at the top of the

dome admits light and may have

symbolized Jupiter's ever-watchful eye over state affairs

Lower portion of the Column of Trajan, Forum of Trajan, Rome 106–113 CE

© 2014 Photo Scala, Florence - courtesy of the Ministero Beni e Att Culturali [Fig 3.17]

The Pantheon, Rome 118–125 CE

© Vincenzo Pirozzi, Rome fotopirozzi@inwind.it [Fig 3.18]

Video: Students on Site: Pantheon

Architectural Panorama: Pantheon

Roman The Pantheon, Rome, schematic drawing showing original forecourt.

118–125 CE [Fig 3.19]

Interior of the Pantheon, Rome.

© Hemera Technologies/Alamy.

[Fig 3.20]

• Much of what we know today about

everyday Roman life is the direct result

of the Vesuvius eruption

• Buried under the ashes were not only

homes and buildings but also food and paintings, furniture and garden

statuary, even pornography and graffiti

Atrium House of the Silver Wedding, Pompeii 1st century BCE

Erich Lessing/akg-images [Fig 3.21]

Plan of the House of the Silver Wedding, Pompeii 1stcentury BCE

[Fig 3.22]

Domestic Architecture: The Domus

• The domus was the townhouse of the

wealthier-class citizen

• An atrium was a space with a shallow

pool for catching rainwater below its

roof

• A central peristyle courtyard was

surrounded by a colonnaded walkway

Wall Painting

• Paintings adorned the walls of the

atrium, hall, and dining room of the

domus.

• Artists worked with pigments in a

solution of lime and soap, sometimes mixed with a little wax, polished with a special metal or glass, and then buffed with a cloth

Garden Scene, detail of a wall painting from the Villa of Livia at Primaporta,

near Rome Late 1st century BCE

Fresco.

Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome © Vincenzo Pirozzi, Rome fotopirozzi@inwind.it.

[Fig 3.23]

Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli

• The buildings at Hadrian's villa were

copies of his favorite places throughout the entire Empire

• A long reflecting pool called the Canal is

surrounded by a colonnade with

alternating arched and linteled

entablatures

 A copy of the Discobolus sculpture is set

in between columns.

The Canal (reflecting pool) at Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli ca 125–135 CE.

© Vincenzo Pirozzi, Rome fotopirozzi@inwind.it [Fig 3.24]

• Chinese culture in the Central Plain

coalesced in ways that parallel

developments in the Middle East and

Greece during the same period

• Unification—first achieved by the Qin

dynasty through the building of the

Great Wall—has remained a preeminent problem throughout China's long

history

Map of China, ca 1600 BCE

[Fig Map 3.2]

The Great Wall, near Beijing, China Begun late 3rd century BCE

Length approx 4,100 miles, average height 25'.

D E Cox/Stone/Getty Images [Fig 3.25]

Early Chinese Culture

• As inscribed on oracle bones and

bronze vessels, the earliest Chinese

written language is so closely related to the modern Chinese written language that it remains legible

The Shang Dynasty (ca 1700–1045 BCE)

• The ideas for the first classic of Chinese

literature, The Book of Changes, or Yi

Jing, were developed in the Shang era.

• It is a guide to interpreting the workings

of the universe and a book of wisdom

that prescribes certain behaviors

appropriate to the situation

The Shang Dynasty (ca 1700–1045 BCE)

• These ideas are reflected in the Chinese

symbol of yin yang.

• Through the manufacture of ritual

vessels, the Shang developed an

extremely sophisticated bronze-casting technology, as advanced as any ever

used

Yin yang symbol.

[Fig 3.26]

Sprouted ritual wine vessel (guang) Shang dynasty, early

Anyang period, 13th century BCE Bronze Height 8-1/2".

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Rogers Fund, 1943

(43.25.4) © Art Resource/Photo Scala, Florence/Lynton

Gardiner [Fig 3.27]

Document: Excerpt from the

Shi Jing (Book of Songs)

The Zhou Dynasty (1027–265 BCE)

• The Zhou ushered in an era of cultural

refinement and philosophical

accomplishment

• The oldest collection of Chinese poetry

is the Zhou Book of Songs (Shi jing),

which is still taught in today's Chinese schools

The Zhou Dynasty (1027–265 BCE)

• The two great strains of Chinese

philosophy—Daoism, a mystical

quietism based on harmony with

Nature, and Confucianism, a pragmatic political philosophy based on personal cultivation—came into full flower during the Zhou dynasty

Imperial China

• Whereas Rome's empire derived from

outward expansion, China's empire

arose from consolidation at the center

• From about the time of Confucius

onward, seven states vied for control

The Qin Dynasty (221–206 BCE):

Organization and Control

• Under the leadership of the first

emperor, Qin Shi-huangdi, the Qin

dynasty unified China and undertook

massive building projects

• The projects included the 4,000

mile-long Great Wall, enormous networks of roads, and the emperor's own tomb,

guarded by nearly 8,000 life-size

ceramic soldiers