roman architecture Essay -- essays research papers

The city of capital of Italy has many of the great architectural feats of the ancient world. Many of these buildings and otherwise assorted structures, although they were built around 2000 years ago, are still standing(a) and even in use. At the start of Roman history, they imported their marble from another great ancient city Greece. However, they did eventually find quarries in northern Italy that held an abundance of white marble. This marble helped them become the great architectural city that we see even in present times.Later on, in the first century AD, the Romans began to use concrete in greater use. The architects of Rome used this concrete to make many structures including domes, arches, and vaults. They added bricks to these structures to improve the strength of the building. aft(prenominal) adding the bricks, they put on an extra layer of marble for decoration.One of the biggest improvements that the Romans do in architecture was the invention of the arch. These arch es added a great amount of weight to the structure. To help support this weight, the Romans invented a type of building material that is called a keystone block. The force on top of the arch was directed follow through to this keystone block. Because of the shape of the keystone block, this force was then pushed through the voussoir blocks that make the top of the arch. The force then went through the impost and the piers, finally polish up at ...