Preface

MacDonald, William L.

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Preface

William L. MacDonald

The Architecture of the Roman Empire, Volume II: An Urban Appraisal

The critical evaluation of ancient classical architecture lags well behind that of most subsequent western architectural periods. Ancient buildings are so often discussed as isolated entities or as members of typological or regional groups that contextual implications and overall formal and thematic relationships are frequently undervalued. I believe that...

Author

William L. MacDonald

PublisherYale University Press

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00121.002

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-17669

Preface

The critical evaluation of ancient classical architecture lags well behind that of most subsequent western architectural periods. Ancient buildings are so often discussed as isolated entities or as members of typological or regional groups that contextual implications and overall formal and thematic relationships are frequently undervalued. I believe that studying Roman buildings primarily as urban elements can help bring classical architecture into clearer focus and at the same time advance our understanding of the imperial town, the paramount artifact and image of Roman civilization.

An early attempt at such a study proved inadequate. Further research and travel, as time and resources permitted, as well as editorial and other work on the Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, broadened my knowledge and helped me see the shape of the book more clearly; the new draft that followed was the basis for this book. The discussion is still tentative in some respects, but it is unlikely that further effort on my part would improve it appreciably.

Although attempting a synoptic view of so large a subject makes mistakes and frequent qualification inevitable, the risks seem to me worth taking. The book is offered with the same awareness, and in the same hope, that Haverfield expressed in 1913 in his Ancient Town-Planning, when he said that although “completeness and certainty are often unattainable and errors fatally easy, [the] results may nevertheless contain some suggestions and may help future workers.” That the text has fewer mistakes and infelicitous features than it had as I composed it is due chiefly to the knowledge and generosity of friends who read the manuscript and gave me the benefit of their advice and criticism. Ramsay MacMullen and Bernard M. Boyle kindly pointed out various weaknesses and obscurities, and Sterling Dow gave the work the same painstaking attention he gave to my undergraduate course papers almost forty years ago. I am much indebted to them for their help, as I am also to Judy Metro of the Yale University Press for her advice and patience.

Among those who helped me in other ways, Francesca Wiig has my warmest thanks for making the Dean William Emerson Fund available; her generosity helped defray the cost of work at Hadrian’s Villa and of several forays from Rome into the provinces. I deeply appreciate also the assistance of the archaeologists and custodians who took the time to facilitate visits to their sites as I crisscrossed the empire over the years. The content of the book rests largely on direct study of buildings and of sites large and small, attended or not; many were examined at length and visited repeatedly. But I regret that I have not been to Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, or the easternmost districts of Turkey. Elsewhere there are also sites I know only from publications, for example (and inexplicably) Lugo, or Apamea. Some were unreachable—Dura Europos, for instance—because travel permits could not be obtained. Two or three, such as Gemellae, simply refused to be found, though later I discovered that Gemellae is a kilometer or so from where I had finally come to a halt, peering Sahara-ward.

For help on various points I wish to thank Wilhelm Alzinger, Herbert Benario, Lorne Bruce, David Buck, George Dimock, Karin Einaudi, Paul-Albert Février, Alfred Frazer, Ann Gilkerson, Charles Henderson, John Hoag, Renata Holod, John Humphrey, Spiro Kostof, Yani Makridis, Lucilla Marino, John Pinto, David Rupp, Myles Weintraub, Fikret Yegül, and the Syrian scholars who organized the Ninth International Congress of Classical Archaeology. The names of the late Richard Goodchild, Ernest Nash, Henry Rowell, and John Ward-Perkins belong here also. I am indebted to those who made the drawings and to those who kindly provided me with photographs; their names appear in the credits for illustrations.

Above all I want to record my gratitude to Boris Bittker, Sterling Professor of Law in Yale University, for the gift of a splendid trip with him through Morocco and Algeria and for his company during other explorations, and to the distinguished scholars whose unfailing support and generosity, of many years’ duration, are gratefully but inadequately acknowledged in the dedication.

W. L. M.

Washington D.C.

December 1984

The plans, drawings, and models are on the whole only general guides to the ancient states of sites and buildings. Different place names inevitably appear in different languages; traditional English versions are often used. The examples cited are not intended to be inclusive. All dates are A.D. unless otherwise indicated. The adjective “Roman,” used without qualification, refers to imperial times. Phrases like “Roman Pergamon” indicate complete ancient cities and towns of the empire insofar as they are known, not just their structures of Roman date.

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