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Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome is a term that refers to the city of Rome, and by extension, the Roman Empire came to control and rule. The Roman city formed the seat of the Empire, which vast extending the entire Mediterranean and a larger part of Western Europe. In Ancient Rome, the hub of everyday life revolved around the city. Rome city was the nerve center of civilization of Ancient Rome. One key feature of Ancient Rome was its city planning, which was done using unique architectural designs (Rabun et al. 1). This study, therefore, seeks to focus on the city planning of Ancient Rome and particularly how the city’s plan was executed and if all this influenced the planning of other cities in the Empire.
Overall View of Planning in Ancient Rome
In the modern world, the planning of cities is a form of art guide by science. It involves foreshadowing the future, and in light of what to expect, decisions and plans are made to forestall a possible future crisis or needs (Charles 5). By applying the estimates of the future needs, a city makes informed planning decisions be it development, provision of social amenities, or mapping out the land for specific uses. The Romans’ planning and development of Ancient Roman show that they too recognized the need for planning and the aspects it entailed. However, it is argued that the structure of their community and their awareness that they were restricted in some way meant the Roman authorities gave that city planning less consideration than we do today (Sparavigna 4). No doubt, the Romans understood the concept of city planning. They had the benefit of the intellectual guidance of Aristotle. Also, there were surveyors and professional architects. For starters, a new city was planned to have a good defense and with critical buildings such as the temple, which was supplied with enough water.
Roman Cities
Ancient Rome traces its origins to a society of small farmers. Gradually, it grew from leaps and bounds to become a dominant urbanized society in the period before industrialization. Rome, in particular, became one of the largest cities in the world at the height of the Empire. Ancient Rome became more powerful due to its extensiveness, which made it easy for the Empire to exert its influence and growth of other cities around it. The cities took in thousands of inhabitants, which lead to the growth of both poor and wealthy settlements. The cities were not so different from each other since they had high rise blocks, overcrowded and busy streets, and imposed public management structures.
In Ancient Rome, just like any other city in the Roman Empire, the town was the communities who lived and led their kind of life affairs. The building blocks constituted the city, and the city, in turn, formed part of the Roman Empire. Every inhabitant of the Empire had to belong to the city of Rome. In terms of design and structure, Ancient Rome was constructed around what appears like a forum. Within the city, there was an ample open space in the center around which there were large public administrative buildings. The free space served several functions, including being a market place and, more importantly, the center for political meetings. To have this kind of buildings and structure, Ancient Roman relied on a strict code of architecture in its city planning.
Guiding Principles in the Development of Ancient Rome
The Romans set up big cities throughout their Empire. What stands out from the building of these cities, more so Ancient Rome is the similarity in terms of city planning. The Romans typically employed the same kind of city plans in setting up their cities. In Ancient Rome, the streets were kind of straight. In the city center, two wide roads led in two directions. From east to west and then from north to south. Also, the center of the city was typical Roman. The center’s structure is an open space for a forum that was left surrounded by public administrative buildings, meeting areas, and a market. These forms of city planning were replicated in all the cities within the Roman Empire.
Literature is replete with information that author and architect Vitruvius wrote in his de Architectura on the role that the general plan of the walls plays, including the public buildings (Fitzpatrick 5). Note, however, that this fails to mention the grid street plan. In the circumstances, this appears to bolster the argument that the planners in Ancient Rome who designed the streets prioritized the linear idea of moving up the urban space rather than the layout of the urban area.
Furthermore, the outside periphery of Ancient Rome was structured to have tall walls that typically fortified the city against external aggression. The importance of the walls during wartime cannot be overemphasized (Rabun et al. 14). The walls were particularly crucial for those cities whose locations were near the borders of the Empire. In terms of social amenities, Ancient Rome planning allowed the supply of water using aqueducts, which were constructed beyond the walls of the city to bring water. The water was uniquely directed to public baths and fountains.
In Conclusion, Ancient Roe did make attempts to have a rationalized system of planning. Still, the same did not materialize during the early times, and this birthed the era of speculative building. This, coupled with a time of imperial expansion of the Roman Empire, created an impetus for a standardized system of city planning for administrative purposes and defense. Gradually Ancient Rome adopted a systematic method of city planning that has over time, given the world knowledge of urban planning. In the modern era, we often mention and think of amphitheaters, pavements, and multi-story structures because Ancient Rome gifted us with those ideas.
Works Cited
Charles, Waldheim. Landscape as urbanism: A general theory. Princeton University Press, 2016.
et al., Taylor Rabun. Rome: An Urban History from Antiquity to the Present. Cambridge University Press, 2016.
Fitzpatrick, Nichols Marden. Author and Audience in Vitruvius’ De Architectura. Cambridge University Press, 2017.
Sparavigna, Amelia Carolina. “The town planning of Pompeii and Herculaneum having streets aligned along with sunrise on the summer solstice.” SSRN 2802439, (2016).