Practice question · Multiple choice
Greek temples are experienced from outside and Roman buildings from within. Which technical development produced that reversal?
Hints
- Ask what fills the inside of a Greek temple, and why.
- A lintel can span a few metres. What does that force you to put underneath a large roof?
Show the answer
D. Concrete with the arch and vault, freeing the interior
Why
Post-and-lintel forces columns every few metres, so a Greek interior is a forest and the architecture happens on the outside; concrete vaults carry the load in compression and empty the floor. The Pantheon's 43-metre span is the argument, an interior that is the building.
Practise Roman Art and Engineering
The app has 4 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. History I is free to start.
More questions on Roman Art and Engineering
- The Romans did not invent the arch. Mesopotamians and Etruscans used it earlier. What did the Romans actually…
- Roman concrete let unskilled labour lay the bulk while skilled workers built only the formwork. Why did that…
- Order these Roman works and developments chronologically.
- Pozzolana let Roman concrete cure under water. Why did that chemistry change what Roman architecture could…
- Match each Roman structural form to its definition.
- Sort each trait: Republican verism or Augustan idealism?