File:A general history for colleges and high schools (1889) (14764394472).jpg

Identifier: generalhistoryfo01myer (find matches)
Title: A general history for colleges and high schools
Year: 1889 (1880s)
Authors: Myers, Philip Van Ness, 1846- (from old catalog)
Subjects: World history
Publisher: Boston, Ginn & company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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dings,carried stupendous aqueducts across the deepest valleys, andspanned the broadest streams with bridges that have resisted allthe assaults of time and flood to the present day. Sacred Edifices. — The temples of the Romans were in generalso like those of the Greeks that we need not here take time andspace to enter into a particular description of them. Mention,however, should be made of their circular vaulted temples, as thiswas a style of building almost exclusively Italian. The best repre-sentative of this style of sacred edifices is the Pantheon at Rome,which has come down to our own times in a state of wonderfulpreservation. This structure is about 140 feet in diameter. Theimmense stone dome which vaults the building, is one of theboldest pieces of masonry executed by the master-builders ofthe world. Circuses, Theatres, and Amphitheatres.—The circuses of theRomans were what we should call race-courses. There wereseveral at Rome, the most celebrated being the Circus Maximus,
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352 ARCHITECTURE. which was first laid out in the time of the Tarquins, and afterwardsenlarged as the population of the capital increased, until it wascapable of holding two or three hundred thousand spectators. The Romans borrowed the plan of their theatres from theGreeks; their amphitheatres, however, were original with them.The Flavian Amphitheatre, known as the Colosseum, has alreadycome under our notice (see p. 316). The edifice was 574 feetin its greatest diameter, and was capable of seating eighty-seventhousand spectators. The ruins of this immense structure standto-day as the embodiment of the power and splendor of theRoman Empire. Aqueducts. — The aqueducts of ancient Rome were among themost important of the utilitarian works of the Romans. Thewater-system of the capital was commenced by Appius Claudius(about 313 B.C.), who secured the building of an aqueduct whichled water into the city from the Sabine hills. During the republicfour aqueducts in all were completed; under t

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