Arch 1701: Campus Martius, Ancient Rome: Architectural & Historical Assessment of The Pantheon

(Since I haven’t been here for a while I thought I’d pop in for a surprise visit and share a recent paper from architecture school. Here’s a 1:1 publication of the finished version)

I wanted to start with the authors note in giving a short characterization of the neighborhood holding the heart of the discussion, being Campus Martius holding the heart and focus of the Pantheon. After going through the process of restarting several drafts and re-formatting properly to meet the criteria of the formalities of the assignment, I do have to relay in advance there will be some grey areas where certain sections will come across as myself ‘thinking out loud’. Moments like that is giving my personal thoughts and interpretations of the information that’s been digested in such a way to reflect a organic structure of the context, for instance seeing the premise of genuine conversation of the source of information referenced with myself using coinciding information to build on to create room to not just meet the address the requirements of the assignment. But also challenge the status quo of the time frame by reimaginings of the standards of how things were at that time, by developing an understanding of peripheral information and context clues at hand, and treating it with care, but also holding the premise of duality between content and context.

I quick tangent I want to make note of now, that will be relevant later for brief context. And the idea here is not looking at the information that’s present at a surface level, but I want you to see its concept coinciding with the overall point and direction it’s going towards.

To get there I do want to characterize a method of interpretations and rearranging sheet music, conceptually, which again will later coincide with the overall point and direction Im talking this in regarding the the works of the Austrian Neurologist mentioned earlier called “The Interpretations of Dreams” by the Austrian neurologists.

Elaborating on the said sheet music. The photo above was taken at my residence just for emphasis.

The most blatant way to say this is having an assortment of shapes, breaking them apart, you have shards of said shapes left over. So you put the pieces back together lets say in one dimension and you add depth to create new shapes or reinterpretations of the same shape but in a different dimension. The first evaluation is one dimensional, then escalate that to two, then three. So on and so forth. This is the same thought process that Sigmund Freud had. when interpreting dreams where he has. a “puzzle picture” type of methodology in how he assesses his dreams.

Say for instance, the contents of the dream where as the nature of some might be a tad bit obscure. Imagine a person being taller than the height of his own house but still happens to walk right inside and fit right in completely at ease. Although the dream seems abstractly nonsensical. When you put the pieces together and value I want to make a distinction now in saying that the context on a given dream and the thoughts that you do have within the dream are two mutually exclusive pieces of information that can’t happen at the same time. They exist as two mutually exclusive pieces of information that can’t happen at the same time. They exist as two different languages. Like when youre in the waking state or you wake up, first you remember the dream. Then you recall the thought process that you had around it.

The premise I’m alluding to resembles that of the premise of “content and context” or in Sigmunds terms, he calls the dream thoughts and the dream context (Interpretation of Dreams, 1899, Chapter 6, Loc. 4313).

Originally the title of this report I felt needed to revolve its focus solely around the Pantheon being the sole topic of discussion. That’s the content. After realizing that what I chose is actually a more complex discussion depending on how its perceived. The concept around it, I found being the neighborhood that its in being Campus Martius. It opens up space to dive into its historical context and question things such as urban development by looking at the architectural elements used to understand the how and why certain changes in architectural and urban design became later changed as a result of the information made apparent in the focus of this assignment.

I’m using the psychological premise of “information chunking” as a literary device and element of structure for the nature of this paper.

In Cognitive Psychology,

Chunking is a process by which small individual pieces of. a set of information are bound together to create a meaningful whole later on in memory. (Explore Psychology, 20 Oct. 2023, www.explorepsychology.com/chunking-psychology-definition-and-examples.)

(Plan of Campus Martius;Cited on the final page)

How that relates the the content and context of Campus Martius and The Pantheon. I’m assuming the reader has somewhat of an understanding the how and why of the structure. The reasons as to why the structure was made. Before diving and discussing that in full or in a contextualized way. Something t keep in mind is that Rome is the denominator of our central topic. We cannot discuss the extentsion or byproduct of something without discussing the source. Much like rose pedals branching out from the root of its stem. “Chunking”, and applying that to Rome comes with the premise of critical thought and analysis.

That out of the way story beings where you as the reader effectively become the character in this narrative, enter a pod that lets you relive the past life being able to access the thoughts and memories of what Ancient Rome might’ve been like through the perspective of a resident residing within the neighborhood of the Campus Martius and home of the Pantheon. Now we can actually begin.

Archimedes ‘Sphere and & Cylinder’ Inside The Pantheon

Evaluating the Architecture of the Pantheon, There’s one of two things I want to unpack first. The geometry of the Pantheon references the work of ancient math and science.

The Pantheon was a Roman temple that completing its construction by 126 AD. The next thing is an honorable mention of a structure I know of quite well that I’ve covered a presentation on. There were footnotes in the preliminary draft that either made it to the final version or I think I forgot to omit. The crux of the information, meaning the focus was on the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey. There was a point where it’s uniqueness in the fact that structurally, it’s a combination of Byzantine, Islamic and gothic architecture. I remember prefacing that the image of how gothic architecture became depicted and modernized over time, came from influential sources being St. Augustine and Plato the great philosopher, solidifying the Christian belief and values while implementing geometric integrity when approaching architecture. The Hagia Sophia was built during the Byzantine time period in Constantinople, Turkey in between 532 to 537CE. From architectural aesthetics to special traits and minuscule nuances , the Pantheon and Hagia Sophia have identical concepts.

To see where things coincide, this is the other bullet point I’m getting at. St . Augustine during his life span made certain connections between mathematics and music composition, going so far as to characterize his perceptions and ideologies as a particular depiction of “Marhematical Harmony and perfection” as using the mathematical model of that time, expressing the relationship between two mutually exclusive components through the arithmetic of simple ratios in that they function and coincide in the symbolic nature of defining the Pythagorean Tetractys as a union between Christian belief and mathematical relationships.

Within the structural breakdown on the Pantheon, the sphere and cylinder is a fundamental work of Archimedes, in which he also established the formula for calculating the volume of a sphere. Formulas like that are important for similar structural typologies in dome architecture. I know this because something the Hagia Sophia taught me was minuscule offsets that occur mathematically can lead to devastating adverse effects. Part of what’s implied in the given instructions is being in the perspective of an architect. Something I learned due to the differing factor between the two structures being the asymmetry the Hagia Sophia had. Going beyond the

sphere and cylinder concept here in the pantheon, I ended up gaining more understanding asking questions in mathematical evaluations and calculating the magnitude of force affecting certain components in the event of a natural disaster and the nature of earthquakes that were endured. Leaving a considerable amount of damage as a result.

When explaining certain breakdowns such as the interior of the pantheon, Archimedes had an identical thought process in mathematical evaluation, also closely resembling the concept of “symmetria”, or mathematical harmony in geometry.

Something Archimedes, regarded as one of the greatest geniuses of antiquity, proved that the surface of the sphere and the curving surface of a circumscribed cylinder must be equal. surface area of the drum is equal to that of the dome it carries. The harmony between these two components is expressed by the simplest possible ratio of 1:1, both for the radii and the surface. Expressing his findings in a similar format as St. Augustine’s calculations and approach.

“The most admirable ratio, according to Augustine, is that of equality or symmetry, the ratio 1: 1, since here the union or consonance between the two parts is most intimate. Next in rank are the ratios 1:2, 2:3, and 3:4 — the intervals of the perfect consonances, octave, fifth, and fourth […].” (The Pantheon, 2019, Chap. 4, p. 121 — 128)

The Pantheon, in short, the structure was made to honor and give praise to the Rome Gods they were devoted to. It reflects a sense of pilgrimage that Ancient Rome had and the driving factor for architectural decision or changes to be later made. This is why having a sense of urban development I found to be a staple of reference.

Understanding the Gods that the Romans worshipped reflects the political atmosphere, and the nature of the aspirations that the very same level of regard was given to the caurasel of Emperors that shaped the overall Ancient Roman Empire into the faiths and beliefs people held back then. And the Modern interpretations that are being held now by scholars and individuals such as myself giving careful assessment. Driving factors as a result of actions made by the Roman’s are the result of one of two motivating factors: For religion, and for expansion. To spread a sort of regime of the Roman Empire.

We know that by the care and integrity of observing and analyzing the plan of Campus Martuis (the region house the structure we’re looking at being the pantheon. The pantheon was made to honor a total of 12 Pagen Roman Gods. Before elaborating on the architects of the Pantheon. I want to stress its important to include the

nuances and affliction that factored into its creation. Speak into the gods and why it’s important and crucial to Ancient Rome.

The way having more than one god worked is perceiving that the way Romans viewed their religion or by extension the Gods people became deciles of, I want to challenge you in seeing them the same way you see something on the premise of seeing it as “parts to a whole”. In later centuries Urban development showed up as connecting key points in the city, the main points of Rome because the focus was connecting the pilgrim churches of Rome by establishing Axis by the request and word of Pope Sixtus V (Dec 1520 — Aug 1590), and executed by his architect Domenico Fontana.

The use of chunking made use here uses the purpose and integrity used in ancient times to created structures such as the pantheon for reasons to also connect churches to allude to the fact of the devotion Rome had for the Gods being worshiped. The level of regard also being on par with the Roman Emperors Such that of Nero and Caligula that at in the event of the instances occurred, being highly regarded inside the wall of the Pantheon.

Other things that the Campus Martius reflects is the ingenuity taken for structures for not just religion to either worship or repent. Emperors were idolized. The structure coinciding with a potential interest of spreading the caliber of power and conquest being the connotations of what central or political affairs focused on (and my personal characterization), revolved around the strength and integrity of the Roman army. So structures like bathhouses and the colosseum became essential for reasons such as conditioning the Roman army. Infrastructure came as a result of understanding the premise of its functionality of why their being used.

The first bathhouse was made by the innovator himself, Nero. Generally bathhouses were mainly used for physical activity Iike exercise, bathing, etc. I can go on without debriefing the architectural elevation and engineering behind how features that also came about like how they went about heating rooms or generating heat within bathhouses […].

Before getting carried away with peripheral structures I do want bring our attention back to the Pantheon itself:

The Pantheon 110 — 128 (Now we can really begin… For real this time); that this last part of the stretch is more focused towards the factual information and not so much characterizing it as I have been.

As mentioned above the Pantheon was created for the purposes of worshipping the 12 Pagen Roman Gods being Apollo, Jupiter, Mars, Ceres, Juno, Neptune, Venus, Minerva, & Vulcan. It is a hybrid structure of a temple and tholos. There’s an inscription honoring Agrippas (The Pantheon’s architect) contribution, that in Latin translation goes as: “M-AGRIPPA-L-F-COS-TERTIVM-FECIT”. Translating to this: “Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, in his third consulate, made this. (The Pantheon, 2019, Cambridge)

Pantheon Diagram, www.penfield.edu/webpages/popup_info.cfm?photoslideshow=1488651&staffdir=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.penfield.edu%2Fwebpages%2Fjgiotto&mydsource=Penfield. Accessed 21 Nov. 2023.

Upon entering, or at its entrance right at the Portico (or the porch, and on top of that is the pediment.) the traditional square porch-like entrance leads straight into the massive rotunda (the circular room), that’s topped by a dome, and at the center of the dome we have one of my favorite attributes about it, called the oculus. Let me not also forget to mention the large granite Corinthian styled columns. A rectangular vestibule links the porch to the rotunda, sitting under a coffered concrete dome. Now the oculus itself its meant to let sunlight in, and ideally pose in

a “Devine” way. A lot like the Hagia Sophia Operates during the normal hours of the day. It also poses a question in how other situations were handled for other weather ailments like rainfall? How do I you think situations like that were handled?

(Works Cited On Final Page; Reference Image_1. Available at: https://images.app.goo.gl/3RP2hX5VEnJuxMJr9 (Accessed: 21 November 2023).

If I can think out loud for a moment, we have structures with dome architecture, and for me when I see domes this is something I believe is coinciding. When I think of domes and see various imitations of the “sphere

and rectangle” phenomena back then using architectural characteristics like so. I look at the modern day planetariums and see that they closely resemble several structural features back then looking in the aspect of dome architecture. The connection I felt worth making note here is that, what’s in common with the area of focus there and the Pantheon is that. The Pantheon was meant to be a microcosm of the universe: all the gods surrounding you. The dome symbolizing the heavens, and the oculus symbolizing the sun. In short, Im saying The Pantheon is Rome’s Architecture Of the Cosmos. Explaining that is what makes the essence of the assignment feel so dream-like, and why I chose to begin this assignment with a bit of the narrative the way that I did.

Something else I have to unpack is this;

Back in 2019 there was a non profit organization that was founded by an Australian physician, by the name of Dr. Phillip Nitschke. Over in Switzerland they created the blueprint that lead to the created of the “Death Pod”, designed for the doctor to see his vision in giving his patients a legal lethal, and voluntary injection. I’m also saying that this was curated for those with terminal illness or those battling cancer. I wanted to censor that and use that to function as a transition into the assignment. But also this is where I mention that it directly calls to the reference in funerary arrangements in the past like how burial chambers work.

Part of the being a hybrid structure that is the Pantheon is that it’s part temple and part Tholos or ‘circular tomb’, or ‘beehive tomb’ resembling the intents and purposes of the ‘Death Pod’ conveyed in reference here. The Pantheons circular design upon entering after passing its portico. Structurally its identical to the ‘Tholos’, much like the Tholos of Delphi (4th centuryBC). Upon entering and seeing light pass through the Pantheons oculus from the ground level looking up, while we’re still discussing funerary antics of the past. From the perspective mentioned, it resembles the burial chamber of Montagnola tomb from the Etruscan civilization.

Diving a little deeper into more structural component information about the pantheon, I can describe the material used. The Romans I believed used concrete to cast in molds. Wood frames were erected for walls and ceilings as concrete was poured into them as certain techniques were inherited from the Etruscans and the Greeks. (Lecture Notes. 2–3: Rome)

The arches acted as support against the force and amount of weight acting against it, that can also be broken down into several key components functioning as what was mentioned about weight and force. Curved structures are effective in distributing loads equally, and naturally distributes forces like so. Arches rely on the principle of compression, effectively distributing along the curvature of the structure, while using horizontal

forces known as thrusts. Thrusts need to be counteracted by one of the components called abutments. Something worth mentioning that also acts and functions towards weight distribution is the use of coffers. They are decorative panels that reduce the weight of the dome and help make the distribution more even, aesthetically adding more artistic beauty in the interior. The Pantheons one of the most monumental buildings of all time.

Works Cited

. Marder, Tod A., and Wilson Mark Jones. The Pantheon: From Antiquity to the Present. Cambridge University Press, 2019.

The Gothic Cathedral: Origins of Gothic Architecture and the Medieval …, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv10crfrn. Accessed 14 Nov. 2023.

Parsons, Talcott. “The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud.” PubMed, vol. 103, National Institutes of Health, Jan. 1974,pp. 91 — 96. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11615418.

. Yalcinkaya, Gunseli, and Gunseli Yalcinkaya. “Philip Nitschke’s 3D-printed ‘Death Pod’ Lets Users Die at the Press of a Button.” Dezeen, 10 July 2019, www.dezeen.com/2019/05/22/philip-nitschke-death-pod-design.

“15-LL-campus-martius — Photo Archive.” Photo Archive, 26 Mar. 2020, sights.seindal.dk/other-images-sources/lanciani-forma-urbis-romae/15-ll-campus-martius.

Reference Image_1. Available at: https://images.app.goo.gl/3RP2hX5VEnJuxMJr9 (Accessed: 21 November 2023).

Thanks for reading. If interested here’s a quick photo dump from that semester

https://www.instagram.com/p/C7dv5JPgaZm/?igsh=MTl1cHc0czBmazRqNw==