CHAPTER 4/ THE ROMANS AND

THE EARLY MEDIEVAL

PERIOD

•We shall spend very little time on the Romans, because they were not an artistic people . Their great contribution to the future was in the fields of law and engineering.

•According to legend Rome was founded by Romulus and Remus, twin brothers descended from Venus and Mars.

From 753 to 509 B.C the Romans were subjects of the Etruscans, whose civilization was superior to theirs in industry, commerce, and in the arts.

ROMANS CIVILIZATION

The Romans have the insight to take from their subjugated peoples devices and accomplishments which they could adapt to their own purposes. From the Etruscans they took the round arch and the groined vault.

In every town they subjugated, in every colony they established, the Romans at once set up a system of law and order which would govern the people with justice . These procedures became standardized and formed the basis for all subsequent legal procedure in Western Civilization.

The Pantheon, temple of the God.

When the Romans conquered a Greek town, they despoiled it of all the art treasure they could carry away and even took the artists themselves to work for them in adorning their homes with sculpture and object d’art

TORSOS

The towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum were summer resorts of the wealthy, whose villas were pleasure houses in every sense of the word.

Romans were not very musical though they employed Greek slave musicians to play the lyre during their banquets.

• You can see Roman women performing on the lyre in some of their wall paintings, and music was a part of their educational system, but probably lacked a high degree of merit.

THE EARLY MEDIEVAL PERIOD

During the whole medieval period of almost a thousand years, there was a record of continual struggle and fighting.

In 313 Constantine the Great issued an edict of toleration, an act which paved the way for the Emperor Theodosius I to make Christianity the roman state religion about 365. In 330 Constantine moved his capital from Rome to Byzantium and renamed the city Constantinople.

CONSTANTINE THE GREAT

Emperor Theodosius I

THE BARBARIANS the barbaric invasions which started in the fourth and

fifth centuries and spread gradually over the whole of southern Europe were destructive, of course, but in the long run their effect was salutary because they infused the tired social fabric with new blood and energy. It may be well to note that every time a civilization becomes over cultivated, it is revitalized from folk or “barbarian” sources. This has happened again and again right down to our own day.

In the Capitoline Museum in Rome, there is a Roman copy of a late Greek bronze sculpture called “THE DYING GAUL”.WHO WERE THE “GAULS” ?

The Goths, Franks, and the Lombards they were nomads with no indigenous culture

The Early Church from humble beginnings, the Church

gradually rose to a position of power and authority.

ARCHITECTUREThe first great need of early church was for a building large enough for communal worship. In the ROMAN basilica, the Christians found structure which they adapted to their purpose.

St. Catherine

St. Lucia

St, Mark