THE EARTHIN THE FOUR ELEMENTS

AIR WATER EARTH FIRE

AIRCulture

History

EOLO

Eolo is the roman king of the wind. He was born human to become a god. After a familiar argument he escaped to the Eolie Islands.There he learned to control the wind and he became the guardian of it.

He was adored in all roman cities especialy by the sailors who used to pray him for making the wind blow in the right direction .

The roman god of air

AIR IN ROMAN HISTORY

ROMAN BELLOWS

The air was used in the foundries by means of the bellows. It is a mechanical instrument which blows air in the fire for making it bigger. It is a bag of leather with two handles.

L’IPOCAUSTO : THE HYPOCAUST The air was also used for heating the baths. In the “calidarium”(the sauna) there was a system of hot air passing under the floor , invented by Sergio Orata. The system could keep the temperature of a room at 35˚C called “ipocausto.”(hypocaust)

WATERCULTURE HISTORY

WATER IN ROMAN

CULTURE

POSEIDONE

The god of the horses and the

sea

Poseidone is the god of the horses,

the sea and the earthquakes. His wife was Nereide and his son was Tritone, half fish and halfhuman. His symbols were the horse, the dolphin and his trident.

Poseidone was venerated as the most important god in a lot of cities. The celebrations for him were in the beginning of the winter. He was adored by the sailors for his capacity of calming down the storms.

WATER IN HISTORY

THE ROMANS IN VENETO

In Roman’s age in the area near Oderzo there were only marshes. The Romans were the first population that tried to reclaim them, creating rivers like the Monticano and the Livenza.

The Monticano rises on the mountain Piai near Vittorio Veneto. Its name probably comes from a man called Monticanus who got these places as a prize.

The Livenza rises in San Polo. Its name is from the Celtic “ligita”=mud.

The big presence of water made the fields fertile with frequent floods, the problem was solved with the making of a system of embankments.

The “acquedotto del declino(aqueduct of decline)” was a waterworks that brought the water from the north to the centre of Vicenza. 5 arches and some columns can still be seen. It has got a structure of little blocks of limestone and it was 7000 meters long, with 900 arches.

ROMAN CULTURAL TRACES IN

VENETO

The Romans had a great culture and engineering competence because they built great infrastructure:

Roman BRIDGES were among the first large and lasting bridges ever built. They were made of stone and the arch was the basic structure. The majority was also built using the concrete. Of the many Roman bridges, which are present in the place Mercatelli-Anne, along the route of the Via Claudia Augusta Altinate, the most important is the Piave pebbles and blocks of conglomerate rock, held together by mud. It had an arch of 4m height and 5m width, had a small parapet from one side only and is strengthened by two wing walls which funnel the drain water towards the river.

Aqueducts: calculated the slope to bring the water from the source to the city.

Mills with crank and connecting rod first applied to a mechanism: This type of mill was used to cut the wood with the strength of the

water.   Dams: The Romans built many dams to collect water, such as dam

Subbiaco, two of which supplied the Anio Novus, one of the largest aqueducts of Rome.

CULTUREHISTORY

EARTH

EARTH

CULTURE

Gea Gaia was the goddess of the earth, mother of all things. It identified with the mother of everything. She generated Urano from nothing and with him she created the Titans.

She was adored because she could make the plants grow bigger and stronger.

The goddess of earth

Roman agriculture

• Agriculture was the most important thing in Roman Age and the 40% of the population worked in this sector. They cultivated cereals (wheat, barley, millet..) and they grew the vine.

EARTH IN HISTORY

Oderzo or Opitergium in roman times

• Opitergium became roman participating in the expedition against the populations that helped Hannibal in the second Punic war

roman

remains in

Opitergium

CULTUREHISTORY

FIRE

FIRE IN ROMAN

CULTURE

FIRE IN ROMAN CULTURE

The fire was used in the temples for adoring the gods. The sun can let the plants grow up so the romans considered it like the purest of all the elements.

Because of its purity it was adored by the priests. The god of fire was “Vulcano”. All the farmworkers adored

it.

The romans were also very worried by the fire so they had groups of men in charge of putting out a fire: the

firefighters.

FIRE: HOW IT WAS USED

IN ANCIENT TIMES

THE FIRE WAS USED MUCH IN BATTLES. FOR EXAMPLE SOME WEAPONS NEEDED THE USE OF FIRE : CATAPULTS THROWING BURNING MATERIAL, CROSSBOWS WITH FIERY ARROWS. THE FOCUS BEYOND THAT WEAPON WAS A THREAT TO ROME SEVERAL FIRES BURNT THE TOWN AND HAD TO BE REBUILT SEVERAL TIMES. FOR THIS REASON THE ROMANS CREATED THE FIRST FIRE BRIGADE.

THE FIRE