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The Architects of Greece and Rome

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2016

M. L. Clarke
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Extract

The words architect and architecture, derived from Greek through Latin, remind us that the architectural profession has its origins in the ancient world. Architects in a sense have always existed, in that wherever there have been buildings there has been someone to design them, but architecture has not always been a profession. It was so in antiquity, as it is today, but was not always in the intervening period. There were no doubt working masons in Greece and Rome who could put up a modest building on their own, and we know of at least one amateur architect, the Emperor Hadrian, but in general the designing of buildings was a matter for the professional man.

Type
Research Article
Information
Architectural History , Volume 6 , 1963 , pp. 9 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 1963

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References

Notes

1. άρχιέκτωυ distinguished from τέκτωυ in Plato, Erast. 135 B; architectus from laber in Cic. Fam. IX, 2, 5.

2. Plato, Vol. 259 E.

3. I.G. XI, 161A, 43–6; id. 165, 13, 20, 24; id. 203A, 60. It is however highly unlikely that the Philo who appears as one of the workmen at Delphi (S.I.G. 250, col. V, 25) is to be identified with the famous architect of that name.

4. Plut, Ver. 13.

5. ύπoγρφήν …. ήν καί ήργoλάβησε. Inscr. Prien. 207.

6. See Martial V, 56, 9–10.

7. See Economic Survey of Rome (ed. Frank, T.) I, 380–81Google Scholar.

8. Cic, Off. I, 151.

9. Strabo XIV, 2, 5.

10. Cod. Theod. XIII, 4 Google Scholar, 1.

11. Vitr. IV, 3, 3.

12. Economic Survey of Rome, IV, 3, 3.

13. Vitr. VI, pref. 5–6.

14. Vitr. VI, viii, 10.

15. S.I.G., 989.

16. Vitr. I, 1, 4.

17. id. I, 2, 2.

18. Gell. XIX, 10.

19. Vitr. I, 3, 1.

20. Herod. III, 60, IV, 87, VII, 36. At Rome aqueducts came within the sphere of the architect; the water commissioners established under Augustus had architects on their staff. Frontinus, Aqu. II, 100, 119.

21. Vitr. 1, pref. 2.

22. Procop., Aed. IV, 6; Wescher, Poliocétique des Grecs.

23. Hist. Aug. Alex. Sev., xliv.

24. Procop., Aed. 1, i, 24, 68, 71, II, iii, 2, viii, 25.

25. Col. V, 1, 3. The existence of this profession implies a system of payment by measure, for which there is also evidence from Greek building inscriptions.

26. Herod. III, 60; Paus. VII, 14, 8; id. III, 12. 10; Plin. N.H. XXXVI, 90. Pliny (XXXIV, 83) makes Theodorus architect of a labyrinth at Samos, but there may be a confusion here with the labyrinth at Lemnos.

27. Vitr. III, 2, 7, VII, pref. 12, 16, X, 2, 11–12; Strabo XV, 1, 22; Plin. N.H. VII, 125, XXVI, 95. According to Vitruvius this temple was said to have been completed later by Paeonius and Demetrius, Paeonius being also architect, with Daphnis of Miletus, of the temple of Apollo at Didyma. The latter temple was burnt in 494 and its successor not started till at earliest 333 B.C. It seems probable that Paeonius and Daphnis designed the fourth-century temple rather than the early one, and that Paeonius’s work at Ephesus was connected with the fourth-century rebuilding of the temple there.

28. Vitr. VII, pref. 15.

29. Paus. III, 12, to; III, 17, 2; 18, 7; IV, 30, 6.

30. Paus. VIII, 45, 5, II, 27, 5.

31. Vitr. VII, pref. 12. The difficulty is that Vitruvius refers to a Doric temple whereas the sixth-century Heraeum was Ionic.

32. Plut. Per. 13.

33. Plut. Per. 13; Vitr. VII, pref. 12.

34. S.I.G. 62; id. 63; Plut., Per. 13. A conjectural restoration of S.I.G. 91, 11. 39–40 makes Mnesicles architect of other works on the Acropolis. Inscriptions record the names of some lesser Athenian architects of this period: Philocles, mentioned in a report on the state of the work at the Erechtheum in 409–8 B.C (I.G. 1, 322), Archilochus, in charge of work at the same temple in the next year (I.G. I, 324a, 1. 56, 324c, col. II, 11. 8–9), and Demomeles, architect of a causeway on the Sacred Way to Eleusis. (S.I.G., 86).

35. Plut. Per. 13; Vitr. VII, pref. 16; Strabo IX, 1, 12.

36. Paus. VIII, 41, 8.

37. Paus. II, 17, 3.

38. Paus. V, 10, 3, VI, 19, 7–8.

39. S.I.G. 969; I.G. II, ii. 803E, 1. 135; Cic, De Or. 1, 62; Strabo IX, 1, 15; Plin., N.H. VII, 125; Plut., Sull. 14, 7; Vitr. VII, pref. 12, 17.

40. Strabo XIV, 1, 22. Strabo identifies Cheirocrates with the architect of Alexandria, generally referred to as Deinocrates. 41. Vitr. I, 1, 12, id. 15, IV, 3, 1, VII, pref. 12.

42. He is called Cheirocrates by Strabo (see n. 40) and Stasicrates by Plutarch (Alex. 72, 3) and there are other variants in later sources. Deinochares, whom Pliny makes architect of Alexandria (N.H. V, 62, VII, 125) was probably a different person. He designed the temple of Arsinoe at Alexandria (Aus., Mos. 311; Plin., N.H. XXXIV, 148, where he is called Timochares).

43. Vitr. II, pref. 1–4.

44. Strabo XVII, 791; Lucian Am. 11, Hist Conscr. 62; Plin. N.H. XXXVI, 83; I.G. XI, 4, 563, 1038, 1130, 1190; Delph. III, 1, 298, 299.

45. Vitr. Ill, 2, 6; III, 3, 8–9; IV, 3, 1; VII, pref. 12. 46. l.G. I, 322.

47. I.G. XI, 142, 11. 27–8, 150, 11. 6, 10, IJ6, 1. 22, is8A, 11. 63, 82, 161. 1. 44 et passim; Inscr. Délos, 366, 1. 1.

48. S.I.G. 83, 1. 12, 236B, 972, 1. 53.

49. S.I.G. p. 371n. Cf. id. 972 for an assistant architect at Lebadea in 160 B.C.

50 χειρoτoνεî δ' άρχιτέκτoναs ò δñμos έπί τάS ναs Ath. Pol. 46.

51. Dem., Cor. 28; I.G. 11. 167. 11.6–7.

52. Strabo XII, 8, 11.

53. Strabo XIV, 2, 5.

54. I.G. V, i, 4. 5; IX. i, 694. 1. 145; XII, i, 1; S.I.G. 483. 1. 29; 725. 1. 6; 679, 11. 17f; 577. 1. 81f; 581, xxi; 345, 11. 34–5; I.G. II, i, 335. Cf. R. Martin, L’Urbanisme dans la Gréce Antique, p. 69.

55. Vitr. X. 16, 3–8.

56. S.I.G. 707.

57. See Glotz, Journal des Savants, 1913, p. 206f; Homolle, B.C.H. XIV, pp. 477–86. For references in accounts to payments to architects see, for the Erechtheum, I.G. I, 324c, col. II, 11. 8–10; for Eleusis. I.G. II, ii, 834b, v, 1. 59; for Epidaurus, I.G. IV, 1484, II. 9, 32; for Delos, I.G. XI, 144. 11. 26f.; 148, 1. 66; 158A, 1. 52; 159A, 1. 62; Inscr. Délos 161. 1. 83; 162, l. 46: 203A, 1. 60: 204, 11. 65. 67; 287A, 1. 87; 291, 1. 107; 316, 1. 116; 440A, 1. 31; 442A, 11. 195, 197; 447, 1. 8. For Delphi see Dittenberger’s note on p. 371 of S.I.G., where detailed references are given.

58. Glotz, Ancient Greece at Work (E.T.), p. 283.

59. Plato, Erast. 135 C.

60. Arist. Pol. II, 5: VI, 10, 4; Diog. Laert. II, 125; Pol. XIII, 4, 6.

61. Vitr. VI, pref. 6.

62. Vitr. III, 2, 5; Veil. I, 11, 3; Nep. fr. 13 (Halm).

63. Vitr. VII, pref. 15, 17.

64. Vitr. III, 2, 5; VII, pref. 14, 17.

65. Cyrus: Cic, Att. II, iii, 2; IV, x, 2; Q.F. II, ii, 2. Chrysippus: Att. II, iv, 7; XIII, xxix, 2; Fam. VII, xiv, 1. Cluatius: Att. XII, xviii, 1, xxxvi, 3. Corumbus: Att. XIV, iii, 1.

66. His death in 52 B.C. is mentioned in Cic, Mil. 46–8.

67. Cic. Att. II, iii, 2.

68. Front. Aqu. I, 25.

69. Vitr. II, pref. 4; VI, pref. 5.

70. Vitr. VI, pref. 6.

71. Vitr. X, pref. 1.

72. See note 18.

73. Cic, Q.F. III, i, 5.

74. Vitr. I, i, 10; II, viii, 8, 9.

75. Cic, Q.F. II, v, 3; III, i, 5. Diphilus in Q.F. HI, i, 2 I take to be a contractor rather than an architect.

76. Martial V, 56, 9–10.

77. Plin. Epp. X, 40.

78. e.g. by Vighi, R., The Pantheon, Rome, 1957, p. 12 Google Scholar.

79. Dio, LXIX, 4.

80. See note 10.

81. Ang. Conf. VI, 9, 15.