Giallo antico (antique yellow) is a precious yellow marble used first by the ancient Africans and later by the ancient Romans (which they called marmor numidicum (marble of Numidia) [1] It was one of the marbles most favoured by the Romans because of its beautiful yellow colour. [2]
It was extracted in quarries which can be seen today near the ancient city of Simitthus, near the current village of Chemtou, Tunisia. [3]
Its colour varies from intense yellow to lighter, almost white hues, with dark yellow, reddish or brown veins, and angular clasts of various sizes and colours (shades of yellow, rosy red, brown). [4] Varieties with a uniform background were considered more valuable than the brecciated ones, especially the "golden", and the very rare "of a colour similar to the rose". [5]
It is a crystalline limestone compacted by marked diagenesis. [ citation needed ]
From the second half of the 2nd century BC giallo antico was used by the Numidian kings. Once Carthage was conquered and the province of Roman Africa was established, the quarries soon became state property and then, under the Principate, imperial property as elsewhere in the empire. The marble was widely used for column shafts and wall and floor coverings in public buildings of cities closest to the coast of the Mediterranean. The Romans began to import it in increasing quantities across the empire where it was also used in prestigious rich private villas. [6]
Pliny [7] attributes its introduction in Rome to Lepidus in 78 BC who used blocks of it for the thresholds of his house. Suetonius [8] reports that the people had an honorific column of Numidian marble dedicated to Caesar erected in the Roman Forum. Augustus used the marble for the columns of the peristyle of his house on the Palatine together with portasanta and pavonazzetto marble, and he also made extensive use of it in his Forum. [9] It was also used for statues of particularly of barbarians or wild beasts. In the 3rd century the quarries gradually became exhausted and the giallo antico was progressively replaced by yellow breccias of other origins and of lesser value. [ citation needed ]
It is mentioned in Diocletian's Price Edict at the beginning of the 4th century, where a high price is established. [ citation needed ]
Porphyry is any of various granites or igneous rocks with coarse-grained crystals such as feldspar or quartz dispersed in a fine-grained silicate-rich, generally aphanitic matrix or groundmass. In its non-geologic, traditional use, the term porphyry usually refers to the purple-red form of this stone, valued for its appearance, but other colours of decorative porphyry are also used such as "green", "black" and "grey".
Carrara marble, or Luna marble to the Romans, is a type of white or blue-grey marble popular for use in sculpture and building decor. It has been quarried since Roman times in the mountains just outside the city of Carrara in the province of Massa and Carrara in the Lunigiana, the northernmost tip of modern-day Tuscany, Italy.
The Basilica Julia was a structure that once stood in the Roman Forum. It was a large, ornate, public building used for meetings and other official business during the Roman Empire. Its ruins have been excavated. What is left from its classical period are mostly foundations, floors, a small back corner wall with a few arches that are part of both the original building and later imperial reconstructions and a single column from its first building phase.
The Basilica Ulpia was an ancient Roman civic building located in the Forum of Trajan. The Basilica Ulpia separates the temple from the main courtyard in the Forum of Trajan with the Trajan's Column to the northwest. It was named after Roman emperor Trajan whose full name was Marcus Ulpius Traianus.
The Temple of Apollo Palatinus, sometimes called the Temple of Actian Apollo, was a temple of the god Apollo in Rome, constructed on the Palatine Hill on the initiative of Augustus between 36 and 28 BCE. It was the first temple to Apollo within the city's ceremonial boundaries, and the second of four temples constructed by Augustus. According to tradition, the site for the temple was chosen when it was struck by lightning, which was interpreted as a divine portent. Augustan writers situated the temple next to Augustus's personal residence, which has been controversially identified as the structure known as the domus Augusti.
The Temple of Hadrian is an ancient Roman structure on the Campus Martius in Rome, Italy, dedicated to the deified emperor Hadrian by his adoptive son and successor Antoninus Pius in 145 CE This temple was previously known as the Basilica of Neptune but has since been properly attributed as the Temple of Hadrian completed under Antoninus Pius. With one cella wall and eleven columns from the external colonnade surviving, the remains of the temple have been incorporated into a later building in the Piazza di Pietra, whereby its facade, alongside the architrave which was reconstructed later on, was incorporated into a 17th-century papal palace by Carlo Fontana, now occupied by Rome's Chamber of commerce. While only part of the structure remains, excavations and scholarship have provided us with information regarding its construction techniques and stylistic influences, helping us recreate the building dynamics and significance of the Temple of Hadrian in Imperial Rome.
The Horti Lamiani was a luxurious complex consisting of an ancient Roman villa with large gardens and outdoor rooms. It was located on the Esquiline Hill in Rome, in the area around the present Piazza Vittorio Emanuele. The horti were created by the consul Lucius Aelius Lamia, a friend of Emperor Tiberius, and they soon became imperial property. They are of exceptional historical-topographical importance. Along with other ancient Roman horti on the Quirinal, Viminal and Esquiline hills, they were discovered during the construction work for the expansion of Rome at the end of 1800s.
Chemtou or Chimtou was an ancient Roman-Berber town in northwestern Tunisia, located 20 km from the city of Jendouba near the Algerian frontier. It was known as Simitthu in antiquity.
The Villa of the Quintilii is a monumental ancient Roman villa situated along the Via Appia Antica just beyond the fifth milestone from Rome, Italy.
The House of Augustus, or the Domus Augusti, is situated on the Palatine Hill in Rome, Italy. This house has been identified as the primary place of residence for the emperor Augustus.
Verd antique, also called verde antique, marmor thessalicum, or Ophite, is a serpentinite breccia popular since ancient times as a decorative facing stone. It is a dark, dull green, white-mottled serpentine, mixed with calcite, dolomite, or magnesite, which takes a high polish. The term verd antique has been documented in English texts as early as 1745.
Cipollino marble ("onion-stone") was a variety of marble used by the ancient Greeks and Romans, whose Latin term for it was marmor carystium. It was quarried in several locations on the south-west coast of the Greek island of Euboea, between the modern-day cities of Styra and Karystos. Some of these ancient quarries survive with a mine-face of over 100 metres.
Lapis Lacedaemonius, also known as Spartan basalt, is a form of andesite or volcanic rock known today only from a single source in the village of Krokees on the Peloponnese in Greece. In addition, ancient sources mention a quarry of lapis Lacedaemonius in Taygetus. The stone has a dark green colour, speckled with elements shifting from yellow to light green. Occasionally, the speckles have crystallised in a way that creates rosette-like patterns. It is rated as having a hardness of six or higher on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness. It appears in comparatively small blocks. It is known in Italian as porfido verde antico and in German as Krokeischer Stein.
Naxian marble is a large-crystaled white marble which is quarried from the Cycladic Island of Naxos in Greece. It was among the most significant types of marble for ancient Greece and it continues to be quarried in modern times.
The Villa of Domitian, known as Albanum Domitiani or Albanum Caesari in Latin, was a vast and sumptuous Roman villa or palace built by emperor Domitian. It was situated 20 km (12 mi) from Rome, high in the Alban Hills where summer temperatures are more comfortable. It faced west overlooking the sea and Ostia. To travellers on the via Appia it would have made an impressive sight.
Grand Antique marble, is a prestigious marble, composed of clasts of black limestone and white calcite, quarried near Aubert-Moulis in France. The fault breccia from which it is extracted was formed at the end of the Cretaceous period, following the corrugation that affected the Northern Pyrenean area about 65 million years ago.
Dario del Bufalo is an Italian mosaic and antiquity expert, architect, author, and restorer.
The Villa of Trajan was a palatial summer residence and hunting lodge of the ancient Roman Emperor Trajan, dating from the beginning of his reign. Its location, near the modern village of Arcinazzo, was, like many patrician villas, carefully chosen on high plateau at the foot of Monte Altuino and in a splendid wooded landscape to escape the summer heat of Rome. It is 2 km from the river Aniene which supplied Rome with water and on which Nero's villa at Subiaco is located about 12 km downstream. It occupies an area of about 5 hectares, much of which has yet to be excavated. Many fine room decorations have been recovered here, despite the mass robbing of expensive marbles in previous centuries.
The Theatre of Nero was the private theatre erected in Rome by Nero, the Roman emperor between AD 53 and AD 68.
This article needs additional or more specific categories .(June 2023) |