The Pantheon In Ancient Rome

Rome—one of history's greatest civilizations; a boundless empire that controlled the areas from Britannia to Asia Minor. Along with its colossal size, the Roman Empire housed an umpteen amount of perspicacious inventors and architects. Rome, Italy holds numerous of the world's greatest architectural creations and monuments, like the Pantheon, for instance. The Pantheon was constructed by Marcus Agrippa in 25 BCE, but a fire burned the building down in 80CE; Domitian reconstructed the edifice, but lightning then destroyed it in 110CE. Emperor Hadrian and his architects had the Pantheon rebuilt a third time out of concrete in 125CE, and it still stands today in (Cartwright). The structure of the Pantheon consists of a traditional Greek porch …show more content…
Hadrian's architects applied complicated and onerous geometric concepts to create a sizable masterpiece that could withstand time, and look quite appealing at the same time. At the front of the Pantheon, there is a Classical Greek portico that measures approximately 33.1 meters by 13.6 meters, and its columns measure 11.8 meters high (Cartwright). There are three rows of these columns, and all of them are parallel in reference with each other. The pediment found atop the portico is an obtuse triangle, and other triangles similar to it are placed in various locations in and on the Pantheon. The monstrous rectangular bronze doors that hide the rotunda are 12 meters in length and 7.5 meters in width. The rotunda itself is approximately 43.2 meters in diameter, but the Romans constructed the Pantheon so that with the dome attached, the height was 43.2 meters, too. It forms a perfect circle (Cartwright). The Pantheon also contains many more examples of perfect circles: the 8.8 meter diameter oculus at the top of the dome, and the alternating pattern of circles, squares, and rectangles seen on the marble floors. The oculus, or "eye," at the pinnacle of the dome is the only source of light within the Pantheon, and the movement of the earth and sun can be determined by where the sunlight hits the inner areas of the rotunda (Blankenbehler). For example, on April 21, the date of Rome's founding, sunlight encompasses the front entrance. There are also other dates where the light is in recognizable locations; solstices and equinoxes being a few other examples (Blankenbehler). Another interesting aspect of the Pantheon is the dome. Architects had the dome coffered, which means that pieces of the dome's interior were carved out (Salgado). These hundreds of chunks of cement are layered quadrilaterals that greatly reduce the weight of the dome, but also make the dome appear much