As we have mentioned before, the Romans adopted Greek inventions and developed them on a much larger scale. In Ancient Roman Villas – country houses of nobility rectangular in their shape – they combined Perystilium (a garden surrounded by columns reminding of the Medieval Cloister) and Atrium (the most important part where the guests were greeted) complemented by Compluvium (a square roof opening) and Impluvium (a pool for rainwater). Villas in Pompeii were richly decorated with frescoes of different styles – creating the illusion of marble or panoramic view (like “a window”), emphasizing the flatness of the wall with figures “floating” on it or reintroducing architecture and jumbling together fragments of buildings – and all of them can be seen at the House of Vettii.

And yet, there was a tendency in Roman Philosophy towards individualism and agnosticism (Stoicism, Epicureanism, Skepticism). People were more interested in entertainments, such as Gladiatorial Fights, executions of Christians at the Colosseum and Nero’s singing. It is said that Nero ordered to burn Rome in order to clear the space for his new palace – Domus Aurea designed by Fabulus. It was embellished with gold and decorated with Grotesques which inspired Raphael to create his Loggias in Vatican (and we also have their copies at the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg). After the Emperor’s death the Golden House was filled with earth and built over (Flavian Amphitheater, Baths of Trajan, etc.). By the way, the plan of the Trajan’s Forum reminds of the embracing arms of the Bernini Colonnade, while the structure of Caldarium – a special room with hot water pool at the Roman Baths which had a dome with an opening or oculus – calls to mind the Octagonal Room of the Domus Aurea and the Pantheon. Surprisingly enough, there even was an Ancient Roman Baroque Style, in other words, architects used traditional vocabulary in a different way including too ornate decoration, projections, recessions and broken pediments in their projects (for example, the Market Gate of Miletus in Berlin).

Homer is considered to be the father of Western Civilization and Vergil’s “Aeneid” as an epic traces the general form of “The Iliad” (which tells us about Achilles who managed to overcome his rage and returned Hector’s body to this father Priam) and “The Odyssey” (in which the main hero Odysseus is going back home after the Fall of Troy and experiencing different kinds of hospitality – Cyclopes, Nausicaa, Dionysian Music performed by Sirens, etc.) but in the reverse order. That is to say, the wanderings of Aeneas and his people come first (“Odyssey”) and then the war starts (“Iliad”). J.L. Borges in one of his lectures at Harvard said that “The Geeks had no use for books or no great use for them, it is a fact indeed that most of the great teachers of mankind have been not writers but speakers”. “However, we need not worry too much about the fate of the Classics because Beauty is always with us”. Suffice it to mention the Mysterious smile of Ancient Kore.

The most extraordinary thing about Ancient Greek architecture is their idea about the Sight, that is to say, the organization of space is based on special viewpoints. Here were are in the Theatre of Delphi looking down and all the buildings arrange themselves in such a way as to be viewed obliquely as fully plastic objects.