Sometimes, however, some conquests were complicated. This was why two men fought each other in Gaul (today’s France and Belgium): Julius Caesar and Vercingetorix. The war between them ended at the battle of Alesia in 52 BC. Caesar won a crushing victory and Gaul fell into the hands of the Empire!
Vercingetorix
Caïus Julius Caesar known as Julius Caesar
When Julius Caesar defeated Vercingetorix, leader of the Gauls, in 52 BC at the battle of Alesia, Gaul became part of the Roman Empire.
Let’s leave architecture aside. One of the great Roman innovations was indeed the portrait sculpture. The Romans were just crazy about them.
Yes, this genre already existed in Greece, but in Rome the faces became realistic, with an individual identity.
Every emperor even had his own official portrait. A model was created in the capital, then sent out throughout the empire.
It was the task of local workshops to copy and disseminate it, so that the emperor’s portrait was everywhere in public areas – impossible to miss!
In Rome, the development of realistic portrait sculptures enabled the emperors to spread their image throughout the empire through copies.
The Romans also developed a material that would be hugely successful: concrete.
This plaster has several advantages:
Concrete, which was light and practical, made architectural innovations possible. The dome, for example, is a purely Roman invention.
When they developed concrete, which was inexpensive, solid and easy to use, the Romans innovated and created the dome.
Amongst the most famous reliefs, one of them is a vertiginous 40 metres high.
In this work, the sculpted frieze twists round a column built during the reign of Trajan, depicting war scenes and the Emperor’s victories. In all, it has 155 scenes and more than 2660 characters!
Who designed this? A certain Apollodorus of Damascus, a Syrian architect and engineer, and a specialist in the construction of bridges who also knew how to create oversize works.
The Danube watches the Roman army leaving the city
The Roman army marching
Speech
Trajan’s Column, said to be the work of Apollodorus of Damascus, is a historical relief work of outstanding dimensions.
The Romans were not just content to copy the Greeks. They had their own myths, their own history, and they also invented new art forms.
Moreover, they got into the habit of narrating major historical events in sculpture form. This could be leaving for a war, religious festivals or the triumphs of emperors, which were represented as friezes and exhibited in the city.
These are what are known as “historical reliefs”. They served both to commemorate these events and to glorify those who participated.
Through the “historical reliefs”, the Romans narrated major events in the form of sculpted friezes.
Some mosaics that have been well preserved from the Romans come from Pompey. It should be said that in 79 BC, the eruption of the neighbouring volcano covered the city with ashes, preserving it until the present day.
Pompey is a real time-capsule and tells us a lot about the Romans’ daily lives, their urban planning and their art. It is really a very rare occurrence to find antique paintings, which are more delicate than sculptures and have therefore not withstood the passing of the centuries. In Pompey they have been incredibly well preserved.
The volcanic eruption that submerged Pompey has preserved many delicate objects remarkably well, including paintings.
It’s true that the Greeks were already creating superb mosaics, but the Romans were going to be both incredibly creative in their choice of subjects, and also spread this decorative technique across the whole empire!
How do you do a mosaic?
The Romans created mosaics everywhere, by creating patterns on a surface using little coloured fragments.
The Romans also got another technique from the Greeks: very fine engraving on mediums ranging from stone to shell, which is why it is known as cameo.
All of the craftsman’s talent consists of using the different layers of colour of his materials to give an impression of relief, depth or details. Some of them were works of real technical genius!
The Romans adopted the Greek technique of cameo art, finely engraved on stones or shells and consisting of layers of colour.
Do you remember all those lost Greek sculptures that we only have copies of? It’s actually often thanks to the Romans!
Since they were highly partial to Greek art, the Romans did, in fact, order a great many copies of the most famous works, sometimes with slight variations. They used them to decorate their gardens or public buildings, such as gymnasiums or thermal baths.
The Romans, who were great lovers of Greek art, made a large number of copies, which came down to us.
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