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History & Theories of Urban planning Book

4- Roman Civilization

Beginning in the eighth century B.C., Ancient Rome grew from a small town on central
Italy’s Tiber River into an empire that at its peak encompassed most of continental
Europe, Britain, much of western Asia, northern Africa and the Mediterranean islands.
Among the many legacies of Roman dominance are the widespread use of the Romance
languages (Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian) derived from Latin, the
modern Western alphabet and calendar and the emergence of Christianity as a major
world religion. After 450 years as a republic, Rome became an empire in the wake of
Julius Caesar’s rise and fall in the first century B.C. The long and triumphant reign of
its first emperor, Augustus, began a golden age of peace and prosperity; by contrast,
the Roman Empire’s decline and fall by the fifth century A.D. was one of the most
dramatic implosions in the history of human civilization.

Roman cities were divided into two at this time:
• Capital cities (e.g. Rome).
• Cities of the colonies: Roman castrum (such as the glorification of Timgad -
Turin - Pompeii).

They were often defensive cities in strategic positions to protect the roads leading
to Rome. The Romans also established cities for other reasons, such as:

• colonial center.
• seat of the emperor.
• The capital of the province.
• Existing cities are being reconstructed.

Cities in Roman Civilization

a) Rome City
• Its planning was "automatic" and not "random", as the elements are distributed

as a result of the needs of the community, and there are means to link these
elements together.
• Built on 7 hills, the Tiber River runs in the middle of the city.
• Surrounded by walls to determine what is Roman and what is not Roman and
was irregular, and the streets have doors on these walls.
• It has more than one "form", and each "form" bears the name of a leader (in
championships honor, victories celebration), and it was called "Roman Form".
• The axis of the "form" is perpendicular to the main axis of the basilica.

b) Tamgad City (Colonial city)

• One of the most famous ancient Roman architecture cities in (Algeria)
• The theater does not have a specific location, but stadium was far from the city
• In two main streets (Cardo: north-south) (Decumanos: east-west)
• The eastern - western street ends at the "form" ... (there is a slight difference)
• No matter how different the locations of the soldiers, the spaces were fixed (the

distinction is only in the location, not the size of the houses)
• A chess layout divides the city into 144 squares
• The street was surrounded by columns and was covered

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Dr. Sherein El-Shahat