This is the last lecture in Roman Architecture,

and I think it's appropriate that I deliver this last

lecture, which I call "Rome of

Constantine and a New Rome," on Rome's birthday.

Indeed, this is Rome's birthday today, April 21^(st),

2009.

Rome was born, as you'll recall,

on the 21^(st) of April in 753 B.C., which means that Rome is

2762 years old today.

And since birthdays are often celebrated with cake and ice

cream, I should make good today on the

promise that I made to you at the very beginning of the

semester, which is that sometime in the

course of this semester I would recommend four ice cream places

to you, four gelaterias in Rome, to you.

And I've only recommended two.

I recommended Tre Scalini in Piazza Navona,

and I recommended the Della Palma that is located near the

Pantheon.

So I haven't--there are two more to go.

And it seemed on Rome's birthday, this was the perfect

thing to begin the lecture with, and that is to round the circle

and make you aware of the two other best ice cream places in

Rome.

And I show you here, on the left-hand side of the

screen, Giolitti, and on the right-hand side of

the screen San Crispino.

And note the birthday balloons, and that I'm enjoying myself

very much on Rome's birthday, today.

But just so that you know where these are.

You know Rome so well by now that I think I can give you

directions that are going to make sense to you.

So you are in the core of ancient Rome.

You've just been to visit the Colosseum and the Roman Forum.

Maybe you've been up on the Capitoline Hill.

You're exploring the Victor Emmanuel Monument,

and so with your back to the Victor Emmanuel Monument,

look straight ahead and you see the Corso,

the so-called Corso, the street of the racecourses,

or the racecourse, where the popes,

by the way, used to race their horses.

You stand facing the Corso.

You walk down the Corso.

You're on your way, in this regard,

toward the Piazza di Spagna, the Spanish Steps.

But before you get to the Spanish Steps,

you're going to notice one, the only department store in

Rome, Rinascente--that's why it's a

good landmark-- Rinascente, on the right.

You take a left and you're going to see the Column of

Marcus Aurelius, which is a column we didn't

look at this semester, but is based on the Column of

Trajan.

You take a look at the Column of Marcus Aurelius.

You continue into the next piazza, which is the Piazza

Montecitorio, with a great obelisk in the

center and a government building and a couple of hotels.

You stay on the right and you go down that next small street

and you hit Giolitti, which in my opinion is the

single best ice cream place in Rome.

So if you're in Rome, not to be missed.

It has the best fruit flavors in the city of Rome;

in fact, anywhere in Italy that I know of.

And the second one that I mention to you is San Crispino.

San Crispino is near the Trevi Fountain in Rome.

So you're going to go to the Trevi Fountain in any case,

and all you need to do when you're facing the Trevi Fountain

is to go about two blocks away from the Trevi Fountain and you

will hit San Crispino.

It has a smaller selection of flavors, but everything is very,

very good there.

In fact, they've been such a success that they have expanded

and opened another one near the Pantheon.

So again, back to the Pantheon, down that small street--I

already gave you the directions to Della Palma.

You go beyond Della Palma, you take a left and you'll hit

the second San Crispino.

So very important to share this with you, again before the term

is up, and in honor of Rome's birthday.

Also, of course, when you're at San Crispino,

don't forget the Trevi Fountain.

And you probably all know the tradition that when you go and

visit the Trevi Fountain, which is always very

crowded--this is actually a small crowd compared to what's

usually there-- after you've looked at it,

and enjoyed it for its own sake and for architecture,

obviously, of a much later period but I think one you can

see is very closely based on a lot of things that we've been

looking at this semester.

After you've looked at it--and people usually do this right

before they leave Rome; you go up to the fountain,

bring a coin-- it can be an American coin or

an Italian coin or any coin for that matter--

you stand in front of the Trevi Fountain,

with your back to the Trevi Fountain,

you take a coin, you throw it over your

shoulder-- got to make sure it goes into

the water and not on the side-- but throw it into the water,

and that will ensure that you will get to return to Rome

someday.

So don't forget to do that as well.

We spoke in the last lecture about the Tetrarchy,

about Diocletian and his formation of the Tetrarchy,

and his attempt to bring stability back to Rome and to

the Empire, and how successful he was

indeed.

We also talked about the fact that Diocletian and the other

Tetrarchs were responsible for some important building

projects, in fact, bringing architecture

back to Rome in a way that it had been missing in the third

century A.D.

And I mentioned in particular that Diocletian was interested

both in public and in private architecture.

And I remind you of an example of public architecture that we

looked at last time, on the top left,

the so-called Five Column Monument,

or Decennial Monument, or Tetrachic Monument,

that Diocletian erected in the Roman Forum to honor himself and

to honor his formation of the Tetrarchy,

and his relationship to Jupiter.

You'll remember the five columns: four with the Tetrarchs

imaged on the top in the front, the one of Jupiter behind,

that this was located behind the Rostra or the speaker's

platform in the Roman Forum.

We also talked about the fact that Diocletian was interested

again in private architecture, that he built a palace for

himself, a place that he hoped to retire

to, on the Dalmatian Coast where he

was born, at a place called Split.

And I remind you of it here, a restored view showing you

what it looked like; that it was essentially a

fortified camp, designed like a Roman

castrum, with walls and towers and a

very distinctive octagonal mausoleum that was located

across from the Temple of Jupiter.

So again his connecting himself to Jupiter, honoring Jupiter as

he honors himself.

And I also showed you an example of the portraiture of

the Tetrarchs.

We talked about the all-for-one-and-one-for-all

philosophy, how they stuck together,

not only in life but in their portraits,

and they depicted themselves, or they had themselves depicted

as this foursome, in large part again to

underscore the fact that all four of them were co-equal

emperors, that all four of them--or

almost co-equal emperors: you'll remember that there were

Augusti and Caesars, so some had the slight upper

hand, but for the most part they worked together.

They're represented as a whole, and they're represented in a

very similar way to one another.

And we talked about the use of geometric forms,

the abstraction, the solidity of these portraits

that I suggested mirrors this new stability that Diocletian

and the Tetrarchy have brought to Rome and to the Empire.

And we saw that those same qualities, that interest in

geometry, in abstraction, in solidity,

were characteristic also of Tetrarchic architecture.

And we're going to see some of those features continuing on in

the buildings that we're going to be looking at today.

Diocletian stepped down, retired voluntarily,

on the first of May in 305 A.D.

And Maximian, his co-Augustus,

stepped down as well, and the two Caesars were

elevated to Augusti, and two new Caesars were

chosen.

But without the strong presence of Diocletian the Tetrarchy fell

apart, and Rome and the Empire were once again plunged into

civil war.

The two main claimants for imperial power that came out of

this civil war were Maxentius-- Maxentius who was the son of

Maximian-- and Constantine--Constantine

who eventually became Constantine the Great--

Constantine who was the son of Constantius Chlorus.

And these two men, Constantine and Maxentius,

warred with one another for imperial power,

and they went against one another in one of the most

famous battles of all time: in fact,

a battle that is as well known, if not even more well known,

than the Battle of Actium, and this is the Battle of the

Milvian Bridge, the Battle of the Milvian

Bridge which took place in 312 A.D.

And it was at that epic-making battle that Constantine was

victorious over Maxentius, that Constantine became sole

emperor of Rome -- so a move away from the

Tetrarchy and the placement of power in the hands of one man.

Once again, Constantine becomes sole emperor of Rome.

And it was at that same battle, the Battle of the Milvian

Bridge-- and one of the reasons that

it's such an important battle in historical terms is the fact

that it was at that Battle of the Milvian Bridge that

Constantine was said to have seen the vision of the cross;

the vision of the cross that helped him to be victorious,

the vision of the cross that eventually led him to convert to

Christianity, which he did on his deathbed.

He was baptized a Christian on his deathbed.

One of the most interesting things that we'll talk about

today, and about the architecture

under Constantine the Great, is that we will see,

because he began as a pagan emperor and ended his life as a

Christian emperor, he has in a sense one foot in

the pagan past and the other foot in the Christian future,

and we're going to see that reflected in the architecture

that he commissioned, as we look at that today.

A few coins of Constantine which I think will help set the

stage for this one foot in the past and one foot in the future,

that is going to be the leitmotif of today's lecture.

I show you on the left-hand side of the screen a coin of

Constantine, when he first began his rise to power.

It was probably struck in around 306 A.D.

And it's an interesting coin, because if you remember--

I didn't bring it back to show you--

but if you remember the coin of Diocletian that I showed you,

you'll recall that he was represented in a very similar

fashion.

It's the sort of bearded blockhead style,

as I call it, for the Tetrarchy;

a very cubic image, a short, military hairstyle,

closely cropped, and a short beard that adheres

very closely to the shape of the face,

and the face masked itself with cubic geometric forms.

So we see Constantine in his very early portrait trying to

look like a Tetrarch, trying to look like his father,

Constantius Chlorus, trying to look like Diocletian,

trying to fit in, before he figures out the way

that's going to enable him, in fact, to become emperor,

sole emperor of Rome.

After he defeats Maxentius, at the Battle of the Milvian

Bridge, we see the greatest

transformation in the history of Roman portraiture,

in the history of self-imaging by emperors,

by people in power, and that is this transformation