How Rome Controlled a Million People: Roman Empire | City History #9

How Rome ruled an ancient megacity: a city of temples and triumph, and a city of spectacle and human cost. In this episode of CityDesign, Martin Felsen goes inside the greatest city of the ancient world to ask how Rome staged power in stone, how it moved and fed and thrilled its enormous crowds (Bread & Circuses), and how it failed to adequately house them. From the open Forum of the Republic to the sealed monuments of the emperors, from the perfect sphere of the Pantheon to the blood of the Colosseum and the apartment blocks of the poor, this is the story of the Roman city at its most magnificent, and its most human. This is Part 2 of a two-part story of the Roman Empire: the contents, after Rome built the container. In this episode, you'll learn: How the Roman Forum's open, informal design mirrored the Republic, and how the rigid Imperial Fora marked Rome's turn from citizens to subjects Why the legend of Cincinnatus captured Rome's ideal of power freely given up How the Markets of Trajan became, in effect, the world's first shopping mall What makes a Roman temple different from a Greek one, and why the Maison Carrée ended up shaping the U.S. Supreme Court and U.S. Statehouses How the Pantheon's dome was engineered as a perfect sphere Why Vitruvius's "firmness, commodity, and delight" still influences architecture two thousand years later How the great public baths worked, and why the original Pennsylvania Station (Penn Station) in New York City was modeled on the Baths of Caracalla What "bread and circuses" really meant: the grain dole, the Circus Maximus, and chariot racing as professional sport The truth about the vomitorium, and why you walk through one every time you leave a stadium Why most Romans lived in insulae, the ancestors of the modern apartment block, best preserved today at Ostia How the Great Fire of 64 CE led Nero to create one of the first building codes in history About me Martin Felsen is an architect and professor at Illinois Tech's College of Architecture in Chicago. He co-founded UrbanLab, an architecture and urban design firm. Martin is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. Chapters: 0:00 - Intro 0:38 - The Forum 5:48 - The Dome 10:51 - The Bath and the Arena 17:24 - The Insula 20:56 - Closing Attributions This episode’s script is adapted from many sources, including: Beard, Mary. SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome. New York: Liveright, 2015. Coarelli, Filippo. Rome and Environs: An Archaeological Guide. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007. Favro, Diane. The Urban Image of Augustan Rome. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Kostof, Spiro. The City Assembled: The Elements of Urban Form Through History. Boston: Little, Brown, 1992. Kostof, Spiro. The City Shaped: Urban Patterns and Meanings Through History. London: Thames and Hudson, 1991. Lancaster, Lynne C. Concrete Vaulted Construction in Imperial Rome: Innovations in Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. MacDonald, William L. The Architecture of the Roman Empire, Volume I: An Introductory Study. Rev. ed. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1982. MacDonald, William L. The Pantheon: Design, Meaning, and Progeny. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1976. Mumford, Lewis. The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1961. Stambaugh, John E. The Ancient Roman City. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988. Vitruvius. The Ten Books on Architecture. Translated by Morris Hicky Morgan. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1914. Reprint, New York: Dover, 1960. Ward-Perkins, J. B. Roman Imperial Architecture. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1981. Yegül, Fikret. Baths and Bathing in Classical Antiquity. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1992. City photos: UNESCO Videos:    • Julius Caesar | HBO Rome Tribute 4K      • Julius Caesar Rallies His Men To Fight | R...      • Rome time lapse 4k      • PantheonTL1080x2      • 24 hours Pantheon      • VideoVault Stock Video: Rome Italy Inside ...      • Ben-Hur 4K | Chariot Race | Warner Bros. E...      • Colosseum Walking Tour - 4K - Rome, Italy      • What It's Like Visiting Bayern Munich's Fa...