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Rome WAS built in a day!


Aurelia

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This girl sure likes building... and destroying...

 

http://www.archaeology.org/0907/trenches/liz_glynn.html

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Vitruvius, in his Ten Books On Architecture, discusses the finer points of concrete in 25BC, 60-70 years before Nero's time. Waterproof concrete wasn't developed until Nero's time but this remained a very expensive medium and little used.

 

As for Nero's palace, I suspect he was able to afford (and command) the better class of builder available in Rome, and since he was a client with considerable power over life and death, one also suspects his reputation ensured the builders did a good job.

 

It must also be pointed out that the building regulations set by Nero after the Great of Rome in ad64 encouraged the use of concrete as a building material where some very cheap, jerry-built, and flammable were previously common.

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Vitruvius, in his Ten Books On Architecture, discusses the finer points of concrete in 25BC, 60-70 years before Nero's time. Waterproof concrete wasn't developed until Nero's time but this remained a very expensive medium and little used.

 

Since 312 BC, waterproof concrete was used widely--in aqueducts, in public baths, and in both private and public buildings. For the the great salting vats used in the manufacture of garum, it was obviously indispensable. For more, see the Oxford Handbook of Engineering and Technology in the Ancient World.

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Excellent model. I think the article has misidentified some buildings, though. The 'colloseum' looks more like the theatre of Marcellus to me...

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Since 312 BC, waterproof concrete was used widely--in aqueducts, in public baths, and in both private and public buildings. For the the great salting vats used in the manufacture of garum, it was obviously indispensable...

 

Way cool. What needs to be emphasised however is the cost of waterproof concrete in Roman times which I gather wasn't cheap. For that reason, ordinary concrete was used where-ever possible, or in cases where builders thought they could get away with it such as part of the Hypogaeum wall at the Colosseum.

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