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Results for palaestra:

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palaestra

CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: In Greco-Roman times, an open-air courtyard surrounded by a colonnade (or porticos) and used for wrestling, gymnastics, and military training. This building consisted of a large central sand-covered courtyard surrounded by changing rooms and washrooms. It is from the Greek word for 'area of wrestling' or 'wrestling school'; it was often part of a gymnasium complex which would include a stadium. It also might be connected to thermae.

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baths, Roman

SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: bathhouse
CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: The Roman baths featuring a combination of steaming, cleaning, and massage appeared wherever the Romans made conquests. In Rome itself the aqueducts fed sumptuous baths such as those of Caracalla, which covered 28 acres (11 hectares). From the 1st century BC onwards, the Romans built establishments called balneae or, later, thermae incorporating suites of rooms at different temperatures. A typical installation would include a tepidarium (warm room, probably without bath), a caldarium (hot, with plunge bath), a frigidarium (cold, also with bath), and an apodyterium (changing-room). Elaborate examples might also include a laconicum (room with dry heat), a swimming bath, an exercise area (palaestra), gardens, and a library. These complexes were important social meeting-points and were not limited to high society. Most large private houses from the 2nd century BC onwards had their own bath suite. The four large series of baths at Rome were built by Titus, Trajan, Caracalla, and Diocletian. Baths existed as early as the 4th century BC.

gymnasium

SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: pl. gymnasia
CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: An area in ancient Greek used as a sports ground. It could be within or outside the city and normally had a palaestra, running track, dressing rooms, bathrooms, and other rooms for exercise and ball games. It was for men only, except at Sparta, and was also a center of education (philosophy, literature, and music). The Academy of Plato and the Lyceum of Aristotle were both gymnasia. The combination of health for the body and education for the mind might represented an ideal to the Greeks. The literal meaning of the word 'gymnasion' was school for naked exercise" and every important city had one."

Olympia

CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Principal sanctuary of Zeus in Greece and the site of the original Olympic Games, a Panhellenic sanctuary in the western Peloponnese of Greece. It originated in the Greek Bronze Age and has a 7th century BC Temple of Hera and 5th century BC Temple of Zeus. Traces of the circular building of Philip of Macedon and buildings associated with athletes and games -- gymnasium, palaestra, bouleuterion, Leonidaeon, and running track have been found. The workshop of the sculptor Pheidias, who made bronze of Athene at Athens and Zeus at Olympia, has been located. Perhaps first attracting use as an earth shrine and oracle, the site shows signs of continuous occupation from early in the 3rd millennium BC. The Games were celebrated on a four-yearly cycle, the Olympiad, which came to form the basis of a Greek system of dating. The first Olympiad is dated to 776 BC, but tradition places the commencement of the Games in the 9th century, with ascriptions variously to Heracles or Pelops as founder. The Games showed an unbroken record of celebration from 776 BC to 393 AD, when Theodosius I abolished them.

Pompeii

CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A Roman town lying at the foot of Mount Vesuvius in Campania, Italy, which was covered with volcanic ash in an eruption in 79 AD. Much of the town has been uncovered since excavations began in the mid-18th century. The uncovering of the city offers much evidence for prosperous provincial urban life in the 1st century AD. It was a port and principal city on the Bay of Naples as early as the 8th century BC. In 89 BC, Pompeii was taken by Roman general Sulla and became subject to Rome. A new suburb was laid out next to the old town before an earthquake in 62 AD; much rebuilding in Roman imperial style was done before the final disaster. A Doric temple of the 6th century BC together with Attic Black-Figure Ware suggests a strong Greek presence, and association with Cumae, Naples, and Paestum is probable; Etruscan influence is also very likely. The deposits from Vesuvius in 79 AD was first small pumice and then ash, followed by poisonous gas and rain. Of all the numerous surviving buildings, Pompeii is perhaps most celebrated for its atrium-style private houses, often having fine gardens and decorated inside with elaborate mosaics and mural panels. The amphitheater is probably the earliest stone-built example in existence. There were two theaters, a palaestra, civic buildings, workshops, at least three major public bath complexes and nine temples. In particular, the Temple of Isis reflects the popularity of the personalized Oriental mystery cults under the early Roman Empire. Pompeian life is further documented by the frequent painted and inscribed notices, or graffiti, which are to be found on both internal and external walls. They often refer to local elections and to events taking place at the amphitheater. There was also a gambling den and brothel. Outside the city gates were cemeteries and large residential villas. During the eruption, both human beings and animals were covered by the deposit, forming paralyzed shapes. Casts made from these give a startling impression of the original victims. There are ancient accounts of the earthquake by Seneca, Tacitus, and Pliny the Younger. Also destroyed were the cities of Herculaneum and Stabiae. The ruins at Pompeii were first discovered late in the 16th century by the architect Domenico Fontana. Excavation of the buried cities began first at Herculaneum, in 1709. Work did not begin at Pompeii until 1748, and in 1763 an inscription (rei publicae Pompeianorum") was found that identified the site as Pompeii."

portico

CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: In Greek and Roman architecture, colonnaded porch, annex, or entrance of a building, such as a palaestra. It could also be a covered walkway supported by regularly spaced columns. Porticoes formed the entrances to ancient Greek temples.