Despite the technical developments of the Romans, which took their buildings far away from the basic Greek conception where columns were needed to support heavy beams and roofs, they were very reluctant to abandon the

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Roman architecture supplied the basic vocabulary of Pre-Romanesque and Romanesque architecture, and spread across Christian Europe well beyond the old frontiers of the empire,

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Stone
Marble is not found especially close to Rome, and was only rarely used there before Augustus, who famously boasted that he had found Rome

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The ancient Romans employed regular orthogonal structures on which they molded their colonies. They probably were inspired by Greek and Hellenic examples, as well as by regularly

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Amphitheatre
The amphitheatre was, with the triumphal arch and basilica, the only major new type of building developed by the Romans. Some of the most impressive secular buildings are the amphitheatres, over 200 being known and many of

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Monoliths
In architecture, a monolith is a structure which has been excavated as a unit from a surrounding matrix or outcropping of rock. Monoliths are found in all types of Roman buildings. They were either: quarried without being moved; or

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Roads
Roman roads were vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 500 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire

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