Rome

Ancient History: Rome If You Want To, The Pantheon (EP2) - Drive Thru History

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• published: 02 May 2013
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Purchase your DVD today: https://coldwatermedia.com/products-page/ Ahh, so many gods....and so little time. How do you worship and appease all of them? And WHERE? The answer to that question leads us up to the massive bronze doors of Rome's oldest building -- a temple whose design has been admired and studied for over 1800 years. The Pantheon. I'm here at one of the most remarkable engineering marvels in all of ancient Rome, the Pantheon. But before we go any further, let's get a little terminology straight. In Athens, there's a famous temple on top of the Acropolis, the very symbol of Athens, called "The Parthenon." But the building we're looking at today, perhaps the most well-preserved ancient building in the world is called "The Pantheon." Though they sound similar in name, their meanings are not similar at all. "Parthenos" is Greek for "virgin," hence the temple dedicated to the perpetual virgin goddess Athena was called the "Parthenon." The Pantheon, on the other hand, was named by combining the Greek word for "all" or "every" -- pan -- with the word for "god," theos. Therefore the "Pantheon" was originally dedicated to "every god". The original builder of the pantheistic temple on this site was a guy named Marcus Agrippa who built the temple in honor of the great Julius Caesar and the patron gods of his family, along with the gods Venus and Mars -- and the deified Julius Caesar himself. THAT temple was destroyed by fire in 80 AD -- leaving presumably only the façade with the inscription of the original builder which says, "Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, third Consul." The final form of the temple we see today was the work of Emperor Hadrian who had the Pantheon rebuilt in 120 AD making the Pantheon the only building from the Greco-Roman world which is completely intact and which has been in continuous use throughout its history. Unlike so many ancient buildings in Rome, Athens, or any other ancient city, the Pantheon is not a reconstruction, and it's really not even a restoration. It's the real deal -- it's a Roman building that stands today just as it did after it was completed over 1800 years ago. Although it looks pretty simple from the outside, it is among the most complex buildings that has survived to this day. In simple terms, it is a structure built around a perfectly circular interior chamber approximately 143 feet in diameter, topped by a dome that is the same 143 feet high. In other words, it is one giant room that could conceivably hold a perfect sphere or globe 143 feet across. At the apex of the dome is a circular opening, or oculus, that seems to defy the structural integrity -- but actually prevents the dome from collapsing. The outside height of the circular walls is 104 feet, and it is all set off by a covered entrance (or portico) consisting of 16 granite columns that support a gabled roof, all of which lead to massive, bronze double doors 25 feet high. It is an aesthetic marvel that Michelangelo once said was of "angelic, and not human, design." It still elicits that kind of awe even today. It is an architectural and engineering masterpiece that's left experts scratching their heads for centuries.