Hadrian’s Pantheon
The Pantheon in Rome was rebuilt in the form that still stands: a columned portico joined to a vast rotunda under a concrete dome 43 metres across, open to the sky through its oculus. Almost two thousand years later it is still the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world.
- Date
- between 114 and 118 – between 125 and 128exact date unknown: an interval is given · duration: ≈ 11 years
- Place
- Pantheontoday: Piazza della Rotonda, Rome, Italy · Western and Central Europe
- Participants
- Hadrian, Trajan
- Threads
- Europe in the Roman age (1st–5th c.)
- Also known as
- Pantheon; Pantheum; Santa Maria ad Martyres; Santa Maria Rotonda; Пантеон; Храм всех богов
The first Pantheon was built by Marcus Agrippa, Augustus’s general, on the Campus Martius in the 20s BC. It burned in 80, was restored by Domitian and burned again in 110. The present building was long dated wholly to Hadrian’s reign — between 118 and 128 — largely on the evidence of the stamps on its bricks; a re-examination of the stamps suggests that work began under Trajan, around 114, perhaps to a design by his architect Apollodorus of Damascus, and was finished under Hadrian, who probably dedicated the temple about 126. Hadrian did not put his own name on it: the frieze repeats the inscription of the original, M·AGRIPPA·L·F·COS·TERTIVM·FECIT (“Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, made this when consul for the third time”), and Cassius Dio, writing some 75 years later, took the domed building for Agrippa’s. Dio also records that Hadrian held court there.
The rotunda is exactly as high as it is wide — 43.3 m, or 150 Roman feet — so that a sphere of that size would fit inside. The concrete of the dome grows lighter towards the top, where pumice and tufa were used, and the open oculus is the only source of light apart from the door. The emperor Phocas gave the building to Pope Boniface IV, who on 13 May 609 consecrated it as the church of St Mary and the Martyrs; continuous use has made it one of the best-preserved buildings of ancient Rome and a model for architects from the Renaissance onwards.
Connections
Related events
- Hadrian dedicates the Olympieion and founds the Panhellenionbetween 131 and 132 · Balkans and AnatoliaHadrian’s great building projects in Rome and in Athens
Same participants
- Trajan’s Parthian campaign114–117 · Middle East and Egyptvia Hadrian
- Diaspora Revolt115–117 · Africavia Trajan
- Hadrian’s Wall122 – c. 128 · Western and Central Europevia Hadrian
Same place
- Great Fire of Rome19 July 64 – c. 27 July 64 · Western and Central Europe
- Martyrdom of Peter and Paul in Romebetween 64 and 68 · Western and Central Europe
- Nero crowns Tiridates I in Rome66 · Western and Central Europe
- Pliny the Elder’s Natural History77 · Western and Central Europe
- Inauguration of the Colosseum80 · Western and Central Europe
- Galen in Rome162 · Western and Central Europe
- Antonine Plague165–180 · Western and Central Europe
- Murder of Commodus and the Year of the Five Emperors31 December 192 – June 193 · Western and Central Europe
- Constitutio Antoniniana212 · Western and Central Europe
- Crisis of the Third CenturyMarch 235 – 20 November 284 · Western and Central Europe
- Aurelian Walls271–275 · Western and Central Europe
- Battle of the Milvian Bridge28 October 312 · Western and Central Europe
- Sack of Rome by the Visigoths24–27 August 410 · Western and Central Europe
- Vandal sack of Rome2–16 June 455 · Western and Central Europe
- Gothic War (535–554)535–554 · Western and Central Europe
- Coronation of Charlemagne25 December 800 · Western and Central Europe
- Imperial coronation of Otto I2 February 962 · Western and Central Europe
- Fourth Council of the Lateran11–30 November 1215 · Western and Central Europe
- “Summa Theologica” by Thomas Aquinas1265–1274 · Western and Central Europe
- Sack of Rome (1527)6 May 1527 · Western and Central Europe
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Eastern Europe
- Zarubintsy culturec. 200 BC – c. 200
Balkans and Anatolia
- Plutarch’s Parallel Livesc. 96 – c. 120
Middle East and Egypt
- Trajan’s Parthian campaign114–117
Africa
- Diaspora Revolt115–117
Central and Northern Asia
South Asia
- Heyday of Indo-Roman trade: Muziris and Arikameduc. 30 BC – c. 250
- Reign of Kanishka, the height of the Kushan Empirec. 127 – c. 150
- Fourth Buddhist Council in Kashmir (tradition)between 127 and 150 (?)
- Gautamiputra Satakarni defeats Nahapanabetween 71 and 130
Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Óc Eo, the port of Funanbetween 1 and 100 – between 601 and 700
- Sa Huỳnh culturec. 1000 BC – c. 200
North America
- Hopewell traditionbetween 200 and 100 BC – c. 500
- Late Basketmaker II erac. 50 – c. 500
Latin America
- Rise of Teotihuacanc. 1 – c. 250
- Preclassic Maya collapse: El Mirador is abandonedc. 100 – c. 250
- Monte Albán II: the Zapotec state expandsc. 100 BC – c. 200
- Nazca culture and the Nazca Linesbetween 200 and 100 BC – between 500 and 800
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Pantheon, Rome
- Wikipedia (English): Hadrian
- Wikipedia (Russian): Пантеон (Рим)
- Wikipedia (Russian): Адриан
- Cassius Dio. Roman History, LIII.27; LXIX.7.
- MacDonald W. L. The Pantheon: Design, Meaning, and Progeny. — Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1976.
- Hetland L. M. Dating the Pantheon // Journal of Roman Archaeology. — 2007. — Vol. 20. — P. 95–112.