Influence Of Roman Culture

The early potters had ample resources with which to experiment, create and develop their styles. The pottery was made as a fairly course, porous clay that when fired, assumes a color ranging from dull ochre to red and was usually left unglazed. The most widely utilized pottery in the Ancient World was oil lamp, bottles, unguentariums, pitchers, bowls and plates, their basic shapes remaining unchanged for over a thousand years and still being used in today's modern world. The oil lamp was the source of light in every household, the bottles and pitchers were used to store wine, water and other liquids, the unguentarium held oils, spices, unguents and balm and the bowls and plates were used to eat from and hold food stuffs. The amphora, classic in shape, was used for storage and shipping in the ancient world and was meant for household use and to hold wine, oil, spice or unguents.

The primary function of any metal industry in antiquity was the production of weapons and tools. A spear point was ranked as the chief weapon used in the battle of ancient Asia and Europe. The famous Greek poet, Homer, tells how Achilles speared Hector with a bronze pole. Ancient Roman spear points have played an important part in history. he range of variation, both in size and layout, is enormous, running from such vast recreation centres as the Baths of Caracalla and Diocletian in Rome, with their libraries, meeting halls, swimming pools, gardens and fountains, down to the domestic bath suites which provided the basic requirements of a cold, a warm and a hot room: frigidarium, tepidarium and calidarium. A keynote of the great public baths was their symmetrical planning around an axis which ran from the main entrance, across the palaestra, or exercise courtyard, and through the centre of the principal frigidarium and calidarium.

In the Forum and Stabian Baths al Pompeii and the Suburban Baths al Herculaneum, a simple range of rooms adjoined a palaestra secluded behind the shops on the street frontage. As at Lepcis, the vaulting is intact; much of the stucco decoration is preserved. We see the attractive but modest surroundings of everyday-life in all ordinary Roman town. A distinctive feature of public baths in such cities as Ephesus and Pergamum is a large rectangular room fronting the palaestra, its walls decorated internally with columns and statuary in the manner of the theatre and nymphacum facades. In many western provincial towns, the baths were second only to the forum and basilica in architectural importance, and notable bath buildings are also a feature of rural religious sanctuaries in Gaul. The Romans emerged from a small settlement near Rome. By the 1st Century AD, Roman territories expanded from Britain in the north to Egypt in the south.