in this, hadrian was typical of well-to-do romans throughout the imperial age. roman sculpture, it's such a rich subject. the romans, their artists, roman patrons delighted in the collection of sculpture in the round-- sculpture which they displayed in their public places sculpture which they used to decorate the fora palaces, gardens-- a variety of situations-- sculpture, which i may add they put into museums because, indeed, the delight in works of art was something that gave enormous pleasure both to the romans and also to their friends. indeed it has become clear that much of greek art has, in fact, survived not in originals but in roman copies, much like the copies in this room in the capitoline museum in rome. such a special work is this statue in marble from hadrian's villa of a tormented centaur. the statue in dark marble comes close to the bronze original of the hellenistic period, and one can see what effort the sculptor's expended in attempting to reproduce as closely as possible the ancient original. hadrian, who we must imagine collected this sculpt

since, it's been known as hadrian's wall. it runs east to west for about 70 miles, starting almost at the north sea and ending at the irish sea. the height of the wall varied. at its highest point, the wall rose up 20 feet above the grassy land. it took 16,000 roman soldiers 10 years to build. historians argue over just why the wall was built. some believe it was a barrier to separate roman-controlled britain on this side from the wild barbarian tribes on the other side. another theory was that by building a wall with gates and checkpoints, it allowed the romans to collect taxes on those passing through. or it could have just been built to show off the power that was rome. whatever the reason, forts were built along the wall and manned by soldiers. these are the remains of one of the bigger forts. as the years passed, the romans left england and the soldiers left the wall. in later centuries, many of the stones were taken from the wall to build roads. this important part of history would have been lost if not for a man by the

in the second century a.d., it ruled an empire whose soldiers stood guard from the windy hills of hadrian'sall in scotland to the persian gulf, and whose merchants traveled as far afield as india and china-- the culmination and the unifying of the old cultures of the mediterranean world and western europe. from that day to this, rome would be the greatest single influence on the western cultural tradition. indeed, it could be said that rome is that tradition. it's not merely that rome gave the west the latin language, roman law, roman ideas on state craft and on society. it was rome which passed on to the west the artistic, philosophical, and spiritual legacy of ancient greece, which rome had conquered, looted, and then learned from. it was rome which would be the agency of transmission to the west of an obscure, near-eastern religious cult which became the dynamic, motive force in western society and spiritual life-- christianity. but rome also gave the west a practical legacy, a legacy which western people see every day of their lives, from washington square to trafalgar square. and that

so the condemnation of the roman architecture of balba, all the buildings erected subsequent to hadrian's reign. he admired the bold plans of early romana ter tour but thinks their details absurd beyond tolerance. wherever therefore the style can be copied without impropriety, i love to be a mirror, i would say a slavist copyist but the forms and distribution of the roman and greek buildings which remain are in general inapplicable to the objects and uses of our public buildings. our government, our legislative assemblies, and our courts of justice buildings are based on entirely different principles from their basilicas and our amusements could not possibly be performed in their theaters or amphitheaters. yet despite these caveats, latrobe went on to infuse the capitol's rebuilt interiors and his new ones with direct references to greek architectural forms, greek architectural orders, and sculptural decorations. he adapted them, however, to his own purposes as he integrated them with other historical traditions. he had pioneered the revival of greek architecture in america in 1798 and ev