Editing Ancient Roman architecture (section)

== City design ==
{{further|Centuriation|Decumanus Maximus|Cardo}}
[[File:Détail de la maquette de Rome à lépoque de Constantin (5840455090).jpg|thumb|right|The [[Temple of Claudius]] to the south (left) of the [[Colosseum]] (model of Imperial Rome at the [[Museo della civiltà romana]] in Rome)]]

The ancient Romans employed regular orthogonal structures on which they molded their colonies.{{sfn|Morris|1972| pp= 39–41, 51–60}}{{sfn|Kolb|1984|pp=169–238}}{{sfn|Benevolo|1993|pp=256–267}} They probably were inspired by Greek and Hellenic examples, as well as by regularly planned cities that were built by the [[Etruscans]] in Italy.<ref>{{harvnb|Harris|1989|pp=375–392}}: "The Etruscans were, in their turn, probably also influenced in this respect by Greek and Hellenic culture."</ref> (see [[Marzabotto]])

The Romans used a consolidated scheme for city planning, developed for military defense and civil convenience. The basic plan consisted of a central [[Forum (Roman)|forum]] with city services, surrounded by a compact, rectilinear [[Grid plan|grid of streets]], and wrapped in a wall for defense. To reduce travel times, two diagonal streets crossed the square grid, passing through the central square. A river usually flowed through the city, providing water, transport, and sewage disposal.{{sfn|Vitrivius|1914}} Hundreds of towns and cities were built by the Romans throughout their Empire.

[[File:Philippopolis urban plan.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Model of the 1st century [[Philippopolis (Thrace)|Philippopolis]] ([[Plovdiv]], Bulgaria) in the Roman period created by architect Matey Mateev]]
Many European towns, such as [[Turin]], preserve the remains of these schemes, which show the very logical way the Romans designed their cities. They would lay out the streets at right angles, in the form of a square grid. All roads were equal in width and length, except for two, which were slightly wider than the others. One of these ran east–west, the other, north–south, and they intersected in the middle to form the center of the grid. All roads were made of carefully fitted [[flagstone]]s and filled in with smaller, hard-packed rocks and pebbles. Bridges were constructed where needed. Each square marked off by four roads was called an ''[[Insula (Roman city)|insula]],'' the Roman equivalent of a modern [[city block]]. 
Each ''insula'' was {{convert|80|yd}} square, with the land within it divided. As the city developed, each ''insula'' would eventually be filled with buildings of various shapes and sizes and crisscrossed with back roads and alleys. Most ''insulae'' were given to the first settlers of a Roman city, but each person had to pay to construct his own house.

The city was surrounded by a wall to protect it from invaders and to mark the city limits. Areas outside city limits were left open as farmland. At the end of each main road was a large gateway with watchtowers. A [[portcullis]] covered the opening when the city was under siege, and additional watchtowers were constructed along the city walls. An aqueduct was built outside the city walls.

The development of Greek and Roman urbanization is well-known, as there are relatively many written sources, and there has been much attention to the subject, since the Romans and Greeks are generally regarded as the main ancestors of modern Western culture. It should not be forgotten, though, that the Etruscans had many considerable towns and there were also other cultures with more or less urban settlements in Europe, primarily of [[Celts|Celtic]] origin.<ref>{{harvnb|Demandt|1998}}: "In fact, many sites where the Romans created towns, such as Paris, Vienna and Bratislava, had previously been Celtic settlements of more or less urban character."</ref>