I will possibly try to create a Roman city set, sometime in the near future, and was wondering if anyone knows of distinctions between the contemporary (ancient) respective architectures of the two peoples.
I know some things about ancient Greek habitual and monumental architecture, but not how different the Roman one of the time was. It seems most of the buildings were similar.
The set will have a forum somewhere, probably not a colosseum since i need buildings with a clearly visible roof, and some sort of insula as basic dwelling structure. But i need more types of buildings if i am to complete the set
The Roman (planned) city always featured a forum in the center, surrounded by government buildings, as well as the chief temple of the city. Government buildings might include a courthouse, an archive, a curia, and a basilica. A basilica was a kind of municipal center that combined a courthouse with private business transactions, and public registrations. Being in the center of the city, the forum was usually placed at the criss-cross of the two cardinal roads of the city, the cardo and decumanus. These were double the width of the usual roads, and intended to facilitate rapid traffic from the city limits to the center. The forum usually doubled as a marketplace, although in some cities, there may a separate market elsewhere. The other structures of note in Roman cities are well known, and include baths (thermae), theaters, amphitheaters, and aqueducts. There was no specific arrangement for these buildings. They would be scattered throughout the city, although generally, the buildings of greater importance would be towards the center. All planned cities followed a grid pattern, in as far as it was possible according to topography.
Greek cities, at least those prior to Roman conquest, varied. Those that were planned also were gridded, a feature that has been attributed to the suggestions of Hippodamos of Miletus. They had an agora that had the same function as a forum. They had some of the same monuments and buildings that Roman cities did, but not all. They did not have baths or aqueducts. Those were inventions of the Romans. But they did have gymnasia and theaters. There were, at least from about 400 BC, also philosophical academies, which were usually attached to temples.
In short, the two were very similar, with the exception that Romans had preferences for certain buildings and Greeks others. Also, the Romans had many technical innovations that enabled the construction of much larger structures, including aqueducts. This also allowed Roman cities to be much larger than Greek ones.
