Engineering:List of ancient Greek and Roman roofs

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The truss roof of the 4th-century church Old St. Peter's Basilica, Rome. The triangular frame of beams of the main nave is largely self-supporting, since the forces are carried along the beams rather than acting vertically on them.

The list of ancient roofs comprises roof constructions from Greek and Roman architecture ordered by clear span. Roof constructions increased in clear span as Greek and Roman engineering improved. Most buildings in classical Greece were covered by traditional prop-and-lintel constructions, which often needed to include interior colonnades. In Sicily, truss roofs presumably appeared as early as 550 BC. Their potential was fully realized in the Roman period which saw over 30 m wide trussed roofs spanning the rectangular spaces of monumental public buildings such as temples, basilicas, and later churches. Such spans were thrice as large as the widest prop-and-lintel roofs and only superseded by the largest Roman domes.

Greek roofing

List of ancient Greek monuments by descending largest clear span

Image	Monument	Location	Region	Date	Type of roof	Width between cella walls	Clear span between colonnades	Largest clear span
	Temple of Olympian Zeus (or Olympeion)	Agrigento	Sicily		Truss	1285 12.85	0000 1–	1285 12.85
	Temple of Heracles	Agrigento	Sicily
Truss	1184 11.84	0000 1–	1184 11.84
	Temple E	Selinunte	Sicily
Truss	1170 11.70	0000 1–	1170 11.70
	Parthenon	Athens	Greece		Prop-and-lintel	1920 19.20	1105 11.05	1105 11.05
	S. Biagio	Agrigento	Sicily		Truss	1035 10.35	0000 1–	1035 10.35
	Athene	Syracuse	Sicily		Truss	0982 19.82	0000 1–	0982 19.82
	Erechtheion	Athens	Greece		Prop-and-lintel	0980 19.80	0000 1–	0980 19.80
	Treasury of Gela	Olympia	Greece		Truss	0968 19.68	0000 1–	0968 19.68
	Temple of Athena Alea	Tegea	Greece		Prop-and-lintel	0894 18.94	0000 1–	0894 18.94
	Temple of Zeus	Olympia	Greece		Prop-and-lintel	1326 13.26	0852 18.52	0852 18.52
	Temple C	Selinunte	Sicily
Truss	0850 18.50	0000 1–	0850 18.50
	Megaron	Gaggera	Sicily		Truss	0847 18.47	0000 1–	0847 18.47
	Athenians	Delos	Greece		Prop-and-lintel	0834 18.34	0000 1–	0834 18.34
	Temple D	Selinunte	Sicily
Truss	0820 18.20	0000 1–	0820 18.20
	Temple of Hera	Agrigento	Sicily		Truss	0768 17.68	0000 1–	0768 17.68
	Temple of Concordia	Agrigento	Sicily		Prop-and-lintel	0755 17.55	0000 1–	0755 17.55
	Temple A	Selinunte	Sicily		Truss	0750 17.50	0000 1–	0750 17.50
	Temple of Apollo	Delphi	Greece		Prop-and-lintel	1072 10.72	0732 17.32	0732 17.32
	Temple G	Selinunte	Sicily		Truss	1793 17.93	0715 17.15	0715 17.15
	Temple F	Selinunte	Sicily
Truss	0712 17.12	0000 1–	0712 17.12
	Temple of Isthmia	Isthmia	Greece		Prop-and-lintel	1170 11.7	0700 ~7.0	0700 ~7.0
	Temple of Poseidon	Sounion	Greece		Prop-and-lintel	0653 16.53	0000 1–	0653 16.53
	Heraion	At the mouth of the Sele River near Paestum	Italy, Lower		Prop-and-lintel	0614 16.14	0000 1–	0614 16.14
	Artemis	Kalydon	Greece		Prop-and-lintel	0614 16.14	0000 1?	0614 16.14
	Kardaki Temple	Corfu	Greece		Prop-and-lintel	0600 ~6.0	0000 1–	0600 ~6.0
	Second Temple of Hera	Paestum	Italy, Lower
Prop-and-lintel	1085 10.85	0590 15.9	0590 15.9
	Temple of Athena/Ceres	Paestum	Italy, Lower		Prop-and-lintel	0570 15.70	0000 1–	0570 15.70
	Apollo	Delos	Greece		Prop-and-lintel	0570 15.70	0000 1–	0570 15.70
	Basilica	Paestum	Italy, Lower
Prop-and-lintel	1144 11.44	0560 15.6	0560 15.6
	Tavole Palatine	Metapontum	Italy, Lower			0560 15.60	0000 1–	0560 15.60
	Bouleuterion (S)	Olympia	Greece		Prop-and-lintel	1107 11.07	0553 15.53	0553 15.53
	Bouleuterion (N)	Olympia	Greece		Prop-and-lintel	1080 10.80	0540 15.40	0540 15.40
	Temple of Apollo	Bassae	Greece		Prop-and-lintel	0681 16.81	0523 15.23	0523 15.23
	Rhamnous	Attica	Greece		Prop-and-lintel	0517 15.17	0000 1–	0517 15.17
	Metroon	Olympia	Greece		Prop-and-lintel	0508 15.08	0000 1–	0508 15.08
	Temple of Hera	Olympia	Greece		Prop-and-lintel	0837 18.37	0484 14.84	0484 14.84
	Temple of Hephaestus (or Theseion)	Athens	Greece		Prop-and-lintel	0624 16.24	0474 14.74	0474 14.74
	Artemis	Corcyra	Greece		Prop-and-lintel	0737 17.37	0410 14.1	0410 14.1
	Temple of Asclepius	Epidauros	Greece		Prop-and-lintel	0395 13.95	0000 1–	0395 13.95
	Temple of Aphaia	Aegina	Greece		Prop-and-lintel	0628 16.28	0385 13.85	0385 13.85
	Apollo	Syracuse	Sicily		Truss	0970 19.70	0360 13.6	0360 13.6
	Apollo	Corinth	Greece		Prop-and-lintel	0847 18.47	0345 13.45	0345 13.45

Roman roofing

List of Roman monuments by descending clear span

Image	Monument	Location	Region	Date	Type of roof	Clear span
	Throne room of the Flavian Palace	Rome	Italy, Central	0092 192 AD	Truss	3167 31.67
	Roman Theatre	Aosta	Italy, Upper	0002 Augustan	Truss	3049 30.49
	Diribitorium	Rome	Italy, Central	0004 117 BC	Truss	2960 29.60?
	Coenatio Iovis	Rome	Italy, Central	0092 192 AD	Truss	2930 29.30
	Constantine's Basilica	Trier	Germany	0300 300 AD	Truss	2605 26.05
	Odeon of Agrippa	Athens	Greece	0003 115 BC	Truss	2575 25.75
	Temple of Venus and Roma	Rome	Italy, Central	0135 135 AD	Truss	2575 25.75
	Basilica Ulpia	Rome	Italy, Central	0113 113 AD	Truss	2516 25.16
	Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls	Rome	Italy, Central	0385 385 AD	Truss	2427 24.27
	Old St. Peter's Basilica	Rome	Italy, Central	0330 330 AD	Truss	2368 23.68

See also

• Record-holding roofs in antiquity
• Ancient Greek architecture
• Ancient Roman architecture
• List of Ancient Greek temples

Sources

• Hodge, A. Trevor (1960), The Woodwork of Greek Roofs, Cambridge University Press, pp. 38–44 
• Ulrich, Roger B. (2007), Roman Woodworking, Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0-300-10341-0 

Further reading

• Klein, Nancy L. (1998), "Evidence for West Greek Influence on Mainland Greek Roof Construction and the Creation of the Truss in the Archaic Period", Hesperia 67 (4): 335–374 

External links

• Traianus – Technical investigation of Roman public works