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The Roman Empire at its Height 165 Empire had grown up. There Vespasian had erected a vast amphi- theater for gladiatorial combats, now known as the Colosseum. Along the north side of the old Forum the emperors built three new forums which surpassed in magnificence anything which the Mediterranean world had ever seen before. These buildings of Trajan and Hadrian represent the high- est level of splendor and beauty reached by Roman architects. In the Hellenistic Age architects had begun to employ increasing quantities of concrete. The domed roof of Hadrian's Pan- theon is an enormous solid mass of concrete over a hundred and forty feet across. The Romans, therefore, eighteen hundred years ago were employing concrete on a scale which we have only re- cently learned to imitate, and after all this lapse of time the roof of the Pantheon seems to be as safe and stanch as it was when Hadrian's architects first knocked away the posts which supported the wooden form for the great cast. 261. Roman Sculpture and Painting. The reliefs which adorn all these monuments show Roman art at its best. Those on Trajan's column form a sort of picture book of his campaigns. The Roman statuary is mainly copies of the masterpieces of the great Greek sculptors. The portrait busts of leading Romans are, however, among the finest things of the kind ever done and give us a lively notion of how the men of the time looked. As for painting, the decorations on the walls of houses, copied from PORTRAIT OF AN UNKNOWN ROMAN This terra-cotta head is one of the finest portraits ever made. It rep- resents one of the masterful Roman lords of the world, and shows clearly in the features those qualities of power and leadership which so long maintained the su- premacy of the Roman Empire