Flavian art

Already at the time of Claudius and Nero, the style of sculpture began to separate itself from the neo-Attic Athenian art that dominated the late Republic.

Two major trends emerged in sculpture: the use of a more nuanced chiaroscuro in the bas-relief, and the use of placing the figures in a three-dimensional space with regards to the perspective of the viewer.

The numerous internal reliefs of the archway are extraordinarily significant and show two moments of the triumphal procession which took place in 71 after the capture of Jerusalem by Titus.

The emperors Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, and Nero all had residences on the hill, but the most grandiose palace was built by Domitian.

This period saw an increase in the use of the hemispherical domes (Domus Transitoria, the nymphaeum at the Villa of Domitian), the development of rib vaults (the Colosseum), the use of ogives with brick arches in series, and the development of barrel vaults, which reach 33 meters in diameter in the Domitian vestibule of the Roman Forum.