“... my own opinion is that the [Pantheon's] name is due to its round shape, like the sky."
Cassius Dio, History of Rome (c. 220)
Domes, like arches, present problems for architects and engineers: They remain unstable until the final stone is put in place and have to support their own weight without collapsing. It was the Romans who in circa 100 first solved these technical problems when they managed to build a true dome, that is, an unsupported half-sphere.
The greatest of these is the Pantheon in Rome, which was erected in circa 123. Roman engineers tackled the problem as if it was a series of circular barrel vaults, or arches, arranged in a circle across a central point, and used concrete as a building material, in this case a mixture of lime, pumice, pieces of rock, and volcanic ash. A template for each arch was erected
on scaffolding
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