ABSTRACT
The Eastern Empire included Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, Arabia as far as the desert, and, under Trajan, large parts of Armenia, Assyria and Mesopotamia. Until the Roman conquest this had been the Hellenistic world, where architectural styles depended upon the use of the columnar Orders which had been developed in Classical Greece. Even under Roman rule this style remained so deep-rooted that the architecture of the Eastern Empire can be viewed as the final development in an unbroken Hellenistic tradition. Such buildings as the Library of Celsus at Ephesus (fig. 160), the Deir at Petra (fig. 168), the Temple of Zeus at Athens (fig. 153) and the Temple of Bel at Palmyra (fig. 165) all owe their effect to a skilful handling of the columnar Orders, with vaulted concrete playing no significant role. Clearly, Roman architectural styles were nowhere near so influential here as they were in the west.
