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| Famous for asserting in his book De architectura that a structure must exhibit the three qualities of firmitas, utilitas/commoditas, venustas — that is, it must be strong or durable, useful, and beautiful. |
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| The slight outward curve of a column, which then tapers toward the top of the shaft. |
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| A pipe for conducting water under gravity flow. The term is often applied to the arched structure built to support the pipe across valleys. |
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| A Roman military camp or garrison. |
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| In Etruscan and Roman cities, the principal east-west road. |
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| In Etruscan and Roman cities, the principal north-south road. |
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| "Greatest sewer". One of the world's earliest sewage systems. Constructed in ancient Rome in order to drain local marshes and remove the waste of one of the world's most populous cities, it carried an effluent to the River Tiber, which ran beside the city. It may have been initially constructed around 600 BC. |
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| In Roman towns, the open space near the center used for commerce and civic life. |
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| A Roman building used for exercise; a gymnasium. |
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| The circular opening at the apex of a dome. |
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| A volcanic ash containing silicon and aluminum, which will harden as a cement when ground fine and mixed with lime and water. |
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| "Kings hall". A hall used for public administration. The term generally refers to a rectangular building that has a central section with a higher roof (the nave if a church) flanked by lower aisles on both long sides. A semicircular projection, the apse, was often set at one or both of the shorter ends. |
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| Roman baths, usually containing rooms for hot-, warm-, and cold-water bathing. |
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| The termination of the nave of the basilica or the choir in the basilican church. The apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome. |
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| The hot or sweating bath chamber in Roman baths or thermae. |
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| The warm-water chamber in Roman baths or thermae. |
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| The cold-water baths in a Roman thermae. |
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| The central space of a Roman house, open to the sky and serving as a source of light and fresh air. |
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| In Roman houses, the shallow pool that collected rainwater draining from the atrium roof. |
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| In Roman atrium houses, a reception area, usually on axis with the entrance. |
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| A colonnaded court or garden. |
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| A Roman apartment house where the lower and middle classes of Romans (the plebs) dwelled. The floor at ground level was used for tabernas, shops and businesses with living space on the higher floors. |
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| A dining room in Roman houses and palaces. It was characterized by three couches, the klinai, on three sides of a low square table. |
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