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Title: Misleading Subtitle-Great Work!
Review: Although the book is titled an itroductory study, I would not reccomend to anyone start a journey into the Ancient Rome with McDonald's work, unless you are one of those persons who have deep fascination for Classical studies and ancient architecture. This book rewards an attentive reader and in the course of reading I was reffering constantly to Roman historians such as Seutonius and Tacitus. Through the careful analysis of the four great monuments of antiquity (the Domus Aurea, Domus Augustana, Trajan's Markets and the Pantheon), all centered in Rome, an author clearly shows a connections between symbolic meaning of the space, its forms, and construction techniques. This analysis is supplied with very descriptive illustrations, plans, and major dimensions of the explored monuments. In my opinion, this is one of the very few fundamental works on the Architecture of the Roman Empire that is available in English.
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