Colosseum Part 2 - Roman City Operating System v1.0

Embedded in many European towns, remnants of the Roman City Operating System. At first, Roman planners developed castrum or fortified military camps in their conquest of the world. Later, to efficiently rule the world, Roman planners evolved their castra (off topic trivial fact- any English town name that ends with 'chester' like Manchester used to be a Roman castra) to develop an urban planning strategy that followed these principles: 

(1) The city is composed of standardized parts.
(2) The city is organized according to social, cultural, political principles.
(3) The city accommodates constantly changing flows
(4) The city can be customized to local topographic, climactic, and cultural conditions.

Within the operating system, the following hardware is deployed to sustain the inhabitant and communicate with other cities in the empire:

(1) Basilica is a flexible building used for gatherings and commerce
(2) Capitolium is a temple of state religion
(3) Templa are religious building dedicated to god worship. Usually in the middle of the city
(4) Theatrum is used for games and performances
(5) Thermae are baths that provide city with hygiene service, socialization
(6) Arcus are monuments to commemorate military achievements. Usually located in prominent locations.
(7) Columna has similar function to arcus, used for commemorative purposes.
(8) Aquae ductus is the infrastructure system to transport water.
(9) Limites are the fortifications at the edges of cities like walls and ditches to repel invaders.
(10) Viae are the network of stone paved roads which connect the cities of the empire to each other. Usually 4-6 meters wide.

Cardo et decumanus are the primary perpendicular axes which define center of city. Cardo means hinge in Latin. The magistrate was responsible for determining the center of the new city. Based off the orthogonal axes, centuratio is the process of gridding the land for residential and agricultural purposes.

After the Forum is a centrally located outdoor space (usually situated at the intersection of the cardo et decumanus) for commerce and public social space. Many public buildings like the capitolium, basilica, and templa are adjacent to the forum thereby linking commerce and government. The forum is the place where trading for vases, animals, silver, gold, marble, olive oil, fish, spices, wheat and wine takes place.

Cosa Italy

Pompeii

Timgad Algeria

Valencia, Spain

Barcelona, Spain