Editing Rotunda (section)

==Classical architecture==	
[[File:Rome.Hercules Victor.01.JPG|thumb|[[Temple of Hercules Victor]], in the [[Forum Boarium]] in Rome]]
{{main|Tholos (architecture)}}
The terminology of [[Ancient Greek architecture]] and [[Roman architecture]] distinguishes between two types of rotunda: a [[Tholos (architecture)|tholos]] is enclosed by a wall, while a [[monopteros]] is just a circular colonnade with a roof (like a modern bandstand or park pavilion).  It is not clear that any Greek example was actually a [[Greek temple]],<ref>Lawrence, 183–188</ref> but several were [[Roman temple]]s, though mostly much smaller than the Pantheon, and with very different designs.  The [[Temple of Hercules Victor]] and [[Temple of Vesta]] in Rome, along with the [[Temple of Vesta, Tivoli]], are the best known and best preserved examples. 

The few large Greek ''tholoi'' had varied functions, not all of which are now clear. Several are at major religious sanctuaries, but seem not to have been conventional temples. At most only the foundations and a few columns remain in place. They include the [[Tholos of Delphi]], the [[Philippeion]] at [[Olympia, Greece|Olympia]], a small memorial to the family of [[Philip of Macedon]], and a large building at the [[Sanctuary of Asclepius, Epidaurus]].  The largest Greek tholos, of uncertain function, was built in the [[Samothrace temple complex]] in the 260s BC. It is often called the Arsinoeum, as a dedication tablet for the Ptolomeic Queen [[Arsinoe II]] of Egypt has survived.  The sanctuary was a great [[Hellenistic]] centre of [[Greco-Roman mysteries]] and the building probably played some role in these.<ref>Lawrence, 183–188</ref>

The oldest, the Tholos of Athens, was a large and plain rotunda used as a dining hall, and perhaps more, by the city's ruling council.<ref>Lawrence, 183</ref>

Later, very large, Roman rotundas include the [[Castel Sant'Angelo]] in Rome, built in the 130s as a [[mausoleum]] for the emperor [[Hadrian]], and in the Middle Ages turned into a castle, and the 4th-century [[Arch of Galerius and Rotunda|Rotunda]] in [[Thessaloniki]], probably also intended as an imperial mausoleum, but later used as a church and a mosque.  The church of [[Santa Costanza]] in Rome is a circular funerary chapel of the 4th century, probably built for one or more of the daughters of [[Constantine the Great]], originally placed next to a [[funerary hall]] that is now only a ruined wall.