Roman concrete, also called
opus caementicium, was a material used in construction during the late
Roman Republic through the whole history of the
Roman Empire. Roman
concrete was based on a
hydraulic-setting cement. Recently, it has been found that it materially differs in several ways to modern
Portland cement. It is widely acknowledged that roman concrete is the most durable type of cement of its kind due to its use of volcanic ash. By the middle of the 1st century, the material was used frequently as brick-faced concrete, although variations in aggregate allowed different arrangements of materials. Further innovative developments in the material, called the
Concrete Revolution, contributed to structurally complicated forms, such as the
Pantheon dome, the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome.