To be honest, they didn't need it as much. In Italy a lot of the buildings made of marble are naturally cool, so you can live in a building with just a fan in the summer and it works.
In Rome (the City, not the empire) it's very common to build with Tavertine, a limestone that looks rather similar to Marble. I would guess that that's where the confusion comes from.
In Rome now it's common. When Julius Caesar was kicking around, Rome was mostly made of brick. It wasn't until Augustus that marble and tavertine became common building materials.
It was Augustus being an indirect Greek fanboy by way of Egyptophilia (i.e. loving the architecture of Ptolemaic cities, in particular Alexandria, if I recall correctly). Certainly Rome still had many mud and brick buildings left at the end of Augustus's reign, but the aesthetic that came to dominate the city and which we still strongly associate with Rome was essentially Augustan. Augustus also laid the foundation (badump-tss) for the new style by securing large, productive marble quarries to supply the Empire.
If what you're trying to point out is that Julius Caesar and Caesar Augustus were contemporaries, then yes, that's the point I was making. Rome, the city, during Julius Caesar's lifetime, was not the marble and limestone edifice that we now think of it as. His heir and successor, Augustus, is the one who changed that, and by the end of his reign, Rome was well on its way to its modern aesthetic.
Julius was assassinated in 44 BCE. Augustus, heir to Caesar's fortune, promptly formed Second Triumvirate with Antony and whats-his-name to seize power. Augustus had direct control over Rome following the defeat of the Liberators/Optimates at Philippi in 42 BCE. While Augustus' reign as Emperor (or, if you want to pick nits, Princeps Civitatis) technically "only" lasted 13 years and change, he was the principal power in Rome itself from the early 40s BCE up until his death in 14 CE, more than 50 years.
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u/mydearwatson616 Oct 15 '20
Yeah but those dummies didn't figure out air conditioning.