The Roman Household and House

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The Roman Household and House
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The Elite Domus

• Typical elite houses evolved from Etruscan
  atrium-style houses, with the addition of Greek
  style peristyle (colonnaded) gardens.
• Usually were one floor, with a main reception
  room (atrium) surrounded by bedrooms (cubicula),
  dining room (triclinium), record room/office
  (tablinum).

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Palatine Hill, 6th c. BCE House
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Articulation of Space
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Pompeii, House Entrance
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Entrance, House of Menander
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House of Menander, View from Fauces to Peristyle
Garden
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The Atrium

• Reception room, often with an opening in the
  ceiling with an impluvium below.
• Contained the family gods (Lares and Penates),
  imagines (masks of the ancestors), symbolic
  marriage bed.
• Women of the house (or their slaves) may have
  wool-worked there.

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Atrium, House of the Silver Wedding, Pompeii
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Bronze Lar, found in a SW corner of an atrium,
Pompeii
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Lararium
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Herculaneum Lararium
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Loom Reconstruction
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Casa del Principe di Napoli
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Atrium, Tablinum
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Tablinum Wall-painting, Pompeii
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Roman Kitchen, Reconstruction
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Atrium House Sight Lines
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Cubicula (Bedrooms)
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Roman Beds
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Bed Frame
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Pompeii, House of the Centaur, Cubiculum
Reconstruction
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Pompeii, Silver Mirror
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Triclinium (Dining Room)
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Pompeii, Triclinium
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Dining Room - Summer
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Pompeii, Candelabrum
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Roman Seating
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Roman Marble Table
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Pompeii, Bronze Table
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Pompeii, Roman Glass
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Roman Lamps
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Roman Couches
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Peristyle Court
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Shrine off Peristyle Court
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Tintinnabulum, Pompeii
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Villa at Boscoreale, Reconstruction
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Cubiculum, Boscoreale
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Boscoreale Wall-painting Scheme
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Woman Playing Cithara
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Wall-painting, Pompeii
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Views of Elite Houses
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Elite Houses, Inside and Out
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The Gender of Space?

• Greek elite houses were built to hide the women
  of the family from contact with men outside the
  family.
• Sight lines were constructed so that no one could
  see the inner quarters of the house from the
  front door/front room.

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Roman Service Areas
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Roman Work Areas
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Subtle Control of Women?
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Domestic Sculpture in situ Cupid and Psyche
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Herculaneum 3 Storey House
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Pompeii Street Plan
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Pompeii Houses with Vesuvius View
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Villa at Settefinestre
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Settefinestre House Plan
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Houses of the Poor

• Poorer working people lived in rooms behind or
  above their places of work.
• The elite often rented out the front rooms of
  their houses, on either side of the entrances,
  for use as shops, workrooms, or restaurants,
  often with living space included.
• The lower classes also lived in apartment
  buildings (insulae).

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Insulae
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