The Roman House or Domus

[Faustus]

A mystery that continues to stump me is the peculiarly

Edited June 30, 2008 by Faustus

[Faustus]

One of my Latin professors compared Roman household furnishings to "US patio furniture," no stuffed sofas or cushioned chairs, all metal.

 

An interesting aside L.

 

Here are some links showing Roman "furnishings" from The House of the Faun.

 

At the time of the eruption, it appears that Pompeiian homes contained only the bare minimum of furniture. Much of what did survive (assuming some cushions and other soft materials were lost) was bronze and iron in the form of folding stands, tables, braziers, etc.

 

FLOOR PLAN for The House of the Faun.

 

Edit:

The (floor plan) link is from a 1958 source. Since then Salvatorre Nappo

Edited June 30, 2008 by Faustus

[ASCLEPIADES]

Salve, Amici.

Highlighting some interesting differences between Roman and Greek private houses, here comes Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, De Architectura, Liber VI, cp. VII:

 

"The Greeks using no atrium, and not building as we do, make a passage, of no great breadth, from the entrance gate, on one side whereof the stable is placed, and on the other the porter's rooms, which immediately adjoin the inner gates. The space between the two gates, is, by the Greeks, called θυρωρεῖον. From this you enter into the peristylium, which has a portico on three sides. On that side facing the south are two ant

[Faustus]

Highlighting some interesting differences between Roman and Greek private houses, here comes Marcus Vitruvius Pollio.....

 

"The Greeks using no atrium, and not building as we do, make a passage, of no great breadth, from the entrance gate, on one side whereof the stable is placed, and on the other the porter's rooms, which immediately adjoin the inner gates....."

Going back to the opening post, the basic Aristocratic Roman domus (as distinguished from the an apartment house of Rome or Ostia, or the rural bungalo) began as an entryway leading to an atrium with rooms grouped around it. Later, onto that first section a rear section was added and rooms grouped around a peristylum.

 

"Simple Domus Floor Plan" (SHOWN FOR ILLUSTRATION PURPOSES)

 

The first section was Italian, and the names were Latin: The vestibulum, fauces, atrium, alae, tablinum, taberba, hortus. The rear or additional section, Greek in origin and design, had names which were Greek: the peristylum, triclinium, oecus, exhedra, (and then the aforementioned Italian (Latin named) hortus).

 

Interestingly the connecting passage between the two sections (atrium to perstyle) was called the andron(es) where a confusion occurs, is a misuse or misapplication of the Greek word. As Vitruvius says: "Between the peristylium and the lodging rooms are passages, which are called Mesaul

[sullafelix]

This thread is great! Fantastic work everyone. Could I just add a little bit of interesting info regarding the use of the term domus. It absolutely predates the term villa as far as I can tell. That term probably came from an old italic term for village or settlement. In the earliest of the literature we have available, like Lucilius, Domus is used often to signify, not just a house, but the wider sense of home(as already said), both as the place where the familia hangs out and also in a more spiritual sense, like we might use ancestral seat. So if you think about the amount of cultural and spirtual value the Romans put on the term villa which was relatively new. The domus must have had enormous significance to the Romans.

 

SF

[Faustus]

This thread is great! Fantastic work everyone. Could I just add a little bit of interesting info regarding the use of the term domus. It absolutely predates the term villa as far as I can tell. That term probably came from an old italic term for village or settlement. In the earliest of the literature we have available, like Lucilius, Domus is used often to signify, not just a house, but the wider sense of home(as already said), both as the place where the familia hangs out and also in a more spiritual sense, like we might use ancestral seat. So if you think about the amount of cultural and spirtual value the Romans put on the term villa which was relatively new. The domus must have had enormous significance to the Romans.

 

SF

 

Salve SF, and interesting that you would bring that up.

The villa is a greater complex than the home (domus), as it seemed to require or depend on a greater number of people beyond the way we consider the domus to work. The villa was more of a

[ASCLEPIADES]

Salve, Amici.

Here comes Caius Suetonius T. on the status of the Insulae at the time of the Great fire (DCCCXVII AUC / 64 BC):

 

De Vitae Caesarum, Vita Neronis, cp. XXII, sec I):

Formam aedificiorum urbis novam excogitavit et ut ante insulas ac domos porticus essent, de quarum solariis incendia arcerentur; easque sumptu suo exstruxit.

"He devised a new form for the buildings of the city and in front of the houses and apartments he erected porches, from the flat roofs of which fires could be fought;and these he put up at his own cost".

 

& ibid, cp. XXXVIII, sec II:

Tunc praeter immensum numerum insularum domus priscorum ducum arserunt .

"At that time, besides an immense number of dwellings, the houses of leaders of old were burned,"

 

& ibid, cp. XLIV, sec II:

Partem etiam census omnes ordines conferre iussit et insuper inquilinos privatarum aedium atque insularum pensionem annuam repraesentare fisco.

He also required all classes to contribute a part of their incomes, and all tenants of private houses and apartments to pay a year's rent at once to the privy purse.

[Faustus]

Salve, Amici.

Here comes Caius Suetonius T. on the status of the Insulae at the time of the Great fire

"He devised a new form for the buildings of the city and in front of the houses and apartments he erected porches, from the flat roofs of which fires could be fought; and these he put up at his own cost".

 

In the view of any firefighter, the value of a porch with a flat roof is that it would be a good platform to work from (or gain access through a window) while not being immediately susceptible to the conflagration if the fire were contained inside of the building. But I wonder about the word

[ASCLEPIADES]

Salve, Amici.

Here comes Caius Suetonius T. on the status of the Insulae at the time of the Great fire

Formam aedificiorum urbis novam excogitavit et ut ante insulas ac domos porticus essent, de quarum solariis incendia arcerentur; easque sumptu suo exstruxit.

"He devised a new form for the buildings of the city and in front of the houses and apartments he erected porches, from the flat roofs of which fires could be fought; and these he put up at his own cost".

 

In the view of any firefighter, the value of a porch with a flat roof is that it would be a good platform to work from (or gain access through a window) while not being immediately susceptible to the conflagration if the fire were contained inside of the building. But I wonder about the word

Edited July 9, 2008 by ASCLEPIADES

[sullafelix]

Salve SF, and interesting that you would bring that up.

The villa is a greater complex than the home (domus), as it seemed to require or depend on a greater number of people beyond the way we consider the domus to work. The villa was more of a

[ASCLEPIADES]

Cheers for that link - I must admit my own knowledge of the villa is mainly from the study of Late Republican Italy and Pompeii where the villa urbana and the villa rustica were not neccessarily seperate entities and the term Domus would occasionally be used to describe a location and structure that we could call a villa. I know little about the Romano-British villa in comparison, but certainly in Italy I do not subscribe to the village theory of villas but I don't want to go too off topic. Earlly Roman villas were not organised along village lines, in my opinion anyway, they were self-contained apart from the use of some seasonal labour.

Salve, SF

Strictly speaking, villa was simply any kind of isolated rural house, in opposition from those gathered together in the cities.

 

Here comes Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita, Liber II, cp. LXII, sec III:

 

Alter consul Aemilius in Sabinis bellum gessit. Et ibi, quia hostis moenibus se tenebat, uastati agri sunt. Incendiis deinde non uillarum modo sed etiam uicorum quibus frequenter habitabatur Sabini exciti...

 

"The other consul, Aemilius, conducted a campaign amongst the Sabines. There, too, as the enemy kept behind their walls, their fields were laid waste. The burning not only of scattered homesteads but also of villages with numerous populations roused the Sabines to action..." (at CCLXXXIV AUC / 470 BC)

 

(Villarum, is the genitive plural of villa).

[Faustus]

A "Private" and "Public" Spaces: The Components of the Domus - The Relation of Inside to Outside: Yvon Th

[ASCLEPIADES]

Salve, Amici

 

From Vicipedia, an example of an Insula:

 

 

Schematic drawing of a single housing block in the ancient city of Olynthos, Chalkidiki, Greece (northern hill of ancient town).

Edited July 12, 2008 by ASCLEPIADES

[Gaius Paulinus Maximus]

Cheers for that link - I must admit my own knowledge of the villa is mainly from the study of Late Republican Italy and Pompeii where the villa urbana and the villa rustica were not neccessarily seperate entities and the term Domus would occasionally be used to describe a location and structure that we could call a villa. I know little about the Romano-British villa in comparison, but certainly in Italy I do not subscribe to the village theory of villas but I don't want to go too off topic. Earlly Roman villas were not organised along village lines, in my opinion anyway, they were self-contained apart from the use of some seasonal labour.

 

 

During the middle and late republic a villa rustica (house in the country) was a farmstead attached to an estate, with farm buildings and accommodation for the estate owner when he wished to visit. From the 2nd century BC the term villa was also used for large country houses that served as retreats from city life for wealthy Romans. The difference between these functions became blurred, and it is now virtually impossible to to define precisely the function of Roman sites categorized as villas. the functions of such establishments probably varied with time, as they passed through the hands of different owners. These functions included farms run by an owner occupier, by a bailiff for an absentee landlord or one who only visited occasionally, with the villa being a country retreat or even what might now be termed as a stately home. the same villa might have performed all these functions over a period of time.

 

 

Taken from Adkins Handbook to Ancient Rome.

[Faustus]

During the middle and late republic a villa rustica (house in the country) was a farmstead attached to an estate, with farm buildings and accommodation for the estate owner when he wished to visit. From the 2nd century BC the term villa was also used for large country houses that served as retreats from city life for wealthy Romans. The difference between these functions became blurred, and it is now virtually impossible to to define precisely the function of Roman sites categorized as villas. the functions of such establishments probably varied with time, as they passed through the hands of different owners. These functions included farms run by an owner occupier, by a bailiff for an absentee landlord or one who only visited occasionally, with the villa being a country retreat or even what might now be termed as a stately home. the same villa might have performed all these functions over a period of time.

 

Taken from Adkins Handbook to Ancient Rome.

The Romans usually had two buildings on their country estates, the villa rustica, to house the slaves engaged in agricultural labour under the superintendence of the vilicus (a trusted slave in charge of the familia rustica, rather like a bailiff), and the villa urbana or pseudourbana, where the owner stayed when visiting the country. In building the first, the only consideration was the practical needs of an agricultural community; the latter, in a picturesque and airy site, offered all the amenities to which city life had made men accustomed. Not every estate had a villa urbana; when the owner was not particularly wealthy, he occupied a corner of the villa rustica, or at the most built a small easily-run house. Cicero and Pliny had splendid villae urbanae, unlike Horace who lived on his Sabine farm together with his bailiff and his slaves.

 

The villa rustica had two courts (cortes), an inner and an outer one, each with its own tank (piscina). In the inner court the tank was used for watering animals, in the outer one for different agricultural purposes, such as softening leather and soaking lupin seeds. Brick buildings surrounded the first court, forming the villa rustica in its most limited sense, the part of the farm occupied by the slaves. A large kitchen stood at the centre; on the farm the kitchen was not, as it was in the city, only used for the preparation of food, but was a meeting place and workshop as well.

 

Near the kitchen, so as to make full use of the heat it produced, were the slaves' bathrooms, the cellars and the stables for cattle (bubilia) and horses (equilia). If possible, the henhouse was also near the kitchen, because smoke was thought good for chickens. Far from the kitchen, and if possible facing north, were the buildings which required a dry situation, such as the granary (granaria), the barn (horrea) and the fruit stores (oporothecae). The store-houses, most exposed to the danger of fire might also form a building (villa fructuaria), completely separate from the villa rustica. Close to the villa rustica was the threshing-floor, with sheds nearby, such as the barn for agricultural implements or wagons (plaustra)and the nubilarium where the grain was temporarily stored in case of sudden storms.

 

From Rome Its People and Customs by Ugo Enrico Paoli