1. Roman Villas Lesson Objectives
To understand what Roman Villas were like.
To understand the type of things the Romans did in their villas.
This lesson plan/PowerPoint are adapted from (sharemylesson) TES

2. Starter activity Does anybody know what this image is?
Do you know why Romans might have had it in their villas?
Can you explain how it worked?

3. What were Roman Villas like?

4. What is a Roman Villa?
A Roman villa is a villa that was built or lived in during the Roman Empire.
A villa was originally a Roman country house built for the upper class.
Wealthy Romans often owned a house in the country as well as one in the town.
Poorer Roman citizens lived in flats in busy towns these flats were not as nice.

5. Poorer Romans lived in blocks of flats called insulae
Ostia roman city outside Rome. Shops on ground floor with removable/sliding wooden doors. Paved roads. Flats above shops up to 5 stories. Built of brick. The higher up the cheaper the flat due to the threat of fire and the stairs that you had to climb down to get anything including water.

6. Why did the Romans have villas?
Wealthy Romans had a villa for two reasons:
To escape the bustle of the city
It was also a farmhouse were slaves worked the land and produced crops which brought their master wealth.

7. What was a Roman Villa like?
Villas were usually decorated with expensive floor or wall mosaics
They used wall paintings called frescos to decorate the villas.
The villas were often big and had lots of different rooms
Many villas also had a hypocaust system which was like a central heating system.
A room as a shrine to the gods

8. Richer Romans decorated their houses with mosaics on the floor.
2nd Century A.D. Excavated near Antioch (modern Antakya, Turkey). Metropolitan Museum of Art

9. Fresco wall painting in a cubiculum (bedroom) from the Villa of P
Fresco wall painting in a cubiculum (bedroom) from the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale, ca. 40–30 B.C.; Late Republican The window may have had glass between the iron bars

10. meeting room called ‘atrium Kitchen
Grand entrance hall
meeting room called ‘atrium
Kitchen
A reception room
Storage rooms
Slave living area.
Study room
Rooms in a roman villa
Courtyard with pool and garden called
peristylum
Bathrooms
Dinning room called ‘triclinium
Lots of bedrooms
Prayer room to worship the Gods

11. WHAT SORT OF HOUSE DO THESE DESCRIPTIONS FIT?
Make a table in your books of where they would be
Roman Villa Roman Flats
6) Has a large beautiful
Hall called an Atrium
1) Not connected to sewers,
waste dumped into the
street
7) No running water or
Heating System
4) Really small, only room
For a bed and a table
2) Poorly built, in danger of
Collapsing or catching fire.
8) Has a Peristyle ( garden)
With a grass lawn and
Pool with pillars
3) Connected to the water
System, slaves can fetch
Water easily
5) Has an outside toilet
Connected to the sewer
system

15. Entertaining guests
Owners of the villa would often invite guests round to eat and relax
Owners of the villa and their guests led very comfortable lives.
When entertaining, a wealthy family could serve a meal with eight or nine courses!
Food would be served such as doormouse, pheasant or partridge

16. What did the Romans do when Entertaining
People ate in a half lying position scooping up food with bread or their fingers.
They did not use knives and forks.
People who were full sometimes left the room to make themselves vomit, then came back and carried on eating – yeuch!!

17. Many people had shrines in their houses with a figure of their favourite god. They believed it was important to keep the gods happy with gifts or statues.
Shrine from the House of the Vettii, Pompeii. (Rome: AICT)

18. Describe it in as much detail as possible.
Describe a Roman villa.
Describe it in as much detail as possible.

19. Questions Why did wealthy Romans own a villas?
What are some of the things the Romans did in their villas?
Name three rooms in a Roman villa and say what the Romans might have used this room for.
Do you think Roman villas were extravagant? Explain why you think this.
Would you have liked to live in a Roman villa? Why/Why not?

20. Your task
Create an advertisement in your books describing your Roman Villa.
Make your villa sound as attractive as possible. You should talk about the good things and leave out the bad things!

21. Things you can write about
Things you can write about to sell your villa
Write about how big it is and talk about all the land you have.
Talk about the decorations in the villa such as mosaics and wall paintings
Talk about the hypocaust system
Talk about the location in a peaceful area but near the roman baths and other places of interest.