The Roman Household and House
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).
Palatine Hill, 6th c. BCE House
Articulation of Space
Pompeii, House Entrance
Entrance, House of Menander
House of Menander, View from Fauces to Peristyle Garden
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.
Atrium, House of the Silver Wedding, Pompeii
Bronze Lar, found in a SW corner of an atrium, Pompeii
Lararium
Herculaneum Lararium
Loom Reconstruction
Casa del Principe di Napoli
Atrium, Tablinum
Tablinum Wall-painting, Pompeii
Roman Kitchen, Reconstruction
Atrium House Sight Lines
Cubicula (Bedrooms)
Roman Beds
Bed Frame
Pompeii, House of the Centaur, Cubiculum Reconstruction
Pompeii, Silver Mirror
Triclinium (Dining Room)
Pompeii, Triclinium
Dining Room - Summer
Pompeii, Candelabrum
Roman Seating
Roman Marble Table
Pompeii, Bronze Table
Pompeii, Roman Glass
Roman Lamps
Roman Couches
Peristyle Court
Shrine off Peristyle Court
Tintinnabulum, Pompeii
Villa at Boscoreale, Reconstruction
Cubiculum, Boscoreale
Boscoreale Wall-painting Scheme
Woman Playing Cithara
Wall-painting, Pompeii
Views of Elite Houses
Elite Houses, Inside and Out
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.
Roman Service Areas
Roman Work Areas
Subtle Control of Women?
Domestic Sculpture in situ: Cupid and Psyche
Herculaneum 3 Storey House
Pompeii Street Plan
Pompeii Houses with Vesuvius View
Villa at Settefinestre
Settefinestre House Plan
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).
Insulae