Roman Art & Architecture Roman Houses

The basic Roman house follows a very simplistic plan. It is normally a group of rooms surrounding a main courtyard. This developed to include a second courtyard later known as a peristylum. The rooms all faced inwards towards these courtyards. This kept the rooms cooler, and no longer needing external windows, meant the burglars had a more difficult time getting in. The main courtyard is called an Atrium. In the Roman house this space normally contained a rainwater tank, known as an impluvium.

Roman Houses This courtyard was regarded by Vitruvius as the principal room of the house. This would explain why people decorated this room with the most finery they could afford. This was where one would receive guests and clients. Beyond the atrium was another important room, the tablinum. This room looks like a connection corridor between the atrium and the peristylum but was actually the masters’ main room, a type of study. It would have had curtains closing it off from the atrium and the peristylum. These could be left open to form a vista. Access between the two courtyards was made using small passageways beside the tablinum.

Roman Houses Note two courtyards with surrounding rooms, passageway alongside the tablinum, colonnaded peristylum.

Roman Houses Alongside the tablinum would be the triclinium, the dining room. Many of the finer houses would also have a summer triclinium positioned off the peristylum. As the heat rose during the hotter months this would be used as a cooler option.

Roman Houses

The triclinium was a room with three couches positioned on three sides. The other side of the room was left free for service. A table would have been in the centre of the couches. Diners would have eaten in a reclined position. The peristylum was the innermost sanctum of the Roman house. If the atrium was the public domain, this was most certainly the private area. It was normally colonnaded with plants, water features and statuary in the centre.

Roman Houses Bedrooms, Cubiculums in Latin were normally positioned off the atrium. See above. The lararium, shrine for the household gods was also positioned in the atrium, normally in one of the corners.

Insulae Insulae are blocks of apartments or flats. The word comes from the Latin term for blocks of town land, like in American cities. As with modern Ireland ground rents soared under the late republic and early empire. Building spacious private one story houses became the privilege of the extremely rich. The normal plebeian population were forced to live in high rise.

Insulae In fact the blocks of flats rose to such dangerous heights that successive emperors had to pass laws to restrict building. Juvenal mentions all sorts of dangers in his satires. Poor building standards, sanitation problems and fires are all mentioned. Of course the great fire of 64AD tore through the areas heavily populated with these types of buildings.

Insulae Ground floor spaces were normally taken up with shops and taverns. Most insulae had internal courtyards, where staircases would provide access to the higher floors. Many of the higher floors would have been constructed from wood. The lower floors would have been constructed from unfaced brick. The best preserved examples of these buildings are at Ostia Antica, the port of ancient Rome. Here some buildings still exist with three stories.