The Roman House or Domus

[Faustus]

Some More On The VILLA

In the the Roman villa rustica "it is not certain where the slaves lived. We know, however, that there were their bedrooms (cellae familiares), the ergastulum, a kind d prison where recalcitrant slaves were punished with hard labor and the valetudinarium for sick slaves. When there was no villa urbana, the better rooms were reserved for the owner.

 

An example of the Roman villa rustica is found in the (detailed "Floor Plan" of the) Villa of Boscoreale (If won't enlarge, "refresh") near Pompeii, famous not only for the importance of its ruins but also for the silverware found there (now in the Louvre. Its plan deserves attention.

 

The villa urbana stood where a wide view of the countryside or sea could be enjoyed; it was a purely luxurious building, having no practical purpose or function like the farm; this villa in the complexity and richness of its rooms reflected the tastes, and bore witness to the wealth, of its owner. Some villas had no farmland attached, but stood in their own grounds surrounded by woods, parks and gardens. Such villas, sometimes called praetoria, increased in number during the Empire. Remains of them are found in Italy, France, Switzerland, southern Germany, England and North Africa.

 

The practical spirit of the Romans, who fully appreciated the pleasures of life, introduced these large commodious villas, well cooled in summer, well heated in winter, wherever their armies and civilization penetrated.

 

Many different types of this villa are to be found. Classical authors describe as a characteristic of the villa urbana that its peristyle was entered directly from the vestibulum and not, as in city houses, the atrium. But there seem to be exceptions even to this. In Pliny's Laurentine villa, for example, there was an atrium through the vestibulum; cuius in prima parte atrium frugi nec tamen sordidum. The rooms were variously grouped in separate buildings (conclavia, diaetae) connected by covered corridors cryptoporticus often fitted with windows."

 

THE ROOMS OF A ROMAN VILLA

The most important parts of the villa were:

(1) The dining rooms (triclinia, cenationes).

Edited July 19, 2008 by Faustus

[ASCLEPIADES]

Here comes Caius Suetonius Tranquilus, Vita XII Caesarum Divus Augustus, cp. LXXII-LXXIII:

 

Habitavit primo iuxta Romanum Forum supra Scalas anularias, in domo quae Calvi oratoris fuerat; postea in Palatio, sed nihilo minus aedibus modicis Hortensianis, et neque laxitate neque cultu conspicuis, ut in quibus porticus breves essent Albanarum columnarum et sine marmore ullo aut insigni pavimento conclavia. Ac per annos amplius quadraginta eodem cubiculo hieme et aestate mansit, quamvis parum salubrem valitudini suae urbem hieme experiretur assidueque in urbe hiemaret. Si quando quid secreto aut sine interpellatione agere proposuisset, erat illi locus in edito singularis, quem Syracusas et technyphion vocabat; huc transibat aut in alicuius libertorum suburbanum; aeger autem in domo Maecenatis cubabat. Ex secessibus praecipue frequentavit maritima insulasque Campaniae aut proxima urbi oppida, Lanuvium, Praeneste, Tibur, ubi etiam in porticibus Herculis templi persaepe ius dixit. Ampla et operosa praetoria gravabatur. Et neptis quidem suae Iuliae, profuse ab ea exstructa, etiam diruit ad solum, sua vero quamvis modica non tam statuarum tabularumque pictarum ornatu quam xystis et nemoribus excoluit rebusque vetustate ac raritate notabilibus, qualia sunt Capreis immanium beluarum ferarumque membra praegrandia, quae dicuntur gigantum ossa, et arma heroum. Instrumenti eius et supellectilis parsimonia apparet etiam nunc residuis lectis atque mensis, quorum pleraque vix privatae elegantiae sint. Ne toro quidem cubuisse aiunt nisi humili et modice instrato.

 

"He lived at first near the Forum Romanum, above the Stairs of the Ringmakers, in a house which had belonged to the orator Calvus; afterwards, on the Palatine, but in the no less modest dwelling of Hortensius, which was remarkable neither for size nor elegance, having but short colonnades with columns of Alban stone, and rooms without any marble decorations or handsome pavements. For more than forty years too he used the same bedroom in winter and summer; although he found the city unfavourable to his health in the winter, yet continued to winter there. If ever he planned to do anything in private or without interruption, he had a retired place at the top of the house, which he called "Syracuse" and "technyphion." In this he used to take refuge, or else in the villa of one of his freedmen in the suburbs; but whenever he was not well, he slept at Maecenas's house. For retirement he went most frequently to places by the sea and the islands of Campania, or to the towns near Rome, such as Lanuvium, Praeneste or Tibur, where he very often held court in the colonnades of the Temple of Hercules. He disliked large and sumptuous country palaces, actually razing to the ground one which his granddaughter Julia built on a lavish scale. His own villas, which were modest enough, he decorated not so much with handsome statues and pictures as with terraces, groves, and objects noteworthy for their antiquity and rarity; for example, at Capreae the monstrous bones of huge sea monsters and wild beasts, called the "bones of the giants," and the weapons of the heroes. The simplicity of his furniture and household goods may be seen from couches and tables still in existence, many of which are scarcely fine enough for a private citizen".

[Artimi]

Ancient Roman Gardens by Linda Farrar,

Is quite well researched adds another dimension to the study of Roman houses and every day life in Rome.

[Northern Neil]

Ancient Roman Gardens by Linda Farrar,

Is quite well researched adds another dimension to the study of Roman houses and every day life in Rome.

My thanks to you for this, Artimi - I have ordered my copy from Amazon. And welcome aboard!