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Roman Art & Architecture
Roman Houses
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
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.