Roman Dwellings From the humble farm hut to the majestic coastal villas of the privileged class, the term dwelling can include a wide range of examples within the Roman Empire. An empire which stretched from Spain to Syria, and from Britain to Egypt, the variations of homes within this context must have been numerous. I will discuss some of the more common: homes of the poor, both rural and urban, the domus common among the upper and middle classes, and the extravagant villas of the wealthy. In the countryside the poor lived in small villages or on farms in homes built of stone, wood or mud. Modest structures often only one or two rooms, to accommodate an extended family. Another type of rural dwelling involved the housing of slaves within production facilities, such as olive oil factories (Lockey, 2009). Not fairing much better were the poor in the urban areas; an insula, form the Latin for island, was an ancient apartment building, were the majority of city residents lived. The ground floor units of the insula, …show more content…
The tablinum generally had no walls separating it from the rest of the house, only a curtain or wide doors. The tablinum affords a vantage point to be able to watch the goings on within the house, a perfect place for the head of the family to conduct his business (The Roman House, 2007). If the atrium was the center of business conducted in the home, then the peristylium was the center of the home’s business. A courtyard, surrounded by columns supporting the roof, laid out as a garden in the West, but paved with marble in the East (Lockey, 2009). Surrounding the peristylium were all of the functioning rooms; including the kitchen, baths, latrine, and the triclinium, a dining hall. The triclinium was an important part of the house where invited guests would be entertained at elaborate dinner parties (Becker,