Private Buildings – Villas, Houses, Shops

Houses• Houses in Pompeii and Herculaneum reflected social status• Andrew Wallace-Harrill has identified four types of house, based on sizeType 1: one or two roomed house, used as both residence and shop or workshopType 2: from two to seven rooms, with larger workshops and living areas

Type 3: the average Pompeian residence of between eight and thirteen rooms with a combination of public and private workspaces – workshops or other shops were incorporated into the house

Type 4: the largest houses, designed for entertaining• They may have been created from a number of smaller houses remodelled to make

a single building• They included quarters for slaves

Houses

• There was a great variation among the houses in Pompeii and Herculaneum, in size, but also in age, style, construction, material and decoration

• Generally houses were inward looking and rooms opened onto an inner courtyard or garden rather than onto the street

• If outer walls had windows they were usually small and high, secure rather than decorative

• Upper floors had larger windows and balconies which admitted air and light

Houses

FEATURES OF A ROMAN HOUSE

LATIN TERM

DEFINITION

Fauces The entrance corridor

Vestibulum The entrance hall

Atrium The reception room, generally with compluvium and impluvium

Compluvium An opening in the roof which allowed light and rainwater into the atrium

Impluvium Shallow pool which collected rainwater from the compluvium

Tablinium Room off the atrium, used for receiving clients and conducting business

Peristyle A colonnaded or covered walkway around a courtyard or garden

Cubiculum A small windowless bedroom

Triclinium A dining room with space for three long couches around a serving table

Lararium The family shrine of the lares, the spirits of the entry of houses

Furniture and decor• In wealthier houses interior walls

were decorated with frescoes and floors with mosaics

• Statues, ponds and fountains were common

Houses

• Houses were not heavily furnished and most furniture was light and portable

• The bedroom contained a bed and a small table

• A dining room contained 3 couches and low tables which could be carried into the garden or courtyard

• Small cupboards stored clothing

Houses

• In Herculaneum some carbonised wooden furniture has survived, including tables, beds, small cupboards and stools

Houses

Rented accommodation• Not all families had a home of their own• People rented lofts, rooms and apartments and these could be small areas of one or

two rooms behind or above shops and workshops, or larger sections of houses• Upper storey apartments were reached from external staircases opening onto the

street

Houses

• At least 1 apartment block has been excavated in Pompeii, in Via del Foro

• In Herculaneum the 2 storey Trellis House was built for 2 families, one living upstairs and one downstairs

Houses

• A sign advertising premises for rent in the estate of Julia Felix mentions shops (tabernae) with rooms above (pergulae) and upstairs flats (cenacula)

• Using such advertisements and the evidence of separate street entrances and external staircases, Felix Pirson has identified 450 examples of small independent dwellings in Pompeii

Houses

Shops• In Pompeii and Herculaneum residential and commercial areas existed together• Shops were located in most blocks (insulae) in Pompeii, although the main street

of the city the Via dell’ Abbondanza, had a particularly high concentration of them• Owners of large houses rented out street-facing rooms as shops, taverns or

workshops• Such shops were not connected to the rest of the house

• An upper storey or part of it was sometimes rented with the shop, as a residence for the shopkeeper

• Sometimes the ground rooms at the back of the shop were also rented

Shops

• Most shops were small, with only enough room for one or two people behind the counter

• In some shops the goods sold were made on the premises, in others the goods were bought from local merchants or foreign traders

• More than 600 shops have been identified in Pompeii, although they may not have been operating at the same time

Shops

• Food shops were plentiful, the most common being the thermopolium

• 20 taverns (cuponae) have been identified in Pompeii and over 130 smaller thermopolia which sold hot food and drink

• Some sold the ancient equivalent of take away food, others had a back room for dining

Shops

• Typically such shops had one room opening onto the road, with a brick counter into which were sunk the dolia (jars) containing the goods

• Although Herculaneum was not a commercial city, it contained many shops, including a bakery, thermopolia and taverns

• In the House of Neptune and Amphitrite Mosaic, the shop in the front of the house is an example of the mixture of residential and commercial activity which could be found in both towns

Shops

Villas• Wealthy Romans build large villas in the countryside and along the coast around

the Bay of Naples, as retreats from Rome and places where political matters could be conducted in impressive surroundings

• Almost 100 such villas have been identified

• The Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum and the Villa of Poppaea at Oplontis are outstanding examples of maritime villas designed to take advantage of the view and built on a grand scale

Villas

Villa of Poppaea

• Villas closer to the towns, the urban villas, were large residences, generally with a working farm attached

• They were more integrated into the social and political life of the towns• On the outskirts of Pompeii were two such villas: the Villa of the Mysteries,

named after the fresco which is believed to depict the Dionysian rites of initiation for women, and the Villa of Diomedes

• These were larger than most luxurious houses

Villas

• The Villa of the Mysteries was built in the 2nd century BC and renovated in about 60BC and again in the 1st century AD

• The villa contained residential quarters overlooking the sea, servants’ quarters facing the road and an area for wine production

• It also provides evidence of the fashion for Hellenistic culture which Romans admired

Villas

• Farmhouses (villae rusticae) were another type of villa• They ranged from basic shelters for workers to more comfortable houses where the

owners lived, such as the Villa of Pisanella at Regina• There were also more opulent homesteads such as the Villa at Boscoreale which

was decorated like city houses with frescoes on the walls and mosaics on the floor

Villas

Villa of Pisanella

Villa at Boscoreale

• These villas did not contain the domestic peristyle of maritime or urban villas• Instead, the internal courtyard was occupied by storage vats for olives or wine

Villas