Transcript
LISA NEVETT:
Much of our evidence about the Roman Empire tells us how culture and identity were constructed in the public sphere. But what about evidence from the private world?
In this video, we’ll be looking at the housing belonging to wealthy families from several different cities in the Empire.
The organisation and decoration of these houses provides evidence for some of the ways individuals created and displayed their own private identities and cultural affiliations.
Within Roman culture, it seems that the house had considerable symbolic value: its image is one which recurs again and again in art and literature. One of the ways non-Roman peoples are represented is through their dwellings, which are sometimes shown as round and constructed of ephemeral materials. These structures contrast markedly with the distinctive manner in which Roman houses are portrayed, with their square shapes, brick walls and tiled rooves.
But the form of a house had a lot more to say about the identity of its occupants than just whether they were in some sense “Roman”:
Today our picture of the Roman house is dominated by Pompeii. The eruption of Vesuvius in AD79 not only preserved public buildings but also many private houses.
These reveal some architectural similarities. But they also show how individuals adapted layout and decoration to suit their personal circumstances. Vitruvius, writing in Italy in the first century BC, described, in remarkable detail, how a man’s social standing was related to the size and facilities of his house.
“Magnificent vestibules and alcoves and halls are not necessary for people of low status, he wrote
because they pay their respects by visiting and are not visited themselves.
Advocates and professors of rhetoric should be housed with distinction, and with enough space to accommodate their audiences.
Men of high rank who hold office and magistracies… [should have] princely vestibules, lofty halls and spacious peristyles…
Although centuries of excavation have left many of the buildings themselves empty of their original furnishings, Vitruvius comments suggest that houses of the Roman elite had to accommodate the demands of public life as well as the needs of the household. From the street, there was sometimes a hint of the rich interior which lay beyond.
Through the open door a visitor could take in much of the interior at a glance, although sometimes screens or curtains were used to divide the space. Many houses had images at the entrance, which today may seem more threatening than welcoming. But these images were placed at the threshold to ward off evil or to bring good fortune to the household, like the guardian deity Priapus.
From the entrance the various architectural elements combined to create a monumental impression, as here in the House of the Vettii.
At the centre of the house is a large hall, or atrium, rising to an opening in the roof.
The House of the Ceii has a columned atrium. The opening in the roof or compluvium, let in light, ventilation and rainwater, which was collected in the pool below, the impluvium.
The water was then channelled into a tank beneath the floor and drawn, when needed, from a well head. This house and the house of the Vettii have well preserved atria.
This area was the focal point of the house. The poet Ovid mentions anxious clients waiting here to see their patron, the master, at the customary hour. Whereas the front part of the house was organised around the atrium, the rear centred on a second space - a garden open to the sky.
In the House of the Vettii this was a regular peristyle garden - a roofed colonnade, surrounding the central area of plants.
Socially the garden was a more informal area, decorated with small fountains and sculptures. Although some of this furniture is not original to this garden, it helps us imagine how the space might have been laid out.
In the House of the Vettii rooms off the peristyle include this dining room.
This is a more private space, where invited guests could be received informally or for dinner parties. The walls are decorated with a frieze, depicting cupids undertaking various tasks - gold smithing, wine selling
cloth making and fulling.
It also provides useful evidence for the furnishings which might have been placed in the house itself. Similar examples of furnishings are on display in museums, as here in the Museum of Civilisation in Rome.
A few also survive in situ, like this chest in the atrium of the House of the Vettii.
In the House of Marcus Lucretius Fronto, beyond the atrium is an additional room - the tablinum. This room was used for greeting guests and holding formal meetings, and the rich decoration, was positioned to impress.
Screen doors which could be open or closed lead out to the garden.
This isn’t a peristyle, but a walled garden with columns only on one side and an elaborate painting creating the illusion of wilderness beyond.