Social and Private Life at Rome in the Time of Plautus and Terence (Volume 81, No. 1) (Paperback)

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1918. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER I Dwelling, Town And Country (a) Town-house And Furniture It is difficult to give a description of the Roman dwelling of this period which would be generally applicable. Not only did the house vary according to the means of the owner, but also in this period of transition, older and simpler forms existed side by side with more recent changes and innovations.1 1 The treatment of the house in this chapter is based on the literary' sources, with the hope that the result may be of use in the study of archeological remains. Archeological evidence for the second century B. C. is available at Pompeii (on the private houses at Pompeii cf. Mau-Kelsey, Pompeii (New York, London, 1809), p. 239, et seq., Overbeck, Pompeji Leipsic, 1856], p. 179, et seq.) Some of the earlier houses there have no peristyle, but the normal plan includes both atrium and peristyle, and shows the complete union of Greek and Italic types. The House of the Surgeon, which antedates 200 B. C, is wholly Italic, with a roofed court, atrium, surrounded by smaller rooms and a garden in the rear, and the House of Sallust, built in the second century B. C, resembled this in its original plan. The House of the Faun illustrates the type of dwelling "that wealthy men of cultivated tastes living in the third or second century B. C. built and adorned for themselves" (Mau-Kelsey, op. cit., p. 282). The plan is more complex, and the apartments are in four groups: (1) a large Tuscan atrium with living rooms on three sides; (2) a small tetrastyle atrium with rooms for domestic service around it; (3) a peristyle; (4) a second peristyle. The later House of Pansa also shows the union-- here there is an atrium of usual type with alae and tablinum, entered through a vestibule, and at the further end there is access to the peristyle...