THE ROMAN HOUSE
1. FAUCES, the main entrance, consisting of a passageway between the front door and the ATRIUM, sometimes with a vestibule. 2. ATRIUM, the social and religious center of the house. It is the first open space that confronts the visitor entering from the street, and was often colonnaded and decorated to impress upon the visitor the importance of the family that owns the house. 3. IMPLUVIUM, located in the Atrium directly beneath the COMPLUVIUM (open skylight) in the ceiling, collects rainwater. 4. ALAE, recesses often used for the display of imagines or ancestor portraits. 5. TABLINUM, or reception room, where the leader of the household (almost always the pater familias , or father of the family) conducts business and meets clients. It is the axis of the house, in the sense that the rooms that preceded it were public or semi-public, and the rooms behind it (below) were for more private use. 6. PERISTYLE, often with a small reflecting pool or garden 7. PRIVATE / SERVANT ENTRANCE 8. CUBICULUM, a bedroom. In fact, the function of the rooms in the private area of the house vary greatly from house to house, or even season to season, so most of these rooms could also be used as a cubiculum. 9. TRICLINIUM, the dining room. Again, the location varies, and any of numerous rooms could have been used for dining, with seasonal considerations in mind. But the hallmark of a dining room in Roman (and in Greek) architecture is the off-center door. Central doors do not allow for an optimal spacing of dining couches. GREEK AND ROMAN ART Roman Handout #5
ARCHITECTURAL TERMS OTHER TERMS *Ala -ae (2 nd definition) Client/Patron *Atrium Latifundia *Cardo Lupanar *Castrum Pater Familias *Compluvium *Cubiculum PEOPLE *Decumanus Eumachia *Fauces Roger Ling *Impluvium David Macaulay *Insula -ae August Mau *Tablinum Pliny the Elder *Thermopolium Pliny the Younger *Triclinium Tacitus
SITES AND BUILDINGS CONCEPTS Baiae Herculaneum • Learn the typical layout of a Roman Naples (from Greek Neo - and polis ), Bay of domus. Ostia Misenum • Be able to discuss August Mau’s four *Pompeii styles of Romano-Campanian wall Amphitheater decoration. Forum Basilica Eumachia Building House of the Faun House of M. Lucretius Fronto House of Sallust House of the Tragic Poet House of the Vetii Lupanar Temple of Apollo Temple of Isis Villa of the Mysteries Portus “Verbonia” (Imaginary Roman town) Mt. Vesuvius