Hortus

A small Roman Hortus, Herculaneum. Notice the low wall and waterworks in the middle.

Every domus (house) that wanted to display status and power had to be equipped with a decent hortus, garden. These come in all kind of shapes and I will come back to them later. It can be mentioned already though that the Romans considered a garden to be nature domesticated and they thus preferred strict gardens with hedges in straight lines and figure shaped bushes. Fountains, pond and statues were also popular and the gardens are actually the part of an atrium house that reminds me the most of the (perhaps slightly old fashion) modern equivalent.