Casa del Cinghiale II, fauces mosaic depicting a boar.
It is time to turn to what a real atrium house looked like. I must admit here that I have never encountered an atrium house that even remotely follow the classical, standardized, plan. My first example on how a house might look will be Casa de Ceii (through a plan), but notice that the pictures will come from a lot of different houses. My aim is to show you how much the different parts of the house might differ. The main examples will hopefully come from the fauces (beginning with the fauces), atrium and hortus as these are the parts that I should have material from.
This is the entrance to an atrium house in Herculaneum. Notice the bench where clients would wait in the morning.
I am quite sure that I have mentioned the client patronus system before, but I will give a quick walkthrough again.
Rich members of society were normally connected to equals by a friendship status (amicita-ae) while the lower classes could become clients of a patronus. This system was a way to help each other, the clients could ask their patronus for a service (food, money, help in court etc). The patronus would in turn expect their votes in elections, being followed by them on the way to the forum (more clients would mean more power) and could ask them to perform labor for him. A critical part of this system was the salutation where clients would come to salute their patron in the morning.
Many houses had an upper floor, normally not preserved, and thus had to be equipped with stairs. These were commonly constructed by making the first 3 or 4 steps in concrete and the rest in wood. This picture is an exemption from Casa del Menandro in Pompeii and you can see it in context here. Notice how space was saved by using a mini vault.
We will also have to take a look at another critical part of the Roman house - the toilet. These are nothing like the slightly monumental public toilets put up at forums, baths and so on. (pictures from Ostia and the Roman Agora in Athens)
A Roman toilet would typically be placed in the kitchen (notice that this picture come from the same room as the kitchen yesterday) and be a hole in the ground covered with something to sit on. These pits would then be cleaned regularly and the manure used in the agriculture.
The kitchen of an Atrium house. The firewood was stored in the lower are, the fire place on top of the construction. You'll have to imagine it with a slow fire and tripods with pots placed on top.
We have no discussed all the primary rooms of an atrium house. I would now like to turn my attention to other not always mentioned parts, such as the kitchen, toiled, bath, storage room, slave quarters etc.
First out is the kitchen, an essential part of every wealthy person’s house. This might seem strange to point out, but most Romans did not have a kitchen and the lower classes were normally forbidden to cook their own food in their apartments (due to the risk of fire). They thus had to eat out (At places such as the Tabernae mentioned two days ago).
The upper classes however were expected to not be seen at any such establishments and therefore had to have a kitchen of their own.
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.
Tabernae is an ancient term for the small shops that was common in the Roman world which was commonly situated around a domus (large house, as an atrium house. Also see the plan). These normally consisted of a small square room with all but no decorations. A number of activates could take place in these, shops and fast food restaurants were common. Notice of the desk seen in the photo above is typical.
An outdoor triclinium from Casa Dell'efebo. Notice that the benches (where the diners were lying) is painted. The house have another, indoor, triclinium as well but that was unfortunately covered in plastic the last time I was there.
Next up is the triclinium, the official dining room in a upper class house from this period. The name comes from the characteristic sofa situated in the room which is, as the name suggests, three parted. This is normally one of the more elaborately decorated rooms in the house and would if possibly be placed with a clear view of the garden (hortus). The very riches even had two triclinia, of facing north for the summer, one facing south for the winter.
A cubiculum in Casa dell'efebo during a very rainy day. It is unfortunate but understandable that most people hardly notice the cubiculi - they are in general small empty rectangular rooms and the decorations not as spectacular as the ones in the nearby atrium.
You may also notice the so called cubiculi (sing. cubiculum) that surround the atrium on the plan. The term is normally translated into “bedroom” but it should be noticed that this is a modern construction more than anything else, due to difficulties when it come to identifying rooms. It is simply enough difficult to identify the activities in most of these rooms and calling them cubiculi has become a convenient way to treat the problem.
A atrium house in Pompeii. Notice the impluvium, cistern head (on the left) and fountain in the background. The tablinium is the small area right in front of the fountain, allowing strangers who were passing by to see the Pater familias (family head) on his seat in front of it, a common way to enchant the view in.
Casa del Menandro (Pompeii), the atrium from the inside. Notice the impluvium and compluvium. You may also see the small drain leading rainwater from the impluvium into a cistern. We can also see a household shrine to the left.
You may have noticed the room right ahead in the first picture. This is the famous atrium that the house type is named after. This room is with no doubt the focus of the entire household. This were where clients saluted their patrons (who would sit in the tablinium, originally the masters bedroom, later a sort of working area/archive) and notice on the plan how all other rooms turn to it.
There are a few characteristics that you may look for when identifying this area. It is to begin with, one of, or the, largest rooms in the house and it is all but always situated right after the entrance. You may also notice a small pond (called impluvium) in the middle of the floor and a hole in the room (which is sloping inwards) called compluvium. There are other type of roofs as well, the ancient architect Vitruvius discuss them in his work De Architectura. This is also one of the absolutely best decorated rooms in most roman upper class houses from this time.
