DOMUS

ROMAN
HOUSING
 POTTERY REPLICA OF
AN EARLY THATCHED ROOF HUT

Single room, called the atrium, in

which the entire household lived
TYPES OF HOUSING

• INSULA
• DOMUS
• VILLA
 INSULAE
• Term originally applied to the city blocks
• Later to the apartment houses themselves
• Poorer people usually lived in the “insulae”
• “Insula” means “island”
• Apartment blocks seemed to jut out amid a
sea of streets and smaller houses
• Small, dark, damp rooms used for any
purpose and any number of people
MODEL OF INSULA
 DOMUS
• Separate houses of the rich
• Spacious and well lit
• Carefully planned, with each room serving
a particular purpose
• Built around an inner garden, or courtyard
• Tended to look inwards for light and space,
whereas houses today look outward
DOMUS FLOORPLAN
 TYPICAL DOMUS FEATURES
• Ala – side room
• Atrium – entrance hall
• Cubiculum - bedroom
• Culina - kitchen
• Fauces – entry passage
• Impluvium/Compluvium – rain-collecting pool
• Peristylium – inner garden
• Taberna - shop
• Tablinum – master’s study
• Triclinium – dining room
 TABERNA
• Shops could be found both in domus
and insulae, carrying foods, wine,
pottery and other goods
• The open fronts of the small shops
gave color and variety during the day
• At night, the shops were shuttered
and blank
WINESHOP
BAKERY
THERMOPOLIUM (BAR)
 VESTIBULUM

Open court in front of door, sometimes with an

ornamental pavement, extending from door to
inner edge of the sidewalk
 CAVE CANEM

Many entranceways had pavements of mosaics

 ATRIUM
• Situated at the front of the hose,
the atrium had been the heart of the
early Roman household
• Later, the atrium became used
primarily as an entrance hall or
formal reception room when domestic
activities were carried on at the back
of the house
• The impluvium and the compluvium
were its most conspicuous features
 IMPLUVIUM

To collect rainwater coming through an opening in the roof from which

it ran into a cistern and was used for household purposes
COMPLUVIUM

This opening allowed light into

atrium and adjoining rooms
ATRIUM/TABLINUM with wooden doors
 TABLINUM
• Master’s office or study
• It may have been so named because his account
books (tabulae) and his business and private
papers were kept in it
• By its position it commanded the whole house
• Folding doors or draw curtains for privacy
• Corridor at side made free passage through the
house when the tablinum was closed
TABLINUM
TABLINUM
CAPSA
WAX TABLET
 CUBICULUM
• Bedroom
• Small and dark
• Often contained fine wall-paintings/frescoes
• Bed was a simple wooden frame with
interwoven straps upon which a mattress
was placed
• Bed often used as a sofa during the day
CUBICULUM
CUBICULUM
 CULINA
• Kitchen
• Contained the hearth for heating, cooking,
and baking
• Usually located in rear of the house
• Sometimes had a separate rear entrance for
convenience
• Utensils (ladles, spoons, knives, pots and
pans) were made of bronze, iron, and clay
CULINA
CULINA
 TRICLINIUM
• Dining Room
• Many had built-in couches for reclining
• Three couches surrounding a removable table
• Marble steps in wall contained a fountain for
water to cascade over feet of diners and into a
drain
• Fine paintings/frescoes decorated the walls
• Glass used for glassware, but rarely for windows
• Silverware and utensils generally used only by
wealthy Romans
TRICLINIUM
Triclinium – Villa of the Mysteries
LUCERNAE – OIL LAMPS
 ALA
• Sideroom
• Lararium – Shrine to Household Gods
LARARIUM
OUTSIDE LARARIUM
LARES & PENATES
PERISTYLIUM
 What Roman Toilets Were Like
Roman toilets were a row of seats with a
channel of water in front.  Instead of toilet
paper, the Romans used a wooden stick with
a sponge on the end.  After use, they would
dip the sponge stick in the channel of
water.  The same sponge stick would then be
used again and again for different people. 
Rich Roman ladies disliked the idea of a
sponge stick and used an ostrich feather
instead.  The rich Roman's homes had their
own private toilets.  At the other end of the
scale there were the poor, who would share
one toilet between many families.  To help
with drainage, their houses were built over
rivers or sewers.
LATRINA
balneum