Latin source topics

Houses

Typical roman house

•  The house opened straight onto the street with rented out shops on either side of the front door
• The vestibulum or entrance was guarded by a slave or dog
• There were few window high up in a Pompeian house- there was no front or back garden but one inside to keep out noise, heat and burglars
• the houses were divided into a summer and winter half

 Tablinum – study

• Was more of a family room than the atrium – it was placed between the atrium and the garden
• The door was closed by a curtain or in winter by wooden shutters
•  Furniture included a large table, chairs, couches, a chest and possibly a cupboard

 Atrium

•     Was the most important and best decorated room with beautiful wall paintings and mosaic
•   The lararium (shrine to household gods) was kept there
•   There was a hole in the roof called the compluvium t let light and air in and rain fell through into the impluvium, a shallow pool
•     Water was then stored in the tank below, it was used for household purposes

Cibiculum – bedroom

• They were off the atrium on the ground floor
•  There was little furniture only a high wood or metal bed in the corner and maybe a chest and shelves for clothes and a stool
•  the bedrooms were small and un decorated

 Tricilium – dinning room

•   was the second most important room in the house
•  It was elaborately decorated with mosaics and wall paintings as it was a room where visitors were entertained
•  it contained three couches and a small table in the centre
• houses often had winter and summer dinning rooms

culina – kitchen

• the kitchens were vey small and only contained a cooker and maybe a sink or shelves
• the latrina ( toilet) would be next to the kitchen
• the food was boiled in pots above the fire on a tripod or grilled on a grid iron – there was no chimneys- the smoke went out through the window
• slaves would be the only ones working in this uncomfortable space

 Insulae

• ·Was a block of flats in which poor people lived
• Each insulae was made up of at least three floors, with a family sharing one room
• The lower floors were made of stone, but the higher floors were made of wood- fires occurred frequently
•  The larger areas on the ground were used as shops

The water supply

Water supply- from river to town

• Originally water came fro rivers or wells however later an aqueduct was built which brought water from a river in the hills to the square reservoir
• Here water from the aqueduct was divided into 3channels – water was carried In lead piped which ran beneath the side walk
• The water was piped to the baths, public fountains and some people paid to have water piper to their houses
•  Next to a water fountain…