Casa Romana

There is three types of roman houses mainly:

1-La casa domus italuica which was found in Pompei in a good state of preservation mainly because of how well it was built

2-La Villa suburbana built for the rich people and later as the roman empire collapsed it was used as a farming compound.

3-La Insulae is an apartement building for housing urban people raning from lower to middle classes. The rich people lived on the lower levels and the poor on the higher ones.

The roman urban architecture was influenced by the Greek and Etruscan styles.

La Casa Romana

Essentially the house was divided into several rooms, you enter through a central door onto the Ostium followed by an atrium which is open to the sky by an opening called Impluvium to collect rain water. The Alae are open rooms on each side of the Atrium with unknown uses. The Triclinium is the dining area where Romans spent most of there afternoons. The cubiculas are dormitories or storage areas.


Some wealthy people owned houses with additional features like  Tabernas which are shops rented on the front part of the house with independent access from the street. Also some houses had a peristylium which was an open courtyard  within the house, the columns surrounding the garden supported a roofed portico whose inner walls were often embellished with wall paintings. Also some dwellings had a Postium which is a service entrance.






In general the houses were divided into 4 distincts zones:

-Service zone: cubicula, Cellae

-Public and representative zone: Atrium, Tbalinum and alae

-Private zone: Termas, Triclinium, Peristilo

-Public entance: Taberna

Triclinium: Dining and resting area

Tablinum: a space where the landlord meets with his clientes

Cubicula: dormitories

Exedra: Space for resting with cooler air when its hot on the afternoon'

Termas: they would warm the water by igniting a fire under the floor, only wealthy people had private thermas.