How Was The Roman House Structured? Essay

Ancient Rome is one of the greatest and most influential societies in the history of the world. From the basic rules of how the Roman Empire is set up to the infrastructures in the city, the strict hierarchy of Roman social structure can be reflected clearly all over the whole ancient Rome. In fact that “public architecture presents people with the official view of a society and provides the background against which its individual markers live their lives.”1 With the great desire of Roman for entertainment and their special taste for blood, the amphitheatre is considered as the most popular and most representative type of the entertainment building in the ancient Roman culture. And

- Much is made of the temples and public buildings of ancient Greece, for good reason. But what were the houses of the average Greek citizen like? You will have to do some outside research for this topic. Include architectural descriptions and historical background information.

The similarities and differences between the design, construction and environmental performance of a typical Mesopotamian ‘courtyard’ and a Roman ‘peristyle’ house

If you were a poor Roman citizen living in a Roman city, chances were you were living in a cramped apartment building know as Insulae . The vast majority of the people living in Roman cities lived in cramped insulae which were generally three to five stories

The Romans and Greek houses were similar, yet different. The Roman houses usually composed of many stories, but many of the Greek houses didn’t, due to their lack of concrete. The Romans had many rooms in their houses, usually each for a specific purpose. Greeks, on the other hand, had many of their rooms dedicated to gods, and only a few rooms. Many Greeks had their houses made out of pebbles, clay, or mud, which had to be kept up, since it would wear away and disintegrate. Greek houses were planned around a courtyard with a garden and statues in it.

In many societies religion has played a major role in their development, and the Roman Empire was no different (Roman Religion, Definition by Donald L. Wasson published on 13 November 2013). Michael Grant summarises Roman Religion for us when he says;” Roman religion was largely concerned with ritual, not faith or belief. The Romans did not have a personal relationship with their Gods nor did their religion offer them doctrine or an explanation of the World. They were Polytheistic; they worshipped many Gods” (Cities of Vesuvius: Pompeii and Herculaneum 2001, Michael Grant, pg.56). Within this paper my aim will be to show how Pompeii’s religious spaces compared to that of other Roman Towns, from the Roman Colonisation of Pompeii era onwards. I will identify some of these religious spaces and evaluate their purpose within Pompeian society. I will also identify how these spaces impacted upon the daily life of the Pompeian’s and how they contributed to the new Identify and establishment of Pompeii as a new Roman Colony.

Many centuries before the birth of Christ, the city of Rome grew, prospered, and developed into a thriving Republic. As in most cultures, Rome's buildings became more elaborate and impressive. They developed fantastic building technologies and ideas. The feats of Roman engineers were groundbreaking, and many structures built by this culture still stand today. With knowledge borrowed from the Greeks, Rome made impressive architectural achievements, these were namely major attributes of buildings, colossal structures, and a legacy that would influence later buildings (Cornell and Matthews 11).

The Romans had a structural and functional archetype for their buildings, such as fora, temples, basilica, etc. Buildings of the same type, however, varied within the archetype due to several factors. One such factor was the political climate at the time of commission and the objective of the ruler commissioning the building, as exemplified by the differences in the imperial residences of Augustus, who wanted to be as discrete about his imperial status as possible, and Nero, who wanted to show his power and philhellenism, as well as the differences between the amphitheater of Pompeii, which was relatively small and built to please the masses, and the Colosseum (or Flavian Amphitheater), a gigantic arena built partly as a form of damnatio memoriae.

The ancient city of Rome was filled with fantastic architecture and ever-changing rulers, which led to many differences in the city from year to year. Rome is responsible for many cultural and technological advances that are still used today, but it was not without problems. Many Roman writers from that time had their own views on Rome, however, which they would use in their writing. Two such writers are Juvenal and Augustus, both of which had their own perspectives of Rome. Their descriptions are both so different that it calls to question, which of their accounts is correct and which is not. Res Gestae by Augustus does not provide an accurate description of Rome, mainly due to the fact that Augustus was listing his own

A Roman Villa was a upper-class country house built for Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. A Roman Villa is a brilliant architecture complexes and were decorated with paintings and sculpture. A Villa of a wealthy Roman family was much larger and more delightful than a regular standard Roman house. A Roman Villa had multiple rooms. The multiple rooms included a triclinium (dining room), peristyle (garden), impluvium (pool), culina (kitchen), and cubiculum (the bedrooms). Some Roman Villas had sloping roofs, covered in broaded tiles. The Roman Villas windows were covered with blinds of linen, but most likely covered with shutters of wood. The very wealthy had glass windows. Roman villas had water straight piped to them. Lead pipes brought water to the villa.

Religion is the belief in worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God, Gods and Goddesses. Religion in Pompeii and Herculaneum was an important and significant part of each individual's home and daily life. From the archaeological sources excavated and the written sources produced, it is revealed that the household Gods of each home were the central aspect of living and worshiping. In this essay the following topics will be discussed including gods, goddesses, temples, worshipping and the Lararium.

There are two distinct stories regarding the foundation of ancient Rome, with claims to two founders. The story of Romulus and Remus describes the literal foundation of the city where as the Aeneid addresses the origins in the foundations of the Roman people being descended from Aeneas. In regards to their use to historians, though there is debate as to the legitimacy of historical facts, looking beyond the actual story and noting the difference between versions particularly in Romulus and Remus can give clues of Roman society during the time of it being written. The information contained within the stories of foundation reflects the needs of the Romans citizens and the influences of the era.

Stamper, The Architecture of Roman Temples, 106. Stamper, The Architecture of Roman Temples, 106. Stamper, The Architecture of Roman Temples, 106. Stamper, The Architecture of Roman Temples, 109 Frank Sear. Roman Architecture (London: BT Batsford Ltd, 1989), 59. Darryl A. Phillips, “The Temple of Divius Julius and the Restoration of Legislative Assemblies under Augustus”, Phoenix 65 (2011): 382 Stamper, The Architecture of Roman Temples, 130 Sear, Roman Architecture, 58 Sear,

Historical buildings play an important role in describing the social and cultural beliefs and values of a place of its establishment. People visiting the historic buildings are able to develop a proper insight into the community beliefs and practices that exist at the time of construction of a building (DuTemple, 2003). In this context, the present essay examines and evaluates the way in which the architectural building of ‘The Colosseum’ describes the societal and cultural values of Rome. In addition to this, the essay also demonstrates the technical and spatial features of the buildings and illustrates the way through the building is able to develop a language of classical architecture in Rome. The thesis statement of the present essay can be stated as ‘The extent to which the architectural building of ‘The Colosseum’ in Rome depicts the cultural and societal values and principles practiced in Ancient Roman Society’.

A Roman Domus was an ancient Roman house. It was usually owned by wealthy Roman families, and contained a countless number of rooms and wings. The average Roman Domus contained a Vestibulum, Taberna, Atrium, Tablinum, Trinclinium, Peristylium, Exedra and several alae and cubiculums. However, the Domus was not just a place where wealthy families lived. It was also a place of business and religious ceremonies. Roman Domuses were usually built so that that they did not face the street. In fact, they often had walls separating them from the street and nearby Domuses. Now, I will proceed to describe the many rooms of the Roman Domus.