Ancient Roman Buildings & Homes
In cities, throughout the Roman Empire wealthy homeowners lived in one story buildings with few exterior windows. This was to prevent noises coming from the streets. Wealthy homeowners often rented out the two front rooms of their home to merchants if they lived on busy streets.
A wealthy Roman citizen lived in a large house separated into two parts, and linked together through the tablinum or study or by a small passageway.
The main entrance to the house would face the street, consisting of a double-door, behind which a short passageway gave into the atrium. The atrium was the most important part of the house, where guests and dependents were greeted.
The atrium was high ceilinged and often consisted of sparse furnishings to give the effect of a large space. In the center of the ceiling was a square opening called the compluvium in which rainwater could come in, draining inwards from the slanted tiled roof.
Directly below the compluvium was the impluvium, a shallow rectangular pool to gather rainwater, which was often lined with marble, and around which usually was a floor of small mosaic.
Surrounding the atrium were arranged the master's families' main rooms: the small cubicula or bedrooms, the tablinum or study, and the triclinium or dining-room. Only two objects were present in the atrium of Caecilius in Pompeii: a small bronze box that stored precious family items and the lararium, a small shrine to the household gods, the Lares.
In the master bedroom was a small wooden bed and couch which usually consisted of some slight padding. In each of the other bedrooms there was usually just a bed. The triclinium had three couches surrounding a table. The triclinium often was similar in size to the master bedroom.
The study/tablinum was used as a passageway. If the master of the house was a banker or merchant the tablinum often was larger because of the greater need for materials.
The back part of the house was centered around the peristyle much as the front centered on the atrium. The peristylium was a small garden often surrounded by a columned passage, the model of the medieval cloister. Surrounding the peristyle were the bathrooms, kitchen and summer triclinium.
The kitchen was usually a very small room with a small counter of sorts and a wood-burning stove.
The wealthy had a slave who worked as a cook and spent nearly all their time in the kitchen. During a hot summer day the family ate their meals in the summer triclinium to stave off the heat. Most of the light came from the compluvium and the open peristylium.
These homes were called domus - single family dwellings, where the great grandparents, grandparents, parents, and kids of one family lived in a home together. Homes were made, quite often, of brick with red tile roofs, with rooms arranged around a central courtyard.
The windows and balconies faced the courtyard, not the street, to keep homes safe from burglars. There were paintings on the walls and beautiful mosaics on the floor. There was very little furniture, and no carpeting. Wealthy Romans might have a house with a front door, bedrooms, an office, a kitchen, a dining room, a garden, a temple, an atrium, a toilet, and a private bath.
The domus included multiple rooms, and two courtyards: the atrium, which was the focal point of the domus, off which were cubicula (bedrooms) an altar to one of the household gods, a triclinium where guests could lie on couches and eat dinner while lying down, and a tablinum (living room, sometimes called the study) and shops on the outside, facing the street.
The middle classes and the poor were housed in crowded tenement blocks, the 'insulae.'
The lower class Romans - plebeians - lived in apartment houses, called flats, above or behind their shops. Even fairly well-to-do tradesmen might chose to live in an apartment-building compound over their store, with maybe renters on the upper stories. Their own apartments might be quite roomy, sanitary and pleasant, occasionally with running water. But others were not that nice.
In the apartment houses, or flats, an entire family (grandparents, parents, children) might all be crowded into one room, without running water. They had to haul their water in from public facilities. Fire was a very real threat because people were cooking meals in crowded quarters, and many of the flats were made of wood. They did not have toilets. They had to use public latrines (toilets).
Reference - Encyclopedia Britannica Online
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