Countless homes excavated throughout the Roman Empire, differing in size, degree of wealth, and regional style, allow us to investigate the lifestyle within a Roman house. Current research on Roman houses attempts to understand them in their social context and integrate different forms of evidence (Allison 2001). Houses at Pompeii have perhaps received the most scrutiny and the most sophisticated efforts at interpretation (Wallace-Hadrill 1994). One of the most startling aspects of domestic life is the extent to which wealthy homes were open to the public. Customs of patronage on the one hand, and the expectation that the wealthy should show off their status on the other, created a house design with gradations of access. During a patron’s ‘‘office hours,’’ the entrance hallway and the atrium of a home were fully accessible to the public. Clients waiting in these handsomely decorated areas were afforded glimpses of further luxury and family life beyond. Privileged guests were invited further into the home and received in dining rooms and bedrooms of varying intimacy and luxury. Contemporary western notions of ‘‘public’’ and ‘‘private’’ do not find easy application in the Roman house. Wealthy homeowners used wall paintings, mosaic, statuary, and other forms of decoration to emphasize their wealth or allude to prestigious public service (Ling 1991; Dunbabin 1999; Gazda 1991).
As an example, portraits could be part of this display of status. Although wax masks for display in the atrium and during funeral processions were reserved for the holders of high office, portraits in other media (especially stone) exist in many houses (Flower 1996). These would depict both ancestors and current inhabitants. Individuals sometimes displayed imperial portraits, presumably as a message of loyalty, or to reflect their own high imperial service. Portraits of philosophers expressed particular philosophic allegiances to peers, and perhaps conveyed learning more broadly to those with less philosophic education (for a late-antique example, see R. R. R. Smith 1990). Occasionally portrait choices such as busts of Juba II in Roman houses at Cherchel in Mauretania reflected local identity or loyalties (Stirling 2005: 188). A house in Volubilis displayed a statue of a Hellenistic prince and one of Cato the Elder, the defender of Utica during Caesar’s civil wars. The latter figure may have been chosen as a courageous Roman in an African context (Hales 2003: 205).
The Terrace Houses of Ephesus provide an illustration of how colorful artistic programs sent messages about status and society to their viewers. The last major redecoration of these houses (wall paintings, mosaics, and statuary) dates to the late second and early third centuries, prior to an earthquake of262 CE, not the late fourth and early fifth centuries, as excavators initially proposed (Parrish 1999; Scherrer 2000; Krinzinger 2002; Lang-Auinger 2003). After the earthquake the houses were reoccupied into the seventh century. Wall paintings variously created faux marble paneling or light airy frameworks which sometimes contained masks or floating figures. In several of the ‘‘condos’’ within Terrace House 2, figures of muses and philosophers in the wall paintings illustrated the owners’ commitment to intellectual pursuits and the culture of paideia (Gleason, this volume). Two small niches in one of these rooms may have held scrolls. A striding Artemis found in another room decorated with paintings of the muses must have fallen from a niche in that room (Figure 4.4). Flooring in coloured marble and geometric patterns complemented these figural decorations without competing with them.
Throughout the Terrace Houses, there was an extensive collection of statuary, both portraits and mythological figures (Aurenhammer 1995). Most of the statuary fragments were found in late layers of debris, but a few remained where they were displayed in the last period of occupation. Imperial portraits, including Tiberius, Livia, and Marcus Aurelius showed identification with the ruling power. Busts of Livia and Tiberius were found in a niche, in front of which was found a headless bronze coiled snake (7 meters long!). The snake surely represents Glycon, a version of Asklepios who became popular in the mid second century. It appears that the three statues stood together as a sort of shrine. Other statuettes showed Zeus, Marsyas, Aphrodite, and other divine or mythological figures. The astonishingly rich corpus of decoration in the Terrace Houses of Ephesos affords an unusually full examination of the colorful interiors of elite homes.
Whereas elites all across the empire favored houses based around a peristyle, humbler housing expressed more distinct regional styles, such as fortified farms in Africa and Spain, narrow ‘‘strip-housing’’ in the northwest provinces, or apartment blocks in Syrian villages (Ellis 2002). Some designs organize rooms along a central corridor, with perhaps a small court instead of the airy peristyle. Many non-elite dwellings make use of available space, however irregular, and they are often built in less durable materials. Even very modest homes often had a wash of color over their walls (Ellis 2002; Packer 1975). Working spaces and shops are often incorporated
Figure 4.4 Statue of Artemis at the Hunt next to a wall painting of a muse in apartment 4 of Terrace House 2, Ephesos. Photo: (Osterreichisches Archaologisches Institut
Into these homes. Within wealthy homes, the lower status members of a household may not be very visible archaeologically (George 1997).
Archaeologists look to the contents of ancient houses and their middens of refuse to reconstruct basic facts of life in those houses. Such evidence must be interpreted with caution, however. In Pompeii, for instance, although the city was destroyed by an unexpected cataclysm in 79 CE, the contents of individual rooms have often seemed to jar with the function or status of the room as suggested by its decoration or location (Allison 1992, 2004). This difficulty probably arises from changes in the nature of houses after a devastating earthquake of 62 ce. Packing, salvage, hoarding, or looting during the actual event may have changed the ‘‘normal’’ appearance of the houses. Moreover, the findspots of tools, vessels, and other goods usually reflects their place of storage rather than their place of use (Berry 1997). Even so, patterns of discard have much to reveal.
Refuse at households in the Thames Valley in Britain provides insight into the ways in which life on these farms changed in the early Roman period (Meadows
1999). One farm did not seem to alter its habits of preparation and serving food, continuing to prepare meat by boiling and roasting on the bone and to use locally-made pottery. By contrast, at another farm, changes in consumption and architecture suggest that the inhabitants participated in aspects of a Roman way of life. The building was redesigned as a rectilinear structure with an enclosure wall and changed entrances. Roman styles of pottery appeared, including specialized serving wares, a phenomenon associated with Roman influence. Small cups, for instance, enter the assemblage at this point, evidently showing a change in the style of drinking away from sharing a large communal vessel. Meat-eating habits seem also to have changed. However, the continued use of pre-Roman pottery forms suggests that indigenous forms of dining persisted alongside Roman ones, presumably for different occasions.
Sometimes domestic finds reveal facts not only of physical life, but also of its spiritual or intellectual framework. Burnt deposits buried in the gardens of two Pompeian houses provide a glimpse of household worship. They contained fruits, nuts, pinecones, and parts of roosters, all offerings consistent with the painted depictions in household shrines (M. Robinson 2002). The nature of the offerings changed over time, apparently reflecting changes in domestic religion after the city became a Roman colony. In a house at Clermont-Ferrand in France, a group of statuettes was found on the floor of the vestibule (Provost and Mennessier-Jouannet 1994: 194-7). They included a genius and some Greco-Roman divinities as well as the Gallic gods Sucellus and Cernunnos. Many of the statuettes were heirlooms by the time of the destruction of the house in the third or fourth century.
World History
