This is my term 3 Latin assignment "Roman Housing Project"

This is my Roman housing project. It is by Caza of 9/24 at WEGC for the year nine latin class. it is due 21st of September 2007.

Thanks

P O S T ~ O N E : Cover Entry
P O S T ~ T W O : Contents Entry
P O S T ~ T H R E E : Housing of The Poor
P O S T ~ F O U R : Housing of The Rich
P O S T ~ F I V E : Decorations and furnishings
P O S T ~ S I X : Comparing Modern and Roman Housing.

My Bibliography is in the side panel to your right under the calender and recent visitors.

Poor Romans lived in "insulas" the roman equivalent to flats. They usually had 3 or more floors and had many little rooms. The rooms got light only through windows which had no glass in them. On the ground floor there were shops. The bottom 3 floors were made of stone and the further up ones were made of wood. When Augustus ruled the maximum height was 20 metres, later was reduced it to 17 metres. It was reduced because the insulas would often collapsed or catch fire, but they were still dangerous.
Insula is the Latin word for Island.
The higher the floors were, the cheaper and less likable the rooms were.
Insulas were mainly unpleasant places to live in because of poverty and violence so only lower class and some middle class Romans lived in them. Most of the Roman population would come under this category.

Random Fact: Romans also had graffiti, it was found in similar places as today and was usually about elections.

Rich Romans when they lived in the city usually lived in a "Domus" which was a house that typically had 2 floors.
1 Atrium
2 Peristylium
3 Vestibulum
4 Fauces
5 Impluvium
6 Ala
7 Triclinium
8 Tablinum
9 Exhedra/Oecus
10 Taberna
11 Cubiculum
12 Andron
13 Posticum
14 Bathroom
15 Cucina (kitchen)

1.When you enter one the first room you enter is the "Atrium" which was a big room which usually had guests in it.
2. A peristylum is a larger inner court of a roman house.
3. & 4. These are types of corridors.
5. In the roof of a Domus was a small hole which had a basin underneath it to collect rainwater, this is called the Impluvium.
6. The alae were small rooms around the Atrium.
7. The Triclinium is the Roman equivalent to a dining room.
8. The Tablinum is a large reception area usually not seperated from the other rooms with very many walls, sometime was seperated with curtains.
9. The Exhedra or the Oecus was a large dining room.
10. The Taberna was a small room which could be used as a shop.
11. The cubiculum is a bedroom.
12. The andron was a passageway from the atrium to the peristylium.
13. The Posticum is any entrance usually for the slaves to enter. It was sometimes used by visitors or the owner of the house if they wanted to get in or out confidentially.
14. "self explanatory"
15. Cucina is the kitchen.

1. Atrium.
2. Garden.
3. Bedroom.

Random Fact: there were around 120 bars/pubs in Pompeii which would sell wine, figs, dates and nuts in strange little holes in the counter.

Many rich romans had a "Villa" or a "country house" to go on holiday to. but the majority of them who had a country house owned a little Celtic styled house like the one in the picture below.

Only about 1 percent of Romans were rich enough to own a country house.
Many villas had bathing suites, underfloor heating and mosaics of mythological scenes. In the below picture is a mosaic found in a dining room floor of a villa.

There were usually 3 bathing rooms in a Villa, A "caldarium" which was a very hot room, A "tepidarium" which was a warm room and a "frigidarium" which was of course a cold room.

Roman houses tend to have very few peices of furniture, because the romans liked space and simplicity. Some of the pretty things they had in Domos's were Mosaics, frescos, water features and art works. This is a roman couch.

Romans didn't tend to have many windows, even the rich avoided using many windows because of weather below is a picture of some windows.

Romans love to have baths but only the rich owned their own bath, most romans went to a bathhouse if they wanted to bathe, bellow is a mimic of a cauldarium.

For light and heat romans used these lamps, the burning of these lamps gave off quite a bad smell so even poor romans could get them, rich romans got ones made out of more expensive metals like bronze. Romans often fuelled it with olive oil or wood
.
Romans used toilets that were usually located in the kitchen as it was un-co to have it in the bath house, Romans did not have toilet paper so the use a stick with a peice of cloth tied to it, when they were finished using it they put it back in a bucket of water where they got it from.

Here are some similarities and differences between Roman housing and modern housing.
Similarities:

• Both back then and now poorer people typically live in cheap apartments and richer people have their own house.
• Both cultures richer societies commonly have holiday homes (or Roman equivelent "Villas'' or "Coutry Houses''
• Poorer people in our culture have to go to the dry cleaner while richer have their own washing machine, its like that with baths and toilets in roman culture.
• Both have sewage systems.
  
• Both have multiple floors.

Differences:

• We use much more furniture then the romans did.
• The segregation between upper and lower class isn't as vast as it was in Roman times.
  
• Only 1% of Romans were rich or werent living in poverty, unlike us.
  
• Romans usually had their toilets in the kitchen, and ofcorse that would not be normal for us.
• Romans had many less windows than we do because of weather.