This study looks at housing in Roman Greece from the 1st to the 6th century AD. It challenges exi... more This study looks at housing in Roman Greece from the 1st to the 6th century AD. It challenges existing views that layout and housing arrangments experienced virtually no change as a result of incorporation into the Roman Empire. The basis for the analysis is a corpus of plans of the 276 known houses of the period in mainland Greece and its Aegean islands excluding Crete. The plans are presented in a uniform style to allow comparison. Chapters examine existing research on Roman housing, the administrative background to building activity, the relationship between private buildings and public space, the arrangement of space within houses, and the use of water within houses, particularly for private baths. The concluding chapters show how the Greek urban aristocracy did indeed take on Roman designs and plans, and how this altered the Greek building tradition.
The city of Apollonia, located to the South-west of modern Albania, was founded in 588 B.C. by Co... more The city of Apollonia, located to the South-west of modern Albania, was founded in 588 B.C. by Corinthian and Corcyrian people, and was later described by Cicero as an admirabilis urbs. In 44 B.C. when Augustus and Agrippa were studying rhetoric in Apollonia, they got to know of the killing of Caesar and were helped by the local people to return to Rome and take the power back. The city, located on the right bank of the river Aoos, only 12 km from the sea, was a crossroads and a filter for different cultures: Illyrians, Macedonians, the Greeks and the Romans have inhabited the territory over the centuries. The domus, dated between 2nd and 3rd century A.D., represents the connection of the "residential fashion" present at the East and West of the Adriatic Sea. The domus is known in the literature as the "Athena house" because of the statue discovered by the archaeologists inside of it, but also as the "D house" because it was unearthed in "Sector D" of the excavation. The first goal of the research is to analyse the architectural and decorative aspects of the house to understand the tastes of this site. The second goal is to understand the needs of the customer's social and economic self-representation and the skills of the craftsmen who worked there.
Journal of Mosaic Research 2016, Vol. 9, ISBN / ISSN: 9771309047003
Summary
Kitchens in roman Italy: domus and villae
The eating habits of the Romans deeply changed ... more Summary Kitchens in roman Italy: domus and villae The eating habits of the Romans deeply changed after the spreading of the fine cuisine of Hellenistc origin. From the II century b.C. domus and villae were equipped with rooms specially designed for cooking. This article will compare the archaeological remains of Pompeii and Rome with the evidence discovered in other areas, Northern Italy in particular, in order to outline local peculiarities and general trends, widely shared by the Roman aristocracies.
Assessing the impact of Roman culture in Greece is very difficult because of the strong local tra... more Assessing the impact of Roman culture in Greece is very difficult because of the strong local tradition. We will consider the terms of integration in the public and the private sphere sampling two building categories: the theatre and the house. Theatres sometimes show a persistence of the Classical and Hellenistic building type, from time to time varied in order to be suited to the renovated kind of performances. Only a few cities build a new theatre completely owing to the western model. Depending on the context, theatrical architecture is marked by continuity or by the adoption of the Roman style. The house shows formal continuity, in that it is always organized round a paved court; but the owners often display, through the decoration and the use of space, a self-representative purpose which is fully Roman. From late republican times, the peristyle itself belongs to the Roman culture and it becomes the pattern of the high-class housing all over the Empire: in other words it becomes the symbol of a shared aristocratic life style whose focus is Rome. A dichotomy emerges from the comparison of public and private attitude: is that apparent or real? What is it due to? To what extent does the meeting of Greek and Roman culture produce the integration of them or increase the distance between them?
A spread opinion claims the Greek house undergoes very little change after the Roman conquest and... more A spread opinion claims the Greek house undergoes very little change after the Roman conquest and proof of it seems to be often seen in the comparison of two houses belonging to the Athenian Agora: the first one goes back to the 5th century B.C. and the second to the 12th century A.D. During such a long period nothing seems to have changed, as a matter of fact, the size and the planning of the domestic space are still the same. Of course, it is impossible to deny the role of the court as central element in aristocratic dwellings; nevertheless, important changes can be observed, such as the early disappearance of the andron.
This research aims at pointing out the changes occurred in Athens to the building mode and the living conditions during Roman and Late Roman times, and it intends to pursue the recent trend of studies which are investigating the integration of Greece into the Empire. From this point of view, residential architecture is potentially very significant, because it may reflect the upper-class shared life-style and behaviours introduced from Rome. Besides, Athens itself is a privileged example, thanks to the amount of information which have been collected for more than twenty years through urban archeological discoveries and, above all, on the occasion of the recent excavations for its new metropolitan railway.
While defining patterns and functions of the private space in the Athenian society of imperial, late-antique and early-byzantine epoch, an attempt is made to describe the living taste of the richer classes and to point out the trends which altered the long-term Greek building tradition, renewed and contaminated by Western elements.
Thirty years of rescue archaeology have brought to light many data about Roman Patras, but no syn... more Thirty years of rescue archaeology have brought to light many data about Roman Patras, but no synthesis has been written so far on private architecture, probably because of the quality of available informations, abundant but very fragmentary. In order to overcome this difficulty, at least in part, the study proposes an integrated rendering of the typical house at Patras, derived from a sample of 48, chosen as quite widely digged and published with a plan.
At first, attention is drawn on the different parts of the house, investigated from a double point of view: the diacronic one stresses the changements from the classical and hellenistic tradition, while the synchronic one makes the comparison with the solutions known in other provinces at the same time. Further analysis deals with the building techniques and the way in which dwellings relate within the urban grid.
The evidence is explicit in pointing out a residential architecture usually developed in extent, with a ‘romanizing’ fashion in structural models and building techniques. Significant, in this sense, are the gardens, the tetrastyle courts and the reticulate work: precise comparisons in the western empire refer them to the colonists, who intensely use their house in the social competition through the showing off of wealth.
In spite of partially different models, the houses of other Greek cities, such as Athens, undergo a similar use: in the private sphere ‘romanization’ in Greece is probably to be intended as the spreading among the aristocracies of the same way of living, shared by the ruling classes in all the Roman world.
The article, based on a thorough review of published evidence, is a first attempt at a synthesis ... more The article, based on a thorough review of published evidence, is a first attempt at a synthesis on private building in Athens in the Roman period. The author begins by investigating, as far as possible, the distribution of residential building in the city, then analyzes the different parts of a typical Athenian house, highlighting the architectural, decorative and functional aspects of each, and finally makes some considerations about typology. The author’s study stresses the consistency
of the town’s residential culture, which, while drawing on the Greek building tradition for certain aspects, was also ready to adopt other urban models, especially after the watershed of the Herulan conquest of 267 AD, as the quick spread of apsed halls bears out. There was also a short period of time when some architectural features reflected local fashions. All this indicates that Athens’ urban aristocracies, rather than being passive receptors of external stimuli, maintained a certain degree of autonomy in their choice of models. The result is a private architecture that manages to be innovative while remaining rooted in tradition.
This study looks at housing in Roman Greece from the 1st to the 6th century AD. It challenges exi... more This study looks at housing in Roman Greece from the 1st to the 6th century AD. It challenges existing views that layout and housing arrangments experienced virtually no change as a result of incorporation into the Roman Empire. The basis for the analysis is a corpus of plans of the 276 known houses of the period in mainland Greece and its Aegean islands excluding Crete. The plans are presented in a uniform style to allow comparison. Chapters examine existing research on Roman housing, the administrative background to building activity, the relationship between private buildings and public space, the arrangement of space within houses, and the use of water within houses, particularly for private baths. The concluding chapters show how the Greek urban aristocracy did indeed take on Roman designs and plans, and how this altered the Greek building tradition.
The city of Apollonia, located to the South-west of modern Albania, was founded in 588 B.C. by Co... more The city of Apollonia, located to the South-west of modern Albania, was founded in 588 B.C. by Corinthian and Corcyrian people, and was later described by Cicero as an admirabilis urbs. In 44 B.C. when Augustus and Agrippa were studying rhetoric in Apollonia, they got to know of the killing of Caesar and were helped by the local people to return to Rome and take the power back. The city, located on the right bank of the river Aoos, only 12 km from the sea, was a crossroads and a filter for different cultures: Illyrians, Macedonians, the Greeks and the Romans have inhabited the territory over the centuries. The domus, dated between 2nd and 3rd century A.D., represents the connection of the "residential fashion" present at the East and West of the Adriatic Sea. The domus is known in the literature as the "Athena house" because of the statue discovered by the archaeologists inside of it, but also as the "D house" because it was unearthed in "Sector D" of the excavation. The first goal of the research is to analyse the architectural and decorative aspects of the house to understand the tastes of this site. The second goal is to understand the needs of the customer's social and economic self-representation and the skills of the craftsmen who worked there.
Journal of Mosaic Research 2016, Vol. 9, ISBN / ISSN: 9771309047003
Summary
Kitchens in roman Italy: domus and villae
The eating habits of the Romans deeply changed ... more Summary Kitchens in roman Italy: domus and villae The eating habits of the Romans deeply changed after the spreading of the fine cuisine of Hellenistc origin. From the II century b.C. domus and villae were equipped with rooms specially designed for cooking. This article will compare the archaeological remains of Pompeii and Rome with the evidence discovered in other areas, Northern Italy in particular, in order to outline local peculiarities and general trends, widely shared by the Roman aristocracies.
Assessing the impact of Roman culture in Greece is very difficult because of the strong local tra... more Assessing the impact of Roman culture in Greece is very difficult because of the strong local tradition. We will consider the terms of integration in the public and the private sphere sampling two building categories: the theatre and the house. Theatres sometimes show a persistence of the Classical and Hellenistic building type, from time to time varied in order to be suited to the renovated kind of performances. Only a few cities build a new theatre completely owing to the western model. Depending on the context, theatrical architecture is marked by continuity or by the adoption of the Roman style. The house shows formal continuity, in that it is always organized round a paved court; but the owners often display, through the decoration and the use of space, a self-representative purpose which is fully Roman. From late republican times, the peristyle itself belongs to the Roman culture and it becomes the pattern of the high-class housing all over the Empire: in other words it becomes the symbol of a shared aristocratic life style whose focus is Rome. A dichotomy emerges from the comparison of public and private attitude: is that apparent or real? What is it due to? To what extent does the meeting of Greek and Roman culture produce the integration of them or increase the distance between them?
A spread opinion claims the Greek house undergoes very little change after the Roman conquest and... more A spread opinion claims the Greek house undergoes very little change after the Roman conquest and proof of it seems to be often seen in the comparison of two houses belonging to the Athenian Agora: the first one goes back to the 5th century B.C. and the second to the 12th century A.D. During such a long period nothing seems to have changed, as a matter of fact, the size and the planning of the domestic space are still the same. Of course, it is impossible to deny the role of the court as central element in aristocratic dwellings; nevertheless, important changes can be observed, such as the early disappearance of the andron.
This research aims at pointing out the changes occurred in Athens to the building mode and the living conditions during Roman and Late Roman times, and it intends to pursue the recent trend of studies which are investigating the integration of Greece into the Empire. From this point of view, residential architecture is potentially very significant, because it may reflect the upper-class shared life-style and behaviours introduced from Rome. Besides, Athens itself is a privileged example, thanks to the amount of information which have been collected for more than twenty years through urban archeological discoveries and, above all, on the occasion of the recent excavations for its new metropolitan railway.
While defining patterns and functions of the private space in the Athenian society of imperial, late-antique and early-byzantine epoch, an attempt is made to describe the living taste of the richer classes and to point out the trends which altered the long-term Greek building tradition, renewed and contaminated by Western elements.
Thirty years of rescue archaeology have brought to light many data about Roman Patras, but no syn... more Thirty years of rescue archaeology have brought to light many data about Roman Patras, but no synthesis has been written so far on private architecture, probably because of the quality of available informations, abundant but very fragmentary. In order to overcome this difficulty, at least in part, the study proposes an integrated rendering of the typical house at Patras, derived from a sample of 48, chosen as quite widely digged and published with a plan.
At first, attention is drawn on the different parts of the house, investigated from a double point of view: the diacronic one stresses the changements from the classical and hellenistic tradition, while the synchronic one makes the comparison with the solutions known in other provinces at the same time. Further analysis deals with the building techniques and the way in which dwellings relate within the urban grid.
The evidence is explicit in pointing out a residential architecture usually developed in extent, with a ‘romanizing’ fashion in structural models and building techniques. Significant, in this sense, are the gardens, the tetrastyle courts and the reticulate work: precise comparisons in the western empire refer them to the colonists, who intensely use their house in the social competition through the showing off of wealth.
In spite of partially different models, the houses of other Greek cities, such as Athens, undergo a similar use: in the private sphere ‘romanization’ in Greece is probably to be intended as the spreading among the aristocracies of the same way of living, shared by the ruling classes in all the Roman world.
The article, based on a thorough review of published evidence, is a first attempt at a synthesis ... more The article, based on a thorough review of published evidence, is a first attempt at a synthesis on private building in Athens in the Roman period. The author begins by investigating, as far as possible, the distribution of residential building in the city, then analyzes the different parts of a typical Athenian house, highlighting the architectural, decorative and functional aspects of each, and finally makes some considerations about typology. The author’s study stresses the consistency
of the town’s residential culture, which, while drawing on the Greek building tradition for certain aspects, was also ready to adopt other urban models, especially after the watershed of the Herulan conquest of 267 AD, as the quick spread of apsed halls bears out. There was also a short period of time when some architectural features reflected local fashions. All this indicates that Athens’ urban aristocracies, rather than being passive receptors of external stimuli, maintained a certain degree of autonomy in their choice of models. The result is a private architecture that manages to be innovative while remaining rooted in tradition.
Libro degli abstract del convegno di studi "L'acqua e la città in età romana - Water and the Roma... more Libro degli abstract del convegno di studi "L'acqua e la città in età romana - Water and the Roman cities and settlements" - Feltre (BL - Italia), 3/4 Novembre 2017.
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Journal of Mosaic Research 2016, Vol. 9,
ISBN / ISSN: 9771309047003
Kitchens in roman Italy: domus and villae
The eating habits of the Romans deeply changed after the spreading of the fine cuisine of Hellenistc origin. From the II century b.C. domus and villae were equipped with rooms specially designed for cooking.
This article will compare the archaeological remains of Pompeii and Rome with the evidence discovered in other areas, Northern Italy in particular, in order to outline local peculiarities and general trends, widely
shared by the Roman aristocracies.
Theatres sometimes show a persistence of the Classical and Hellenistic building type, from time to time varied in order to be suited to the renovated kind of performances. Only a few cities build a new theatre completely owing to the western model. Depending on the context, theatrical architecture is marked by continuity or by the adoption of the Roman style.
The house shows formal continuity, in that it is always organized round a paved court; but the owners often display, through the decoration and the use of space, a self-representative purpose which is fully Roman. From late republican times, the peristyle itself belongs to the Roman culture and it becomes the pattern of the high-class housing all over the Empire: in other words it becomes the symbol of a shared aristocratic life style whose focus is Rome.
A dichotomy emerges from the comparison of public and private attitude: is that apparent or real? What is it due to? To what extent does the meeting of Greek and Roman culture produce the integration of them or increase the distance between them?
This research aims at pointing out the changes occurred in Athens to the building mode and the living conditions during Roman and Late Roman times, and it intends to pursue the recent trend of studies which are investigating the integration of Greece into the Empire. From this point of view, residential architecture is potentially very significant, because it may reflect the upper-class shared life-style and behaviours introduced from Rome. Besides, Athens itself is a privileged example, thanks to the amount of information which have been collected for more than twenty years through urban archeological discoveries and, above all, on the occasion of the recent excavations for its new metropolitan railway.
While defining patterns and functions of the private space in the Athenian society of imperial, late-antique and early-byzantine epoch, an attempt is made to describe the living taste of the richer classes and to point out the trends which altered the long-term Greek building tradition, renewed and contaminated by Western elements.
At first, attention is drawn on the different parts of the house, investigated from a double point of view: the diacronic one stresses the changements from the classical and hellenistic tradition, while the synchronic one makes the comparison with the solutions known in other provinces at the same time. Further analysis deals with the building techniques and the way in which dwellings relate within the urban grid.
The evidence is explicit in pointing out a residential architecture usually developed in extent, with a ‘romanizing’ fashion in structural models and building techniques. Significant, in this sense, are the gardens, the tetrastyle courts and the reticulate work: precise comparisons in the western empire refer them to the colonists, who intensely use their house in the social competition through the showing off of wealth.
In spite of partially different models, the houses of other Greek cities, such as Athens, undergo a similar use: in the private sphere ‘romanization’ in Greece is probably to be intended as the spreading among the aristocracies of the same way of living, shared by the ruling classes in all the Roman world.
of the town’s residential culture, which, while drawing on the Greek building tradition for certain aspects, was also ready to adopt other urban models, especially after the watershed of the Herulan conquest of 267 AD, as the quick spread of apsed halls bears out. There was also a short period of time when some architectural features reflected local fashions. All this indicates that Athens’ urban aristocracies, rather than being passive receptors of external stimuli, maintained a certain degree of autonomy in their choice of models. The result is a private architecture that manages to be innovative while remaining rooted in tradition.
Journal of Mosaic Research 2016, Vol. 9,
ISBN / ISSN: 9771309047003
Kitchens in roman Italy: domus and villae
The eating habits of the Romans deeply changed after the spreading of the fine cuisine of Hellenistc origin. From the II century b.C. domus and villae were equipped with rooms specially designed for cooking.
This article will compare the archaeological remains of Pompeii and Rome with the evidence discovered in other areas, Northern Italy in particular, in order to outline local peculiarities and general trends, widely
shared by the Roman aristocracies.
Theatres sometimes show a persistence of the Classical and Hellenistic building type, from time to time varied in order to be suited to the renovated kind of performances. Only a few cities build a new theatre completely owing to the western model. Depending on the context, theatrical architecture is marked by continuity or by the adoption of the Roman style.
The house shows formal continuity, in that it is always organized round a paved court; but the owners often display, through the decoration and the use of space, a self-representative purpose which is fully Roman. From late republican times, the peristyle itself belongs to the Roman culture and it becomes the pattern of the high-class housing all over the Empire: in other words it becomes the symbol of a shared aristocratic life style whose focus is Rome.
A dichotomy emerges from the comparison of public and private attitude: is that apparent or real? What is it due to? To what extent does the meeting of Greek and Roman culture produce the integration of them or increase the distance between them?
This research aims at pointing out the changes occurred in Athens to the building mode and the living conditions during Roman and Late Roman times, and it intends to pursue the recent trend of studies which are investigating the integration of Greece into the Empire. From this point of view, residential architecture is potentially very significant, because it may reflect the upper-class shared life-style and behaviours introduced from Rome. Besides, Athens itself is a privileged example, thanks to the amount of information which have been collected for more than twenty years through urban archeological discoveries and, above all, on the occasion of the recent excavations for its new metropolitan railway.
While defining patterns and functions of the private space in the Athenian society of imperial, late-antique and early-byzantine epoch, an attempt is made to describe the living taste of the richer classes and to point out the trends which altered the long-term Greek building tradition, renewed and contaminated by Western elements.
At first, attention is drawn on the different parts of the house, investigated from a double point of view: the diacronic one stresses the changements from the classical and hellenistic tradition, while the synchronic one makes the comparison with the solutions known in other provinces at the same time. Further analysis deals with the building techniques and the way in which dwellings relate within the urban grid.
The evidence is explicit in pointing out a residential architecture usually developed in extent, with a ‘romanizing’ fashion in structural models and building techniques. Significant, in this sense, are the gardens, the tetrastyle courts and the reticulate work: precise comparisons in the western empire refer them to the colonists, who intensely use their house in the social competition through the showing off of wealth.
In spite of partially different models, the houses of other Greek cities, such as Athens, undergo a similar use: in the private sphere ‘romanization’ in Greece is probably to be intended as the spreading among the aristocracies of the same way of living, shared by the ruling classes in all the Roman world.
of the town’s residential culture, which, while drawing on the Greek building tradition for certain aspects, was also ready to adopt other urban models, especially after the watershed of the Herulan conquest of 267 AD, as the quick spread of apsed halls bears out. There was also a short period of time when some architectural features reflected local fashions. All this indicates that Athens’ urban aristocracies, rather than being passive receptors of external stimuli, maintained a certain degree of autonomy in their choice of models. The result is a private architecture that manages to be innovative while remaining rooted in tradition.