Mediterranean Houses and Society: A Comparative study between Houses in Classical Olynthos and Roman Pompeii

Mediterranean

Houses and Society

A Comparative study between

Houses in Classical Olynthos and

Roman Pompeii

Cover: aerial photos of Olynthos (above) and Pompeii (below) (Taken from online source, see list of figures)

Niela Katsi

Middelstegracht 4 2311 TW Leiden

Tel.: 06-49527807 nielakatsi@yahoo.com

Mediterranean Houses and

Society

A Comparative study between Houses in Classical

Olynthos and Roman Pompeii

Niela Katsi

S1441353

MA Thesis in Classical and Mediterranean Archaeology

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Sojc

University of Leiden, Faculty of Archeology

Monday, 16 June 2014

Leiden

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1. Introduction

7

Chapter 2. Classical Greece

15

2.1 Classical period 17 2.2 City planning 20 2.3 Oikos 22

Chapter 3. Olynthos

27

3.1 Behind the ruins 29

3.2 City Planning 31

3.3 Houses 33

3.4 Criteria for isonomia 38

Chapter 4. Roman Antiquity

41

4.1 Overview of Roman History 43

4.2 Roman Cities 44

Chapter 5. Pompeii

55

5.1 Before the eruption 57

5.2 City planning 61

5.3 Houses 63

5.4 Criteria for isonomia 66

Chapter 6. Comparison between block A vii in

Olynthos and Insula of the Menander in Pompeii

69

6.1 Block A vii 71

6.2 Insula of the Menander 81 6.3 Results 89

Chapter 7. Conclusion

95

Abstract

99

Bibliography

101

List of figures

111

List of tables

118

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Professor Dr. Natascha Sojc for her guidance and useful commentary during the writing of this thesis. Her advice has been more than helpful in order for this thesis to be completed. She has been a mentor and without her support and patience it would have been more than difficult for this research to have been finalised. In addition, I feel like I am much indebted to my family for their support during this year. Moreover I would like to express my sincere gratitude towards my friends in Athens and Leiden, who provided me the needed support in order to complete this thesis.

Niela Katsi

Leiden, June 2014

Chapter 1 Introduction

Niela Katsi

-Confucius, Analects: 8.1

Archaeological research has continually created a link between architecture and society, even if the architecture of houses remains understudied. The aim of this thesis is to investigate from an archaeological perspective how houses or clusters of houses could have been a reflection of the society in antiquity, by re-examining the paradigms that Greek houses represent the concept of political equality, isonomia, whereas in Roman houses the concept of luxuria, which is the representation of personal wealth, is expressed though architecture and decoration. As exemplary case-studies houses and town planning of two of most well-preserved cities of antiquity Olynthos and Pompeii will be analysed to gather architectural characteristics and to investigate what sort of social values are expressed through them. In a next step, a comparison between the two cities will be attempted in terms of the differences and/or similarities of the houses, to test if the long established paradigms isonomia and

luxuria can be read from the architectural remains and if so to what

extent. The first question to answer is: What are the architectural characteristics of the houses of each city that can be linked with the

isonomia and luxuria? Do the houses in the examined blocks of

Olynthos and Pompeii meet these criteria so it can be stated that there was the concept of isonomia and luxuria behind their design? How did the houses in the Mediterranean evolve during the antiquity?

The classical period is one of the most pertinent periods in terms of understanding organised society and the way it is studied today. Democracy, theatre and philosophy were born in the Hellenic world and then developed in the Roman. The ideas and the mentality of the society were reflected not only in temples and sculptures but also in houses of each city. In classical Greece the idea of polis was very significant. Polis was not only the city for a Greek, but also it meant the body of the citizens and the citizenship (Aristotle, Politica, 11). The Greek cities were shaped by the ideals of active citizenship and political equality. In the fourth century BC the idea of democratic equality was expressed by the design of the houses too. Olynthos is

one of the most important cities of Greece that can show how a Hellenic classical household was, and can therefore be used as a ‘type-site’ for how other cities were planned. According to Cahill, “short-lived, violently destroyed, extensively excavated, Olynthus is an ideal site at which to study ancient Greek city planning” (2000, 497). Olynthos was a small city in the seventh, sixth and much of the fifth century, located on the so called South Hill. In 432 B.C. the Athenian aggression was banded together and moved to Olynthos in order to create a single defensible community. This resulted in the planning of the North Hill as a new sector of the city. This new part of the town was built and designed according to Hippodamus and his system, meaning the city had straight streets and regular blocks and contained about 360 houses. Olynthos became the chief city of the Chalcidic League and it lead to the expansion of the town. This new part of the town had more luxurious houses and it was named “The Villa section”. Therefore, due to historical circumstances, a three part city was created: the older South Hill, the North Hill and the Villa section. These three regions were planned differently and therefore, they have differences in their organization (Cahill 2002, 23).

After the fall of the Hellenic world, the Roman power started rising. Though studies of Roman society and everyday life have progressively featured in literature over the past few decades, there still remains a concerned lack of emphasis on understanding how society functioned through investigation of the household, and hence how the average Roman viewed the world in which he lived in. Cities in Italy reflect a political structure totally dissimilar from that of the Greek cities. The people were depending on their patronage, whose numbers were mirrored by the family’s power and prestige. In the Roman Republican period, a significant city nowadays to archaeologists, which is particularly well preserved, is Pompeii that offers a striking contrast with Olynthos. According to archaeological beliefs Pompeii is the perfect site for households’ congregation (Augusti 1967, 15; Will 1979, 34). This city is a typical Roman city, which reflects the ideals of the Republican society. An earthquake in 62 CE did great damage in both Pompeii and Herculaneum. The cities had not yet recovered from this catastrophe when final destruction overcame those 17 years later. In

79 CE Mount Vesuvius erupted and destroyed Pompeii together with Herculaneum, Torre Annunziata, Stabie and other communities (Beard, 2008). The quality that Pompeii is preserved has been accepted to bestow a basis from which the other archaeological sites can be bifurcate. This basis was termed by Robert Ascher as the Pompeii

premise (1961, 324). An ordered arrangement is suggested about the

city due to the fact that the streets and public space were laid out along geometric lines. Pompeian society is reflected in urban space in Pompeii. The layout of Pompeian insula has a close relationship to the natural topography of the site (Laurence, 1994, 11).

Prevailing notions and ideals of the operation of a household differ immensely from that of Greek and Roman. For this reason, it is significant at first to point out the crucial discrepancy between modern and ancient concepts of the ‘public’ and ‘private’ sphere. In modern terms, house can be interpreted as a hideaway from the public eye, a place where one detaches themselves from their work related demands. However, these ideas would be antithetical to a Greek or Roman 2500 years ago. The house was not considered as a shelter from the demands of work. Oikos, which in Greek means house, as a meaning included building that held inside the family, as much as their fortune and the people who were working for them (Austin, Vidal-Naquet, 1977, 41). On the other hand, for a Roman their domus, was rather often the core from which one worked and accommodated his ‘clientele’. The house was depended on its occupant's profession for the form and the decoration (Gazda 1994).

The strategy that will be adopted here is not just to describe the houses but also to show how and how far societal concepts are represented. First of all the basic characteristics of each period will be introduced. This will be followed by an analysis of the cities layout. After that a specific block of each city will be examined. According to the results, an attempt to determine the image of what households show of society and vice versa will be carried out. The two selected blocks for examination are, in Olynthos block A vii and the insula of the Menander in Pompeii. Block A vii in Olynthos is dissimilar to the others due to is difference between the houses along the southern and the

northern part. The southern houses are extremely regular in type, well-built and contain many interesting architectural features; on the other hand, the houses on the north are irregular in plan. It appears that there may have been a lapse in time between the constructions of the two rows (Robinson and Graham 1938, 116). The insula of the Menander is one of the slightly irregular and large blocks in Pompeii that is lying between the old part of the city (Altstadt) and the regular rectangular grid which is located in the eastern part of the final walled city. Through excavations, it was indicated that the eastern quarter was laid out in the early second century BC, maybe as a result of resettlement after the Hannibalic Wars. Over half of the insula was occupied by the Casa del Menandro and its dependencies. The remaining place of the insula contained minor houses: the Casa degli

Amanti, the Casa del Fabbro, a small atrium house, three irregular

houses. Between the angles of Casa del Fabbro and the Casa del

Menandro was a small workshop complex. Finally, except this workshop

and others that occupied the front rooms of houses, there were three independent shops or similar one-room units (Ling 1997, 7).

It can be argued that in both cases the archaeological research was proposed readily and that a direct link existed. On the basis of deconstruction this direct link and a comparison of the houses themselves in their urban setting, this thesis will establish if and how characteristics of the Greek and the Roman houses respectively can be linked with the general part. Olynthos and Pompeii are the best candidates for such a comparison. Both cities in question are considered by archaeologist as archetypes of Greek and Roman urbanism. Moreover, they provide important evidence for domestic architecture studies, due to the fact that they were not naturally abandoned, but abruptly destroyed. The result of this is that the structures of the houses were undamaged. Another reason for this comparison is that both cities depict significant divides from fourth century BC until the first century CE in the area of the Mediterranean. This thesis is divided in five chapters. After the introduction in the second chapter the general political context in Greece will be provided, focusing on the characteristics of democracy and more specific the

term of isonomia. Afterwards the general concept around city planning will be displayed along with the housing in the Classical era. The third chapter is about the case study of Olynthos. In this chapter the history of the city, city planning and a description of a ‘typical’ house is presented. At the end of this chapter a general hypothesis will be drawn: What social features are reflected in the construction of the houses and which can be linked up with isonomia. In the next chapter a brief history of the Roman context will be presented, with a focus on the Roman city planning and the housing. In the fifth chapter the case study of Pompeii will be examined. In this chapter the history of the city, its planning and information about the different type of houses are exhibited. The last part of this chapter is consisted of an overall speculation: Which are the qualities of the society that are mirror in the construction of the houses and which can be connected with luxuria. Subsequently, the two selected blocks from Olynthos and Pompeii are presented and examined. The houses of each block will be investigated according the criteria developed in the previous chapters in order to be establish if isonomia and luxuria are reflected on those. In the final chapter, an overall of the thesis is exhibit with a focus on the results of the comparison and if/how the society and the houses changed through antiquity in the Mediterranean area.

Chapter 2 Classical Greece

Niela Katsi

In this chapter the characteristics of Classical Greece will be introduced. This will be managed by providing a brief but nonetheless indispensable description of the Classical era, by chronology,

characteristics and significant personalities. Afterwards, information on city planning and houses through this period will be given. There will be a focus on the Hippodamian system and the houses and the way that they were influenced by the democratic institution.

2.1 C

LASSICAL

P

ERIOD

The era between the end of the Persian Wars and the death of Alexander the Great (480-323 BC) is considered as the classical period. However, this period is divided in categories according to the social developments and the political events, as follows (Kokkorou-Alevras 1995, 169,180,197,199):

• The Early Classical Period (480-450 B.C.) • Mature Classical Period (450-420 B.C.) • Period of the “Rich Style” (420-390 B.C.) • Late Classical Period (390-323 B.C.) This era is characterised by the

prosperity of the city. The two centres of Greece were the two cities which dominated all the others: Athens and Sparta. The fifth century is the century of Athens, the golden century of Pericles, is when democracy was born (Fig 2.1).

However, the Golden Century of Pericles lasted only some decades

and then the Peloponnesian War started at 431 BC (Mossé and Schnapp-Gourbeillon 1990, 233). In this war Athens lost and that had an effect on its power, which started to decline and other kingdoms like

Figure 2.1 The age of Pericles by Phillip Von Foltz. The image is a representation of the ideals of democracy. (From online source see list of figures)

the Macedonian one started to rise. It was Phillip II that established the power of the Macedonian kingdom and then his son Alexander the Great who led it to its zenith, and that is why his death in 323 BC is considered to be the end of the classical period (Pomeroy et al 2004, 254).

In ancient Greece, especially during the classical period, being a citizen of a city came with great responsibility and not everyone was nominated. Politis of a city was not everyone who lived there. In order for someone to be called citizen of a city-state he had to be a free person, this means that slaves were not considered citizens (Mossé 1993, 40). Moreover, women were not considered able to be named as the politis of a city-state; however they were able to participate in the religious part of the social life (Fig 2.2) (ibid, 61).

When talking about the classical period, the first thing that comes to someone’s mind is democracy. That is totally logical, due to the fact that democracy was established during that time and until now is one of the constitutions that rule in many countries. Democracy derives from the words demos (δῆμος) and kratos (κράτος), which in Greek means people and power. The word itself shows an institution by defining who (what kind of persons and how many) has the power. Democracy in Greece did not start in one day but it was established during time. The first steps were made in Athens by Solon in the beginning of the sixth century and continued by Cleisthenes in the end of the same century and finally was established during the four first decades of the 5th century (Mossé 1992, 21). Cleisthenes’ system can be characterised by the word isonomia, which means the equality (isos/ gr: ἴσος) of political rights (nomos/ gr: νόμος) and which was one of the main rules of democracy (Raaflaub 2007, 112). Isonomia was the idea on which all the structures of society were depending on afterwards. It

Figure 2.2 Arreophoroi (women carrying objects) during Panathinaia (ceremony for goddess Athena) at Parthenon, north frieze. ca. 438-432BC. (From online source see list of figures)

was the base in order equality of the political rights to rule over the ancient World, even in the planning of cities and the architecture of the houses in Greece and its colonies over the Mediterranean.

Polis was considered a male association because only men were

eligible to join the community and carrying out decisions affecting it (Murray 1986, 172).Private life in ancient Greece was also important as much as public. In his everyday life an ancient Greek liked to be entertained. In the classical world the types of entertainment were two, symposium (Fig 2.3), which was private and the festival, which was public. Festivals were part of the democratic system, and the people

were enjoying displays which were a combination of a public feast, religious experiences and great art. Examples of such festivals were

Dionysia, in honour of God Dionysus, and Panathinaia in honour of the

goddess Athena. On the other hand, the symposium was arranged by drinking groups of men and it was an attempt to portray a more aristocratic status, which was no longer prominent (Hansen 1993). This gathering was private, as it was taking place in the house in the room called the men’s room, andron, (ανδρών). That room was specially designed for that operation with the door off-centre to accommodate the couches where the members were laying, propped on their left arm. The size of the rooms differed from three to twelve or even more couches (Garland 2009).

Figure 2.3 Cylix (Drinking cup) with a symposium scene, ca. 500 BC. (From online source see list of figures)

2.2

CITY

PLANNING

Polis

Ἐπειδὴ πᾶσαν πόλιν ὁρῶμεν κοινωνίαν τινὰ οὖσαν καὶ πᾶσαν κοινωνίαν ἀγαθοῦ τινος ἕνεκεν συνεστηκυῖαν (τοῦ γὰρ εἶναι δοκοῦντος ἀγαθοῦ χάριν πάντα πράττουσι πάντες), δῆλον ὡς πᾶσαι μὲν ἀγαθοῦ τινος στοχάζονται, μάλιστα δὲ καὶ τοῦ κυριωτάτου πάντων ἡ πασῶν κυριωτάτη καὶ πάσας περιέχουσα τὰς ἄλλας. αὕτη δ’ ἐστὶν ἡ καλουμένη πόλις καὶ ἡ κοινωνία ἡ πολιτική.

Observation tells us that every state is an association, and that every association is formed with a view to some good purpose. I say 'good', because in all their actions all men do in fact aim at what they think good. Clearly then, as all associations aim at some good, that association which is the most sovereign among them all and embraces all others will aim highest, i.e. at the most sovereign of all goods. This is the association which we call the state, the association which is 'political'.

Aristotle,Politica 11 (translation by J.E. Porter)

Aristotle, one of the most significant philosophers in the classical period, in his book Politica and especially in the 11th chapter attempts to provide a first description of the polis (πόλις). According to him polis is a form of a superior social coexistence, which includes all the other kinds of society and aims at the superior from all goods. Moreover, it is a society and the main characteristic that makes it differ from all the others of its kind is the good that it aims. Specifically the aim of the

polis is the well-being of its citizens, with which it seeks for the total

good of all citizens, instead of the personal good that other kinds of society aim to. Aristotle seals the definition of Polis by characterising the political society, the organized constitutional society which has self-sufficiency, autonomy, freedom, institutions and regime. Therefore,

polis in the ancient Greek world is more a nowadays city-state than just

During the classical era the political institutions and society were two of the main influences of the city planning. The Persian wars destroyed many Greek cities, so they had to be rebuilt. However, this time the dynamic way of development, which was used previously, will be replaced for the new cities and colonies by a grid plan. Greek city planning during the fifth and fourth century was enriched with the spirit of political community and more

public buildings were built (Mpouras 1999, 276) (Fig 2.4).

During this era there was a planning that designed cities with parallel and vertical streets. The city is divided in blocks that had the same size. The general concept of this idea was not only the adjustment of the streets in horizontal and vertical lines but also the organisation of the city in order for the city and its citizens to function in a more correct way. The advantages of this system were the speed of organisation,

simple designs and protection of the city. This city planning system was called Hippodamian, because of Hippodamus of Miletus (Pounds 1969, 140).

Hippodamus of Miletus was not just a city planner but also an intellectual of his era. What he had on mind about the city planning was a more theoretical rather than practical side. He was more concerned about an ideal society than the physical layout. Hippodamus ideal city was one with 10.000 citizens, in which the land, the citizens, the laws and magistrates would be separated in three sections (Burns 1976, 416) (Table 2.1).

City

Land

Laws

Magistrate

Figure 2.4 Plan of Miletus (See Roisman and Yardley 2011)

s

Farmers Religious Wanton assault Public matters Artisans Public Damage Matters relating

to aliens

Soldiers Private Homicide Matters relating to orphans

Hippodamus’s idea of dividing the city in three equal sections by describing the ideal city for him shows that he was inspired and affected by the concept of equality and democracy that arose at that time. This city planning by Hippodamus was adopted by the democratic Athenians when they built their port Piraeus in Attica and Thourioi in 443 BC in Southern Italy. Also cities in the fourth century such as Priene and Olynthos were planned this way.

Furthermore, it would not be an exaggeration, if the planning of cities in southern Italy derived from this Greek paradigm, such as Pompeii (Pounds 1969, 140).

One of the most significant examples of the application of the Hippodamian

planning was Miletus (Fig 2.4). This city was located in Asia Minor (Fig 2.5). However, it was destroyed during the

Persians Wars in 494 B.C. and rebuilt again

by its citizens according to the planning of Hippodamus. Therefore, the city was divided in blocks of the same size and shape. Each part of the land was offered to the citizens in order to build their residences according to a random selection (Moffett et al 2003). The fact that the land was given to the citizens by ballot is one of the main reason that proves the existence of the isonomia in the application of the Hippodamian city planning.

2.3 OIKOS

Figure 2.5 Location of Miletus (From online source, see list of figures)

Oikos (anc. Greek: οἶκος) is the word for house in Greek. However,

during the classical era it meant not only the building that a family was living in but also the household, which was consisted of the family members (parents and children) and relatives and slaves that were depended on the family.

To begin with, the houses in Greece were rectangular at first with one room and later with two or more, and as the years passed by the larger they become so they could show the wealth of the family. However, this changed during the classical era when all the citizens in the new build cities had houses of equal size. In the

end of the fifth century in Greece a new type of house was common, the house with one single entrance courtyard (Nevett 2009a, 371). While describing a house in the classical era there will be two main types, the prostas which had been found in conjunction with a peristyle and were more common in Asia Minor, like the city of Priene and the

pastas that were more common in mainland Greece (Graham 1966)

(Fig 2.6).

Someone could enter the house only through the door on the street, which led into a central courtyard with rooms around it. The pastas type houses were longer and gave access to many rooms. Apart from

Figure 2.6 Prostas house in Priene (left) and pastas house in Olynthos (right). (From online source, see list of figures)

entrance to the individual rooms the courtyard was operating as a main source for daylight among with the interior windows. In the street façade there was also a small high opening that was functioning more as a ventilator rather than light. The upper floors were accessible through a wooden staircase. In order to keep the rain out of the house a pitched roof of terracotta tiles with deep eaves was installed (Nevett 2009a, 372). During the fourth century columns were added around the courtyard. Moreover the rooms have decorated walls and floors with mosaics (Schmitz 2007).

Furthermore, in the late 1980s a new house type was found in Kassope in north-western Greece by W. Hoepfner and E.L. Schwandner. This new type was called the hedraum house or the hearth room house; due to the fact that there was a room with hearth in each house (1994).

On the other hand, smaller houses were also being built, and poorer families lived there and shared accommodation; however due to poor construction their remains are difficult to be examined archaeologically (Ault 2005). In addition a percentage of the population was living in farms for part or the whole year. The excavations have shown that those houses were designed according to the plan of the single entrance courtyard house, but with a larger courtyard (Nevett 2009a, 372).

Society during the antiquity had a significant role in the domestic architecture. The Old World was governed by the ideology of the society not only in the everyday life but also in architecture. One of the fundamental characteristic that exhibit the influence of the society to the construction of the classical Greek house was the separation of men’s room, andron or andronitis (Fig 2.7), and the women’s room,

gynaikon or gynaikonitis (Fig 2.8). As mentioned previously in each

house there was a room that the men of the house were using in order to entertain their guests during the symposium.

In many excavations the presence of an andron room is obvious, however the gynaikon is not. Men had this specific room for their entertainment, while women were using more rooms for their house-work (washing, food preparation, storage) which were naturally lit during the day (Fig 2.7). When visitors were coming to the house in order to attend the symposium, women were probably leaving the courtyard and moving to the interior rooms that had day light. In excavations, especially in Olynthos and Athens, there are findings that prove that there was a door in the andron room, something that shows that housework stopped only when visitors were coming or leaving. Evidence shows an andron room definitely existed in a classical house and in the rest of the house were the rooms that women were able to use during the day (Nevett 2009b, 13). This means that there was not an actual separation between men and women, but more a separation between women and men who did not belong to the family (oikos). The design of the classical Greek house had not only to do with the right division between men and women and the entertainment of visitors but also its symbolic worth. For example, in Athens the houses near the Acropolis or near the mountains that had a better view were better designed than other ones (Nevett 2009, 12). This was due to the differences of each oiko’s economy. However, there were also settlements where the houses were all the same size. This plan and idea was combined with the concept of isonomia (equality of political rights/ equality under the law), that existed during the classical era in Greece, as mentioned by Wolfram Hoepfner and Ernst-Ludwig Schwandner in their book “Haus und Stadt im Klassichen Griehenland”

Figure 2.8 Woman during the day with her slaves in her room. (From online source, see list of figures)

Figure 2.7 The andron room Dionysus in Pella. (From online source, see list of figures)

(1994). Isonomia was not only connected with the citizens’ obligations and rights but also with the division of land both inside and outside the city (Ault 2000, 483). This will be the goal of this thesis, to show if and how isonomia was reflected on the houses of Olynthos.

Summary

All in all, during this chapter the main characteristics of Classical Greece were illustrated with a main focus on democracy and isonomia. As observed during the antiquity the spatial construction of the city and the residence can be based on ideologies that were leading the society and not just on the geomorphological scenery as nowadays. It can be noticed through the paradigm of Hippodamus and Aristotle, who strongly believed that isonomia, is needed for the body of citizens (polis) to live peacefully, and ‘good’, that affect that politics had town planning and domestic architecture. Especially Hippodamus adopted that ideology while planning cities that needed to be rebuilt or Athenian colonies in the Mediterranean by constructing them according to a grid plan. The striking similarity between the blocks’ and houses’ size to these new-build cities leads to the assumption that the concept of democracy and the equality in political rights were resembled in the city plan and the houses. Apart from the same amount and size possession of land, the example of Miletus and its land distribution to the citizens prove that isonomia was ruling all over the Greek world and its colonies across the Mediterranean sea. The layout of these colonies influenced later the Romans when building new cities, due to the connection between the Greek colonies of Italy and the new-born Roman cities. The case study of Olynthos will follow in order to understand in depth if there are any architectural criteria that can possibly prove the quality of isonomia in houses’ design.

Chapter 3 Olynthos

Niela Katsi

As Michael Jameson stated: ‘domestic space should be studied in the context of Greek settlement patterns and town planning on the one hand and of Greek social structure and ideology on the other’ (1990,

109), so at this part of the thesis Olynthos will be examined in order to see if isonomia existed while creating the city and the houses. Moreover, the criteria of the isonomia in domestic architecture will be stated, for the houses later on to be examined if the ideology played any role in their formation.

3.1

BEHIND

THE

RUINS

History

Olynthos was an ancient Greek city located on the Chalcidice Peninsula of northwestern Greece (Fig 3.1), it was named after the figs that grew there (Cahill 2002, 23). A Thracian group of people, called the Bottiaeans, inhabited Olynthos until 479 BC. During the Persian Wars, the Persian forces killed the Bottiaeans and delivered the city to local Greeks

from Chalcidice.

Following this, Olynthos was dominated by the Athenians. In 424 BC the people of Olynthos revolted against the Athenian League and were able to gain their independence (Hoepfer and Schwandner 1994, 28). Olynthos gained power over the coming years and became the chief city west of the Strymon River. In 432BC it founded and became the leader of the Chalcidian League, a confederation of the Greek cities of the Chalcidice Peninsula. In 382 BC war with Sparta broke out, this was during a period whereby the league was particularly powerful. However, despite this power after three years of war Olynthos was defeated by the Spartans and the league was disbanded in 379 BC.

Figure 3.1 Location of Olynthos. (From online source, see list of figures)

Nevertheless, in 371 BC Sparta was subsequently defeated in turn by Thebes, as a result Olynthos was re-established and the league grew to exceed the wealth and power it had previously held. In 357BC, when war broke out between Philip II of Macedon and Athens, Olynthos initially allied itself with Philip; however this did not last long as Olynthos changed its allegiance to Athens. Demosthenes was prompted to give three great speeches, the “Olynthiacs”, urging Athens to aid Olynthos concerning Philip’s continuous threats against Olynthos that was under siege for some years (Hammond and Griffith 1979, 315-325). However, the Athenians did not come to the aid of Olynthos, and Philip destroyed them in 348BC (Cahill 2002). The year 348 BC thus signifies the end of Olynthos as an independent city-state.

Excavations

Excavations in Olynthos were undertaken during a period of four seasons from 1928 until 1938 by David Robinson of Johns Hopkins University. While writing in 1932 that ‘we intend…to follow this broad avenue…in the hope of locating some of the public buildings’ (Robinson 1932, 119), he was also beginning to understand the significance of the domestic architecture. In addition, Mylonas who was collaborating with Robinson, in 1940 wrote that ‘this book…will become the main source of our evidence for the study of the Greek house’ (Mylonas 1940, 392). The city was divided in two main areas the South Hill and the North. In the former some work took place, however, very few specific details were published (Robinson 1942, 272-316). Robinson’s work despite dating back some seventy years is still the single most informative collection of data concerning the houses of Olynthos during the Classical period. A new period of excavation at Olynthos is about to be undertaken under the supervision of Lisa Nevett, it is intended that work will be carried out until 2019. This was announced during a public lecture given at Leiden University in April 2014.

3.2

CITY

PLANNING

The city of Olynthos was built on two different hills, the southern where the first settlements were of the Archaic city of Bottiaians are situated, and the northern where the Chalcidians built their city in 432 BC (Rhodes

2010). The building

foundations of the city are preserved and thus the city’s layout and plan is easily discernible. According to the history of Olynthos, the urban history can be divided into three periods. The habitation by the first Greeks that ended with the Peloponnesian War constitutes the earliest phase.

At this time Olynthos was a small town that was located on the South Hill. The settlement had outer walls for its protection, public buildings, and was planned according to an irregular grid. Following this, in 432BC when some Chalcidic communities, among them Olynthos too, rebelled against the Athenian Empire, many inhabitants of the neighbouring cities moved to Olynthos, in order to create a more defensible and larger city, and this led to ‘anoikismos’ or ‘moving inland’. Resultant of this movement a new sector of the city was created, the North Hill. This new part of the city was created according to the Hippodamian style, with regular blocks and directly parallel streets (Cahill 2000, 497). By the end of the fifth century BC Olynthos was the capital of the Chalcidic League, which was becoming the most powerful league in this part of Greece. This fuelled the expansion of the city further than the original walls onto the east side, which was called by Robinson the ‘Villa Figure 3.2 Plan of Olynthos. (From online source, see list of figures.)

Section’, because its houses were more luxurious and larger (Robinson 1938). The Macedonians, however, felt threatened by this rapid expansion, and Phillip II of Macedon subsequently captured Olynthos in 348 BC and sold the inhabitants into slavery. As a relit the city of Olynthos was abandoned. Nevertheless, some settlers returned to the site but this very little, or no, archaeological or historical impact on the city (Cahill 2002, 25).

One of the constitutional distinctions in town planning in ancient Greece was that between the public and private sphere, which is also discernible in Olynthos. The public buildings in Olynthos are not well preserved due to the fact that they were robbed for stone after the destruction of the city. An area of comprising about 3 ½ of the city blocks at the south end of the North Hill were operating as the agora of the city. A high concentration of coins was recovered from the streets and surrounding areas of the Agora, which depicts a scene of commercial activity being present in this area of the city. No official sanctuaries, however, were found in Olynthos (Cahill 2000, 499). Although, in House A v 8 a courtyard with two androns was found, which means that either it was operating a clubhouse or a potential sanctuary. (Robinson 1932). An inscription that was originally set up “in the sanctuary” (of Artemis at Olynthos) was found almost a mile away from the site, which implies that the main sanctuary of the Olynthos was outside the city, however, no traces of the sanctuary were found during excavations (Robinson 1934).

Olynthos is demonstrative of a city whereby there were blocks consisting of different measurements. The Pythagorian analogies are obvious in the Olynthian building block, and this allows for the assumption that the size of the blocks was around two hundred and fifty and three hundred square meters, which were necessary to house a typical classical Greek family (Hoepfner and Schwander 1994, 34).

3.3

HOUSES

Olynthos’ houses were occupied for a few generations and not extensively rebuilt, a fact that makes the

study of their architecture more accessible. Like the majority of the houses from this era, these have been constructed by mud brick on a stone base or socle (Nevett 1999, 56). The houses at Olynthos had a veranda-like space (pastas) at the back of the courtyard and that is the reason why they are called ‘pastas houses’. Excavations in Olynthos are significant for the history of the Greek house due to the fact that they reveal there was also another type of houses: the peristyle (Fig 3.3). This type of houses is a modification of the pastas, due to the

fact that they have a courtyard that was lined with colonnades. However, the pastas were still the fundamental feature in the plan of the house. Apart from the interesting architecture that the houses exhibit they were also built in a way that was efficient for the everyday life of the inhabitants. In Olynthos the houses were mainly two-storeys high and the main living rooms were facing south across a patio, however, the southern wing was always one storey so the sun was not blocked from the living rooms. Moreover, the adobe walls were keeping the house cool in the day and radiating heat at night. In addition, windows had eaves that were facing the south and creating a shadow in the summer, while were permitting unimpeded entry of the sun in

the winter (Butti and Perlin 1980).

Figure 3.3 Courtyard with peristyle in Olynthos, ca 430-350 BC. (From online source, see list of figures)

The houses were designed in blocks of ten and were divided into two rows with a drainage alley separating them. Moreover, these drains were hidden from the street and the public eye by an enclosure wall (Gates 2003, 268). Most of the houses had two storeys and this can be verified by the presence of stair bases, traces of staircases and pillar foundations that were found in the remains of the houses (Robinson and Graham 1938, 214-218; 267-280). The majority of the houses had the following structure (Fig 3.4): on the north side of the courtyard a pastas opening that was providing a place well-lit and sheltered in order to socialise or work. Moreover, on to the north side of the pastas a series of rooms were developed. The majority of the rooms in the house opened either onto a portico or the pastas except from which were restricted from these common areas (Cahill 2000, 500). These rooms were usually unpaved and had a lack on drainage facilities. Moreover, they had only one, of at the most two, entrances, which were distant from the main entrance of the house (Nevett 1999, 65). As noticed in the plans andron is more frequently found among these rooms. However, the main difference between them is the plaster or

mosaic floor what was used as a decoration (ibid, 65). Another room located in the Olynthian houses is the anteroom which lies between the court and the andron and named by Robinson and Graham (Robinson and Graham 1938). The anteroom operated as an extra space and obstacle between the court and the andron. In the houses bathrooms can be recognised by the plaster on the walls and the floor and the fragments of terracotta hip-baths or spaces in the cement where there were tubs were located. The majority of the houses have only a single entrance; however some of them have an entrance that leads directly to the medium sized room. Those rooms are regularly connected with a low openness value, implying that these rooms had to be separated by the rest of the house (Nevett 1999, 66). Those types of rooms are identified by Robinson and Graham as workshops or shops or stables (1938).

The variety of the objects that were found in many individual rooms led to the belief that they were multifunctional either because during the day there were different tasks taking place, or alternatively because different activities

were happening

simultaneously. For example Nevett (1999) mentions that the use of the court yard may

differ, as it may have been used either as an entrance lobby or as storage because pithoi (Fig 3.5) were sometimes found there. Pithoi were huge vessels that were used for the storage of products such as oil, cereals, grains (Cavendish 2010, 18).

Court was also an interesting part of the house. It was the part that was separating the house with the outside world. It is another noticeable feature of the Olynthian houses the way of controlling both the inside world as much as the outside. Someone sitting in the pastas

Figure 3.5 Pithoi found in Olynthos (See Robinson 1930)

could control and see what was happening to the house and who was coming in or going outside.

Apart from the architecture of the houses, there are also inscriptions about their prices. The dates of these inscriptions approximate to the last five years of the city’s life, between 355/4 and 350/49 BC. There appears to have been a variety of the prices between the houses, ranging from 230 to 5300 drachmas (Robinson 1934). This difference in the price, according to Cahill is probably caused because of the changing in the political conditions (2000).

According to previous studies the houses in Olynthos and the city planning was not a coincidence but a manifestation of the Greek idea of isonomia (equality in the eyes of the law). The city can be understood not only as a uniform advancement, but as a distinct and vital community, which has a reflection of democracy and isonomia on its organisation. Moreover, according to Hoepfer and Schwandner there was also a Typenhaus in Olynthos, which also proves the isonomia

(1994).

House A vii 4 (Fig 3.6), located in block A vii, is considered by the first excavators, Robinson and Graham (1932) and by Nicholas Cahill (2002), to be the characteristically and architecturally the epitome of the Olynthian house. According to the plans, the entrance from the street guides the visitor into an open court that provides access to a series of different rooms. The building may also had an upper store, however, the absence of timber and mud brick remnants, maintain that a definite understanding of the plan cannot fully be established. On the other hand, the rooms in the ground floor reveal a lot about the lives of the house’s residents (Robinson and Graham Figure 3.6 Plan of the house A vii 4. (From online

1938, 118-121; Cahill 2002, 103-108). The fragments of table vessels and loom weights from the courtyard reveal that everyday life activities were taking place in the open air or they were moved there for disposal because they were rubbish (Nevett 2012, 218). On the north side of the court was located the pastas, a covered portico, that was operating as a shelter for the entrances of the largest rooms. The objects that were found here are fragments of terracotta and bronze table vessels, weights from scales, storage jars implying that this space was used for a variety of residue activities. The north east corner contained a complex of three rooms that were operating for a simplex of functions. The remains, such as traces of ash and burnt material show that in a narrow space like room D the use of fire was allowed and is possible that that room was used as a kitchen. One of the characteristics of

room C was the water-resistant, hard floor made of cement. The

existence of a terracotta hip-bath is showed depicted by the floor marks. However, there is no evidence of plumbing which means that the water was brought to the room and perhaps previously heated in the fire place. Another room was E that maybe have been one of the predominant domestic areas. This room was containing a stone mortarium for assisting the production of flour and there were also some table-wares that are connecting the room with the procedure of the food service. This type of house was not only for the family to live there, but was also a centre that the elements, on which the households were depending on, were being produced and manufactured. The other functionality of the house was as a shop or workshop. Operating under this theory, the example of room H, which had his own separate entrance from the street, suggests this could have been the case. Last but not least in room G fragments of storage jars were found, these suggest that the agricultural products were stored there. Moreover, the detection of terracotta loom weights indicates the production of textiles for furnishing and clothes within the household (ibid 220).

The analyses of the artefacts and the architecture in Olynthos presented here, shows a more complicated system than it may look from the first sight. There is no proof that the houses were separated into distinct areas for male and female, nevertheless, there are

restrictions for accessing different rooms within some of the houses, something that implies that gender relationships were influencing the household organisation. Moreover, the accessibility of the rooms also depicts the relationships between members of the households and the outsiders. Some may argue that the houses in Olynthos are the most representative given that the South Hill, thus far, is lacking in attention. However, the sheer quality of regular houses understood so far would suggest that preliminary conclusions can be made in terms of representative houses in Olynthos. Furthermore, the smallest structures that seem to have a lack of features, are most likely demonstrate the households pertaining to groups of people that depict different behavioural patterns (Nevett 1999, 79).

3.4 C

RITERIA

FOR

ISONOMIA

As mentioned previously the classical era for Greece and its colonies is characterised by the equality of the political rights. Living in a city in the Mediterranean under the Greek law meant that all the citizens were equal and had the same rights. However, can this ideology be represented in the way the cities and the houses were built? What are the criteria that exhibit the influence of the society in the domestic architecture? Democracy was established by the law and was depending on that and not on the personal needs. Therefore, what are the characteristics of the houses in Olynthos that can be linked with the concept of isonomia?

First of all the main criterion that defines the equality of the citizen could be that the size and the shape of the houses. If there is a similarity in the way that the houses are designed it means that all citizens have the same possession of land in order to construct their dwellings. As we have seen most of the houses were divided by a boundary wall and oriented to the south; as they were residences only for the free citizens of each city. Each house was a two-storey building with a kitchen, courtyard and all the necessary rooms in the fifth century BC. Moreover, these houses and especially the pastas houses that had a courtyard, do not display at first glance which houses

belongs to the most powerful in hierarchy and everyone appear to be equal with each other and the gap between poor and rich was closing. In addition, another principle that gives away that isonomia was the ground on which the city and the society were built is the application of the Hippodamian town plan. Olynthus was not the exception, but also other cities designed during the classical period, according to this plan, have as a core the politis , i.e the political active citizen, and its needs.

Isonomia means symmetry in the town plan, the aesthetic code that

was ruling. The centre of the Hippodamian, democratic city is the

Agora, the temples were located scattered the city or in the Agora.

The next criterion that seems to be an adaption of the isonomia into houses’ structures can be witnessed in the inside of the dwellings. When houses are built in accordance with the democratic constitution and the equality that it represented, the main focus of the houses will be on the inside part and the harmonic way of living. While turning the concern into the inside area of the house, it is as if there is no need to show any wealth and status in the front of the residence. In this way, all the houses look the same without being able to distinguish which house belonged to the richer and which to the poorer.

Furthermore, it seems befitting the society that is governed by the spirit of democracy is underlined by the existence of an andron room in each house. These were earlier associated with the privileged

aristocrats. Although it the andron room was previously connected with

aristocracy, at this era it developed with the concept of democracy and

isonomia. In those rooms men were gathering in order to entertain

themselves and their visitors and discuss with them. Through this room the chance is given to the citizens to discuss about the public life and to create a dialogue for the issues even in their private homes; thus the andron itself becomes a criterion for isonomia.

Lastly, equality in housing seems to be also visible in the fact that every house in Olynthos seems to have had its own producing line, so the owner could be independent; regardless how poor it was as long as it was free, should not be depending on other richer families. This leads to the assumption that the concept of independence is important in the

overall concept of equality and isonomia for the reason that if a household is dependent on someone else, it provides the basis for inequalities and stratified societies to develop.

Summary

All in all, in this chapter the case study of Olynthos was presented and some assumptions about the isonomia being the concept on which the city was based can be done. One of the main reasons that can lead to that theory is the town planning of the city that is based on the Hippodamian system, a system that has its roots to the theory of equality. Moreover after describing the Typenhaus of Olynthos some matching criteria can be seen. However, in the sixth chapter A vii block from Olynthos will be examined according to the stated criteria in order to question the influence of isonomia on the design of the houses in the Mediterranean World during the classical period.

Chapter 4 Roman antiquity

Niela Katsi s1441353

This chapter will introduce the Roman antiquity its history and society. After illustrating the significance of this civilisation in this Mediterranean World the focus will be shifted to city planning and the domestic architecture during the Roman period.

4.1

OVERVIEW

OF

ROMAN

HISTORY

Roman history falls into three distinct periods designated by the form of government in use during each era

 the monarchy  the republic  the empire

It was during the Late Republic (133-31 BC), when a sequence of bloody civil wars wrecked the Roman world and a succession of ever-more-daring strong men made bids to dominate the state (Aldrete 2004). In even as early as the eighth century BC Italic speakers — Latins, Sabines, Umbrians, Samnites, Oscans and others — shared the headland with two other major ethnic groups, the Etruscans in the North, and the Greeks in the south. As for Rome, the Eternal City, became a republic in 509 BC; however, it took a few centuries for Rome to become the great city of the popular imagination, by the 3rd century BC, Rome had become the pre-eminent city of the Italian headland. The leaders of the Republican and Imperial periods knew very well the possibilities that art could offer for the satisfaction of the public and the pleasure of the common -or not- spectator (Ramage and Ramage 1995, 22). The Roman society, the public, was primarily its men, on active service and in the gatherings that assembled to hear strategy speeches, elect leaders or pass and reject bills, cast their verdict in major trials; henceforth, lecturers and historians treat the citizens who assembled on any given occasion as the autonomous Roman people (Fantham 2005, 210)

On the face of things the Roman republic although would seem to have highly democratic institutions direct popular election of virtually all officials, legislation strictly by direct popular vote, judicial power, and a directive to pursue the popular interest, still it is quite difficult to contemplate the Roman republic as a democracy (Millar 1998). Art and spectacle especially in the Imperial period was a way to distract the public from the expansion strategies, poverty in the province and the fact that it the public opinion was guided rather than being free to express itself; a disguised monarchy that nonetheless set the foundations for justice, prosperity and political freedom.

With the increase of wealth and population, the ancient Romans found architectural solutions to deal with these escalations Romans and used the influences of Greeks in their architectural works. Architects now use vaults and arches in their works, concrete, marble and bricks were used to construct the arches. Temples, Basilicas, bridges and canals within played significant roles in the empire unification while eased communication around the large empire. A specific scheme was used for city planning that was centred on military defence and civil suitability. The streets were laid out in right angles, in the form of a square grid. All roads were equal in breadth and length, except for two diagonal ones that intersected in the middle to form the centre of the network. (Ramage & Ramage 1995). The collapse of the Roman civilization saw the end of the Roman urban planning yet, the city planning style is still very clear in modern Rome and it has influenced many capitals across Europe and the world.

4.2

ROMAN

CITIES

Roman civilisation was an intensely urban culture. Wherever the Romans went, they established new cities, which became focal points of Roman administrative control and centres from which Roman culture was disseminated. In addition, Roman cities demonstrated a remarkable uniformity of architectural design and cultural focus all across the empire. It would not matter if a Roman was walking into a

Roman city in Egypt or Britain as the same city layout was found: a forum, colonnaded temples, public baths and a theatre.

Chief among these was a general-purpose open space in the centre of town known as the forum, around which usually clustered important government buildings and temples. Most Roman cities of any size or pretension also constructed baths, gymnasiums, a theatre, an amphitheatre, and perhaps a circus (Fig 4.1). Local aristocrats in the provinces who wished to rise in status would sometimes pay for the construction of such cultural centres in their hometowns (Aldrete 2004). Romans cities were divided in three categories:

 Colonies (coloniae): established on virgin sites by government order and the first population were time-expired legionaries and their families.

 Urban settlements: growing up around the legionary dormitories for the use or the development of some specific source. Some paradigms are the frontier towns along the Danube and the Rhine, the bathing establishment of Bath (Aquae Sulis) and ports like Boulogne.

 Oppida: cities of the native Celtics or Iberians that were

transferred to Roman ones. (Pounds 1969, 148 -150)

The first to introduce the concept of the planned Roman city in an academic sense was a historian, Haverfield in 1913. The impact of town planning in the ancient Roman civilization on the functioning and the layouts of the already existing towns has been debatable. However, it is acceptable nowadays that the chequerboard and orthogonal layout of many Roman cities was the outcome of Roman contact with the Greek colonies in southern Italy (Fig 4.2). The topography of each place was playing a significant role in the design of the cities. Greeks, as mentioned before, were using rectangular street pattern with two main streets of sometimes four. Besides the residential blocks, separate from them there were also areas for administration and market space (agora), for theatres, temples and exercise spaces (stadia or

gymnasia). These were the fundamental Greek elements of a city that

became part of the Roman ones. The Romans adapted a system of city-Figure 4.1 A model recreation of the center of Rome, the two forums with a temple can be noticed. (From online source, see list of figures)

forms (Fig 4.3) that were at that time in the Greek kingdoms of the eastern Mediterranean. The cities of Italy, non-Roman and Roman became during the second century B.C. thoroughly Hellenistic (Purcell 2012, 199).

The layout of the Roman cities was most of the times based on the crossroads of two basic axial routes, the decumanus maximus which was running west to east and the cardo maximus that was running from south to north. Apart from those two main streets there were also secondary streets that were creating blocks that were named insulae (Allison 2003, 202).

Figure 4.2 Town plan of Neapolis (Naples), Greek colony in South Italy. (See Haverfield 1913)

4.3

ROMAN

HOUSING

Roman building retained its Etruscan character and after the establishment of the Republic in 509 BC, however after the third century BC there was an influence from Greek sources. The Greek trabeated and columnar style was adopted by Romans. The house for the Romans was not just a place to live, but it was strongly related with the society, the bigger the house the higher the status of the owner. In the Roman antiquity individuals were most of the times connected and dependent to others in a patron-client relationship, where a better-educated and wealthier patronus was protecting the interest of at least one client. Another proof of status was also the number of the clients of the patronus. All the clients had the obligation to support their patronus and salute him at this house (Kleiner 2013, 190). Roman dwellings were of three different types:

 The domus or private house

 The insula or may-storeyed tenement  The villa or country house

(Banster 1961, 267,331).

Domus

Figure 4.3 Town plan of Timgad (Roman colony) in Algeria. (From online source, see list of figures)

Domus in Latin means house, and it was not just the residence but also

the household or the family unit. This unit was consisted by a wide network of connections including distant and in-law relatives, slaves and ex-slaves (Gardner & Wiedermann 1991; Nevett 1997; Rawson 2011). In the Roman world, the preserved writings of the Roman architect of the first century B.C. Vitruvius, can guide someone to a homogenous interpretation of house organization and composition (Alcock 2012, 207). During the third and second century BC the power of Rome was a growing power and there was an eagerness for a domus with grater porticoes with columns that would exhibit in a better way and elaborate with the garden, hortus (Clarke 1991). A description of a Roman house is provided by Vitruvius (Fig 4.4), who in his text describes a town dwelling by emphasizing in the major areas of it: • atrium: the entrance hall of a Roman house between the

tablinum and the entrance passage (fauces)

• tablinum: the central room at the end of atrium first was the

master bedroom and later was used as record depository and reception room

• alae: the passages on the side of the atrium, probably in the beginning were operating as waiting rooms

• exedrae: rectangular or semi rectangular recess or seldom

• oeci: dining halls that were tetrastyle in Corinthian, Cizicenian or Egyptian style.

• peristyles: the inner garden with columns in the Pompeian and

Hellenistic type houses

• pinacotheca: the picture

gallery

(McKay 1975, 269-271). Vitruvius’ basic floor plan of a house in combination with archaeological findings can 51

characterise even the most conservative houses with symmetry and axiality. Between the street and the front doors the houses was located a vestibulum where someone was able to find cover with one step away from the street. Inside the front entrance the passage, the

fauces, a narrow foyer, led into the atrium. The doors in the Roman

house were located into pivots, the cardines, which were embedded and revolving in the floors, they were sometimes fastened with iron locks or blocks for the security of the house at night. The atrium court sometimes had roof and other times was equipped with a skylight and terracotta drainpipes or gutters that stopped the water from going inside the house with catch-basin below, the impluvium. Another room in the Roman house was the tabilum that was located on the main axis from the front door and the fauces. At first it was operating as the main bedroom and afterwards it was the record room for the family’s history. In this room privacy was succeeded by folding doors, wooden screens and hangings. This was the place where patronus was saluted by its clients. The alae at the teblinum had probably two operations, one was to lighten the atrium and the other was the waiting room for the clients. Moreover, on the atrium were opened some rooms, the

cubicula, and one or two of those were the dining rooms (ibid, 32-34).

However, the basic floor plan has and different versions with more courtyards, peristyle, gardens (hortus) and oeci.

This type of house was more common than domus in Rome, its port Ostia (Fig 4.5), Pompeii and Herculaneum. The same time that the poorest in Rome slept in the streets or whenever that were provided shelter, a high amount of the society was occupying areas in larger complexes (Hermansen 1981) As its name reveals (insula in Latin means island) this dwelling was larger than domus, but divided in apartments. Those flat blocks were raising four or even more storeys high with brick-faced concrete and their architectural decorations were painted in a deeper colour. In addition they had wooden or concrete balconies. The ground floor of the insulae was operating as a tabernae or shops and it was named after the owner of the building (Brouwer 1989, 26-27).

Villae

This category of residence was at first a Roman countryside house (Fig 4.6). Letters from Pliny and Cicero show the goal of the wealthy and noble citizens of the Roman Empire was the possession of a villa with views, preferably. There were two types of villae, the villa urbana that was located in the countryside near Rome and the villa rustica that was a farm house occupied by the servants (Clarke 1991). Wealthy Romans were going to their villas in order to escape for the summer. The size of

villa was quite palatial as the owners wanted to show their status.