The Private Life of the Romans Part 7

--185. Obligations of Hospitium.--The obligations imposed by this covenant were of the most sacred character, and any failure to regard its provisions was sacrilege, bringing upon the offender the anger of _Iuppiter Hospitalis_. Either of the parties might cancel the bond, but only after a formal and public notice of his intentions. On the other hand the tie was hereditary, descending from father to son, so that persons might be _hospites_ who had never so much as seen each other, whose immediate ancestors even might have had no personal intercourse. As a means of identification the original parties exchanged tokens _tesserae hospitales_, (see Rich and Harper, s. v.), by which they or their descendants might recognize each other. These tokens were carefully preserved, and when a stranger claimed _hospitium_ his _tessera_ had to be produced and submitted for examination. If it was found to be genuine, he was ent.i.tled to all the privileges that the best-known guest-friend could expect. These seem to have been entertainment so long as he remained in his host's city, protection including legal a.s.sistance if necessary, nursing and medical attendance in case of illness, the means necessary for continuing his journey, and honorable burial if he died among strangers. It will be noticed that these are almost precisely the duties devolving upon members of our great benevolent societies at the present time when appealed to by a brother in distress.

CHAPTER VI

THE HOUSE AND ITS FURNITURE

REFERENCES: Marquardt, 213-250, 607-645; Goll, II, 213-417; Guhl and Koner, 556-580, 676-688, 705-725; Ramsay, 516-521; Pauly-Wissowa, _atrium_, _compluvium_; Smith, Harper, Rich, under _domus_, _murus_, _tegula_, and the other Latin words used in the text; Lubker, 507-509; Baumeister, 1365 f., 631, 927 f., 1373 f.; Mau-Kelsey, 239-348, 361-373, 446-474; Overbeck, 244-376, 520-537; Gusman, 253-316.

--186. Domus.--The house with which we are concerned is the residence (_domus_) of the single household, as opposed to lodging houses or apartment houses (_insulae_) intended for the accommodation of several families, and the residence, moreover, of the well-to-do citizen, as opposed on the one hand to the mansion of the millionaire and on the other to the hovels of the very poor. At the same time it must be understood that the Roman house did not show as many distinct types as does the American house of the present time. The Roman was naturally conservative, he was particularly reluctant to introduce foreign ideas, and his house in all times and of all cla.s.ses preserved certain main features essentially unchanged. The proportion of these might vary with the size and shape of the lot at the builder's disposal, the number of apartments added would depend upon the means and tastes of the owner, but the kernel, so to speak, is always the same, and this makes the general plan much less complex, the description much less confusing.

--187. Our sources of information are unusually abundant. Vitruvius, an architect and engineer of the time of Caesar and Augustus, has left a work on building, giving in detail his own principles of construction; the works of many of the Roman writers contain either set descriptions of parts of houses or at least numerous hints and allusions that are collectively very helpful; and finally the ground plans of many houses have been uncovered in Rome and elsewhere, and in Pompeii we have even the walls of some houses left standing. There are still, however, despite the fullness and authority of our sources, many things in regard to the arrangement and construction of the house that are uncertain and disputed (--12, end).

--188. The Development of the House.--The primitive Roman house came from the Etruscans. It goes back to the simple farm life of early times, when all members of the household, father, mother, children, and dependents, lived in one large room together. In this room the meals were cooked, the table spread, all indoor work performed, the sacrifices offered to the Lares (--27), and at night a s.p.a.ce cleared in which to spread the hard beds or pallets. The primitive house had no chimney, the smoke escaping through a hole in the middle of the roof.

Rain could enter where the smoke escaped, and from this fact the hole was called the _impluvium_; just beneath it in later times a basin (_compluvium_) was hollowed out in the floor to catch the water for domestic purposes. There were no windows, all natural light coming through the _impluvium_ or, in pleasant weather, through the open door. There was but one door, and the s.p.a.ce opposite it seems to have been reserved as much as possible for the father and mother. Here was the hearth, where the mother prepared the meals, and near it stood the implements she used in spinning and weaving; here was the strong box (_arca_), in which the master kept his valuables, and here their couch was spread.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 35. CINERARY URN]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 36. PLAN OF HOUSE]

--189. The outward appearance of such a house is shown in the Etruscan cinerary urns (Fig. 35; see also Smith, I, 668; Schreiber, LIII, 5; Baumeister, Fig. 146) found in various places in Italy. The ground plan is a simple rectangle, as shown in Figure 36, without part.i.tions.

This may be regarded as historically and architecturally the kernel of the Roman house; it is found in all of which we have any knowledge.

Its very name (_atrium_), denoting originally the whole house, was also preserved, as is shown in the names of certain very ancient buildings in Rome used for religious purposes, the _atrium Vestae_, the _atrium Libertatis_, etc., but afterwards applied to the characteristic single room. The name was once supposed to mean "the black (_ater_) room," but many scholars recognize in it the original Etruscan word for house.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 37. PLAN OF HOUSE]

--190. The first change in the primitive house came in the form of a shed or "lean-to" on the side of the _atrium_ opposite the door. It was probably intended at first for merely temporary purposes, being built of wooden boards (_tabulae_), and having an outside door and no connection with the _atrium_. It could not have been long, however, until the wall between was broken through, and this once done and its convenience demonstrated, the part.i.tion wall was entirely removed, and the second form of the Roman house resulted (Fig. 37). This improvement also persisted, and the _tablinum_ is found in all the houses from the humblest to the costliest of which we have any knowledge.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 38. PLAN OF HOUSE]

--191. The next change was made by widening the _atrium_, but in order that the roof might be more easily supported walls were erected along the lines of the old _atrium_ for about two-thirds of its depth. These may have been originally mere pillars, as nowadays in our cellars, not continuous walls. At any rate, the _atrium_ at the end next the _tablinum_ was given the full width between the outside walls, and the additional s.p.a.ces, one on each side, were called _alae_. The appearance of such a house as seen from the entrance door must have been much like that of an Anglican or Roman Catholic church. The open s.p.a.ce between the supporting walls corresponded to the nave, the two _alae_ to the transepts, while the bay-like _tablinum_ resembled the chancel. The s.p.a.ce between the outside walls and those supporting the roof was cut off into rooms of various sizes, used for various purposes (Fig. 38). So far as we know they received light only from the _atrium_, for no windows are a.s.signed to them by Roman writers, and none are found in the ruins, but it is hardly probable that in the country no holes were made for light and air, however considerations of privacy and security may have influenced builders in the towns.

From this ancient house we find preserved in its successors all opposite the entrance door: the _atrium_ with its _alae_ and _tablinum_, the _impluvium_ and _compluvium_. These are the characteristic features of the Roman house, and must be so regarded in the description which follows of later developments under foreign influence.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 39. PLAN OF HOUSE]

--192. The Greeks seem to have furnished the idea next adopted by the Romans, a court at the rear of the _atrium_, open to the sky, surrounded by rooms, and set with flowers, trees, and shrubs. The open s.p.a.ce had columns around it, and often a fountain in the middle (Fig.

39). This court was called the _peristylum_ or _peristylium_.

According to Vitruvius its breadth should have exceeded its depth by one-third, but we do not find these or any other proportions strictly observed in the houses that are known to us. Access to the _peristylium_ from the _atrium_ could be had through the _tablinum_, though this might be cut off from it by folding doors, and by a narrow pa.s.sage[1] by its side. The latter would be naturally used by servants and by others who did not wish to pa.s.s through the master's room. Both pa.s.sage and _tablinum_ might be closed on the side of the _atrium_ by portieres. The arrangement of the various rooms around the court seems to have varied with the notions of the builder, and no one plan for them can be laid down. According to the means of the owner there were bedrooms, dining-rooms, libraries, drawing-rooms, kitchen, scullery, closets, private baths, together with the scanty accommodations necessary even for a large number of slaves. But no matter whether these rooms were many or few they all faced the court, receiving from it light and air, as did the rooms along the sides of the _atrium_.

There was often a garden behind the court.

[Footnote 1: This pa.s.sage is called _fauces_ in the older books. Mau has shown that the _fauces_ was on the entrance side of the _atrium_.

He calls the pa.s.sage by the _tablinum_ the _andron_.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 40. PLAN OF HOUSE]

--193. The next change took place in the city and town house only, because it was due to conditions of town life that did not obtain in the country. In ancient as well as in modern times business was likely to spread from the center of the town into residence districts, and it often became desirable for the owner of a dwelling-house to adapt it to the new conditions. This was easily done in the case of the Roman house on account of the arrangement of the rooms. Attention has already been called to the fact that the rooms all opened to the interior of the house, that no windows were placed in the outer walls, and that the only door was in front. If the house faced a business street, it is evident that the owner could, without interfering with the privacy of his house or decreasing its light, build rooms in front of the _atrium_ for commercial purposes. He reserved, of course, a pa.s.sageway to his own door, narrower or wider according to the circ.u.mstances. If the house occupied a corner, such rooms might be added on the side as well as in front (Fig. 40), and as they had no necessary connection with the interior they might be rented as living-rooms, as such rooms often are in our own cities. It is probable that rooms were first added in this way for business purposes by an owner who expected to carry on some enterprise of his own in them, but even men of good position and considerable means did not hesitate to add to their incomes by renting to others these disconnected parts of their houses. All the larger houses uncovered in Pompeii are arranged in this manner. One occupying a whole square and having rented rooms on three sides is described in --208. Such a detached house was called an _insula_.

--194. The Vestibulum.--Having traced the development of the house as a whole and described briefly its permanent and characteristic parts, we may now examine these more closely and at the same time call attention to other parts introduced at a later time. It will be convenient to begin with the front of the house. The city house was built even more generally than now on the street line. In the poorer houses the door opening into the _atrium_ was in the front wall, and was separated from the street only by the width of the threshold. In the better sort of houses, those described in the last section, the separation of the _atrium_ from the street by the row of stores gave opportunity for arranging a more imposing entrance. A part at least of this s.p.a.ce was left as an open court, with a costly pavement running from the street to the door, adorned with shrubs and flowers, with statuary even, and trophies of war, if the owner was rich and a successful general. This courtyard was called the _vestibulum_. The derivation of the word is disputed, but it probably comes from _ve-_, "apart," "separate," and _stare_ (cf. _prostibulum_ from _prostare_), and means "a private standing place"; other explanations are suggested in the dictionaries.

The important thing to notice is that it does not correspond at all to the part of a modern house called after it the vestibule. In this _vestibulum_ the clients gathered, before daybreak perhaps (--182), to wait for admission to the _atrium_, and here the _sportula_ was doled out to them. Here, too, was arranged the wedding procession (--86), and here was marshaled the train that escorted the boy to the forum the day that he put away childish things (--128). Even in the poorer houses the same name was given to the little s.p.a.ce between the door and the edge of the sidewalk.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 41. MOSAIC DOG]

--195. The Ostium.--The entrance to the house was called the _ostium_.

This includes the doorway and the door itself, and the word is applied to either, though _fores_ and _ianua_ are the more precise words for the door. In the poorer houses (--194) the _ostium_ was directly on the street, and there can be no doubt that it originally opened directly into the _atrium_; in other words, the ancient _atrium_ was separated from the street only by its own wall. The refinement of later times led to the introduction of a hall or pa.s.sageway between the _vestibulum_ and the _atrium_, and the _ostium_ opened into this hall and gradually gave its name to it. The threshold (_limen_) was broad, the door being placed well back, and often had the word _salve_ worked on it in mosaic. Over the door were words of good omen, _Nihil intret mali_, for example, or a charm against fire. In the great houses where an _ostiarius_ or _ianitor_ (--150) was kept on duty, his place was behind the door, and sometimes he had here a small room. A dog was often kept chained in the _ostium_, or in default of one a picture was painted on the wall or worked in mosaic on the floor (Fig. 41) with the warning beneath it: _Cave canem!_ The hallway was closed on the side of the _atrium_ with a curtain (_velum_). This hallway was not so long that through it persons in the _atrium_ could not see pa.s.sers-by in the street.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 42. IMPLUVIUM IN TUSCAN ATRIUM]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 43. SECTION OF TUSCAN ATRIUM]

--196. The Atrium.--The _atrium_ (--188) was the kernel of the Roman house, and to it was given the appropriate name _cavum aedium_. It is possible that this later name belonged strictly to the unroofed portion only, but the two words came to be used indiscriminately. The old view that the _cavum aedium_ was a middle court between the _atrium_ and the _peristylium_ is still held by a few scholars, but is not supported by the monumental evidence (--187). The most conspicuous features of the _atrium_ were the _impluvium_ and the _compluvium_ (--188). The water collected in the latter was carried into cisterns; over the former a curtain could be drawn when the light was too intense, as over a photographer's skylight nowadays. We find that the two words were carelessly used for each other by Roman writers. So important was the _impluvium_ to the _atrium_, that the latter was named from the manner in which the former was constructed. Vitruvius tells us that there were four styles. The first was called the _atrium Tuscanic.u.m_. In this the roof was formed by two pairs of beams crossing each other at right angles, the inclosed s.p.a.ce being left uncovered and thus forming the _impluvium_ (Figs. 42, 43). The name (--188) as well as the simple construction shows that this was the earliest form of the _atrium_, and it is evident that it could not be used for rooms of very large dimensions. The second was called the _atrium tetrastylon_. The beams were supported at their intersections by pillars or columns. The third, _atrium Corinthium_, differed from the second only in having more than four supporting pillars. It is probable that these two similar styles came in with the widening of the _atrium_ (--191). The fourth was called the _atrium displuviatum_.

In this the roof sloped toward the outer walls, as shown in the cinerary urn mentioned in --189, and the water was carried off by gutters on the outside, the _compluvium_ collecting only so much as actually fell into it from the heavens. We are told that there was another style of _atrium_, the _testudinatum_, which was covered all over and had neither _impluvium_ nor _compluvium_. We do not know how this was lighted; perhaps by windows in the alae.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 44. SMALL HOUSE AT POMPEII]

--197. The Change in the Atrium.--The _atrium_ as it was in the early days of the Republic has been described in --188. The simplicity and purity of the family life of that period lent a dignity to the one-room house that the vast palaces of the late Republic and Empire failed utterly to inherit. By Cicero's time the _atrium_ had ceased to be the center of domestic life; it had become a state apartment used only for display. We do not know the successive steps in the process of change. Probably the rooms along the sides (--191) were first used as bedrooms, for the sake of greater privacy. The need of a detached room for the cooking must have been felt as soon as the _peristylium_ was adopted (it may well be that the court was originally a kitchen garden), and then of a dining-room convenient to it. Then other rooms were added about this court and these were made sleeping-apartments for the sake of still greater privacy. Finally these rooms were needed for other purposes (--192) and the sleeping-rooms were moved again, this time to an upper story. When this second story was added we do not know, but it presupposes the small and costly lots of a city. Even the most unpretentious houses in Pompeii have in them the remains of staircases (Fig. 44).

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 45. ATRIUM IN HOUSE OF SALl.u.s.t IN POMPEII]

--198. The _atrium_ was now fitted up with all the splendor and magnificence that the owner's means would permit. The opening in the roof was enlarged to admit more light, and the supporting pillars (--196) were made of marble or costly woods. Between these pillars and along the walls statues and other works of art were placed. The _compluvium_ became a marble basin, with a fountain in the center, and was often richly carved or adorned with figures in relief. The floors were mosaic, the walls painted in brilliant colors or paneled with marbles of many hues, and the ceilings were covered with ivory and gold. In such a hall (Fig. 45) the host greeted his guests (--185), the patron received his clients (--182), the husband welcomed his wife (--89), and here his body lay in state when the pride of life was over.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 46. RUINS OF THE HOUSE OF THE POET IN POMPEII]

--199. Still some memorials of the older day were left in even the most imposing _atrium_. The altar to the Lares and Penates remained near the place where the hearth had been, though the regular sacrifices were made in a special chapel in the _peristylium_. In even the grandest houses the implements for spinning were kept in the place where the matron had once sat among her maidservants (----86, 105), as Livy tells us in the story of Lucretia. The cabinets retained the masks of simpler and may be stronger men (--107), and the marriage couch stood opposite the _ostium_ (hence its other name, _lectus adversus_), where it had been placed on the wedding night (--89), though no one slept in the _atrium_. In the country much of the old-time use of the _atrium_ survived even Augustus, and the poor, of course, had never changed their style of living. What use was made of the small rooms along the sides of the _atrium_, after they had ceased to be bedchambers, we do not know; they served perhaps as conversation rooms, private parlors, and drawing-rooms.

--200. The Alae.--The manner in which the _alae_, or wings, were formed has been explained (--191); they were simply the rectangular recesses left on the right and left of the _atrium_, when the smaller rooms on the sides were walled off. It must be remembered that they were entirely open to the _atrium_, and formed a part of it, perhaps originally furnis.h.i.+ng additional light from windows in their outer walls. In them were kept the _imagines_, as the wax busts of those ancestors who had held curule offices were called, arranged in cabinets in such a way that, by the help of cords running from one to another and of inscriptions under each of them, their relation to each other could be made clear and their great deeds kept in mind. Even when Roman writers or those of modern times speak of the _imagines_ as in the _atrium_, it is the _alae_ that are intended.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 47. VIEW FROM THE ATRIUM]

--201. The Tablinum.--The probable origin of the _tablinum_, has been explained above (--190), and its name has been derived from the material (_tabulae_, "planks") of the "lean-to," perhaps a summer kitchen, from which it developed. Others think that the room received its name from the fact that in it the master kept his account books (_tabulae_) as well as all his business and private papers. He kept here also the money chest or strong box (_arca_), which in the olden time had been chained to the floor of the _atrium_, and made the room in fact his office or study. By its position it commanded the whole house, as the rooms could be entered only from the _atrium_ or _peristylium_, and the _tablinum_ was right between them. The master could secure entire privacy by closing the folding doors which cut off the private court, or by pulling the curtains across the opening into the great hall. On the other hand, if the _tablinum_ was left open, the guest entering the _ostium_ must have had a charming vista, commanding at a glance all the public and semi-public parts of the house (Fig. 47). Even when the _tablinum_ was closed, there was free pa.s.sage from the front of the house to the rear through the short corridor (--192) by the side of the _tablinum_. It should be noticed that there was only one such pa.s.sage, though the older authorities a.s.sert that there were two.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 48. THE PERISTYLE FROM HOUSE IN POMPEII]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 49. ROOF OF PERISTYLE]

--202. The Peristyle.--The _peristylium_ or _peristylum_ was adopted, as we have seen (--192), from the Greeks, but despite the way in which the Roman clung to the customs of his fathers it was not long in becoming the more important of the two main sections of the house. We must think of a s.p.a.cious court (Fig. 48) open to the sky, but surrounded by a continuous row of buildings, or rather rooms, for the buildings soon became one, all facing it and having doors and latticed windows opening upon it. All these buildings had covered porches on the side next the court (Fig. 49), and these porches forming an unbroken colonnade on the four sides were strictly the peristyle, though the name came to be used of the whole section of the house, including court, colonnade, and surrounding rooms. The court was much more open to the sun than the _atrium_, and all sorts of rare and beautiful plants and flowers bloomed and flourished in it, protected by the walls from cold winds. Fountains and statuary adorned the middle part; the colonnade furnished cool or sunny promenades, no matter what the time of day or the season of the year. Loving the open air and the charms of nature as the Romans did, it is no wonder that they soon made the peristyle the center of their domestic life in all the houses of the better cla.s.s, and reserved the _atrium_ for the more formal functions which their political and public position demanded (--197). It must be remembered that there was often a garden behind the peristyle, and there was also very commonly a direct connection with the street.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 50. KITCHEN RANGE]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 51. LATRINA]

--203. Private Rooms.--The rooms surrounding the court varied so much with the means and tastes of the owners of the houses that we can hardly do more than give a list of those most frequently mentioned in literature. It is important to remember that in the town house all these rooms received their light by day from the court (--193), while in the country there may well have been windows and doors in the exterior wall (--191). First in importance comes the kitchen (_culina_), placed on the side of the court opposite the _tablinum_.

It was supplied with an open fireplace for roasting and boiling, and with a stove (Fig. 50) not unlike the charcoal affairs still used in Europe. Near it was the bakery, if the mansion required one, supplied with an oven. Near it, too, was the bathhouse (_latrina_) with the necessary closet, in order that all might use the same connection with the sewer (Fig. 51). If the house had a stable, it was also put near the kitchen, as nowadays in Latin countries.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 52. DINING-ROOM IN COURT]

--204. The dining-room (_triclinium_) may be mentioned next. It was not necessarily in immediate juxtaposition to the kitchen, because the army of slaves (--149) made its position of little importance so far as convenience was concerned. It was customary to have several triclinia for use at different seasons of the year, in order that the room might be warmed by the sun in winter, and in summer escape its rays.