Sources for the Roman House

Books: (see also General Reference Works)

Clarke, John R. The Houses of Roman Italy, 100 B.C.-A.D. 250: Ritual, Space, and Decoration. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.

Descoeudres, Jean-Paul. Pompeii Revisited: The Life and Death of a Roman Town. Sydney: Meditarch, 1994.

Gazda, Elaine K., ed. Roman Art in the Private Sphere: New Perspectives on the Architecture and Decor of the Domus, Villa, and Insula. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1991.

Wallace-Hadrill, Andrew. Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994.

External Links:

• Living in the City of Rome: Housing (David Noy, University of Wales, Lampeter), includes good primary sources
• Age, Gender, and Status Divisions at Mealtimes in the Roman House ( Pedar Foss)
• La Casa Romana (text in Italian)

Image List: The following images from the pages on this topic are available through the VRoma Image Archive; further information can be found by consulting the various slide indices. Images in the VRoma Archive may be used for non-commercial purposes, either by downloading the images or by linking to them; it is not necessary to write for permission, but we do ask that you credit the VRoma Project.

A few images have been linked to these pages from external sites, particularly Leo Curran's Maecenas web pages, which offer many excellent photographs of houses in Pompeii and Herculaneum. The cutaway drawing of a domus and the relief of a shop come from the Getty Museum's ArtsEdNet educational web site for children (although the accompanying text contains some mistakes).

drawing representative plan of Roman domus	model of House of Tragic Poet—front	model of House of Tragic Poet—back	model of House of Tragic Poet—side	Tuscan atrium
Barbara McManus	Naples Museum	Naples Museum	Naples Museum	House of Sallust, Pompeii

wall painting of Cupids	wall painting, first style	wall painting, third style	wall painting, third style—Medusa	reconstructed compluvium
Naples Museum	House of Sallust, Pompeii	Naples Museum	House of the Vettii, Pompeii	House of the Menander, Pompeii

fallen compluvium tile, bear spout	vestibulum with Salve Lucrum	impluvium with dancing faun	reconstructed cubiculum from Boscoreale	model of bedroom
House of Obellius Firmus, Pompeii	House of Siricus, Pompeii	House of the Faun, Pompeii	Metropolitan Museum of Art	Augst

painting detail—woman & reading child	painting detail from Boscoreale cubiculum	carbonized chest with bracket marks in wall	model of culina	culina in rustic courtyard
Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii	Metropolitan Museum of Art	House of the Bicentenary, Herculaneum	Museum of London	House of C. Julius Polybius, Pompeii

painting detail—kitchen slaves	oven and cooking pots	cooking pots and brazier	bronze brazier from Chiusi	drawing of kitchen & slaves cooking
Getty Museum, 50-75 CE	House of Stags, Herculaneum	Pompeii	Brussels Museum of Art and History	Saalburg Museum

painting detail—garden	painting detail—bird in garden	mosaic of Selene and Endymion	peristyle with reconstructed roof	painting detail—Venus on shell
House of Neptune and Amphitrite, Herculaneum	House of Marine Venus, Pompeii	Tunis Bardo Museum	House of the Vettii, Pompeii	House of Marine Venus, Pompeii

painting detail—fountain in garden	bronze garden sculpture	fishpond with niches	model of peristyle	model of lararium in peristyle
House of Marine Venus, Pompeii	House of the Vettii, Pompeii	House of Meleager, Pompeii	Bonn Rheinisches Landesmuseum	Bonn Rheinisches Landesmuseum

bronze lar statuette	lararium painting in shrine	poultry shop	atrium towards tablinum	tablinum
Munich Praehistorisches Museum	House of the Vettii, Pompeii	cast from EUR	House of the Tragic Poet, Pompeii; modified from Curran	House of Caecilius, Pompeii

carbonized wooden folding door	plaster cast of wooden door	plaster cast of wooden chest	marble floor tiles	wall painting from tablinum
House of the Bicentenary, Herculaneum	Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii	House of C. Julius Polybius, Pompeii	Herculaneum	House of Caecilius, Pompeii

painting detail, garlanded male & female	triclinium with fountain & stone couches	reconstructed lectus	statue of woman on cathedra	mosaic of women on cathedrae
House of Caecilius, Pompeii	House of Julia Felix, Pompeii	Tunis, Bardo Museum	Uffizi Museum	Trier Landesmuseum

wall painting, fourth style	wall painting, fourth style—Dirce	vestibulum, looking toward atrium	house facades on street	vestibulum with mosaic
House of the Vettii, Pompeii	House of the Vettii, Pompeii	House of the Tragic Poet, Pompeii	Houses of Trellis & Wooden Partition, Herculaneum	Pompeii

painting of Priapus	vestibulum with wounded bear & Have	vestibulum with watchdog mosaic
House of the Vettii, Pompeii	House of the Bear, Pompeii	House of P. Paquius Proculus, Pompeii

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