Roman Villas explores the social structures of the Roman world by analysing the plans of buildings of all sizes from slightly Romanized farms to palaces. The ways in which the rooms are grouped together; how they intercommunicate; and the ways in which individual rooms and the house are approached, reveal various social patterns, which question traditional ideas about the Roman family and household. J. T. Smith argues that virtually all houses were occupied by groups of varying composition, challenging the received wisdom that they were single family houses whose size reflected only the owner's wealth and number of servants.Roman Villas provides a meticulously documented and scholarly examination of the relationship between the living quarters of the Roman and their social and economic development which introduces a new area in Roman studies and a corpus of material for further analysis. The inclusion of almost 500 ground plans, drawn to a uniform scale, allows the reader to compare the similarities and differences between house structure as well as effectively illustrating the arguments.
Author(s): J.T. Smith
Edition: 1
Year: 1998
Language: English
Pages: 416
Book Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 4
Contents......Page 5
List of figures......Page 14
Preface......Page 27
Editorial notes on drawings......Page 30
Glossary......Page 31
List of abbreviations of locations......Page 33
Aims and scope of the book......Page 38
Methods and assumptions......Page 48
Hall houses......Page 58
Row-type houses......Page 81
Developed forms of row-house......Page 100
Developed forms of hall houses......Page 115
Problematic house types......Page 129
The porticus-with-pavilions: pavilions......Page 152
The porticus-with-pavilions: porticuses......Page 165
The elements and forms of villa complexes......Page 179
Palaces, peristyle houses and luxury villas......Page 207
The villas of south-east Europe......Page 234
The late pre-Roman Iron Age background......Page 254
Modes of Romanisation......Page 268
Patterns of villa development......Page 292
A model of development......Page 310
Notes......Page 338
Abbreviations of periodicals......Page 359
Bibliography......Page 365
List of villas and other sites mentioned......Page 375
Index......Page 395
