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In ancient Rome, the domus (: domūs, genitive: domūs or domī) was the type of town house occupied by the upper classes and some wealthy freedmen during the Republican Rome and Imperial Rome eras.Alfred Frazer (1998). 9780924171598, University of Pennsylvania Museum Publication. ISBN 9780924171598 It was found in almost all the major cities throughout the Roman territories. The modern English word domestic worker comes from Latin domesticus, which is derived from the word domus. Along with a domus in the city, many of the richest families of ancient Rome also owned a separate country house known as a Roman villa. Many chose to live primarily, or even exclusively, in their villas; these homes were generally much grander in scale and on larger of land due to more space outside the walled and fortified city.
The elite classes of Roman society constructed their residences with elaborate marble decorations, inlaid marble paneling, Jamb and columns, as well as expensive paintings and frescoes. Many poor and lower-middle-class Romans lived in crowded, dirty and mostly rundown rental apartments, known as insulae. These multi-level apartment blocks were built as high and tightly together as possible and held far less status and convenience than the private homes of the prosperous.
In cities throughout the Roman Empire, wealthy homeowners lived in buildings with few exterior windows. Glass were not readily available: glass production was in its infancy. Thus a wealthy Roman citizen lived in a large house separated into two parts, and linked together through the tablinum or study or by a small passageway.
Surrounding the atrium were arranged the master's family's main rooms: the small cubicula or bedrooms, the tablinum, which served as a living room or study, and the triclinium, or dining-room. Roman homes were like Greek homes. Only two objects were present in the atrium of Caecilius in Pompeii: the lararium (a small shrine to the Lares, the household gods) and a small bronze box that stored precious family items. In the master bedroom was a small wooden bed and couch which usually consisted of some slight padding. As the domus developed, the tablinum took on a role similar to that of the study. In each of the other bedrooms there was usually just a bed. The triclinium had three couches surrounding a table. The triclinium often was similar in size to the master bedroom. The study was used as a passageway. If the master of the house was a banker or merchant, the study often was larger because of the greater need for materials. Roman houses lay on an axis, so that a visitor was provided with a view through the fauces, atrium, and tablinum to the peristyle.
Cavaedium (: atria): the atrium was the most important part of the house, where guests and dependents ( clients) were greeted. The atrium was open in the center, surrounded at least in part by high-ceilinged porticoes that often contained only sparse furnishings to give the effect of a large space. In the center was a square roof opening called the compluvium in which rain could come, draining inwards from the slanted tiled roof. Directly below the compluvium was the impluvium.
Impluvium: an impluvium was basically a drained pool, a shallow rectangular sunken portion of the atrium to gather rainwater, which drained into an underground cistern. The impluvium was often lined with marble and surrounded by a floor of small mosaic.
Fauces: these were similar in design and function to the vestibulum, but were found deeper into the domus. Separated by the length of another room, entry to a different portion of the residence was accessed by these passageways which would now be called halls, hallways, or corridors.
Tablinum: between the atrium and the peristyle was the tablinum, an office of sorts for the dominus, who would receive his clients for the morning salutatio. The dominus was able to command the house visually from this vantage point as the head of the social authority of the pater familias.
Triclinium: the Roman dining room. The area had three couches, klinai, on three sides of a low square table. The oecus was the principal hall or salon in a Roman house, which was used occasionally as a triclinium for banquets.
Alae: the open rooms (or alcoves) on each side of the atrium. Ancestral death masks, or imagines, may have been displayed here.Vitruvius' De architectura ( On Engineering), Ten Books on Architecture/Book VI, Chapter III (translated by Morris Hicky Morgan; public-domain full-text link) Quote: "Let the busts of ancestors with their ornaments be set up at a height corresponding to the width of the alae." (it is not 100% clear that he is saying that they should be placed in an ala) The wedding couch or bed, the lectus genialis, was placed in the atrium, on the side opposite the door or in one of the alae.
Cubiculum: bedroom. The floor mosaics of the cubiculum often marked out a rectangle where the bed should be placed.
Culina: the kitchen in a Roman house. The culina was dark, and the smoke from the cooking fires filled the room as the best ventilation available in Roman times was a hole in the ceiling (the domestic chimney would not be invented until the 12th century CE). This is where slaves prepared food for their masters and guests in Roman times.
Posticum: a servant's entrance is also used by family members wanting to leave the house unobserved.
There were no clearly defined separate spaces for slaves or for women. Slaves were ubiquitous in a Roman household and slept outside their masters' doors at night; women used the atrium and other spaces to work once the men had left for the forum. There was also no clear distinction between rooms meant solely for private use and public rooms, as any private room could be opened to guests at a moment's notice.
The rooms of the Pompeian domus were often painted in one of four Pompeian Styles: the first style imitated ashlar masonry, the second style represented public architecture, the third style focused on mythological creatures, and the fourth style combined the architecture and mythological creatures of the second and third styles.
The concept of legal abode such as domicilium or today's usage "domicile" is a documented and legal standard, common in Western society for thousands of years. An early reference to domicilium is found in the Lex Plautia Papiria, a Roman plebiscite enacted in 89 BC. Under this law, Italian communities that had previously been denied could now gain citizenship.
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