Housing

The people in Rome had to obviously live someplace. Patricians, wealthy Romans, lived in domuses. Very wealthy patrician houses could have running water and bathroom facilities. A karge hallway in the center of the house, the atrium, was a place where guests were received. A copmluvium in the roof of the atrium allowed rain water to flow into a impluvium to be collected. The tablinum was a place of study for the father of the family. Meals were serverd in the triclinum. A garden calle dthe peristylium in the back of the domus allowed for relaxation. In the front of the house, rooms were rented out to shop-owners. The domus was heated by a hypocaust system. Fires burning below the floor would heat the florr and in turn, heat the air also.

Less wealthy Romans, known as the plebeians, lived in insulae (which translates as island). On the first floor of these apartment-like buildings were shops. The second and third floors were occuppied by the poor, who were crammed into tiny, single room apartments. Braziers, basket type structures on the wall in which wood was burned, heated the rooms. A risk of fire was always present.

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