ABSTRACT
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.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |20 pages
Aims and Methods
chapter |10 pages
Aims and Scope of the Book
chapter |8 pages
Methods and Assumptions
part |196 pages
Types of Plan
chapter |23 pages
Hall Houses
chapter |19 pages
Row-Type Houses
chapter |15 pages
Developed Forms of Row-House
chapter |14 pages
Developed Forms of Hall House
chapter |23 pages
Problematic House Types
chapter |13 pages
The Porticus-With-Pavilions Pavilions
chapter |14 pages
The Porticus-with-Pavilions Porticuses
chapter |28 pages
The Elements and Forms of Villa Complexes
chapter |27 pages
Palaces, Peristyle Houses and Luxury Villas
chapter |18 pages
The Villas of South-East Europe
part |86 pages
The Villa System in Operation: Modes of Change