Housing and Houses in Ancient Rome - Domus, Insula, Villa

Housing in ancient Rome brings to mind initially the roman villa, a large country residence. But, houses in ancient Rome also included roman Domus and Villae. However, many Roman citizens lived in so called insulae, urban apartment blocks, which had up to seven floors. Only the wealthiest Romans were able to afford a roman domus, a city mansion, and only the super-rich owned a countryside roman villa.
The home of an average citizen in the city of Rome could have looked like this. These blocks of houses the Romans called “islands”, or insulae in Latin. On the ground floor, there were stores , the so-called tabernae. On the upper floors, there were cenacula, apartments. The roomiest and best-furnished flats were on the first floor. they had, multiple rooms, balconies, toilets and in some cases even running water fed by aqueducts. The residents of the higher floors lived in smaller and poorer apartments without private toilets, but they were cheaper. On the rooftops of insulae, there were sometimes even improvised wooden sheds.

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#ancientrome #ancienthistory #rome #history

Recommended Reading:
Biermann, V., s.v. Villa, in: Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopedia of the Ancient World.
Delaine, J., Insulae, in: Claire Holleran and Amanda Claridge (editors) A Companion to the City of Rome, 2018.
Höcker, C., s.v. Insula, in: Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopedia of the Ancient World.
Linke, B., s.v. Domus, in: Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopedia of the Ancient World.
Platts, H., The Development and Role of the Roman Aristocratic Domus, in: Claire Holleran and Amanda Claridge (editors) A Companion to the City of Rome, 2018.
Weeber, K.-W., Alltag im Alten Rom. Das Leben in der Stadt, Düsseldorf 2001.

[Koivisto]

its amazing how modern their buildings look.

[Zquirrelthing]

Very morbid ending lol. "He simply had him slain" *happy music*

[Jim-Mc]

That insula would barely look out of place in early 20th century Brooklyn or Chicago. Just replace the aqueduct in the background with an el-train, and put a water tank on the roof. Nothing really changes.

[clintmoor]

this is coming from a person who actually studied ancient history:








stellar work. i never thought i'd find a channel that manages to combine history and entertainment in such a way. I love it.

[noemiekramer]

You should make a series out of this! Living in Ancient Rome

[tonyhawk]

The insula is still to this day the best urban model existing and still used in europe after the concept was modernized in France by Napoléon III to build modern Paris and major French cities, in France we call it 'ilôt" (which is the French evolution of the word Insula).

And even after the post-war period that saw the building of anarchical constructions, nowadays, urban planner are coming back again at the insula.
The Romans were a people centuries ahead of their time.

[luisphelipecarvalho]

Soo... Nothing really changed about housing since Ancient Rome?

Nice

[billiondollardan]

I've seen videos on Roman dwellings before but they always focused on the villas. This video taught me much more and I learned new things! Thanks. The pic at 5:36 looks like one of the houses I saw in Pompeii

[captainufo]

"Mentula" graffitied on the insula was a nice touch.

[muscledavis]

It always amazes me that for people of today, an ancient Roman town would've looked more familiar than a medieval town. They were so advanced that it took Europeans over a thousand years to reach this level of urban planing and infrastructure again. And when this happened, it only took us like 300 years to get to where we are now. So from a certain point of view, we aren't really that distant from antiquity.

[ATINKERER]

Yeah, Sulla was a butcher. During the Social Wars, Sulla distroyed my mom & dad's town in Naples, and killed everyone in it. Only those who escaped into the mountains survived. Ok, it was 2110 years ago, but it's hard not to hold a grudge.

[slundal]

I love how some of these words are still common in normal Swedish. Villa (fancy house), Vestibul (entrance room), Taverna (restaurant or bar), Latrin (military term for toilet).

[SandRhomanHistory]

Whoever finds our reference to a certain poem by Catullus will be blessed by the gods.

Minor spoiler for the video:






Plutarch wrote that Sulla had to say the following about Ofella
"The lice were very troublesome to a clown, as he was ploughing. Twice he stopped his ploughing and purged his jacket. But he was still bitten, and in order that he might not be hindered in his work, he burnt the jacket; and I advise those who have been twice humbled not to make fire necessary the third time."


Also note that the study room is called Tablinum while I say Tablinium by mistake.

[Cobrahn]

I heard that age of empires sound effect, great video!

[overworlder]

Offela should have stayed safe in his domus with no external windows. It’s dangerous out there

[BFDT-]

Excellent summary and collection of graphical resources!!!

Also, I have to compliment the writer of script for the interesting way that the story of Ofella was woven into the distinctions of Domus, Insula and Villa. I knew the differences, kinda, but this story and the way the descriptions were provided in the story really made the difference concrete for me! ;)

[katiikN]

I came here after reading Lindsey Davis's Marcus Didius Falco novels. They are brilliant at describing the everyday life in Ancient Rome, the one thing that I found most unbelievable was the concept of him living in a seventh floor apartment. Given that Lindsey took some liberties in assigning some modern psychology and attitudes to the characters I was really curious to see if all the material history was correct. (I know her writing is extremely well researched, but you never know when a writer is just applying their artistic licence) Turns out it was accurate! Great video and really well explained

[htf]

Ah. little red squares. i feel at home already

[danielthompson]

This was quite informative, and pleasant to watch! Also, I love that you threw in the "House built" sound from Age of Empires II :)

[Alice-bnty]

Very good job!!! Nice yo hear a historic Youtube channel with actual facts and research!!! Thank you!