PALACE.) Private Houses.—In the Roman world there were two types of houses, the domus and the insula. The word villa is used to describe an estate complete with house, grounds and subsidiary buildings. Of Roman villas there are very few remains and our chief authority is Pliny who gives a detailed description of his Laurentine villa. Hadrian's villa at Tivoli, an imperial residence, cannot be treated as typical. The domus type of house as exem plified at Pompeii (q.v.) has long been regarded as the typical Roman house, though in Rome itself very few remains of the domus have come to light, the chief examples being the House of the Vestal Virgins on the forum and that of Livia on the Palatine. The domus consisted of suites of rooms grouped round a central hall or atrium, to which were often added further suites behind grouped round a colonnaded court or peristyle. There are few windows on the street, light being obtained from the atrium or peristyle. The amount of ground required for such a house while perfectly feasible in a country town such as Pompeii, would have made them beyond the means of all but the richest in a crowded city like Rome. From Latin writers we have long known that there were in Rome great blocks of flats or tenements to which the term insulae was applied. Recent excavations at Ostia (q.v.) have now revealed the design of these blocks. Planned on three or four floors with strict regard to economy of space they depended for light from the exterior, unlike the domus with its central court. Independent apartments had separate entrances with direct access to the street. Since Ostia is a typical town of the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D. and is almost a suburb of Rome itself, it is natural to suppose that insulae at Rome would present similar features. (See HousE.) Town Planning.—While the Romans have become justly famous for the skilful planning of their towns all over the empire, Rome itself presents a strong contrast with its complete lack of any systematic scheme. For this the natural topography of the
site is mainly responsible together with the conditions under which Rome grew into a great city.
The Forum (q.v.), the original market place, remained always irregular in plan and was soon far too small for the amount of business transacted in it. The congestion was to some extent relieved by the forums built by Julius Caesar, Augustus, Nero, Vespasian and Trajan. These were all planned on axial lines.
Attempts were made to improve the street communications, the most notable being Julius Caesar's widening of the Via Lata, and colonnades and porticoes were built to protect passers-by from the sun and rain. Various emperors also laid down regula tions governing the construction and height of buildings. None the less the planning of Rome was a series of expedients without any system, and after each of the fires which successively devas tated great parts of the city, Rome grew up again on its old lines, and the evils of its narrow streets, poor drainage and general overcrowding became increasingly difficult to remedy.
The Roman town in the provinces on the other hand is nor mally planned round a central forum, close to, but separated from, the crossing of the two main roads which ran usually east to west and north to south. Less important roads run at right angles to the main roads. The forum itself is surrounded by a colonnade and facing it are the principal buildings, temples, ba silica, senate-house and covered market. The whole is planned in a logical way. The forum at Pompeii may be taken as a typical example.
The layout of a whole town can be most easily seen in some of the towns in north Africa, e.g., Timgad, Tebesa, Thuburbo, where there has been little or no subsequent building to modify the original lines of the plan. (See TOWN AND CITY PLANNING. See also ARCHITECTURE ; PERIODS OF ART.)