Cavaedium or atrium are Latin names for the principal room of an ancient Roman house, which usually had a central opening in the roof ( compluvium ) and a rainwater pool ( impluvium ) beneath it. The cavaedium passively collected, filtered, stored, and cooled rainwater. It also daylit, passively cooled and passively ventilated the house.
The atrium was the most important room of the ancient Roman house. The main entrance led into it; patrones received their clientes there, and marriages, funerals, and other ceremonies were conducted there. In earlier and more modest homes, the atrium was the common room used for most household activities; in richer homes, it became mainly a reception room, with private life moving deeper into the (larger) house. The atrium was generally the most elaborate room, with the finest finishings, wall paintings, and furnishings.
The atrium was entered either through a shop [2] or by a straight, narrow passage from the street. The smaller, open room behind the atrium was the tablinum , usually the study of the master of the house. Behind it was a garden; temperature differences between the atrium and the garden drove a draft through the tablinum, making it the coolest room in the house. Unless curtains or movable partitions of the tablinum were closed, a visitor in the passage could see through the atrium and tablinum into the garden; care was taken to make this view impressive. Ideally, rooms off the atrium were arranged symmetrically, or at least to give the impression of symmetry. Bedrooms ( cubiculum ) and alae (the "wings" of the atrium, alcoves separated by a lintel but not a wall) typically opened off the sides of the atrium.
Small rural Roman buildings did not need atria; they were lit by windows and drew water from wells or watercourses. An urban house ( domus ), on the other hand, had to be built on a small, narrow lot, as urban land was expensive and street frontage was even more expensive. Theft was also a concern. Urban houses thus came to look inwards onto cortiles, enclosed courts, and light and water were brought in from above. Sometimes urban houses retained a walled garden at the rear, which later often became a peristyle, a sort of cloister surrounded by rooms. Large rural properties were sometimes built around large enclosed farmyards, but the Roman villa or country seat mimicked the city residence from which the wealthy owner generally came, and often had an atrium (or several). In later Roman history the atrium was sometimes also replaced by a peristyle, and rain-gathering with piped water from an aqueduct. The urban houses of poorer Romans might lack atriums entirely; but from (mainly Pompeiian) survey data, atriums, peristyles, or both are found in almost all Roman homes over 350 square meters in size, most over 170 square meters, and some over 50 square meters. [3]
The etymology of "cavaedium", "cavum aedium", and "atrium" is debated. [4]
These terms are thought by many to be synonymous; [5] [4] others have argued that one term includes the impluvium and the other does not, but are not agreed upon which. [4]
Varro gives classical etymologies: "The hollow of the house (cavum ædium) is a covered place within the walls, left open to the common use of all. It is called Tuscan, from the Tuscans, after the Romans began to imitate their cavædium. The word atrium is derived from the Atriates, a people of Tuscany, from whom the pattern of it was taken." [5] For more modern etymologies, see Wiktionary:atrium.
Roman townhouses rarely had windows, as they often had very little exterior wall. Where present, windows were placed above eye-level, and they were small [4] and contained clathri , window lattices. [4] The compluvium provided most or all of the light to the atrium, its alae , and the adjacent cubiculums. The doorways of the cubicli were usually arranged to maximize the light, and when present, the alae were often needed to let light into the rooms flanking the tablinum.
Traditionally, the atrium collected rainwater. Most atria had compluvium roofs, which sloped inwards towards the hole in the center of the roof; these shed rain water into the impluvium ("pool") underneath (the impluvium was usually the same size and shape as the compluvium hole). The water in the impluvium then slowly seeped through the porous bottom of the impluvium into a water storage cistern below. Water for household use could be drawn up in buckets via the puteal (a lidded cylinder set over a hole in the top of the cistern as a wellhead).
In dry weather, water drawn from the cistern could be thrown into the impluvium to evaporatively cool the cistern and the house, and drive a draft. In wet weather, impluvium overflow would generally run out the front door into the street, which was much lower than the interior floor.
The atrium might also contain a fountain, which piped in drinking water from an aqueduct (riverwater and well water was preferred for drinking). [5] Reliable piped water made the rain-collecting function dispensable, and Late-Empire domi often replace atria with peristyle gardens, which could also be made larger.
After a birth, a bed for Juno and a table for Hercules were set up in the atrium. [6] The tollere liberum (ceremony for a newborn), dedication of the bulla at Liberalia (coming-of-age, male), and confarreatio marriage were described as conducted in the atrium, in front of the lararium .[ citation needed ]
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. [4] [7] The lectus funebris, or funeral couch, was placed in the atrium, and the body of the deceased was laid in state upon it with feet facing the door. [7]
The cavaedium was a communal space. Varro says it is "left open to the common use of all". [5] Vitruvius describes it as a room which "any of the people have a perfect right to enter, even without an invitation". [8] It was thus a sort of living-room. Spinning and weaving, major household tasks, were traditionally done in the atrium, [4] as were other domestic occupations. [5] Toys, flutes, writing materials, cutlery, and crockery have all been found in atria. [2] [ better source needed ]
Historically, the atrium was probably used for cooking, with the compluvium serving as a smoke-hole. This probably continued in poorer households, but richer ones developed a separate kitchen. Similarly, historically the household slept in the cubicles opening off the atrium, but as townhouses became deeper family tended to live deeper in the house, and these became guest rooms (unless the house has dedicated guest rooms, a hospitium). [4] Slaves and servants might sleep in the entrance to their master's cubiculum.
Richer Romans received visitors in the mornings, [4] as their clientes gathered in the atrium for the salutatio . The patron often greeted them from the tablinum. [9] The atrium was generally the most elaborate room, [5] with the finest artworks, [9] wall paintings, imported marble wall-linings, and marble or mosaic floors (mosaics being even more expensive than imported marble slabs). [5] The homes of the richest Romans became more ostentatious as increasing wealth inequality increased housing inequality, and as it became less socially important to display frugalitas and abundentia, and more important to display tryphé .
This patron-class use as a reception-room made the atrium a semi-public space, [4] and it came to be known as the pars urbanan, the city part of the house. The more private space behind the tablinum was the pars rusticana, the rural part. [10] The pars rusticana was centered around a peristyle; it did not exist in early Roman houses. Greek culture was high-status in Roman culture (see Hellenization). The peristyle was borrowed from Greek architecture and became popular, eventually sometimes replacing the atrium. [2] As a result, the names for the pars urbanan are in Latin, while the names for the pars rusticana are Greek loan-words. [11] In the countryside the order was sometimes reversed; the pars urbana cortile, which one entered from the main street entrance, was a peristyle. The atrium was then buried in the depths of the house, often near a portico (an outwards-looking colonnade on one or more outside walls) with a view of the landscape. [2] [12]
The atrium often contained a small chapel to the ancestral spirits ( lararium ).[ citation needed ] The household safe (arca) was also kept in the atrium; it contained family treasures and important documents. [9] The room might contain portraits of ancestors, or a bust of the master of the house.[ citation needed ] In wealthier houses, furniture included an oblong marble cartibulum (table), supported by trapezophoros pedestals depicting mythological creatures like winged griffins. [13] A puteal, a low cylindrical covered wellhead through which water could be drawn from the cistern below, was often present.[ citation needed ] There would also be works of art, especially statuary, which was set beside the impluvium, on tables, in niches, on walls, etc. [9] [4] For night, there might be oil-lamp-stands. [9]
Curtains or partitions might close off the tablinum; alae might also have been curtained at times. Interior doorways might have doors or curtains.
The roof is framed so as to leave an open space in the center, known as the compluvium. The rain from the roof was usually collected in gutters around the compluvium, and discharged thence into the impluvium . [14]
The roof around the compluvium was edged with a row of highly ornamented tiles, called antefixes, on which a mask or some other figure was moulded. At the corners there were usually spouts, in the form of lions' or dogs' heads, or any fantastical device which the architect might fancy. The spouts carried the rain-water clear out into the impluvium, rather than letting it run down the walls and pillars, which would damage them. Seeping through the bottom of the impluvium, the water passed into cisterns, from which it was drawn for household purposes. [5]
The compluvial opening might be shaded by a coloured veil, [5] probably of an open, airy weave.
Five structural types of cavaedia (or atria) are described by the architect Vitruvius: [14]
The full original description, in his sixth book on engineering, is fairly succinct:
1. There are five different styles of cavaedium, termed according to their construction as follows: Tuscan, Corinthian, tetrastyle, displuviate, and testudinate.
In the Tuscan, the girders that cross the breadth of the atrium have crossbeams on them, and valleys sloping in and running from the angles of the walls to the angles formed by the beams, and the rainwater falls down along the rafters to the roof-opening (compluvium) in the middle.
In the Corinthian, the girders and roof-opening are constructed on these same principles, but the girders run in from the side walls, and are supported all round on columns.
In the tetrastyle, the girders are supported at the angles by columns, an arrangement which relieves and strengthens the girders; for thus they have themselves no great span to support, and they are not loaded down by the crossbeams.
2. In the displuviate, there are beams which slope outwards, supporting the roof and throwing the rainwater off. This style is suitable chiefly in winter residences, for its roof-opening, being high up, is not an obstruction to the light of the dining rooms. It is, however, very troublesome to keep in repair, because the pipes, which are intended to hold the water that comes dripping down the walls all round, cannot take it quickly enough as it runs down from the channels, but get too full and run over, thus spoiling the woodwork and the walls of houses of this style.
The testudinate is employed where the span is not great, and where large rooms are provided in upper stories.
— Vitruvius' De architectura (On Engineering), Wikisource:Ten Books on Architecture/Book VI, Chapter III (translated by Morris Hicky Morgan; public-domain fulltext link)
The Tuscan atrium seems to be the most common type in Pompeii. [14] The Tuscan type has the advantage that the walls and pillars are very well-protected from the elements. For a smaller cavaedium, it is a simple, light structure. In a larger cavaedium, though, it requires very massive timber beams.
The Tuscan structure requires two wooden beams that span the entire atrium, running horizontally from wall to wall (see image). Since the atrium is usually longer than it is wide (Vitruvius advises width:length ratios of 3:5, 2:3, or 1:√2), the beams usually run across the width of the atrium. The ends of the beams are typically encastrated (set in a socket in the wall). The beams must be thick enough not to bend excessively under the weight of the roof. As the atrium gets wider, the span gets larger, until it is impractical or unaffordable to get beams which are big enough. The Tuscan style was therefore not used on very large atria. Since a large atrium was a status symbol, the more complex structures used for large atria were sometimes used in small atria which could have been covered with a simpler Tuscan roof.
The main horizontal beams form two sides of the roof opening. The other two sides are formed by shorter horizontal cross-beams, laid across (or jointed into) the main beams. The four valley rafters slope down from the corners of the walls to the corners of the central roof opening. The upper ends of the valley rafters rest on the wall, and the bottom ends on the horizontal beams. The smaller rafters rest their upper ends on the wall, and their lower ends mostly on the beams and cross-beams; the short rafters in the mitered corners of the roof rest on the valley rafters.
In the atrium tetrastylum additional support was required in consequence of the dimensions of the hall; this was given by columns placed at the four angles of the impluvium. [14] This style is not common in Pompeii. [15] These pillars support a beam, which supports a wall, which in turn supports the rafters in the middle of the atrium. There is no need for horizontal beams spanning the entire room; the rafters have shorter spans. This allows a larger room to be roofed.
This style has a rectangle of pillars around the roof opening. It is like the tetrastyle, but with more than four pillars. It resembles a peristyle. If the lower layer was sufficiently robust, it could support a second story.
In this style, the roofs, instead of sloping down towards the compluvium, sloped outwards from the compluvium, the gutters being on the outer walls; there was still an opening in the roof, and an impluvium to catch the rain falling through (and presumably fed by the gutters[ citation needed ]). This species of roof, Vitruvius states, is constantly in want of repair, as the water does not easily run away, owing to the stoppage in the rainwater pipes. [14]
This type was rare; only one had been found in Pompeii, as of 1911 [update] . [14]
![]() | This article or section appears to contradict itself.(February 2024) |
The atrium testudinatum was employed when the atrium was small and another floor was built over it. [14] The name comes from the Latin word testudo , which means a turtle or tortoise, and by transference a covered vault.
The Encyclopædia Britannica said that no example of this type had been found at Pompeii, as of 1911 [update] . [14] [ clarification needed ] While narrow homes had atria that were not flanked by cubiculums and alae, and even atria where the impluvium was set against a wall or in a corner, homes smaller than 5 meters across are generally testudinate. [2] [ better source needed ]
Vitruvius continues by giving the correct proportions for an atrium (length:width ratios for the atrium, and their proportion to that of the opening in the roof, width:height ratios for the atrium, and the proportions (relative to the atrium) of the adjacent rooms that are alcoves open on the atrium side, the tablinum and alae). It is worth noting that many extant atria do not follow his ideal rules.
3. In width and length, atriums are designed according to three classes. The first is laid out by dividing the length into five parts and giving three parts to the width; the second, by dividing it into three parts and assigning two parts to the width; the third, by using the width to describe a square figure with equal sides, drawing a diagonal line in this square, and giving the atrium the length of this diagonal line.
4. Their height up to the girders should be one fourth less than their width, the rest being the proportion assigned to the ceiling and the roof above the girders.
The alae, to the right and left, should have a width equal to one third of the length of the atrium, when that is from thirty to forty feet long. From forty to fifty feet, divide the length by three and one half, and give the alae the result. When it is from fifty to sixty feet in length, devote one fourth of the length to the alae. From sixty to eighty feet, divide the length by four and one half and let the result be the width of the alae. From eighty feet to one hundred feet, the length divided into five parts will produce the right width for the alae. Their lintel beams should be placed high enough to make the height of the alae equal to their width.
5. The tablinum should be given two thirds of the width of the atrium when the latter is twenty feet wide. If it is from thirty to forty feet, let half the width of the atrium be devoted to the tablinum. When it is from forty to sixty feet, divide the width into five parts and let two of these be set apart for the tablinum. In the case of smaller atriums, the symmetrical proportions cannot be the same as in larger. For if, in the case of the smaller, we employ the proportion that belong to the larger, both tablina and alae must be unserviceable, while if, in the case of the larger, we employ the proportions of the smaller, the rooms mentioned will be huge monstrosities. Hence, I have thought it best to describe exactly their respective proportionate sizes, with a view both to convenience and to beauty.
6. The height of the tablinum at the lintel should be one eighth more than its width. Its ceiling should exceed this height by one third of the width. The fauces in the case of smaller atriums should be two thirds, and in the case of larger one half the width of the tablinum. Let the busts of ancestors with their ornaments be set up at a height corresponding to the width of the alae. The proportionate width and height of doors may be settled, if they are Doric, in the Doric manner, and if Ionic, in the Ionic manner, according to the rules of symmetry which have been given about portals in the fourth book. In the roof-opening let an aperture be left with a breadth of not less than one fourth nor more than one third the width of the atrium, and with a length proportionate to that of the atrium.
— Vitruvius' De architectura (On Engineering), Wikisource:Ten Books on Architecture/Book VI, Chapter III (translated by Morris Hicky Morgan; public-domain fulltext link)
He also advises that the size of the atrium of cavaedium be appropriate to the purposes required by the owner's social station: "men of everyday fortune do not need entrance courts, tablina, or atriums built in grand style, because such men are more apt to discharge their social obligations by going round to others than to have others come to them... For capitalists and farmers of the revenue, somewhat comfortable and showy apartments must be constructed, secure against robbery; for advocates and public speakers, handsomer and more roomy, to accommodate meetings; for men of rank who, from holding offices and magistracies, have social obligations to their fellow-citizens, lofty entrance courts in regal style, and most spacious atriums and peristyles, with plantations and walks of some extent in them, appropriate to their dignity."
In many homes in Pompeii, the atrium's walls were placed halfway between the walls behind them and the edge of the impluvium. This meant that the same proportions (almost always 1:√2 width:length) were used for the impluvium edge, the atrium walls, and the next layer of walls (those running outside the tabernae, the cubicles and alae, and the tablinum with its flanking rooms). [2] This arrangement would give the sloping rafters an equal span on each side of the atrium walls.
The Villa of the Papyri was an ancient Roman villa in Herculaneum, in what is now Ercolano, southern Italy. It is named after its unique library of papyri scrolls, discovered in 1750. The Villa was considered to be one of the most luxurious houses in all of Herculaneum and in the Roman world. Its luxury is shown by its exquisite architecture and by the large number of outstanding works of art discovered, including frescoes, bronzes and marble sculpture which constitute the largest collection of Greek and Roman sculptures ever discovered in a single context.
In architecture, an atrium is a large open-air or skylight-covered space surrounded by a building. Atria were a common feature in Ancient Roman dwellings, providing light and ventilation to the interior. Modern atria, as developed in the late 19th and 20th centuries, are often several stories high, with a glazed roof or large windows, and often located immediately beyond a building's main entrance doors.
The impluvium is a water-catchment pool system meant to capture rain-water flowing from the compluvium, or slanted roof. Often placed "inside", instead of "outside", a building, it is a notable feature in many architectural traditions.
In ancient Rome, the domus was the type of town house occupied by the upper classes and some wealthy freedmen during the Republican and Imperial eras. It was found in almost all the major cities throughout the Roman territories. The modern English word domestic 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 villa. Many chose to live primarily, or even exclusively, in their villas; these homes were generally much grander in scale and on larger acres of land due to more space outside the walled and fortified city.
This page is a glossary of architecture.
The House of the Vettii is a domus located in the Roman town Pompeii, which was preserved by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. The house is named for its owners, two successful freedmen: Aulus Vettius Conviva, an Augustalis, and Aulus Vettius Restitutus. Its careful excavation has preserved almost all of the wall frescos, which were completed following the earthquake of 62 AD, in the manner art historians term the Pompeiian Fourth Style. The House of Vetti is located in region VI, near the Vesuvian Gate, bordered by the Vicolo di Mercurio and the Vicolo dei Vettii. The house is one of the largest domus in Pompeii, spanning the entire southern section of block 15. The plan is fashioned in a typical Roman domus with the exception of a tablinum, which is not included. There are twelve mythological scenes across four cubiculum and one triclinium. The house was reopened to tourists in January 2023 after two decades of restoration.
Cottanello is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Rieti in the Italian region of Latium, located about 60 kilometres (37 mi) north of Rome and about 15 kilometres (9 mi) west of Rieti.
The House of the Faun, constructed in the 2nd century BC during the Samnite period, was a grand Hellenistic palace that was framed by peristyle in Pompeii, Italy. The historical significance in this impressive estate is found in the many great pieces of art that were well preserved from the ash of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. It is one of the most luxurious aristocratic houses from the Roman Republic, and reflects this period better than most archaeological evidence found even in Rome itself.
The House of the Tragic Poet is a Roman house in Pompeii, Italy dating to the 2nd century BCE. The house is famous for its elaborate mosaic floors and frescoes depicting scenes from Greek mythology.
The House of Loreius Tiburtinus is renowned for well-preserved art, mainly in wall-paintings as well as its large gardens.
The House of Menander is one of the richest and most magnificent houses in ancient Pompeii in terms of architecture, decoration and contents, and covers a large area of about 1,800 square metres (19,000 sq ft) occupying most of its insula. Its quality means the owner must have been an aristocrat involved in politics, with great taste for art.
The House of the Surgeon is one of the most famous houses in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii and is named after ancient surgical instruments that were found there. Along with the rest of the city, it was buried and largely preserved under 4 to 6 m of volcanic ash and pumice in the Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.It was excavated in 1770 by Francesco La Vega.
Stabiae was an ancient city situated near the modern town of Castellammare di Stabia and approximately 4.5 km southwest of Pompeii. Like Pompeii, and being only 16 km (9.9 mi) from Mount Vesuvius, it was largely buried by tephra ash in the 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius, in this case at a shallower depth of up to 5 m.
The House of Sallust was an elite residence (domus) in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii and among the most sumptuous of the city.
Celsa was an important pre-Roman and Roman city located near the modern town of Velilla de Ebro, Aragon, Spain.
This glossary of the culture of ancient Rome includes terms used by academics studying Roman history and archaeologists excavating Roman sites.
The House of the Prince of Naples is a Roman domus (townhouse) located in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii near Naples, Italy. The structure is so named because the Prince and Princess of Naples attended a ceremonial excavation of selected rooms there in 1898.
The ancient Roman Villa dei Volusii or Villa dei Volusii-Saturnini is an archaeological site located in the municipality of Fiano Romano, next to the ancient Roman town and sanctuary of Lucus Feroniae, along the route of ancient Via Tiberina.
The House of the Greek Epigrams is a Roman residence in the ancient town of Pompeii that was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. It is named after wall paintings with inscriptions from Greek epigrams in a small room (y) next to the peristyle.
The House of the Small Fountain, aka House of the Second Fountain or House of the Landscapes, is located in the Roman city of Pompeii and, with the rest of Pompeii, was preserved by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in or after October 79 CE. It is located on the Via di Mercurio, a street running north from the Arch of Caligula, at its crossroads with Via delle Terme, and Via della Fortuna, to Pompeii's fortification tower XI in the northwest part of the city. The street is named after a public fountain at VI.8.24 with a relief of the god, Mercury. Insula 8 is on the west side of the street. The house is named after a mosaic fountain adorned with shells at the rear of its peristyle. The property is immediately adjacent to the House of the Large Fountain, a structure with an even larger mosaic fountain adorned with shells and marble sculptures of theatrical masks excavated earlier in 1826. So the size difference between the fountains was used to distinguish the two structures.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)The atrium, or cavædium, for they appear to have signified the same thing, was the most important, and usually the most splendid apartment of the house. Here the owner received his crowd of morning visitors, who were not admitted to the inner apartments. The term is thus explained by Varro: "The hollow of the house (cavum ædium) is a covered place within the walls, left open to the common use of all. It is called Tuscan, from the Tuscans, after the Romans began to imitate their [29]cavædium. The word atrium is derived from the Atriates, a people of Tuscany, from whom the pattern of it was taken." Originally, then, the atrium was the common room of resort for the whole family, the place of their domestic occupations; and such it probably continued in the humbler ranks of life. A general description of it may easily be given. It was a large apartment, roofed over, but with an opening in the centre, called compluvium, towards which the roof sloped, so as to throw the rain-water into a cistern in the floor called impluvium.
The roof around the compluvium was edged with a row of highly ornamented tiles, called antefixes, on which a mask or some other figure was moulded. At the corners there were usually spouts, in the form of lions' or dogs' heads, or any fantastical device which the architect might fancy, which carried the rain-water clear out into the impluvium, whence it passed into cisterns; from which again it was drawn for household purposes. For drinking, river-water, and still more, well-water, was preferred. Often the atrium was adorned with fountains, supplied through leaden or earthenware pipes, from aqueducts or other raised heads of water; for the Romans knew the property of fluids, which causes them to stand at the same height in communicating vessels. This is distinctly recognized by Pliny,[5] though their common use of aqueducts, in preference to pipes, has led to a supposition that this great hydrostatical principle was unknown to them. The breadth of the impluvium, according to Vitruvius, was not less than a quarter, nor greater than a third, of the whole breadth of the atrium; its length was regulated by the same standard. The opening above it was often shaded by a colored veil, which diffused a softened light, and moderated the intense heat of an Italian sun.[6] The splendid columns of the house of [30]Scaurus, at Rome, were placed, as we learn from Pliny,[7] in the atrium of his house. The walls were painted with landscapes or arabesques—a practice introduced about the time of Augustus—or lined with slabs of foreign and costly marbles, of which the Romans were passionately fond. The pavement was composed of the same precious material, or of still more valuable mosaics.
It stands next to the House of Sallust, on the south side, being divided from it only by a narrow street. Its front is in the main street or Via Consularis, leading from the gate of Herculaneum to the Forum. Entering by a small vestibule, the visitor finds himself in a tetrastyle atrium (a thing not common at Pompeii), of ample dimensions, considering the character of the house, being about thirty-six feet by thirty. The pillars which supported the ceiling are square and solid, and their size, combined with indications observed in a fragment of the entablature, led Mazois to suppose that, instead of a roof, they had been surmounted by a terrace. The impluvium is marble.