THEME: Ancient luxury THEME SHOWING STATUS IN THE ROMAN HOME
As has been pointed out by historians such as Parkin and Pomeroy, a person's house in antiquity was “the basis of social obligations”, where “status and wealth were essentially transmitted”. This was particularly true for the indoor spaces of the Roman domus, where aristocrats and everyday Romans could vie with one another to promote themselves and their cultural pedigree. It was in and through these fascinating spaces that Romans would greet and receive their peers and clients, perhaps for a luxury dinner, or to hold a quasi-court to reward services and delegate tasks. In all of this, the home and its proper decoration was pivotal in presenting an impressive and idealized image of its owner.
Roman homes varied in size and complexity to a considerable degree. Whilst small, self-contained urban dwellings (comparable to apartments) were known as insulae, standalone properties (that could be in the countryside or city) were called domus. Insulae tended to be occupied by the poorer portions of society, as well as city soldiery. As such, they were often made of cheaper, more perishable materials, such as wood, creating frequent fire hazards for their residents.
Indeed, the Roman poet Juvenal satirizes the miserable and precarious living conditions of the urban. According to him, the city is “supported by rickety props”, whilst the rich live outside the centre in their luxurious made of cement and stone. Generally, then, the of the Roman world are thought to have been less internally decorated and embellished, although some examples from the port city of Ostia suggest otherwise (with the mosaics in the Insula delle Pareti Gialle being a prominent case in point).
