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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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.