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Housing and Art
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19
Other
Graduate
12/06/2009

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Cards

Term
Emblema:
Definition
Mosaic focal point of a floor.
Term
Insula/ae
Definition
An apartment complex.
Term
Cubiculum/Cubicula: 
Definition
The small rooms of the Roman domus.  These rooms had a variety of functions including meeting space or libraries, and could be fitted with a small bed to be made into bedrooms.
Term
Atrium/a
Definition

The square central open area of the house.  Within it is the impluvium, a basin for the collection of rainwater through the always-open central skylight.  The atrium was also the central meeting point for the patron to receive his client, although sometimes the tablinum was also used for this function.

 

Term
Domus:
Definition
The Roman house.  It followed a traditional floor plan (see sketch) that could be modified given particular circumstances (i.e. the addition or removal of a wall or room due to buying neighboring property or the sale of one’s own).
Term
Opus Sectile:
Definition
Roman art technique of inlaying marble into walls and floors in a patterned form.  Used as decoration among the wealthy.
Term
Fauces:
Definition
From the latin for “jaws,” the fauces is the narrow, low alleyway on axis with the tablinum that precedes the atrium.
Term

Ala/alae

Definition

From the latin for “wings,” these were the sets of rooms off of the atrium closest to the tablinum.

Term

Salutatio: 

Definition

the morning greeting to the Roman patron given to him by his dependent clients.  Every morning, clients waited outside the domus on concrete benches before entering the fauces and the atrium.  Clients were received in either the atrium or the tablinum, and then the client and his entourage traveled as a group to the client’s client.  The only Roman who did not perform the salutatio was, essentially, the emperor himself.

Term
Taberna/ae:
Definition

The single room shops incorporated into the front of the Roman domus that lined the ancient city street.  Shopkeepers would rent out shop space from the owners of the house and would typically live above them.

 

Term
Opus Spicatum: 
Definition
 The herringbone style of brickwork incorporated into Roman flooring.  This type of construction was useful for bathing complexes and grain storage in that it was waterproof.
Term
Dipinti
Definition
Painted political slogans, as seen on the outside of the houses in Pompeii.
Term
Impluvium:
Definition
A water collection basin centered in the atrium.
Term
Tablinum:
Definition
 A drawing room or study on axis with the fauces behind the atrium.  The tablinum had a wooden shutter that could be closed off from the atrium if the owner desired privacy, but had no direct connection to the peristyle courtyard.
Term
Triclinium: 
Definition
The dining room, which takes its name from the position of the three reclining couches within, which could either be free standing or fixed by means of a concrete base.  This is the only room in the typical domus that did not have a symmetrical doorway on account of the shape and use of the triclinium space.
Term
Peristyle: 
Definition
The colonnaded porch behind the tablinum opposite the atrium.
Term
Cliente:
Definition
The Roman client.
Term
Patronus: 
Definition
 The Roman patron.
Term

Compluvium

Definition
The central opening in the atrium above the impluvium.
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