Ancient Roman Country Houses 
or servile. Each of these had its courts, 
rooms and passages. Whether they were all 
connected into a single block of buildings or 
divided into separate and distinct wings 
depended upon the size of the establishment 
and the taste of the owner. Except in the 
imperial palaces and such exceptional groups 
as the Villa Hadriana at Tivoli, comfort and 
personal ease were sought after rather than 
grandeur of architectural effect. Yet there was 
plenty of room for display, and the ostenta- 
Fk,. I—A SUMMER-HOUSE 
From a Pompeiian Fresco 
tion of wealth asserted itself in costly decora¬ 
tions and extravagant furnishings, especially 
in the later Imperial age. Horace, always 
praising (whether sincerely or through poetic 
affectation is immaterial) what is simple and 
rational, sings the freedom of his own house 
from such vanities : 
“ Non ebur neque aureum 
Mea renidet in domo lacunar,” etc. 
“ My house boasts no ivory, nor ceilings 
panelled in gold ; nor beams hewn on 
H ymettus’ mount, upborne by columns quar¬ 
ried on Africa’s farthest shore.” (Odes: II, 
15). The beauty of a fine villa consisted 
rather in its spaciousness, in the variety of 
exposure of its courts, triclinia , sitting-rooms 
and libraries, in the number and variety of 
its apartments, the extent of its colonnades 
and terraces, the elegance of its appoint¬ 
ments and embellishments, such as vases, 
statues and tripods, of bronze, silver, and 
marble, and the extent and beauty of its 
gardens and prospects,—in these, rather than 
in the splendor or scale of its architectural 
masses or the costliness of its carving and 
gilding. Long vistas, distant views and 
ever-changing perspectives of trees and 
shrubs, fountains and statues, balustrades 
and terraces, marble summer-houses, shady 
arbors, cascades and rocks, these the Roman 
delighted in ; in these his 
restless nature found 
relief from ennui, while 
he mingled the conveni¬ 
ences of the city with the 
freedom of the open 
cou ntry. 
II 
The appearance and 
the architectural details 
of the Roman villas we 
cannot reproduce with 
certainty, but may to a 
certain extent infer from 
known analogies. Pliny’s 
and Cicero’s letters throw 
light on their general 
character, and Pliny’s to 
Gallus (II, 17) and to 
Appollinaris (V, 6) 
describing his villas at 
Laurentinum and in Tus¬ 
cany, give a fairly detailed 
Fig. II-TYPES OF ROMAN COUNTRY HOUSES 
After Sc/ieu/t's “ Maisons de Campagne dc Rome ” 
6 
