Homes and Gardens in Pompeii

This engraving is based upon a drawing by Sir William Gell and was published in his book Pompeiana in 1832. It shows how Gell believed the atrium in Pompeii's House of the Tragic Poet might have looked in 79 CE. At the bottom of the picture is a shallow pool for collecting rainwater, called an impluvium. The large shaft of light is coming from a rectangular opening known as a compluvium, which was always located directly over an impluvium. The earliest such atriums probably date from the third century BCE. Earlier atriums in Pompeii lacked impluviums and were probably completely roofed over. According to The Classical Oxford Dictionary, copyright 1996, an atrium was "originally the site of the family hearth, whose smoke caused the blackening (ater) which gave the place its name".

Beyond the atrium is the home's tablinum. Tablinums were originally the master bedroom and later housed the shrine of the Penates and served as a repository for important family documents, funeral masks of ancestors and important heirlooms. Many scholars think that they also functioned as reception rooms.

Beyond the tablinum you can see the columns which surrounded the sunny peristyle garden. In this particular house there is such a large opening between the tablinum and the peristyle garden that there is very little separation between the two areas; atrium, tablinum and peristyle all flow together. This wasn't characteristic of all Pompeian homes, but even before peristyle gardens began to be created it was normal for a tablinum to have a large a large window which looked out onto a walled garden.

It was normal for a tablinum to have shutters, or at least curtains, between the tablinum and the peristyle which could be closed to give the tablinum some protection during inclement weather. There were also usually curtains which could be drawn to separate the tablinum from the atrium, but on a pleasant day the house of the Tragic Poet probably looked as open as it does in Gell's reconstruction.

The House of the Tragic Poet's atrium is an example of what Vitruvius called a Tuscan Atrium, because the opening in the roof is supported by heavy beams and crossbeams. Later atriums often featured four columns at each corner of the impluvium, Vitruvius called them tetrastyle atriums; Pompeii's House of the Silver Wedding has a good example of one.

After peristyle gardens became fashionable, some atriums began to echo them. Pompeii's House of Epidius Rufus features an example of what Vitruvius called a Corinthian atrium, with a large compluvium surrounded by 32 columns, turning the atrium into a small peristyle.

While a Corinthian atrium could look like a small peristyle, especially if the impluvium was used as a reflecting pool or fountain rather than just a catch basin for rainwater; an atrium was used quite differently from a peristyle. Atriums were central to a traditional Roman home and served the same purpose in Samnite Pompeii. Atriums were a semipublic space where a patron traditionally met his clients every morning, almost certainly greeting them before his tablinum. The tablinum's opening onto the peristyle served to unite the traditional Roman home with the Greek peristyle, which was adopted from the Hellenistic world.

After the peristyle was adopted, the small rooms opening onto the atrium, some of which had been the family's bedrooms, were used for other purposes and the family moved into rooms surrounding their peristyle garden. It was normal to have a triclinium (dining room) opening onto the peristyle and many gardens also featured tables and couches for open air dining, such as the masonry couches in the House of Aulus Trebius Valen's garden.

Ancient Greeks lived in their paved courtyards in much the same manner as the Spanish have lived in their patios for over a thousand years. The Romans transformed Greek courtyards into gardens, but they lived in them at least as much the Greeks did.

Roman homes tended to be rather dark. This was partially because any exterior windows were small and barred against intruders. Even the sky lit atriums had a cavernous feeling. Whenever possible, Romans lived in their gardens and peristyles. The large trees which shaded many old peristyle gardens and the grape arbors which normally shaded outdoor tablinums made gardens more livable during hot summers than paved courtyards. The pools and fountains which graced many gardens were also very inviting on warm days.

Kitchens were especially unpleasant in Pompeian homes. None of them had chimneys; smoke escaped through a small grated window. We can be certain that much of the food preparation took place in peristyles, unless the owner forbade it. In her book "The Gardens of Pompeii", Wilhelmina Jashemski states that she found loom weights in every garden that she excavated. She also says that the weaving of wool was an important part of Pompeii's economy, so we should probably picture most peristyles filled with the activities of slaves, as well as the owners.

To return to the engraving at the top of this article. Gell's reconstruction does give us a good idea of how much the garden was a part of this house. Just the reality of having rain fall into the atrium's impluvium connected wealthy Romans with nature in a way that few modern homeowners experience. The image of the House of the Tragic Poet's sky lit atrium, with the garden beyond it, makes me picture birds flying into the house. There were no insect screens or plate glass windows to keep birds from doing that. Pompeii's gardens really were an integral part of their homes.

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