Few sources reveal the life of the ancient Romans as vividly as
do the houses preserved by the eruption of Vesuvius. Wealthy Romans
lavished resources on shaping their surroundings to impress their
crowds of visitors. The fashions they set were taken up and
imitated by ordinary citizens. In this illustrated book, Andrew
Wallace-Hadrill explores the rich potential of the houses of
Pompeii and Herculaneum to offer new insights into Roman social
life. Exposing misconceptions derived from contemporary culture, he
shows the close interconnection of spheres we take as discrete:
public and private, family and outsiders, work and leisure.
Combining archaeological evidence with Roman texts and
comparative material from other cultures, Wallace-Hadrill raises a
range of new questions. How did the organization of space and the
use of decoration help to structure social encounters between owner
and visitor, man and woman, master and slave? What sort of
"households" did the inhabitants of the Roman house form? How did
the world of work relate to that of entertainment and leisure? How
widely did the luxuries of the rich spread among the houses of
craftsmen and shopkeepers? Through analysis of the remains of over
two hundred houses, Wallace-Hadrill reveals the remarkably dynamic
social environment of early imperial Italy, and the vital part that
houses came to play in defining what it meant "to live as a
Roman."
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