The Roman House in Britain


Book Description

Recent studies have tended to seek explanations for the peculiarities of Romano-British architecture in local tradition, but this book shows how Britain embraced and elaborated Hellenistic ideas and spatial forms. Roman houses were built to sustain power, and Roman architecture gained currency in Britain because of its relevance to new political structures erected in the wake of conquest.




The Roman Villa in Britain


Book Description

The Roman Villa in Britain (1969) is a comprehensive examination of Roman villas in Romano-Britain in a series of essays by six specialists. H.C. Bowen, well-known for his work on early field systems, examines the evidence for the native Celtic agriculture which was practised in pre-Roman Britain and continued to form the basis of the country’s economy after the conquest. The ground plans of the villas, and their implications, are discussed by Sir Ian Richmond, while David Smith considers the mosaic pavements, both as implications of the wealth of their owners and as evidence for the existence of distinct local schools of mosaicists; Joan Liversidge deals with internal decoration and furnishing. A.L.F. Rivet reflects on the social and economic implications of the changing fortunes of the villas, and Graham Webster discusses the future of villa studies from the standpoint of the modern excavator.




Roman Villas


Book Description

Roman Villas explores the social structures of the Roman world by analysing the plans of buildings of all sizes from slightly Romanized farms to palaces. The ways in which the rooms are grouped together; how they intercommunicate; and the ways in which individual rooms and the house are approached, reveal various social patterns, which question traditional ideas about the Roman family and household. J. T. Smith argues that virtually all houses were occupied by groups of varying composition, challenging the received wisdom that they were single family houses whose size reflected only the owner's wealth and number of servants. Roman Villas provides a meticulously documented and scholarly examination of the relationship between the living quarters of the Roman and their social and economic development which introduces a new area in Roman studies and a corpus of material for further analysis. The inclusion of almost 500 ground plans, drawn to a uniform scale, allows the reader to compare the similarities and differences between house structure as well as effectively illustrating the arguments.




The Roman Villa in the Mediterranean Basin


Book Description

This volume offers a comprehensive survey of Roman villas in Italy and the Mediterranean provinces of the Roman Empire, from their origins to the collapse of the Empire. The architecture of villas could be humble or grand, and sometimes luxurious. Villas were most often farms where wine, olive oil, cereals, and manufactured goods, among other products, were produced. They were also venues for hospitality, conversation, and thinking on pagan, and ultimately Christian, themes. Villas spread as the Empire grew. Like towns and cities, they became the means of power and assimilation, just as infrastructure, such as aqueducts and bridges, was transforming the Mediterranean into a Roman sea. The distinctive Roman/Italian villa type was transferred to the provinces, resulting in Mediterranean-wide culture of rural dwelling and work that further unified the Empire.




The Romanization of Britain


Book Description

This book sets out to provide a new synthesis of recent archaeological work in Roman Britain.




Chedworth


Book Description

Chedworth is one of the few Roman villas in Britain whose remains are open to the public, and this book seeks to explain what these remains mean. The fourth century in Britain was a "golden age" and at the time the Cotswolds were the richest area of Roman Britain. The wealthy owners of a villa such as Chedworth felt themselves part of an imperial Roman aristocracy. This is expressed at the villa in the layout of the buildings, rooms for receiving guests and for grand dining, the provision of baths, and the use of mosaics. The villa would also have housed the wife, family and household of the owner and been the center of an agricultural estate. It was rediscovered in the nineteenth century and part of Chedworth’s tale is the way in which it was viewed by a nineteenth-century Cotswold landowner, Lord Eldon, and then its current owners, the National Trust.




The Buildings of Roman Britain


Book Description

This book deals thematically with an extensive range of building types, from country villas and urban basilicas to bridges and lighthouses. It covers construction techniques, including interior decoration and features; military buildings, including frontier works, Hadrian's Wall, and the Antonine Wall; public buildings, including market buildings, inns, and monumental arches; sacred sites, including Romano-Celtic temples, Mithraea, and rural shrines; and much more. The appendices deal with orthographic projections, inscriptions, recommended sites, and Romano-British history.




Gardens of the Roman Empire


Book Description

In Gardens of the Roman Empire, the pioneering archaeologist Wilhelmina F. Jashemski sets out to examine the role of ancient Roman gardens in daily life throughout the empire. This study, therefore, includes for the first time, archaeological, literary, and artistic evidence about ancient Roman gardens across the entire Roman Empire from Britain to Arabia. Through well-illustrated essays by leading scholars in the field, various types of gardens are examined, from how Romans actually created their gardens to the experience of gardens as revealed in literature and art. Demonstrating the central role and value of gardens in Roman civilization, Jashemski and a distinguished, international team of contributors have created a landmark reference work that will serve as the foundation for future scholarship on this topic. An accompanying digital catalogue will be made available at: www.gardensoftheromanempire.org.




An Imperial Possession


Book Description

Part of the Penguin History of Britain series, An Imperial Possession is the first major narrative history of Roman Britain for a generation. David Mattingly draws on a wealth of new findings and knowledge to cut through the myths and misunderstandings that so commonly surround our beliefs about this period. From the rebellious chiefs and druids who led native British resistance, to the experiences of the Roman military leaders in this remote, dangerous outpost of Europe, this book explores the reality of life in occupied Britain within the context of the shifting fortunes of the Roman Empire.




Housing in Late Antiquity - Volume 3.2


Book Description

This book examines a number of themes relating to housing in Late Antiquity. Two extensive bibliographic essays provide an overview of published literature relating to housing in this period. A selection of thematic essays focus on episcopia, lighting, privacy vs. public access, and building regulations. These are complemented by regional syntheses covering Spain and Africa and case studies of recently investigated urban houses from across the Mediterranean, from Gaul to Jordan. Whilst being firmly based in Late Antiquity, the volume also looks forward to Middle Byzantine and Early Islamic housing, with papers on rock-cut houses in Cappadocia and a wealthy dar from Pella in Jordan, destroyed by earthquake, with its inhabitants inside, in A.D. 749.