This book examines how Pompeian peristyle gardens were utilized to represent the socioeconomic status of Roman homeowners, introducing fresh perspectives on how these spaces were designed, used, and ...perceived. Pompeian Peristyle Gardens provides a novel understanding of how the domus was planned, utilized, and experienced through a critical examination of all Pompeian peristyles – not just by selecting a few well-known examples. This study critiques common scholarly assumptions of ancient domestic space, such as the top-down movement of ideas and the relationship between wealth and socio-political power, though these possibilities are not excluded. In addition, this book provides a welcome contribution to exploring the largely unexamined middle class, an integral part of ancient Roman society. Pompeian Peristyle Gardens is of interest to students and scholars in art history, classics, archaeology, social history, and other related fields.
The inequality of ancient life is difficult to measure, yet this article outlines a methodology to do it. Measured distances produced by the ArcGIS Network Analyst and its Closest Facility tool can ...be utilized as data sets to calculate the Gini coefficients of access to water in Roman Pompeii 79 CE, when the city was buried in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. In the focus is the distance from a private dwelling to public fountains and the baths, but other aspects, such as the estimated household need for water and the capacity of the Pompeian baths, are included in the Gini calculations to form a more accurate estimation of inequality. As a result, it is possible to estimate an aspect of health inequality in Pompeii, which can be compared to other sites and eras, if their access to water is measured similarly and calculated as a Gini value.
AbstractStudies on the reception and impact of ancient models in the emergence of Republican civic structures during the Renaissance have adopted, either of two competing models: continuity or ...reform. The purpose of this article is to engage in this debate by exploring how the ideals of ancient Roman Republicanism were adopted and utilized in the making of new civic spaces and in the formation of institutions in Renaissance Florence. The article examines four key aspects of this transformation: 1) the self-identification of the leaders of Florence with the ancient Romans in Florentine public monuments 2) the reconstruction of administrative spaces and the attempts at realizing the ideals of citizen participation in government; 3) the reformulation of the ideas of Republicanism and popular sovereignty in Florence during the corporatist-republican system exemplified by the guilds; and 4) the emerging ideas of an ideal city, such as those presented by the architect Leon Battista Alberti, and his reinterpretation of ancient Roman ideals. What the article illustrates is the complexity and strategic dynamism of relations that Florence had to not only its own past as a Roman city but to the ideal of ancient Rome and its Republics.
House size is often used as a tool to calculate wealth in ancient societies, and thus it is also a potential source for the study of inequality. The site of Pompeii, on the Bay of Naples in southern ...Italy, was first inhabited about 800 years before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius buried it 79 CE. The city provides one of the largest data sets of private architecture in the Roman world, and it has been utilized to calculate the level of inequality in a Roman urban setting. Nonetheless, to understand the inequality of the entire society of the city, these calculations need to be developed. This article uses quantitative and statistical methods, such as Gini coefficients, Lorenz Curves, and also simpler graphs and their interpretation to advance establish methods for exploring inequality through house and building size. A method is proposed for identifying the top economic elite in this urban setting, and the article develops the calculation of inequality further, to encompass even individuals who did not own buildings. As a result, excavated Pompeii's top economic elite is estimated to have comprised 50 to 100 households, with a high level of inequality evident in this ancient city during its final phase, the year 79 CE.
The chapter examines why Pompeians built peristyles in their houses. It begins with the architectural functions: the peristyle provided light and air into the house and additionally guided movement ...inside the house. After this, the chapter moves to more specific uses of the peristyle. For example, different types of commercial or small-scale industrial applications of the peristyle space are examined. Finally, the chapter discusses the theoretical background of the socioeconomic display function. Recent scholarship has questioned the salutatio, the clients' morning visits to their patronus's house, in Pompeii. In addition, the division between public and private in the Roman house has been heavily criticized, and consequently these views cannot be used to justify the peristyle as one of the most important display spaces. The chapter examines and analyzes movement and the visibility of the Pompeian house, concluding that, in the end, the peristyle was one of the spaces most suitable for the house owner to represent his or her status.
The conclusion gathers together the main advance of the book: a critical understanding of how the peristyle and domus was planned, utilized, and experienced in ancient Pompeii. The chapter answers ...the question of how the peristyle garden reflects the socioeconomic status of the owner and what was the role of the peristyle in status display. The conclusions critically examine the top-down movement of ideas and influences. In this final chapter, the peristyles are located in their wider urban context in Pompeii, but additionally the Vesuvian city is examined in the context of the Roman Empire and what these results tell us about ancient life.
The grouping of the peristyle - described in Chapter 4 - is based on the archaeological material. It reveals varied customs in using the peristyle as a display space. When comparing these groups with ...each other, there are a few where the peristyle, for example, copies the architectural form of those belonging to the highest economic groups, but there are several groups that do not straightforwardly imitate the upper class. These groups have invented innovative means to demonstrate their wealth. This chapter examines how the different socioeconomic groups acted as influencers of each other or as independent actors in status display.
