Housing in the City of Rome – Tenements at their Best/Worst

            In the city of Rome by A.D. 150 there were probably more than one million people living there.  Many lived in tenements known as insulae—translated literally as “islands,” though not all actually occupied their own block.  According to a mid-fourth century AD catalogue, there were more than 46,000 insulae in the city of Rome, as compared to about 1800 houses. Insulae rose to six or seven stories at time in the history of the empire. Emperor Agustus and Emperor Trajan attempted to limit the heights at sixty and seventy feet, but these laws had only limited effects. Juvenal provides a look at life in an insula: “We live in a city supported mostly by slender props, which is how the bailiff patches cracks in old walls, telling the residents to sleep peacefully under their roofs ready to fall down around them. . .” Though some insulae still survive in Rome, most evidence of life in these tenements comes from the city of Ostia. These remains show that apartments on the lower floors were habitable, and, indeed, even comfortable. Some first-floor apartments were even outfitted with running water and large glazed windows.

            Wealthy among the Romans inhabited spacious apartments, with separate rooms for dining and sleeping. These members included equestrians—knights—and senators, some as friends of aristocratic owners of the apartment blocks. Rent for these blocks was often paid annually, and residents had a security of tenure. Farther up, garrets under the tiles up many flights of stairs were hot in summer, cold in winter, insalubrious without toilets or water and dangerous due to the constant fires in Rome. Evictions were commonplace, and rent was paid daily or weekly. Thus it was for most of Rome, and for most of the world—the rich living lower, the poor living higher, until elevators came into use.

            Though insulae were recorded as being built since 218 BC, they really developed in the last century of the Roman republic—mid-century 100 AD. These were mainly jerry-built, with thin mud-brick walls and floors made of wood. In these days, Rome was the city of a few great landlords with dependents and friends living in their tenements. This hierarchy was typical of Roman society.

            After the great fire of 64 AD, new fire and building regulations were enforced, though not universally. They required that insulae be built of brick-faced concrete and have balconies or arcades for firefighting brigades.

            A typical example of an insula still exists in rome on the Via Giulio Romano. It is typical in that it has shops on the ground floor and residential half-floors, or mezzanines, above. The first floor was occupied by two fairly large apartments, the second and third by flats with smaller rooms, and there are traces of at least two more floors above it which were most likely more cramped than those below.

            Though obviously not the best in living condition, insulae were a necessary evil in a large city such as Rome, in a time where modern apartments were obviously not available. They were also necessary in “boom-towns” such as Ostia, where a new harbor was built under Emperor Trajan and new living space was quickly needed. Overall, says Nigel Rodgers, “the overall effect is surprisingly modern.”

Living Above Roman Baths (circa 63 A.D.)

Seneca

            I live over a bathing establishment. Picture yourself now the assortment of voices, the sound of which is enough to sicken one. . . when the stronger fellows are exercising and swinging heavy leaden weights in their hands, when they are working hard or pretending to be working hard, I hear their groans; and whenever they release their pent-up breath, I hear their hissing and jarring breathing. When I have to do with a lazy fellow who is content with a cheap rubdown, I hear the slap of the hand pummeling his shoulders, changing its sound according as the hand is laid flat or curved. If now a professional ball player comes along and begins to keep score, I am done for. Add to this the arrest of a brawler or a thief, and the fellow who always likes to hear his own voice in the bath, and those who jump in the pool with a mighty plash as they strike the water. In addition to those whose voices are, if nothing else, natural, imagine the hair plucker keeping up a constant chatter in his thin and strident voice, to attract more attention, and never silent except when he is plucking armpits and making the customer yell instead of yelling himself. It disgusts me to enumerate the varied cries of the sausage dealer and confectioner and of all the peddlers of the cook shops, hawking their wares, each with his own peculiar intonation.

The Great Fire of Rome (64 A.D.)

Tacitus

            Nero now tried to make it appear that Rome was his favorite abode. He gave feasts in public places as if the whole city were his own home. Bu the most prodigal and notorious banquet was given by Tigellinus. To avoid repetitious accounts of extravagance, I shall describe it as a model of its time. The entertainment took place on a raft constructed on Marcus Agrippa’s lake. It was towed about by other vessels, with gold and ivory fittings. Their rowers were degenerates, assorted according to age and vice. Tigellinus had also collected birds and animals from remote countries, and even the products of the ocean. On the quays were brothels stocked with high-ranking ladies. Opposite them could be seen naked prostitutes, indecently posturing and gesturing.

            At nightfall the woods and houses nearby echoed with singing and blazed with lights. Nero was already corrupted by every lust, natural and unnatural. But he now refuted any surmises that no further degradation was possible for him. For a few days he went through a formal wedding ceremony with one of the perverted gang called Pythagoras. The emperor, in the presence of witnesses, put on the bridal veil. Dowry, marriage bed, wedding torches, all were there. Indeed everything was public which even in a natural union is veiled by night.

            Disaster followed. Whether it was accidental or caused by a criminal act on the part of the emperor is uncertain—both have supporters. Now started the most terrible and destructive fire which Rome had ever experienced. It began in the Circus, where it adjoins the Palatine and Caelian hills. Breaking out in shops selling inflammable goods, and fanned by the wind, the conflagration instantly grew and swept the whole length of the Circus. There were no walled mansions or temples, or any other obstructions which could arrest it. First, the fire swept violently over level spaces. Then it climbed the hills, but returned to ravage the lower ground again. It outstripped any counter-measure. The ancient city’s narrow winding streets and irregular blocks encouraged its progress. . .

            Nero was at Antium. He returned to the city only while the fire was approaching the mansion he had built to link the Gardens of the Maecenas to the Palatine. The flames could not be prevented from overwhelming the whole of the Palatine, including his palace. . . Food was brought from Ostia and neighboring tons, and the price of corn was cut to less than ¼ sesterce a pound. Yet these measures, for all of their popular character, earned no gratitude. For a rumor had spread that, while the city was burning, Nero had gone on his private stage and, comparing modern calamities with ancient, had sung of the destruction of Troy.

            Of Rome’s fourteen districts only four remained intact. Three were leveled to the ground. The other seven were reduced to a few scorched and mangled ruins.

Small Ads: Rooms to Rent, Pompeii (AD 1^st Century)

Various from Pompeii

1.      To rent from the first day of next July, shops with the floors over them, fine upper chambers, and a house, in the Arnius Pollio block, owned by Gnaeus Alleius Nigidius Maius. Prospective lessees may apply to Primus, slave of Gnaeus Alleius Nigidius Maius.

2.      To let, for the term of five years, from the thirteenth day of next August to the thirteenth day of the sixth August thereafter, the Venus bath, fitted up for the best people, shops, rooms over shops, and second-story apartments in the property owned by Julia Felix, daughter of Spurius.

Collapsing Houses, Rome (90 A.D.)

Strabo

            In Rome there is continual need of wood and stone for ceaseless building caused by the frequent falling down of houses, and on account of conflagrations and of sales which seem never to cease. These sails are a kind of voluntary falling down of houses, each owner knocking down and rebuilding according to his individual taste. For these purposes the numerous quarries, forests, and rivers in the region which convey the materials, offer wonderful facilities.

            Augustus Caesar endeavored to avert from the city the dangers alluded to, and instituted a company of freedmen, who should be ready to lend their assistance in the case of conflagration, while as a preventative against falling houses he decreed that all new buildings should not exceed 70 feet in height. But these improvements must have ceased except for the facilities afforded to Rome by quarries, the forests, and the ease of transports.