Painted Decoration in the Apartments of Roman Ostia: Standardization, Social Status, and Visual Experience

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the use of domestic decorations and architecture in the construction of social status in apartments at Ostia, the major port of Rome in the imperial period. My research builds upon recent scholarship on Roman domestic space more generally, which has focused on the way that particular types of decorations visually articulate the hierarchical organization of space and the means by which architecture can structure social relations within the house. My study analyzes twenty-four Ostian apartments of varying size and plan, which were occupied from the second through the early third centuries AD and retain substantial traces of their painted decorations. It considers how patterns in the use and distribution of different systems of painted decoration might reflect their appropriateness for spaces of primary or secondary importance and how the architectural features and layout of an apartment also contributed to the social configuration of space. This study raises questions about assumed correlations between the size and splendor of a Roman house and its resident’s social status. My analysis shows that there is no direct correlation between the size of the apartment, the quality of its decorations and architectural features, and the number of primary spaces. However, it argues that apartments with a ground floor area of at least 190 square meters should be viewed generally as luxury residences. My study also questions the assumption that the apartments functioned as rental units by examining select residences in relation to Roman legal texts on urban tenancy. Textual and material evidence suggests that occupancy was not limited to tenants and that alternate forms of occupation were possible.

This dissertation departs from previous studies by studying public inscriptions from Ostia, which attest to the social, legal, ethnic, and occupational backgrounds of the city’s inhabitants, alongside the evidence drawn from close study of the remains of decorative embellishments in the apartments. It concludes that many well-appointed apartments were likely occupied by members of an identifiable, upwardly mobile population, who, arguably, would have required homes with appropriately adorned reception spaces to accommodate the formal activities associated with their new social status and public responsibilities.