The floor plan of a typical upper-class home of the Roman Republic. Showing the rather sophisticated living arrangements of the period.
Shops surround the house with separate entrances to the surrounding streets.
The main entrance leads into the atrium, the most public area of the house, which has a number of small cubiculla. In the center is the impluvium which collected rain which entered through an opening in the roof above. At the inner-most end of the atrium was the tabliunum in which family busts and statuary were kept. This area could be closed off or left open to the more private peristyle, or colonnaded courtyard.