Roman houses

Roman flats Most people living in the Roman Empire lived with their whole family in one room of a sort of flat. Around two or three sides of a courtyard, one or two stories high. The other sides of the courtyard had high walls to keep out thieves. Roman people used courtyards for cooking, and for children to play in. The flats were generally mud-brick, with flat roofs that you could sleep on in good weather.

Roman villas Roman houses were so well built, if you were rich, that many examples of Roman houses exist throughout the Roman Empire. If you were poor in Rome, you lived in simple flats or apartments - the inside of these places was symbolic of your lack of wealth. These flats only contained two rooms at the most. People tended to use them only for sleeping as they had to work, visit the baths (as their flats had no running water) and they usually ate in local inns as cooking in these flats was not safe.  Rich family homes were very different. The rich lived in single-storey houses which were built around a central hall known as an atrium. The atrium had rooms coming off it and they were also open to the weather as they had no roofs. Many atriums had a trough built into their design so that water could be collected when it rained.