Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Wallace-Hadrill's book begins with specific facts and shows how these lead to interesting questions. For example... because bed widths varied, and tended to be quite narrow, we can't be sure whether people slept alone or in pairs; in fact, we can't even be very certain how many people lived in a given household because we don't know about sleeping arrangements in detail (some slaves may have slept in or near the master's quarters, and not in separate slave quarters, for example). He points out that Roman houses had formal and informal areas, rather than the men's and women's quarters typical in earlier Greek homes, or the segregation by age that one might see in 19th century England, for example. These "dry" facts actually suggest quite a lot about how people interacted, and how the spaces in homes were used.
Of course, this isn't a novel... several recently published novels provide vivid descriptions of "what people did in those houses", complete with fictional characters (often based on people who actually lived in Pompeii). But Wallace-Hadrill's book is an extremely interesting read even though it is a work of scholarship, rather than something intended as entertainment. People who would like to have backgound information for a visit to Pompeii will find that this book helps them understand what they see when they visit. I found the floor plans, and the descriptions of use of space, really interesting: an upper class Roman house combined public and private space in ways that are quite different from modern American suburbs, but in some ways, rather like some modern Italian cities!
Click Here to see more reviews about: Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum
Get 21% OFF
Click here for more information about Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum
0 comments:
Post a Comment