Document: Xenophon on Household Management
[Ischomachus speaks to Socrates]: "And what a beautiful sight is afforded by boots of all sorts and conditions ranged in rows!
[Ischomachus speaks to Socrates]: "And what a beautiful sight is afforded by boots of all sorts and conditions ranged in rows!
Voices of Ancient Greece and Rome_nodrm
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The ancient Greeks and Romans, much like modern Americans, built and lived in a wide variety of houses, ranging from humble cottages, to sweltering apartment buildings, all the way to magnificent palaces.
The documents of this chapter reflect that diversity.
Not too much is known about the specifics of the architecture of Greek private houses, so for information on that topic, we turn, in the first document, to the writings of the Roman architect Vitruvius. His book on Roman architecture provides facts and information on Greek architecture as well as Roman, including a detailed look at the floor plan of a typ- ical Greek house.
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22. VITRUVIUS'S DESCRIPTION OF AN ELEGANT HOME
INTRODUCTION
Ironically, our best written source of information about ancient Greek houses comes not from a Greek author but from a Roman: the architect Vitruvius, who lived in the early first century CE. Vitruvius wrote a book on architecture, the only one of its kind surviving from antiquity. In this treatise (which is divided into 10 books), he covers many components of the subject: building materials; construction methods; public buildings (e. g. , theaters and baths); private homes; interior decoration; water and water quality; aqueduct construction; acoustics; and civil and military machines.
The document below has been excerpted from Book 6, where Vitruvius takes up the topic of private homes.
KEEP IN MIND AS YOU READ
1. In the document, Vitruvius is describing an upscale house, the kind that would have been owned by a wealthy person. Greeks of more modest income could not have afforded all of the refinements that Vitruvius mentions here.
2. Vitruvius is a Roman writing a description of Greek houses, so he occasionally uses Latin architectural terms in his descriptions such as atria, triclinia, and exedrae.
3. Ancient Greek men and women seem to have led almost separate lives. Women, for
example, were not allowed to participate with men in political discussions or debates, or run for public office, nor were they typically to be seen outside the home unless accompanied by a male relative. This segregation of the sexes is even reflected in house architecture; note how many rooms or areas of the house were restricted to men or women only.
Document: Pricey Greek Houses, as Described
by a Roman
The Greeks, not using atria, do not build [houses] as we do; but as you enter, they make passages of scanty width with stables on one side, and the porter's
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rooms on the other; and these immediately adjoin the inner entrance. The space between the two entrances is called in Greek thyroron. You then enter the peristyle. This has colonnades on three sides. On the side which looks south- ward, there are two piers at a fair distance apart, on which beams are laid. The space behind is recessed two-thirds of the distance between the piers. The recess by some is called prostas, pastas by others.
As we pass in, there is the Great Hall in which the ladies sit with the spinning women. Right and left of the recess are the bedchambers, of which one is called the thala- mus, the other the amphithalamus. Round the colonnades are the ordinary dining-rooms, the bedrooms and servants' rooms. This part of the building is called the women's quarter, gyneconitis.
Next to this is a larger block of buildings with more splendid peristyles; in these the colonnades are equal in height, or else the colonnade which looks to the south has loftier columns. The peristyle which has one colon- nade higher is called Rhodian. These buildings have splendid approaches and doorways of suitable dignity. The colonnades of the peristyles are finished with ceil- ings of stucco, plaster, and fine wood paneling. In the colonnades which face north are. . . triclinia and picture galleries; on the east the libraries, the exedrae on the west; halls and square entrances face the south, that there may be ample room for four triclinia, and for the servants who attend them and assist in the amusements.
In these halls men's banquets are held. For it was not customary for women to join men at dinner. Now these peristyles are called the men's block, for in them men meet without interruption from the women. Moreover, on the right and left, lodges are situated with their own entrances, dining-rooms and bedrooms, so that guests on their arrival may be received into the guest houses . . . For when the Greeks were more luxurious and in circumstances more opulent, they provided for visitors on their arrival, dining rooms, bedrooms, and storerooms with supplies. On the first day, they invited them to dinner; afterwards, they sent poultry, eggs, vegetables, fruit, and other country produce. Therefore, painters, when they portrayed what was sent to guests, called them guest-gifts. Thus the heads of families in a guest-house do not seem to be away from home when they enjoy private generosity in the visitors' quarters. Now between the two peristyles and the visitors' quarters, there are passages . . . [called] Andrones, the men's quarters . . . [T]he Greeks call andrones the halls where the men's ban- quets take place, because women are excluded. [Tr. Frank
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? amusements: In this context, "amuse- ments" is a generic word that might refer to various board or ball games, or entertainments staged by actors, singers, dancers, or acrobats.
atria: The atrium (pl. atria) was, as Vitruvius implies, a very common feature in most Roman homes, although not in Greek. It served as a sort of vestibule or entry room to the house, where the owners could greet their guests or visitors. The word survives in English today as a term for the lobby area in large department stores, banks, and similar structures. Interestingly, the word atrium also refers to the two chambers of the human heart where the blood collects before proceeding to the ventricles; hence, a heart's atrium is a kind of cardiac entry room.
exedrae: An exedra was a small alcove, or perhaps a den, used for reading, relaxing, meditating, polite conver- sation, or perhaps even napping. In his treatise On the Orator, Cicero recounts a story about how the orator/lawyer Crassus would often enjoy noon-day quiet time in an exedra, where he would reflect on an upcoming speech that he would have to deliver or a court case in which he was involved. Cicero says that Crassus sometimes spent nearly two hours in this way.
gyneconitis: Literally, the "women's quarters. " The exact nature and location of the women's quarters in a Greek house is uncertain and the cause of a fair amount of scholarly discussion. The consen- sus seems to be that it was located in the upper floor of the house (houses generally did not rise higher than one story) and that it was reserved exclusively for
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Granger. Vitruvius on Architecture. (6. 7) Volume II. LCL, 1934. Page numbers: 45, 47, 49. ]
AFTERMATH
The basic plan of the Greek house was incorporated by the Romans into their own house designs. The common components included: rectangular floor plan and open-air courtyards surrounded by colon- nades and by the various rooms of the house, including bedrooms, a dining room or rooms, a library, quarters for guests or visitors, and servants' rooms.
ASK YOURSELF
1. Vitruvius makes it clear that certain parts of the house were strictly segregated by gender: women's areas and men's areas. Why do you suppose the Greeks built houses in this way?
2. Why do you think the Greeks (at least according to Vitruvius) oriented their homes so that "the colonnade which looks to the south has loftier columns," that the colonnades facing the north (i. e. , the south end of the house) contain the dining rooms, with the libraries on the east, and the exedrae on the west, while the "halls and square entrances [on the north end of the house] face the south"? Is there a reason for these directional orienta- tions, or is it likely that rooms were placed more or less randomly?
3. In his description of a Greek house, there are some rooms and areas you would expect to find in the house that Vitruvius does not refer to at all. What are some of these unmentioned rooms? Why do you suppose he omitted them?
Vitruvius's Description of an Elegant Home
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? women. However, there are scat- tered references in Greek literature to both genders occupying the space, at least under certain condi- tions (husband and wife, for exam- ple), so the true nature of the gyneconitis will probably remain a matter of uncertainty.
peristyle: The peristyle was a centrally located, rectangular, open court- yard, usually surrounded by colon- nades and by the rooms of the house. The peristyle functioned as the ancient equivalent of the back- yard, which is a feature of most American homes.
triclinia: The word triclinium (sg. ) originally referred to a dining room arrangement in which three couches were arranged around a central table. Later, however, the word came to refer to the dining room itself, which is what it means in the passage from Vitruvius.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? AN UNDERGROUND STUDY
The noted Athenian orator Demosthenes had a difficult childhood. His father died when he was only seven years old, and much of his father's fairly considerable estate was stolen by the legal guardians who were supposed to administer it. He was a sickly child; his perhaps overly solicitous mother refused to allow him to engage in physical exercise, with the result that he became even more frail and the butt of malicious jokes of the neighbor- hood children. If all this were not enough, he also had a stuttering problem.
But he managed to overcome all these obstacles by dint of his own hard work and self-discipline. The biog- rapher Plutarch says that part of Demosthenes's strategy in developing his mental acuity was the construction of an underground study in his house, a quiet, private place where he could concentrate on his manuscripts, speeches, and court cases: "[Here] he would come constantly, every day, to form his action and to exercise his voice; and here he would continue, oftentimes without intermission, two or three months together, shaving one half of his head, that so for shame, he [would not leave his study, although he greatly desired to do so]. " [Plutarch. Demosthenes. tr. Fuller. ]
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? TOPICS TO CONSIDER
e ItissometimessaidthattheRomansborrowedheavilyfromtheGreeksin many areas, including literature, mythology, art, and architecture. Consider whether Vitruvius would be considered an architectural "bor- rower" or an architectural "innovator. " Is there any way to tell from the document alone?
e Although the ancient Greeks produced many skilled architects, whose names, in many cases, are known--the chief architects of the Parthenon, for example, were Callicrates and Ictinus--it seems unusual that we have no surviving architectural books or manuals written by a Greek architect. Given this reality, how is it possible to learn about Greek architectural prin- ciples or methods (other than from someone like Vitruvius)?
Further Information
Ault, Bradley A. and Lisa C. Nevett (eds. ). Ancient Greek Houses and Households: Chronological, Regional, and Social Diversity. Philadelphia, 2005.
Coulton, J. J. Ancient Greek Architects at Work. Ithaca, NY, 1982.
Nevett, Lisa C. House and Society in the Ancient Greek World. Cambridge, 1999.
Website
Furniture and the Greek House. http://www. mlahanas. de/Greeks/Furniture/Furniture. htm
Bibliography for Document
Fuller, Edmund (tr. ) Plutarch: Lives of the Noble Greeks. New York, 1968.
Granger, Frank (tr. ). Vitruvius on Architecture. Volume I. [LCL. ] Cambridge and London,
1934.
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23. A HUSBAND AND WIFE DISCUSS THEIR DOMICILE: A PLACE FOR EVERYTHING AND EVERYTHING IN ITS PLACE
INTRODUCTION
The second document in this chapter comes to us by way of Xenophon (ca. 430-355 BCE), author of 14 books and treatises on a variety of subjects. His Oeconomicus is a narrative about the organization of an upscale Athenian household. In the excerpt from Oeconomicus quoted below, Xenophon relates a conversation between the famous philosopher Socrates and an Athenian gentleman named Ischomachus. The latter explains to Socrates how he and his wife came to an agreement about organizing their household goods efficiently and in the appropriate rooms of their home.
KEEP IN MIND AS YOU READ
1. This discussion represents something of a "role reversal" for Socrates. In many of Plato's Socratic dialogues, Socrates often dominates the conversation, while his stu- dents or friends merely assent to his comments. But here, Socrates assumes the role of the instructed instead of the instructor.
2. Ischomachus's inspiration for organizing his household in the manner he suggests comes from an opportunity he had to get a first-hand look at a Phoenician transport ship. He notes that such a vessel carries a vast array of equipment: ropes, rigging, weaponry, galley necessaries, and personal effects of the sailors, not to mention the cargo. And since there was very little storage space aboard the ship, the items enu- merated above had to be carefully and logically organized and stored, so that each could be retrieved quickly and easily when needed, without a lot of fruitless search- ing. Ischomachus spoke to one of the ship's mates, who happened to be making an inventory of the on-board equipment; he asked the man what he was doing. The reply: He simply wanted to make certain that everything was stored properly, that nothing was out of place, because if a sudden storm should arise, there would be no time for hunting up any item that might be needed to help the ship ride out the storm. Ischomachus was very impressed with his tour, and with the knowledge gained, so he decided to propose to his wife that they organize their household goods along the same lines.
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Document: Xenophon on Household Management
[Ischomachus speaks to Socrates]: "And what a beautiful sight is afforded by boots of all sorts and conditions ranged in rows! How beautiful it is to see cloaks of all sorts and conditions kept separate, or blankets, or bronze vessels, or table furniture! Yes, no serious man will smile when I claim that there is beauty in the order even of pots and pans set out in neat array . . . There is nothing, in short, that does not gain in beauty when set out in order. For each set looks like a troop of utensils, and the space between the sets is beautiful to see, when each set is kept clear of it, just as a troop of dancers about the altar is a beautiful spectacle in itself, and even the free space looks beautiful and unencumbered.
We can test the truth of what I say . . . without any inconvenience and with very little trouble. Moreover . . . there is no ground for misgiving that it is hard to find someone who will get to know the various places and remember to put each set in its proper place. For we know . . . that the city as a whole has ten thousand times as much of everything as we have; and yet you may order any sort of servant to buy something in the market and to bring it home, and he will be at no loss; every one of them is bound to know where he should go to get each article. Now the only reason for this is that everything is kept in a fixed place . . . Such is the gist of the conversation I think I remember having with her about the arrangement of utensils and their use.
And what was the result? Did . . . your wife pay any heed to the lessons you tried so earnestly to teach her?
Why, she promised to attend to them, and was evi- dently pleased beyond measure . . .
And how did you arrange things for her, Ischomachus?
Why, I decided first to show her the possibilities of our house. For it contains few elaborate decorations, Socrates. But the rooms are designed simply with the object of pro- viding as convenient receptacles as possible for the things that are to fill them, and thus each room invited just what was suited to it. Thus the storeroom, by the security of its position, called for the most valuable blankets and utensils, the dry covered rooms for the corn, the cool for the wine, the well-lit for those works of art and vessels that need light. I showed her decorated living rooms for the family that are cool in summer and warm in winter. I showed her that the whole house fronts south, so that it was obvious that it is
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? bolted door: In his history of the Peloponnesian War, the historian Thucydides describes an incident [2. 4] where the Thebans had besieged the city of Plataea and suc- cessfully occupied it--or so they thought. Rather, they had been lured into the city, and once inside, they could not escape, because the one and only exit gate had been barred, with the bar secured by a javelin pin. Xenophon does not state whether a javelin was used to secure the door between the women's and men's quarters in Ischomachus's house, but some similar device was probably used.
decorations: This refers particularly to embroidered works of art, such as wall tapestries.
market: The Greek word that is univer- sally translated as "market" is agora, which is the word Xenophon uses in this passage. The agora in most ancient Greek towns and cities was indeed a marketplace, but much more than that. Temples, shops, law courts, pickpockets, traffic, and more could all be found there. Ancient agoras were similar to the downtown areas of typical American cities.
troop of dancers about the altar: This is apparently an analogy drawn from Greek theater, where a "troop of dancers," or the chorus, would perform ritual dances around the altar of a god, especially Dionysus. Ischomachus seems to be compar- ing the precise dance moves of a well-trained chorus to the beauty and symmetry of a well-organized set of kitchen utensils.
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A Husband and Wife Discuss Their Domicile: A Place for Everything and Everything in Its Place
sunny in winter and shady in summer. I showed her the women's quarters too, separated by a bolted door from the men's, so that nothing which ought not to be moved may be taken out. " [Tr. E. C. Marchant. Xenophon: Memorabilia and Oeconomicus. (8. 9) Volume IV. LCL, 1923. Page numbers: 437, 439, 441. ]
AFTERMATH
Ischomachus went on to explain to Socrates the manner in which he directed that the spe- cific household goods should be organized: vessels used in religious sacrifices, women's and men's formal attire, blankets and shoes for men and women, cloth-making equipment, cooking and bread-making utensils, and laundry supplies. He then suggested a sort of priori- tizing system of dividing these goods into those that are more and less frequently used and calculating when each item might need to be replaced or replenished.
The next step was to ensure that the servants were familiarized with this system, and finally, that Ischomachus's wife understood that she was in charge of the whole enterprise, and that it would surely flounder if she did not exercise strict oversight of it.
After the detailed exposition on arranging the household and its contents, the couples' next task was to choose a (female) housekeeper who would oversee the day-to-day opera- tions, under the supervision of Ischomachus's wife. The bar was set quite high for the pro- spective employee: she must be moderate in eating, drinking, and sleeping; she must be loyal, dependable, and have an excellent memory. Furthermore, she must be thoroughly knowledgeable about the management system, and be willing and able to suggest improvements.
Even so, Ischomachus emphasized to his wife that she was ultimately answerable for the smooth running of the household, and that she should not be insulted or annoyed that she bore a heavier responsibility in this regard than the servants. She responded that it would have been more difficult if she had no role to play instead of the leading role, and that it would be easier for her to care for the family's possessions than it would be to turn that job over to a servant.
ASK YOURSELF
1. How would you characterize Ischomachus's attitude toward his wife? Does she have any real role to play in making decisions about how the household goods are to be organized?
2. Do you think Ischomachus's system is workable? Why or why not? What factors or problems might arise that could cause the system to go awry? Is it a practical system, or does it seem that he is trying to unnecessarily micromanage the organization of the household?
3. Are there any statements in the document that would lead you to believe that the ancient Greeks tried to orient their houses in such a way that they could take advan- tage of natural ways to heat and cool the houses?
TOPICS TO CONSIDER
e ConsiderIschomachus'sstatementthat"youmayorderanysortofservant to buy something in the market and to bring it home, and he will be at no
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loss; every one of them is bound to know where he should go to get each article. " What does this statement tell us about public marketplaces in Athens? What does it reveal about the expectations for household servants?
e Consider the author's (Xenophon) perspective. If you examine the list of his known written works, you can observe quite a surprising variety of topics. But mostly, he seems to have been a biographer and a historian, with particular emphasis on military matters. Is there any way to know what motivated him to write a book on household management? Does this book seem to have any connection to his other writings?
Further Information
Bartlett, Robert C. (tr. /ed. ), with Thomas Prangle and Wayne Ambler. Xenophon: The Shorter Socratic Writings. Apology of Socrates to the Jury, Oeconomicus, and Symposium. Ithaca, NY, 1996.
Strauss, Leo. Xenophon's Socratic Discourse: An Interpretation of the Oeconomicus. Ithaca, NY, 1970.
Waterfield, Robin H. Conversations of Socrates, by Xenophon. New York, 1990. Websites
Xenophon. http://www. crystalinks. com/xenophon. html
Xenophon's Oeconomicus. http://bingweb. binghamton. edu/~clas382a/study_guides/
03-05_xenophon_oecnomicus. htm
Xenophon--Introduction. http://www. enotes. com/classical-medieval-criticism/xenophon
Bibliography for Document
Marchant, E. C. (tr. ). Xenophon: Memorabilia and Oeconomicus. [LCL. ] Cambridge and London, 1923.
24. YOU TAKE YOUR LIFE IN YOUR HANDS IF YOU LIVE IN ROME
INTRODUCTION
One of the difficulties facing those interested in finding out information about how the ancient Greeks and Romans lived their lives is the relative lack of written source material on ordinary people. We have a plethora of writings that provide biographical detail on the famous politicians, military leaders, emperors, and other high-profile people of the ancient civilizations, but not so much source material on the less prominent, but far more numerous, members of society.
The literary output of the poet/satirist Juvenal (ca. 60-ca. 130 CE) is an exception to that general rule. Perhaps because he himself came from a small town (Aquinum, about 80 miles southeast of Rome) from an apparently comfortable, but undistinguished, family background, he tends to feature in his written works people who shared his lot in life. Not surprisingly, then, much of what we know about housing in antiquity comes from descriptions of upscale homes, as we saw in the two Greek documents in this chapter. Juvenal provides us with a glimpse of how "the other half" lived in the document below, an excerpt from his third Satire.
KEEP IN MIND AS YOU READ
1. Juvenal, as noted above, was a satirist, and satirists (whether ancient or modern) must employ exaggeration as a key element in making their points. Therefore, we should probably keep that fact in mind as we read the document.
2. The Romans, unlike the Greeks, tended to build dwellings "vertically. " That is, most Greek houses (regardless of the owner's financial circumstances) seldom rose higher than two stories, whereas the Romans built high-rise structures that some- times topped five or six stories. These insulae ("apartments"; literally, "islands"), as the buildings were called, were the domiciles of the less affluent; they were often poorly built, because there were no codes or regulations governing their construc- tion. Noise from other tenants and from the city streets below was a constant annoyance; flash fires were a constant danger.
3. Although we do not possess a host of specific details about Juvenal's life, it is known that he was exiled from Rome sometime during the reign of the emperor Domitian (reigned 81-96 CE), and that after the death of the emperor, he returned to Rome both bitter and impoverished. This downturn in his circumstances undoubtedly
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influenced the angry and sarcastic tone of much of his satirical writing. His dour attitude toward life in general and Rome in particular is well summarized by a famous line from his first Satire: Difficile est satiram non scribere. "It is difficult not to write satire. "
4. The insurance industry was unknown in ancient Rome, so when a person's house or apartment burned down (or was destroyed by any other natural or man-made event), the owner or renter had no recompense for his/her loss, except through the generosity of friends.
5. Although this document focuses on the danger of flash fires breaking out in the insulae, fire was not the only problem faced by urban tenants. Noise from the street was another. The Romans from time to time attempted to pass regulations prohib- iting the use of wagons and draft animals in the city streets during certain hours. However, these regulations were apparently not very effective in curtailing the noise, with the result that apartment dwellers often found themselves awakened in the middle of the night by the racket emanating from the streets below. A rich man, as Juvenal wryly notes, could afford a more expensive domicile in a quieter part of the city, where uninterrupted sleep was more of a reality than a goal.
Document: Juvenal's Take on Life in Rome
In cool Praeneste or the verdant hills of Volsinii, who
Has ever feared his house would Collapse as we all do -
Or in simple Gabii or Tivoli's craggy
Digitally-rendered illustration of an ancient Roman city with apartment buildings called insulae, and an aqueduct in the background. Based on archaeological excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum. (Dreamstime. com)
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Heights? But here
We live in a city held up for the
greater part by mere
Toothpicks, for thus the janitor props
the tottering beams
And patches up the old walls at cracks and gaping seams,
And tells the tenants to rest in peace--well said, "R. I. P. ,"
With rafters ready to cave in on their heads! Not for me!
I must live where there are no fires
and no alarms in the night.
Below, some Ucalegon already is shouting in fright
For water and moving his stuff. From your attic room, smoke pours,
But you don't know it; for if the fire starts on the lower floors,
The last one to burn will be the man with nothing to keep
Him from the rain but the roof tiles, beneath which, in a heap,
The soft rock-doves lay eggs. The one
bed that Codrus owned
Was too small for a dwarf, his cupboard boasted six mugs, a lone
Pitcher, a Chiron reclining, made of
the same soft stone,
With an old chest of Greek books, whose lovely poems were chewed
By illiterate mice. Poor Codrus had nothing--isn't it true? -
But he still lost the whole nothing.
The straw on the camel's back
Is this: although he's stripped of all
and begging a snack,
No one will give him a paltry
handout, no one a bed,
Or even offer him shelter, a roof above his head.
But let the great house of Asturicus
catch and burn,
The matrons mourn, the nobles wear black, the courts adjourn.
Oh, then we bewail the city's disasters and hate its fires!
The palace is still in flames and
someone runs up and desires
You Take Your Life in Your Hands if You Live in Rome
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Asturicus: Just as the name "Codrus" was used to refer to a poor man, so the name "Asturicus" symbol- izes a man of wealth.
attic room: The Latin phrase used by Juvenal, tabulata tertia, literally means "third floor," which was apparently the top floor in the burning apartment building.
Chiron: One of the centaurs--hybrid, half-man, half-horse creatures--of Greek mythology. Chiron was always portrayed as a wise, cul- tured, and gentle being, and a tutor of some of the most famous figures in Greek and Roman legend, including Achilles, Hercules, and Aeneas.
Not too much is known about the specifics of the architecture of Greek private houses, so for information on that topic, we turn, in the first document, to the writings of the Roman architect Vitruvius. His book on Roman architecture provides facts and information on Greek architecture as well as Roman, including a detailed look at the floor plan of a typ- ical Greek house.
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22. VITRUVIUS'S DESCRIPTION OF AN ELEGANT HOME
INTRODUCTION
Ironically, our best written source of information about ancient Greek houses comes not from a Greek author but from a Roman: the architect Vitruvius, who lived in the early first century CE. Vitruvius wrote a book on architecture, the only one of its kind surviving from antiquity. In this treatise (which is divided into 10 books), he covers many components of the subject: building materials; construction methods; public buildings (e. g. , theaters and baths); private homes; interior decoration; water and water quality; aqueduct construction; acoustics; and civil and military machines.
The document below has been excerpted from Book 6, where Vitruvius takes up the topic of private homes.
KEEP IN MIND AS YOU READ
1. In the document, Vitruvius is describing an upscale house, the kind that would have been owned by a wealthy person. Greeks of more modest income could not have afforded all of the refinements that Vitruvius mentions here.
2. Vitruvius is a Roman writing a description of Greek houses, so he occasionally uses Latin architectural terms in his descriptions such as atria, triclinia, and exedrae.
3. Ancient Greek men and women seem to have led almost separate lives. Women, for
example, were not allowed to participate with men in political discussions or debates, or run for public office, nor were they typically to be seen outside the home unless accompanied by a male relative. This segregation of the sexes is even reflected in house architecture; note how many rooms or areas of the house were restricted to men or women only.
Document: Pricey Greek Houses, as Described
by a Roman
The Greeks, not using atria, do not build [houses] as we do; but as you enter, they make passages of scanty width with stables on one side, and the porter's
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rooms on the other; and these immediately adjoin the inner entrance. The space between the two entrances is called in Greek thyroron. You then enter the peristyle. This has colonnades on three sides. On the side which looks south- ward, there are two piers at a fair distance apart, on which beams are laid. The space behind is recessed two-thirds of the distance between the piers. The recess by some is called prostas, pastas by others.
As we pass in, there is the Great Hall in which the ladies sit with the spinning women. Right and left of the recess are the bedchambers, of which one is called the thala- mus, the other the amphithalamus. Round the colonnades are the ordinary dining-rooms, the bedrooms and servants' rooms. This part of the building is called the women's quarter, gyneconitis.
Next to this is a larger block of buildings with more splendid peristyles; in these the colonnades are equal in height, or else the colonnade which looks to the south has loftier columns. The peristyle which has one colon- nade higher is called Rhodian. These buildings have splendid approaches and doorways of suitable dignity. The colonnades of the peristyles are finished with ceil- ings of stucco, plaster, and fine wood paneling. In the colonnades which face north are. . . triclinia and picture galleries; on the east the libraries, the exedrae on the west; halls and square entrances face the south, that there may be ample room for four triclinia, and for the servants who attend them and assist in the amusements.
In these halls men's banquets are held. For it was not customary for women to join men at dinner. Now these peristyles are called the men's block, for in them men meet without interruption from the women. Moreover, on the right and left, lodges are situated with their own entrances, dining-rooms and bedrooms, so that guests on their arrival may be received into the guest houses . . . For when the Greeks were more luxurious and in circumstances more opulent, they provided for visitors on their arrival, dining rooms, bedrooms, and storerooms with supplies. On the first day, they invited them to dinner; afterwards, they sent poultry, eggs, vegetables, fruit, and other country produce. Therefore, painters, when they portrayed what was sent to guests, called them guest-gifts. Thus the heads of families in a guest-house do not seem to be away from home when they enjoy private generosity in the visitors' quarters. Now between the two peristyles and the visitors' quarters, there are passages . . . [called] Andrones, the men's quarters . . . [T]he Greeks call andrones the halls where the men's ban- quets take place, because women are excluded. [Tr. Frank
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? amusements: In this context, "amuse- ments" is a generic word that might refer to various board or ball games, or entertainments staged by actors, singers, dancers, or acrobats.
atria: The atrium (pl. atria) was, as Vitruvius implies, a very common feature in most Roman homes, although not in Greek. It served as a sort of vestibule or entry room to the house, where the owners could greet their guests or visitors. The word survives in English today as a term for the lobby area in large department stores, banks, and similar structures. Interestingly, the word atrium also refers to the two chambers of the human heart where the blood collects before proceeding to the ventricles; hence, a heart's atrium is a kind of cardiac entry room.
exedrae: An exedra was a small alcove, or perhaps a den, used for reading, relaxing, meditating, polite conver- sation, or perhaps even napping. In his treatise On the Orator, Cicero recounts a story about how the orator/lawyer Crassus would often enjoy noon-day quiet time in an exedra, where he would reflect on an upcoming speech that he would have to deliver or a court case in which he was involved. Cicero says that Crassus sometimes spent nearly two hours in this way.
gyneconitis: Literally, the "women's quarters. " The exact nature and location of the women's quarters in a Greek house is uncertain and the cause of a fair amount of scholarly discussion. The consen- sus seems to be that it was located in the upper floor of the house (houses generally did not rise higher than one story) and that it was reserved exclusively for
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Granger. Vitruvius on Architecture. (6. 7) Volume II. LCL, 1934. Page numbers: 45, 47, 49. ]
AFTERMATH
The basic plan of the Greek house was incorporated by the Romans into their own house designs. The common components included: rectangular floor plan and open-air courtyards surrounded by colon- nades and by the various rooms of the house, including bedrooms, a dining room or rooms, a library, quarters for guests or visitors, and servants' rooms.
ASK YOURSELF
1. Vitruvius makes it clear that certain parts of the house were strictly segregated by gender: women's areas and men's areas. Why do you suppose the Greeks built houses in this way?
2. Why do you think the Greeks (at least according to Vitruvius) oriented their homes so that "the colonnade which looks to the south has loftier columns," that the colonnades facing the north (i. e. , the south end of the house) contain the dining rooms, with the libraries on the east, and the exedrae on the west, while the "halls and square entrances [on the north end of the house] face the south"? Is there a reason for these directional orienta- tions, or is it likely that rooms were placed more or less randomly?
3. In his description of a Greek house, there are some rooms and areas you would expect to find in the house that Vitruvius does not refer to at all. What are some of these unmentioned rooms? Why do you suppose he omitted them?
Vitruvius's Description of an Elegant Home
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? women. However, there are scat- tered references in Greek literature to both genders occupying the space, at least under certain condi- tions (husband and wife, for exam- ple), so the true nature of the gyneconitis will probably remain a matter of uncertainty.
peristyle: The peristyle was a centrally located, rectangular, open court- yard, usually surrounded by colon- nades and by the rooms of the house. The peristyle functioned as the ancient equivalent of the back- yard, which is a feature of most American homes.
triclinia: The word triclinium (sg. ) originally referred to a dining room arrangement in which three couches were arranged around a central table. Later, however, the word came to refer to the dining room itself, which is what it means in the passage from Vitruvius.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? AN UNDERGROUND STUDY
The noted Athenian orator Demosthenes had a difficult childhood. His father died when he was only seven years old, and much of his father's fairly considerable estate was stolen by the legal guardians who were supposed to administer it. He was a sickly child; his perhaps overly solicitous mother refused to allow him to engage in physical exercise, with the result that he became even more frail and the butt of malicious jokes of the neighbor- hood children. If all this were not enough, he also had a stuttering problem.
But he managed to overcome all these obstacles by dint of his own hard work and self-discipline. The biog- rapher Plutarch says that part of Demosthenes's strategy in developing his mental acuity was the construction of an underground study in his house, a quiet, private place where he could concentrate on his manuscripts, speeches, and court cases: "[Here] he would come constantly, every day, to form his action and to exercise his voice; and here he would continue, oftentimes without intermission, two or three months together, shaving one half of his head, that so for shame, he [would not leave his study, although he greatly desired to do so]. " [Plutarch. Demosthenes. tr. Fuller. ]
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? TOPICS TO CONSIDER
e ItissometimessaidthattheRomansborrowedheavilyfromtheGreeksin many areas, including literature, mythology, art, and architecture. Consider whether Vitruvius would be considered an architectural "bor- rower" or an architectural "innovator. " Is there any way to tell from the document alone?
e Although the ancient Greeks produced many skilled architects, whose names, in many cases, are known--the chief architects of the Parthenon, for example, were Callicrates and Ictinus--it seems unusual that we have no surviving architectural books or manuals written by a Greek architect. Given this reality, how is it possible to learn about Greek architectural prin- ciples or methods (other than from someone like Vitruvius)?
Further Information
Ault, Bradley A. and Lisa C. Nevett (eds. ). Ancient Greek Houses and Households: Chronological, Regional, and Social Diversity. Philadelphia, 2005.
Coulton, J. J. Ancient Greek Architects at Work. Ithaca, NY, 1982.
Nevett, Lisa C. House and Society in the Ancient Greek World. Cambridge, 1999.
Website
Furniture and the Greek House. http://www. mlahanas. de/Greeks/Furniture/Furniture. htm
Bibliography for Document
Fuller, Edmund (tr. ) Plutarch: Lives of the Noble Greeks. New York, 1968.
Granger, Frank (tr. ). Vitruvius on Architecture. Volume I. [LCL. ] Cambridge and London,
1934.
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23. A HUSBAND AND WIFE DISCUSS THEIR DOMICILE: A PLACE FOR EVERYTHING AND EVERYTHING IN ITS PLACE
INTRODUCTION
The second document in this chapter comes to us by way of Xenophon (ca. 430-355 BCE), author of 14 books and treatises on a variety of subjects. His Oeconomicus is a narrative about the organization of an upscale Athenian household. In the excerpt from Oeconomicus quoted below, Xenophon relates a conversation between the famous philosopher Socrates and an Athenian gentleman named Ischomachus. The latter explains to Socrates how he and his wife came to an agreement about organizing their household goods efficiently and in the appropriate rooms of their home.
KEEP IN MIND AS YOU READ
1. This discussion represents something of a "role reversal" for Socrates. In many of Plato's Socratic dialogues, Socrates often dominates the conversation, while his stu- dents or friends merely assent to his comments. But here, Socrates assumes the role of the instructed instead of the instructor.
2. Ischomachus's inspiration for organizing his household in the manner he suggests comes from an opportunity he had to get a first-hand look at a Phoenician transport ship. He notes that such a vessel carries a vast array of equipment: ropes, rigging, weaponry, galley necessaries, and personal effects of the sailors, not to mention the cargo. And since there was very little storage space aboard the ship, the items enu- merated above had to be carefully and logically organized and stored, so that each could be retrieved quickly and easily when needed, without a lot of fruitless search- ing. Ischomachus spoke to one of the ship's mates, who happened to be making an inventory of the on-board equipment; he asked the man what he was doing. The reply: He simply wanted to make certain that everything was stored properly, that nothing was out of place, because if a sudden storm should arise, there would be no time for hunting up any item that might be needed to help the ship ride out the storm. Ischomachus was very impressed with his tour, and with the knowledge gained, so he decided to propose to his wife that they organize their household goods along the same lines.
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?
Document: Xenophon on Household Management
[Ischomachus speaks to Socrates]: "And what a beautiful sight is afforded by boots of all sorts and conditions ranged in rows! How beautiful it is to see cloaks of all sorts and conditions kept separate, or blankets, or bronze vessels, or table furniture! Yes, no serious man will smile when I claim that there is beauty in the order even of pots and pans set out in neat array . . . There is nothing, in short, that does not gain in beauty when set out in order. For each set looks like a troop of utensils, and the space between the sets is beautiful to see, when each set is kept clear of it, just as a troop of dancers about the altar is a beautiful spectacle in itself, and even the free space looks beautiful and unencumbered.
We can test the truth of what I say . . . without any inconvenience and with very little trouble. Moreover . . . there is no ground for misgiving that it is hard to find someone who will get to know the various places and remember to put each set in its proper place. For we know . . . that the city as a whole has ten thousand times as much of everything as we have; and yet you may order any sort of servant to buy something in the market and to bring it home, and he will be at no loss; every one of them is bound to know where he should go to get each article. Now the only reason for this is that everything is kept in a fixed place . . . Such is the gist of the conversation I think I remember having with her about the arrangement of utensils and their use.
And what was the result? Did . . . your wife pay any heed to the lessons you tried so earnestly to teach her?
Why, she promised to attend to them, and was evi- dently pleased beyond measure . . .
And how did you arrange things for her, Ischomachus?
Why, I decided first to show her the possibilities of our house. For it contains few elaborate decorations, Socrates. But the rooms are designed simply with the object of pro- viding as convenient receptacles as possible for the things that are to fill them, and thus each room invited just what was suited to it. Thus the storeroom, by the security of its position, called for the most valuable blankets and utensils, the dry covered rooms for the corn, the cool for the wine, the well-lit for those works of art and vessels that need light. I showed her decorated living rooms for the family that are cool in summer and warm in winter. I showed her that the whole house fronts south, so that it was obvious that it is
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? bolted door: In his history of the Peloponnesian War, the historian Thucydides describes an incident [2. 4] where the Thebans had besieged the city of Plataea and suc- cessfully occupied it--or so they thought. Rather, they had been lured into the city, and once inside, they could not escape, because the one and only exit gate had been barred, with the bar secured by a javelin pin. Xenophon does not state whether a javelin was used to secure the door between the women's and men's quarters in Ischomachus's house, but some similar device was probably used.
decorations: This refers particularly to embroidered works of art, such as wall tapestries.
market: The Greek word that is univer- sally translated as "market" is agora, which is the word Xenophon uses in this passage. The agora in most ancient Greek towns and cities was indeed a marketplace, but much more than that. Temples, shops, law courts, pickpockets, traffic, and more could all be found there. Ancient agoras were similar to the downtown areas of typical American cities.
troop of dancers about the altar: This is apparently an analogy drawn from Greek theater, where a "troop of dancers," or the chorus, would perform ritual dances around the altar of a god, especially Dionysus. Ischomachus seems to be compar- ing the precise dance moves of a well-trained chorus to the beauty and symmetry of a well-organized set of kitchen utensils.
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A Husband and Wife Discuss Their Domicile: A Place for Everything and Everything in Its Place
sunny in winter and shady in summer. I showed her the women's quarters too, separated by a bolted door from the men's, so that nothing which ought not to be moved may be taken out. " [Tr. E. C. Marchant. Xenophon: Memorabilia and Oeconomicus. (8. 9) Volume IV. LCL, 1923. Page numbers: 437, 439, 441. ]
AFTERMATH
Ischomachus went on to explain to Socrates the manner in which he directed that the spe- cific household goods should be organized: vessels used in religious sacrifices, women's and men's formal attire, blankets and shoes for men and women, cloth-making equipment, cooking and bread-making utensils, and laundry supplies. He then suggested a sort of priori- tizing system of dividing these goods into those that are more and less frequently used and calculating when each item might need to be replaced or replenished.
The next step was to ensure that the servants were familiarized with this system, and finally, that Ischomachus's wife understood that she was in charge of the whole enterprise, and that it would surely flounder if she did not exercise strict oversight of it.
After the detailed exposition on arranging the household and its contents, the couples' next task was to choose a (female) housekeeper who would oversee the day-to-day opera- tions, under the supervision of Ischomachus's wife. The bar was set quite high for the pro- spective employee: she must be moderate in eating, drinking, and sleeping; she must be loyal, dependable, and have an excellent memory. Furthermore, she must be thoroughly knowledgeable about the management system, and be willing and able to suggest improvements.
Even so, Ischomachus emphasized to his wife that she was ultimately answerable for the smooth running of the household, and that she should not be insulted or annoyed that she bore a heavier responsibility in this regard than the servants. She responded that it would have been more difficult if she had no role to play instead of the leading role, and that it would be easier for her to care for the family's possessions than it would be to turn that job over to a servant.
ASK YOURSELF
1. How would you characterize Ischomachus's attitude toward his wife? Does she have any real role to play in making decisions about how the household goods are to be organized?
2. Do you think Ischomachus's system is workable? Why or why not? What factors or problems might arise that could cause the system to go awry? Is it a practical system, or does it seem that he is trying to unnecessarily micromanage the organization of the household?
3. Are there any statements in the document that would lead you to believe that the ancient Greeks tried to orient their houses in such a way that they could take advan- tage of natural ways to heat and cool the houses?
TOPICS TO CONSIDER
e ConsiderIschomachus'sstatementthat"youmayorderanysortofservant to buy something in the market and to bring it home, and he will be at no
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116
loss; every one of them is bound to know where he should go to get each article. " What does this statement tell us about public marketplaces in Athens? What does it reveal about the expectations for household servants?
e Consider the author's (Xenophon) perspective. If you examine the list of his known written works, you can observe quite a surprising variety of topics. But mostly, he seems to have been a biographer and a historian, with particular emphasis on military matters. Is there any way to know what motivated him to write a book on household management? Does this book seem to have any connection to his other writings?
Further Information
Bartlett, Robert C. (tr. /ed. ), with Thomas Prangle and Wayne Ambler. Xenophon: The Shorter Socratic Writings. Apology of Socrates to the Jury, Oeconomicus, and Symposium. Ithaca, NY, 1996.
Strauss, Leo. Xenophon's Socratic Discourse: An Interpretation of the Oeconomicus. Ithaca, NY, 1970.
Waterfield, Robin H. Conversations of Socrates, by Xenophon. New York, 1990. Websites
Xenophon. http://www. crystalinks. com/xenophon. html
Xenophon's Oeconomicus. http://bingweb. binghamton. edu/~clas382a/study_guides/
03-05_xenophon_oecnomicus. htm
Xenophon--Introduction. http://www. enotes. com/classical-medieval-criticism/xenophon
Bibliography for Document
Marchant, E. C. (tr. ). Xenophon: Memorabilia and Oeconomicus. [LCL. ] Cambridge and London, 1923.
24. YOU TAKE YOUR LIFE IN YOUR HANDS IF YOU LIVE IN ROME
INTRODUCTION
One of the difficulties facing those interested in finding out information about how the ancient Greeks and Romans lived their lives is the relative lack of written source material on ordinary people. We have a plethora of writings that provide biographical detail on the famous politicians, military leaders, emperors, and other high-profile people of the ancient civilizations, but not so much source material on the less prominent, but far more numerous, members of society.
The literary output of the poet/satirist Juvenal (ca. 60-ca. 130 CE) is an exception to that general rule. Perhaps because he himself came from a small town (Aquinum, about 80 miles southeast of Rome) from an apparently comfortable, but undistinguished, family background, he tends to feature in his written works people who shared his lot in life. Not surprisingly, then, much of what we know about housing in antiquity comes from descriptions of upscale homes, as we saw in the two Greek documents in this chapter. Juvenal provides us with a glimpse of how "the other half" lived in the document below, an excerpt from his third Satire.
KEEP IN MIND AS YOU READ
1. Juvenal, as noted above, was a satirist, and satirists (whether ancient or modern) must employ exaggeration as a key element in making their points. Therefore, we should probably keep that fact in mind as we read the document.
2. The Romans, unlike the Greeks, tended to build dwellings "vertically. " That is, most Greek houses (regardless of the owner's financial circumstances) seldom rose higher than two stories, whereas the Romans built high-rise structures that some- times topped five or six stories. These insulae ("apartments"; literally, "islands"), as the buildings were called, were the domiciles of the less affluent; they were often poorly built, because there were no codes or regulations governing their construc- tion. Noise from other tenants and from the city streets below was a constant annoyance; flash fires were a constant danger.
3. Although we do not possess a host of specific details about Juvenal's life, it is known that he was exiled from Rome sometime during the reign of the emperor Domitian (reigned 81-96 CE), and that after the death of the emperor, he returned to Rome both bitter and impoverished. This downturn in his circumstances undoubtedly
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influenced the angry and sarcastic tone of much of his satirical writing. His dour attitude toward life in general and Rome in particular is well summarized by a famous line from his first Satire: Difficile est satiram non scribere. "It is difficult not to write satire. "
4. The insurance industry was unknown in ancient Rome, so when a person's house or apartment burned down (or was destroyed by any other natural or man-made event), the owner or renter had no recompense for his/her loss, except through the generosity of friends.
5. Although this document focuses on the danger of flash fires breaking out in the insulae, fire was not the only problem faced by urban tenants. Noise from the street was another. The Romans from time to time attempted to pass regulations prohib- iting the use of wagons and draft animals in the city streets during certain hours. However, these regulations were apparently not very effective in curtailing the noise, with the result that apartment dwellers often found themselves awakened in the middle of the night by the racket emanating from the streets below. A rich man, as Juvenal wryly notes, could afford a more expensive domicile in a quieter part of the city, where uninterrupted sleep was more of a reality than a goal.
Document: Juvenal's Take on Life in Rome
In cool Praeneste or the verdant hills of Volsinii, who
Has ever feared his house would Collapse as we all do -
Or in simple Gabii or Tivoli's craggy
Digitally-rendered illustration of an ancient Roman city with apartment buildings called insulae, and an aqueduct in the background. Based on archaeological excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum. (Dreamstime. com)
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Heights? But here
We live in a city held up for the
greater part by mere
Toothpicks, for thus the janitor props
the tottering beams
And patches up the old walls at cracks and gaping seams,
And tells the tenants to rest in peace--well said, "R. I. P. ,"
With rafters ready to cave in on their heads! Not for me!
I must live where there are no fires
and no alarms in the night.
Below, some Ucalegon already is shouting in fright
For water and moving his stuff. From your attic room, smoke pours,
But you don't know it; for if the fire starts on the lower floors,
The last one to burn will be the man with nothing to keep
Him from the rain but the roof tiles, beneath which, in a heap,
The soft rock-doves lay eggs. The one
bed that Codrus owned
Was too small for a dwarf, his cupboard boasted six mugs, a lone
Pitcher, a Chiron reclining, made of
the same soft stone,
With an old chest of Greek books, whose lovely poems were chewed
By illiterate mice. Poor Codrus had nothing--isn't it true? -
But he still lost the whole nothing.
The straw on the camel's back
Is this: although he's stripped of all
and begging a snack,
No one will give him a paltry
handout, no one a bed,
Or even offer him shelter, a roof above his head.
But let the great house of Asturicus
catch and burn,
The matrons mourn, the nobles wear black, the courts adjourn.
Oh, then we bewail the city's disasters and hate its fires!
The palace is still in flames and
someone runs up and desires
You Take Your Life in Your Hands if You Live in Rome
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Asturicus: Just as the name "Codrus" was used to refer to a poor man, so the name "Asturicus" symbol- izes a man of wealth.
attic room: The Latin phrase used by Juvenal, tabulata tertia, literally means "third floor," which was apparently the top floor in the burning apartment building.
Chiron: One of the centaurs--hybrid, half-man, half-horse creatures--of Greek mythology. Chiron was always portrayed as a wise, cul- tured, and gentle being, and a tutor of some of the most famous figures in Greek and Roman legend, including Achilles, Hercules, and Aeneas.
