DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5009#0027
HOUSES.
Augustus boasted that lie found Eome brick and left it marble,
brick continued to be generally used in the Boinan buildings erected
in the times of the later Eoman emperors.
Section II.—HOUSES.
The ancients acted differently from the moderns in this essential
part of social customs. It does not seem that they ever occupied
themselves in adorning towns by private buildings; public monu-
ments had alone this privilege, and the honours decreed to citizens
who had them built or repaired at their own expense, turned towards
them their attention and the employment of their fortune rather
than towards domestic habitations. The degree of comfort exhibited
in the arrangement of their houses is a very important characteristic
of a nation's degree of civilization, and we may mark the progress
of this civilization in its successive stages from a rude condition to a
high state of perfection by studying the architecture of a people as
shown in their ordinary dwellings.
Egyptian.—Egyptian houses were built of crude brick, stuccoed
and painted with all the combinations of bright colour in which the
Egyptians delighted ; and a highly decorated mansion had numerous
courts and architectural details derived from temples. Over the
door was sometimes a sentence, as " a good house," or the name of a
king, under whom the owner probably held some office. The plans
varied according to the caprice of the builders. In some houses the
ground plan consisted of a number of chambers on three sides of a
court, which was often planted with trees. Others were laid out in
chambers round a central area, similar to the Eoman impluvium,
and paved with stone, or containing a few trees, a tank, or a foun-
tain, in its centre. The houses in most of the Egyptian towns are
destroyed, leaving few traces of their plans ; but sufficient remains
of some at Thebes and other places to enable us, with the help of
the sculptures, to ascertain their form and appearance.
Greek.—The Greeks, according to Vitruvius, and probably the rich
Greeks, divided their house into two apartments distinct one from
the other, that of the men—andronitis, and that of the women—
gynfflconitis or gynajceum. A porter guarded the entrance of the
house, which was generally a long corridor leading to the apart-
ments, a Hermes, or a statue of Apollo Agyieus, or an altar to that
god, adorned the entrance; at the end of this corridor was the
Augustus boasted that lie found Eome brick and left it marble,
brick continued to be generally used in the Boinan buildings erected
in the times of the later Eoman emperors.
Section II.—HOUSES.
The ancients acted differently from the moderns in this essential
part of social customs. It does not seem that they ever occupied
themselves in adorning towns by private buildings; public monu-
ments had alone this privilege, and the honours decreed to citizens
who had them built or repaired at their own expense, turned towards
them their attention and the employment of their fortune rather
than towards domestic habitations. The degree of comfort exhibited
in the arrangement of their houses is a very important characteristic
of a nation's degree of civilization, and we may mark the progress
of this civilization in its successive stages from a rude condition to a
high state of perfection by studying the architecture of a people as
shown in their ordinary dwellings.
Egyptian.—Egyptian houses were built of crude brick, stuccoed
and painted with all the combinations of bright colour in which the
Egyptians delighted ; and a highly decorated mansion had numerous
courts and architectural details derived from temples. Over the
door was sometimes a sentence, as " a good house," or the name of a
king, under whom the owner probably held some office. The plans
varied according to the caprice of the builders. In some houses the
ground plan consisted of a number of chambers on three sides of a
court, which was often planted with trees. Others were laid out in
chambers round a central area, similar to the Eoman impluvium,
and paved with stone, or containing a few trees, a tank, or a foun-
tain, in its centre. The houses in most of the Egyptian towns are
destroyed, leaving few traces of their plans ; but sufficient remains
of some at Thebes and other places to enable us, with the help of
the sculptures, to ascertain their form and appearance.
Greek.—The Greeks, according to Vitruvius, and probably the rich
Greeks, divided their house into two apartments distinct one from
the other, that of the men—andronitis, and that of the women—
gynfflconitis or gynajceum. A porter guarded the entrance of the
house, which was generally a long corridor leading to the apart-
ments, a Hermes, or a statue of Apollo Agyieus, or an altar to that
god, adorned the entrance; at the end of this corridor was the