KITCHENS AND DINING ROOMS AT POMPEII ... - Get a Free Blog

Owners and renters of urban buildings had a legal right to unobstructed windows: "If a neighbor
builds and the windows of an apartment are darkened, [a jurist held that] the lessor is liable to
the urban tenant". 223
The principal means of regulating heat and light in a dining room without the aid of
portable heaters was windows and doors. Varro, in the context of a philosophical discussion
about how uniformity is not always best, remarks:
In the case of buildings, while we do not perceive the atrium bearing
resemblance to the peristyle nor the cubiculum bearing resemblance to the stable,
yet due to their [different] function we follow their dissimilarities rather than
their similarities: thus we do not make the same windows and doors for winter
dining rooms as for summer dining rooms. 224
Varro links the use of different windows and doors to different seasonal climates. Window-
panes, doors and drapery were required to moderate the temperature during wintertime. So the
younger Seneca demonstrates in his tirade against gluttons who are addicted to ice and snow in
their drinks, even in winter:
And so, although people protect the dining-hall with draperies and windowpanes,
and they control the winter temperature with a huge fire, nonetheless the
stomach, debilitated and languid from its own burning, seeks something [e.g. an
ice-cooled drink] by which it may be revived. 225
Covering the windows and doors was not enough to protect a dining room from the cold of
winter. A winter triclinium also required the heat of portable braziers. 226 Due to the resulting
smoke, Vitruvius advises plain decoration:
But in rooms where there is fire or many lamps are to be placed, (the cornices)
ought to be plain, so that they may be more easily wiped clean; in summer rooms
223 Gaius dig. 19.2.25.2: Si vicino aedificante obscurentur lumina cenaculi, teneri locatorem inquilino (Watson 1985
text and translation). See Rodger 1972, 38-89 and Frier 1980, 38-39. See also Watts 1987, 239-242 for an
assessment of lighting conditions in Roman houses.
224 Var. L. 8.29: In edificiis, quom non videamus habere atrium #$%ί,)-.!+ similitudinem et cubiculum
ad equile, [quod] tamen propter utilitatem in his dissimilitudines potius quam similitudines sequimur: itaque et
hiberna triclinia et estiva non item valvata ac fenestrata facimus (Loeb text, author's translation).
225 Sen. Con. 4b.13.7: Itaque quamvis cenationem velis ac specularibus muniant et igne multo doment hiemam,
nihilominus stomachus ille solutus et aestu suo languidus quaerit aliquid quo erigatur (Loeb text and translation).
226 Suet. Vit. 8.2 mentions a fire caused by an overturned hearth in the newly-acclaimed emperor's dining
room in Lower Germany in early January. The same author, Tib. 74.1, describes a brazier in the emperor's
dining room on Capri during the month of March. Sidon. Ep. 2.2.11 specifically describes a winter dining
room (hiemale ticlinium) stained with the soot of a vaulted fireplace (arcuatili camino).
102