Ancient Roman Apartment Living

Two weeks ago, I shared about several beautiful spaces inside Roman homes. However, only about 2% of the population in Rome got to live in such splendor. Most people lived in squalor in high-risk areas that were often fire hazards. The Roman plebs (common people) mostly lived in insulae, which were huge apartment buildings that could be five stories high or more.

In the late Republic, a minor character from Son of Rome, Marcus Licinius Crassus, owned quite a few of these high-rise rental properties in Rome. However, had he lived today, Crassus would have had plenty of complaints on the BBB website. Cicero insinuated that Crassus liked it whenever one of these buildings would collapse or burn, since newer insulae could bring in higher rents.

Most insulae weren't even "condos made of stone-uh" as Steve Martin sang about, but were flimsily built of wood, stucco, mud brick, or later, cheap concrete. Street-level stories contained shops and shopkeepers who owned these businesses typically lived right above their workplaces. Third stories and above were reserved for the poorest families, with the smallest apartment rooms on the very top stories. Keep in mind that none of these apartments were well-ventilated and those in upper stories may not have even had actual doors. There have been insulae discovered that were plumbed, but again--it was doubtful that the poorest plebs in the upper stories ever benefited from these amenities. 

Some of the first building regulations were placed on insulae in the early Empire, under Augustus. Then, after the Great Fire of Rome during Nero's rule, he forbade insulae higher than sixty feet. Still, the quality of insulae up through the 1st century AD was questionable. In the late Republic, collapses and fires were common. And this was before any organized police or fire brigades existed in Rome. Most of the best examples of insulae that have survived to the present were built in the 3rd cent. AD or later and are of fired brick. Because of the flimsy nature of insulae during the late Republic and early Empire, it's really no wonder that none of these structures from those periods have survived. ​

Interestingly enough, the Latin term insula meant "island", but the word had a second definition: city block. 

​

These sturdy, brick and concrete insulae date from the later Empire and were much safer to live in (Ostia Antica). Some would even have little courtyards with fountains.

 This is an example of a food stand beneath an insula(Pompeii). Most of the poorer plebs that lived within would buy cheap meals at small "tavernas" like this one. Perhaps the Romans invented fast-food!

---