Lares and Penates.
9. The floors of these rooms were sometimes, but not often, laid with boards, and generally were formed of stones, tiles, bricks, or some sort of cement. In the richer dwellings they were often inlaid with mosaics of elegant patterns. The walls were often faced with marble, but they were usually adorned with paintings; the ceilings were left uncovered, the beams supporting the floor or the roof above being visible, though it was frequently arched over. The means of lighting either by day or night, were defective. The atrium was, as we have seen, lighted from above, and the same was true of other apartments, those at the side being illuminated from the larger ones in the middle of the house. There were windows, however, in the upper stories, though they were not protected by glass, but covered with shutters or lattice-work, and, at a later period, were glazed with sheets of mica. Smoking lamps, hanging from the ceiling or supported by candelabra, or candles gave a gloomy light by night in the houses, and torches without.
10. The sun was chiefly depended upon for heat, for there were no proper stoves, though braziers were used to burn coals upon, the smoke escaping through the aperture in the ceiling, and, in rare cases, hot-air furnaces were constructed below, the heat being conveyed to the upper rooms through pipes. There has been a dispute regarding chimneys, but it seems almost certain that the Romans had none in their dwellings, and indeed, there was little need of them for purposes of artificial warmth in so moderate a climate as theirs.
11. Such were some of the chief traits of the city-houses of the Romans. Besides these there were villas in the country, some of which were simply farm-houses, and others places of rest and luxury supported by the residents of cities. The farm-villa was placed, if possible, in a spot secluded from visitors, protected from the severest winds, and from the malaria of marshes, in a well-watered place, near the foot of a well-wooded mountain. It had accommodations for the kitchen, the wine-press, the farm superintendent, the slaves, the animals, the crops, and the other products of the farm. There were baths, and cellars for the wine and for the confinement of the slaves who might have to be chained.
Roman Villa.
12. Varro thus describes life at a rural household: "Manius summons his people to rise with the sun, and in person conducts them to the scene of their daily work. The youths make their own bed, which labor renders soft to them, and supply themselves with water-pot, and lamp. Their drink is the clear fresh spring; their fare bread, with onions as a relish. Everything prospers in house and field. The house is no work of art, but an architect might learn symmetry from it. Care is taken of the field that it shall not be left disorderly, and waste or go to ruin through slovenliness or neglect; and in return, grateful Ceres wards off damage from the produce, that the high-piled sheaves may gladden the heart of the husbandman. Here hospitality still holds good, the bread-pantry, the wine-vat, and the store of sausages on the rafter, lock and key are at the service of the traveler, and piles of food are set before him; contented, the sated guest sits, looking neither before him, nor behind, dozing by the hearth in the kitchen. The warmest double wool sheepskin is spread as a couch for him. Here people still, as good burgesses, obey the righteous law which neither out of envy injures the innocent, nor out of favor pardons the guilty. Here they speak no evil against their neighbors. Here they trespass not with their feet on the sacred hearth, but honor the gods with devotion and with sacrifices; throw to the familiar spirit his little bit of flesh into his appointed little dish, and when the master of the household dies accompany the bier with the same prayer with which those of his father and of his grandfather were borne forth."