[4] Images #5 - #8: beyond the ātrium are two further main areas of the house:
[i] tablīnum, -ī [2/n]: the ‘study’; the office in
a Roman house, where the owner would receive his clients.
The tablīnum was separated from the ātrium by
curtains and, in image #6, partitioned from the peristȳlium by wooden
sliding doors.
These are “standard” explanations. However, when researching,
we must be careful not to make too many assumptions:
Tablinum was in all probability a recess or room at the
farther end of the atrium opposite the door leading into the hall, and was
regarded as part of the atrium. It contained the family records and archives
(Vitruv. vi. 4 and 8). It appears, from the houses of Pompeii, to have
been separated not by a door, but simply by a curtain or velum, while it had a
door at the back leading into the peristylium.” (Thurston Peck)
“It is very difficult to assign the correct position of the
tablinum, nor are we acquainted with any passage containing information on the
subject.” (Becker)
While Vitruvius refers to it, he does not clearly define its
position, and it is not mentioned by any other Roman authors beyond:
Tablīnum proximē ātrium locus dīcitur (Festus)
The place nearest the atrium is called the tablinum.
Festus goes on to explain that the name refers to the place
where records of accounts were kept on tablets (tabulae).
[ii] images #7 and #8: peristȳlium, -ī [2/n]: an internal ‘peristyle’ garden surrounded by colonnades; within the garden there could also be a piscīna, -ae [1/f]: (fish) pond; pool
[5] āla, -ae [1/f]
[i] the wing (of an animal)
[ii] usually in the plural (ālae, -ārum): the wings of a house; two small quadrangular apartments or recesses on the left and right sides of the ātrium
INTERIOR OF A ROMAN HOUSE, showing:
[1] ātrium
[2] ālae
[3] compluvium
[4] impluvium
[5] faucēs
[6] tablīnum
[7] peristȳlium
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