Modi di abitare, tipi e varianti: alcune riflessioni sulla cultura abitativa ellenistico-romana in Sicilia

Abstract

After a brief survey on the previous studies on the Sicilian domestic architecture of the hellenistic and Roman periods, this paper questions the idea of a continuous development of the Greek house's central space, from the simple court to the peristyle, as well as the opposition between “centripetal”and “axial” (i.e. the Greek peristyle house and the Roman atrium house). This rigid distinction doesn't take in account the existence of an hybrid form of the court that doesn't fit well in these comfortable cathegories: the “tetrastylon”. Sicilian houses are reconsidered in order to establish if this and other single houses' features can be labelled as “Punic”, “Greek” or “Roman” or if this is possible just for their whole plan. These houses also reveal what the eventual presence of “Roman” elements into a “Greek” house can tell us about the house's owners in terms of cultural identity: if Greek citzens influenced by the Roman culture or Romans living in a Greek city according with their own way of life.