VILLA
A Latin word signifying a property in the country, consisting of a block of buildings for habitation and for domestic purposes. With the decline of agriculture and with the growing preference in favour of country-houses, there arose he distinction between villa rustica and villa urbana. The former served for agricultural purposes; the latter, so called because built in the town style of architecture, only for pleasure. Many villas were designed only for one of the two objects, others were built for both. The villa rustica included apartments for the vilicus, or steward (a trustworthy slave or freedman, who had to superintend money-matters), the book-keeper (actor), and the slaves, stalls, and store-rooms. In the erection of the villa urbana, efforts were made to unite the charm of beautiful landscape with the greatest comfort and convenience, and to procure advantages which a house in the town hemmed in on all sides by other houses could not always afford. It contained separate rooms and colonnades for summer and winter, the former facing the north, the latter the south; baths, rooms set apart for physical exercises, library, and art collections. Outside were parks, preserves, fish-ponds, aviaries, etc. Towards the end of the Republic, and still more under the Empire, luxury in such establishments reached its highest point. [In Pliny's Letters, v 6, we have an elaborate description of his Tuscan villa; and, in ii 17, a minute account of his villa at Laurentum, on the coast of Latium. The accompanying cuts give a view of a villa marina (fig. 1) and a ground-plan of a villa suburbana (fig. 2)].
Pictures and Media
VILLA MARINA. (Mural painting from Pompeii; Gell and Gandy's Pompeiana, pl. 60.)
PLAN OF VILLA SUBURBANA of M. ArviuS Diomedis (Donaldson's Pompeii, ii 1). 1, door. 2, peristylium. 3, tablinum. 4, gallery. 5, oecus. 6, court. 7, cryptoporticus. 8, triangular court with cold batb. 9, tepidarium. 10, colidarium. 11, bedroom. 12, staircase leading to lower story.