THE HOUSE OF THE RICH MAN, IN TOWN AND COUNTRY We saw that the poorer classes in Rome were lodged in huge _insulae_, and enjoyed nothing that can be called home life.

The wealthy families, on the other hand, lived in _domus_, i.e.separate dwellings, accommodating only one family, often, even in the Ciceronian period, of great magnificence.

But even these great houses hardly suggest a life such as that which we associate with the word home.

As Mr.Tucker has pointed out in the case of Athens,[375] the warmer climates of Greece and Italy encouraged all classes to spend much more of their time out of doors and in public places than we do; and the rapid growth of convenient public buildings, porticoes, basilicas, baths, and so on, is one of the most striking features in the history of the city during the last two centuries B.C.

Augustus, part of whose policy it was to make the city population comfortable and contented, carried this tendency still further, and under the Empire the town house played quite a subordinate part in Roman social life.