The Domus of Apuleius at Ostia Antica: a Private Space in a central point of Public Life

The domus of Apuleio is placed in the II Regio of Ostia Antica (II VIII,5), in a central point of the colony's public life. It is an important example of transformation from a sacred space into a private one and of a constant relationship between public and private use. The domus was build indeed during the II a.D. on the north-east side of the Quattro Tempietti Repubblicani, a sacred area delimited on the south by the urban decumano massimo, easterly by the theatre and the Piazzale delle Corporazioni, northerly by the Mitreo delle Sette Sfere and westerly by the Grandi Horrea. The domus occupied a particular section of the original temenos of the Quattro Tempietti which was this way covered and defunctionalized. The little space and the architectural preexistences influenced the planimetrical development of the domus, which was build with a unusual L's form. The literary, stratigraphical and archaeological studies, helped by the 3D reconstruction of the monument, allowed to make light on the continuous interaction, both in structural and urbanistic terms, between the domus and the private life inside and the sector of the Quattro Tempietti and the Theatre outside. These interactions are mainly expressed by the presence of restructuring phases, proved by the presence of various kinds of masonry, different elevations of the ground level and changed routes, which affected the entire area. Clear examples for this state are the various openings linking the domus, the sacred area and the Mitreo delle Sette Sfere and the inclusion of the domus in the system of distance of the theater, being aligned with the aditus maximus scene. These and other factors have made it possible to relate the private life that took place within the domus with the public life on the outside.