Mikra theatra. Criteri esegetici per l’identificazione dei luoghi dell’insegnamento domestico tra il II e il VI sec. d.C.

Teaching inside private houses was very common during Late Antiquity among rhetoricians, philosophers and Christians. Despite the great quantity of literary sources that attest to household lessons, the identification of domus used for this purpose is not easy. Archaeological evidence is scanty, as the furniture was often of perishable material. Furthermore sources, although abundant, do not lead to any sure identification. My aim is to establish some criteria useful to concretely assume the teaching activity inside private houses. To this purpose, I will first examine the archaeological material detecting domestic teaching or the holding of intellectual activities; then I will examine those houses wherein a teaching activity can be retained as sure (or very likely), starting from Late Hellenism (Pompei, Velia) to Late Antiquity (Aphrodisias; Rome, house of Agapitus; Egypt, Trimithis). Additionally, I will discuss why houses that have been considered to be seats of Late Antique schools (Apamea, maison de la Cathédrale de l’Est ; Baalbeck, Soueidié villa), must be regarded, instead, as incerta exempla. In particular, it will be pointed out how the apsidal hall, which has been often regarded as indicative of domestic teaching (Athens, houses on the Areopagus), is not decisive to this regard, whereas the decoration instead appears to be functional to such kind of activity. In most cases, in fact, the interpretation as house/school is mainly based on decorative elements (sculptures or paintings) or inscriptions on the walls, whereas the planimetric features are quite unspecific. Nevertheless, the decoration alone is not a definitive argument, but it requires the support of other elements. Based on the features common to certain cases, a preliminary list of criteria is provided. Despite the partiality of the results, this study wants to represent a first step towards the identification of places which were fundamental in the transmission of socio-cultural contents to the arising Medieval world.