Roman villas and social differentiation

In Classical Archaeology studies, Latin word villa has been generally meant to indicate an architectural model for rural and/or extra-urban private estates, developed since late republican era (end of 3rd / beginning of 2nd century BC) in Roman Italy and connected with rural exploitation based on slave labour. In particular, Roman Villa became a standard type of building composed by the axial nucleus of an atrium house (pars urbana) joint to a distinct part e devoted to food production (oil and wine presses, store rooms and so forth), animal breeding (such as stables) and slave compounds (pars rustica). Such an idea has been challenged by a recent discovery in the northern part of Roman Suburbium: the so called Auditorium Villa, which represents one of the most interesting and discussed archaeological discovery in Rome during the last few years. The paper will focus on earlier phases of this building (mid 6th to the end of 4th century BC) when a small archaic farm (300 m2) has been destroyed and replaced around 500 BC by a much more substantial building (600 m2). Size, distribution and possible functions of rooms and/or larger parts of the building allow us to identify, even at such an early stage in roman architecture, different spaces reserved to different social groups/entities: a residential quarter (pars urbana), a productive area (pars rustica) and possible slave compound