Private Houses at Antioch
Location
Location Description
Antioch on the Orontes was founded by the Macedonian general Seleucus I as the capital of his Syrian empire, following the breakup of Alexander's empire (ca. 300 BCE). He selected the site at the edge of the fertile Amuk Plain at the crossroads of important trade routes linking Syria with Palestine, the Mediterranean, and Asia Minor. Antioch was also the capital of the Roman province of Syria, annexed in 64 BCE. In the Augustan period Strabo (16.2.5) compares Antioch favorably to Alexandria in power and size. It was built along the banks of the River Orontes below the craggy heights of Mount Silpios. Because of its advantageous location, Antioch became a cultural, religious, and commercial center in the Roman period. The presence of an imperial residence, as well as buildings for the staging of athletic contests modeled after the Olympic Games, a sanctuary of Apollo, and thermal spa at Daphne, contributed to its renown in the ancient world.
Garden
Private Houses at Antioch
Keywords
- courtyards (uncovered spaces)AAT:300004095
- fountainsAAT:300006179
- mosaics (visual works)AAT:300015342
- statuesAAT:300047600
- water features (landscaping)AAT:300180674
Garden Description
The most significant finds from the international excavations conducted from 1932 to 1939 were the many houses built in and around the city center, on the surrounding terraces of the mountain slopes, in the suburb of Daphne, and in the port of Seleucia Pieria. Scores of floor mosaics dating from the second to the sixth centuries CE paved these houses and brought the private lives of the elite into focus. Although no gardens have been excavated in Antioch, the examination of the figural mosaics, statuary, and the fragmentary remains of house plans suggest that there were private gardens.
During the hot summer months, the wealthy citizens of Antioch retired to Daphne, a settlement on a plateau overlooking the plain of Antioch about five miles south, for cooler breezes and its refreshing springs (Lib. Ep. 419). The suburb was admired for its "varied gardens and charming inns and an abundance of springs and houses hidden in trees and chambers which rise above the groves and luxurious baths…" (Lib. Or. 11.234). The excavations revealed the remains of houses that were richly decorated with mosaics, pools, and fountains. The fact that Daphne was the source for the water carried by two aqueducts to Antioch allowed for a generous use of water in private houses. As in Pompeii, pools and fountains seem to form the natural focal point of house designs. We turn to Libanius, a rhetorician from fourth century CE Antioch, for confirmation of the archaeological evidence: "One can judge the wealth of our waters by the number of the houses, since there are as many fountains as there are houses, or rather there are many fountains in each house" (Lib. Or. 11.246).
Unfortunately, the houses of Antioch were incompletely excavated and their state of preservation makes it difficult to distinguish the boundaries of individual houses or even the entrances into rooms. This leaves many questions, including the evidence for gardens, unanswered. The third century CE House of Menander at Daphne provides the most complete plan from Antioch, but it can only hint at the possibility of a garden (Fig. 1). The most typical feature of Antiochene houses is the sequential arrangement of the dining room, columned court, and fountain or pool (e.g., House of Menander, House of the Boat of the Psyches, House of the Drinking Contest). A similar alignment of spaces occurs in the House of Bacchus and Ariadne in Thuburbo Maius, modern Tunisia, where the diners could look out from two different dining rooms through a columned screen to a mosaic basin and beyond into a garden area (one is a peristyle garden; the other is a courtyard garden) where evidence of plantings was found. It would seem from such parallels, including the evidence of many excavated gardens in Pompeii, that plantings in the peristyles and courts were closely aligned with dining vistas and water features. One might reasonably conjecture that the courtyards and pseudo-peristyle areas with fountains and pools in the House of Menander at Daphne contained potted plants. As most of the areas of the excavated houses at Antioch were paved with mosaic, it seems less likely that there were open soil areas for plantings of evergreen trees as found in Pompeii, such as the House of Polybios. However, given the nearby topos of the cypress-filled grove of Daphne with its gurgling thermal springs and the original laurel bush (see Sacred Grove at Daphne), it is not difficult to imagine greenery inserted into the courtyards and areas accented by niched fountains and pools in the Antiochene houses.
Dates
second to the sixth centuries CE
Bibliography
- G. Downey, A History of Antioch in Syria from Seleucus to the Arab Conquest, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961
- J. Lassus, "La Mosaique de Yakto, " in eds. R. Stillwell, G.W. Elderkin, F.O. Waagé and D.B. Waagé, Antioch-on-the-Orontes I, Princeton: Department of Art and Archaeology, 1934, pp. 128-136
- D. Levi, Antioch Mosaic Pavements, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1947, pp. 326-337, pl. 79-80
- E. Weber, Tabula Peutingeriana: Codex Vindobanensis 324, Graz: Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, 1976, p. 18.