Edilizia residenziale e società urbana

The development of the studies on Late Antique houses is not yet adequate to the potentialities: this depends also on the lack of new systematic archaeological researches. Recently, the documentation and the methodological widening on this subject however increased, and new researches in different areas of Late Antique empire, as far as in Southern Italy, have improved the opportunities of comparison and discussion. It is important to consider the differences between urban and rural settlements and to examine in detail the complex history of the sites; all these aspects must be connected to the houses, in order to understand their typology and social meaning. This paper examines some aspects of the private architecture, also considering the relationship with the different urban contexts: from the simple, small houses, to the most wide and complex buildings, in towns which have a significant social range. The adhesion to an aristocratic expressive language seems to be a distinctive element in the characterization of some important towns also in Southern Italy, with a variety of situations and contexts that correspond to a social multiplicity.