The social-economic history of Cremona in the Roman Age is well represented by its private and public buildings. The public buildings represent what the political authority wants to express from the ideological point of view, not only at local level but also directly to Rome; the private buildings, instead, tend to underline the prestige of the élites among the pares and towards the clientes.
We do not have any data about the houses in the very first part of the town’s history, but we can imagine they were simple buildings made in wood and ground, with floors in clay and ceilings made in marsh plants.
There are also some remains dating back to the second half of the second century b.C. and belonging to the domus in Colletta Street, with a very beautiful floor in decorated opus signinum and a wall with a painted decoration in the internal part.
More or less at the half of the 1st Century b.C., the renovation in the private buildings is testified by the remains of some domus with floors in opus signinum, while only in the first part of the imperial age it is introduced the use of mosaics, prestigious frescos, architectonic elements in stone, open spaces with columns, gardens with statues and furniture in marble, nymphaeums (monumental fountain).
In the 2nd Century a.C are preferred the apsidal spaces and the polichrome mosaic floors with complex geometrical patterns. The painted plasters are the only remains of the period between the end of the 3rd and the beginning of the 4th century a.C.
The Nymphaeum domus
Several remains safeguarded in the Museum come from the current excavations in the place where it was located the Nymphaeum domus in Marconi Square: an extraordinary example of the private houses’ complex plan.
The domus occupied half of the urban insula (m80 x m80), developed with a strong spectacular impact, on different terraced levels and distributed around open spaces with columns. Two of them hosted gardens with great water pools and a monumental nymphaeum. There was also an upper floor with its cubicula and the triclinium and a wonderful viewpoint on the river Po. On the other hand, at the ground floor there were the kitchens, the cupboards and the other service rooms.
Some of the rooms or of the arcades which lean out on the garden were painted with pictures of shrubs, flowers and birds.
The garden was the center of the house, a peaceful place to enjoy a relaxing moment. This was the perfect place to boast the prestige of the house’s owner, with the spectacular water features in the pools and fountains.
In Summer, when the weather was cool and pleasant, it was normal having dinner near the peaceful nymphaeum.
The furniture
The Roman furniture was made up of few elements: beds (in the triclinium or cubicula), tables and night tables, stools and chairs, wardrobes and dressers. They were mainly made in wood, a perishable material which generally does not resist for long. However, they were decorated with elements in bronze, in precious metals and sometimes in bones: we found plenty of these materials in the Nymphaeum domus.
There were also several wall lamps, representing the gods or animals’ busts/heads. They were put in the final part of the beds or of the cases. The cases, like the wardrobes or the doors, had specific locking systems with keys; for the jewelry boxes the keys could be mounted on the rings. In the Roman house the oil lamps (mainly made in clay) enlightened the rooms.
The dining room and the food
Enlightened by the light of the oil lamp and of the candelabra, in the elegant atmosphere of the dining room (triclinium), the Romans enjoyed their dinner in a relaxed and calm atmosphere. The domus in Cremona show several examples of what it was necessary to present, cook and store the food. On the table there was the ministerium, it means the tableware: it was made up of vases in clay and, sometimes, in glass or in precious or not precious metal. Precious objects could arrive from important production centers, even very far away. Also some specific food could arrive from abroad: the dates were quite rare in the North of Italy, especially in the urban context, but we found plenty of them in the Nymphaeum domus.
Definitely more common were the beans and the dried cereals, which were stored in big dolia in clay, sometimes partially buried to maintain a constant temperature. The wine, instead, was mainly stored in casks made in wood. The foodstuffs to be merchandised (wine, oil, fish sauces, honey, olives and fruit) were transported in the amphora by sea or by river. These containers, closed with corks or terracotta caps, had a narrow mouth, two strong handles, a wide body (completely covered by water-proof resins) and a bottom with a metal point to be orderly put in the boats’ hold; sometimes they were covered with a mesh in straw. Once arrived, the food was decanted in smaller containers while in the houses it was usually stored in olle in clay or glass, cullei in leather and baskets.
Worship and superstition
The life of the Romans was influence by the religious rites. Before the beginning of the house’s construction works, some propitiatory rites dedicated to the deities were generally performed. It was buried, for example, a ritual object.
The power of the words and of the ill omen was expressed in the defixiones, the famous metal boards containing old imprecations.
In the house, the Lararia were the spaces dedicated to the worship of the forefathers, where the people pray to ask for health, prosperity and success. The chapels hosted the statues of several different Gods who were offered some goods placed on small mobile altars or on altars made in bricks.
