Editing Roman villa (section)

==Typology and distribution==
{{See also|Villa Rustica|Latifundium|Otium|l3=Villa Otium}}

The present meaning of "villa" is partially based on the fairly numerous ancient Roman written sources and on archaeological remains, though many of these are poorly preserved.<ref>Eeva-Maria Viitanen: Locus Bonus – the relationship of the roman villa to its environment in thE vicinity of Rome. ISBN 978-952-10-6450-0 (PDF) http://ethesis.helsinki.i/
Helsinki University, 2010 p. 3</ref>

The most detailed ancient text on the meaning of "villa" is by [[Varro]]<ref>Varro, de Rustica, 3,2,3–17</ref> (116–27 BC) dating from the end of the Republican period, which is used for most modern considerations.<ref>Romizzi, L. 2001. Ville d’otium dell’Italia antica (II sec. a.C. – I sec. d.C.). Aucnus X. p 29–32</ref> But Roman authors (e.g. [[Columella]]<ref>Columella, de Re Rustica</ref> [4-70 AD], [[Cato the Elder]]<ref>Cato, De Agri Cultura</ref> [234-149 BC]) wrote in different times, with different objectives and for aristocratic readers and hence had specific interpretations of ''villa''.<ref>Laura Tedeschi. Ville romane tardoantiche della regione Marche, Master's thesis submitted to obtain the degree of Master in Archeology 2013-2014 https://www.academia.edu/19881526/Ville_romane_tardoantiche_della_regione_Marche</ref>

The Romans built many kinds of villas and any country house with some decorative features in the Roman style may be called a "villa" by modern scholars.<ref>Marzano, Annalisa. 2007. Roman Villas in Central Italy: A Social and Economic History. Leiden and Boston: Brill. p 3-5</ref><ref>''The Cambridge Ancient History'' volume XIV. Late Antiquity: Empire and Successors A.D. 425-600. Edited by Averil Cameron, Bryan Ward-Perkins, and Michael Whitby. Cambridge University Press 2000. {{ISBN|978-0-521-32591-2}}. Part III East and West: Economy and Society. Chapter 12. Land, labour, and settlement, by Bryan Ward-Perkins. Page 333.</ref> 

Three kinds of villas were generally described:
* the ''villa urbana'' (e.g. Pliny's villa at [[Laurentum]]),<ref>Pliny epistulae 2.17</ref> or ''villa suburbana'' (according to Columella<ref>Columella, 1.1.19</ref>), an estate with little or no agriculture situated in the country, in the suburbs of a town or within close vicinity to a city; and 
* the ''[[villa rustica]]'' (Pliny's villa ''[[Roman Villa of Pliny "in Tuscis"|in Tuscis]]''),<ref>Pliny epistulae 5.6</ref> a [[farmhouse]] estate usually associated with small-scale agriculture or viticulture.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), VILLA |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0063:entry=villa-cn |access-date=2023-08-16 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Roman domestic architecture (villa) (article) |url=https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ancient-art-civilizations/roman/x7e914f5b:beginner-guides-to-roman-architecture/a/roman-domestic-architecture-villa |access-date=2023-08-16 |website=Khan Academy |language=en}}</ref>
* the ''villa marittima'', usually near the sea or river.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Villa Marittima Romana (article) |url=http://www.prolocominori.it/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/villa_marittima_romana_English.htm |access-date=1 March 2025 |website= |language=en}}</ref>
Other examples of ''villae urbanae'' were the middle and late Republican villas that encroached on the [[Campus Martius]], at that time on the edge of Rome, the one at Rome's [[Parco della Musica]]<ref name="CarandiniD'Alessio2006">{{cite book|author1= Andrea Carandini|author2= Maria Teresa D'Alessio|author3= Helga Di Giuseppe|title= La fattoria e la villa dell'Auditorium nel quartiere Flaminio di Roma|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=iWx6Bbj4W9sC|year=2006|publisher= L'ERMA di BRETSCHNEIDER|isbn= 978-88-8265-406-1}}</ref> or at Grottarossa in Rome, and those outside the city walls of [[Pompeii]] which demonstrate the antiquity and heritage of the ''villa urbana'' in Central Italy.<ref>N. Terrenato, 2001, "The Auditorium site and the origins of the Roman villa", ''Journal of Roman Archaeology'' 14, 5-32.</ref>

Other type of villa was a large commercial estate called ''[[latifundium]]'' which produced and exported agricultural produce; such villas might lack luxuries (e.g. Cato) but many were very sumptuous (e.g. Varro).

The whole estate of a villa was also called a ''praedium'',<ref>Columella, 1.1.19</ref> ''fundus'' or sometimes, ''rus''.

A ''villa rustica'' had 2 or 3 parts:<ref>Laura Tedeschi. Ville romane tardoantiche della regione Marche, Master's thesis submitted to obtain the degree of Master in Archeology 2013-2014 https://www.academia.edu/19881526/Ville_romane_tardoantiche_della_regione_Marche p 17</ref><ref name="McKay1998">{{cite book|author=Alexander G. McKay|title=Houses, Villas, and Palaces in the Roman World|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780801859045|url-access=registration|date=1 May 1998|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=978-0-8018-5904-5|pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780801859045/page/246 246]–}}</ref>
* ''pars urbana''; residential part for the owner
* ''pars rustica''; service, farm personnel and livestock section run by a ''villicus'' or farm manager 
* sometimes a separate ''pars fructaria''<ref>Columella I.4 § 6</ref> for production and storage of oil, wine, grain, grapes etc..

Under the Empire, many [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|patrician]] villas were built on the coasts (''villae maritimae''<ref>Comelius Nepos, Atticus, 25.14.3.</ref>) such as those on picturesque sites overlooking the [[Bay of Naples]] like the [[Villa of the Papyri]] at [[Herculaneum]], or on the isle of [[Capri]], at [[Circeii]] and at [[Antium]].{{citation needed|date=May 2016}} Wealthy Romans also escaped the summer heat in the hills within easy reach of [[Rome]], especially around [[Frascati]] and including the imperial [[Hadrian's Villa]]-palace at [[Tivoli, Italy|Tivoli]]. [[Cicero]] allegedly possessed no fewer than seven villas, the oldest of them, which he inherited, near [[Arpinum]] in Latium. [[Pliny the Younger]] had three or four which are well known from his descriptions.

By the 4th century, "villa" could simply connote an agricultural holding: [[Jerome]] translated in the [[Gospel of Mark]] (xiv, 32) ''chorion'', describing the olive grove of [[Gethsemane]], with villa, without an inference that there were any dwellings there at all.<ref>{{Catholic |prescript= |title=Gethsemane}}</ref>