The description of residential buildings in the past is made possible by
studying the physical structure of the preserved architectural and movable
archaeological finds, and also by the analysis of the written (epigraphic and
numismatic) material findings, as well as the analysis of the written
literary works which, through the author’s subjectivity, documented the
social life. That is why the knowledge of the classical antiquity
construction handbooks can only contribute to the understanding of the
architecture, housing conditions, and thus facilitate the reconstruction of
the ancient houses. Works about residential buildings by Columella, Vitruvius
and Faventinus, three authors from different periods of the mature antiquity,
are fully preserved. This paper presents the results of a comparative
analysis of their works, which indicate that the recommendations for
determining the properties of various functional units within the residential
building were similar over a longer period of time observed here
