The public-private continuum: on the issue of indicators of transformation of the principate

The article examines the relationship between the transformation of the political system, values and usages of the ancient Roman elite in the era of the Principate, on the one hand, and the structure of the space of a private estate, on the other. The 1st-4th centuries AD are taken as a time period. Based on the results of the analysis of the structure of the villas of the early Principate and the late Empire, the author concludes that by the end of the Principate, the clear zoning of space and the visual axis, which previously served as a demonstration of the prospects for social (client) mobility within the framework of political communication, disappeared. - the visitor", but with the concentration of power in the hands of the princeps, it has lost its meaning, and therefore villa owners are increasingly turning to the use of lateral axes expressing other political and cultural meanings, or completely refuse to introduce any gradation into the villas within the framework of a public-private gradient.