A domus was the form of house that wealthy families owned in ancient Rome and almost all the major cities of the Empire. (The middle classes and the poor were housed in crowded apartment blocks, known as insulae). The domus included multiple rooms, and an indoor courtyard: the atrium, which was the focal point of the domus, off which were cubicula (bedrooms), an altar to the household gods, a triclinium where guests could lie on couches and eat dinner whilst reclining, and a tablinum (living room or study) and shops on the outside, facing the street.