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The House of Orpheus at Nea Paphos in Cyprus, a multiphase residential complex excavated a few decades ago, is the subject of an on-going study within the framework of a new project. Recently, the bath suite in the north-eastern part of the house was analysed in detail and this has led to a better understanding of the baths’ layout and technology (such as the water management and heating system), features that confirm the adoption of the western/Italian model, while some of the details remained typical of the Eastern Mediterranean.

Cyprus and Cyrenaica, two regions strongly influenced by the Alexandrian cultural heritage, which came under the Roman rule already in the 1st century BC, are simultaneously both typical and unusual examples of acculturation understood as a mixture of Hellenistic and Roman components. This is reflected in various spheres of life, including the architecture of the houses owned by members of the urban elite which are investigated in this article. Two residential units – the House of Leukaktios at Ptolemais in Cyrenaica and the House of Orpheus at Nea Paphos in Cyprus – will be presented to discuss different attitudes towards Romanisation from the perspective of an individual as reflected by particular dwellings.

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