At the end of the Republic, the Roman Empire reached a geographical extent that encompassed very different cultural areas, which had an impact on the typology and functions of the houses in the various regions of the Mediterranean. In the impossibility of giving an overall view, and leaving for the same reason the western provinces, North Africa and the Levant aside, we will evoke, after a look at the description of the urban house in Vitruvius, some examples of Pompeii before focusing on some houses in the eastern provinces, especially in Greece and Asia Minor, to measure the impact or not of the Romans in the private architecture. It turns out that the latter is quite limited, and that the integration of the atrium is rather a reference than a structural element of the houses with the peristyle remaining the central element. The study is completed with an excursus on some late antique houses in Athens.