Pompeii

1
Pompeii

• Sources
• The Destruction of Pompeii Herculaneum by C.A.R
  Hills
• Antiquity 1 by
• Unlocking the Past by

2
What has the discovery of Pompeii Herculaneum
told us about ancient life?
3
Historical evidence

• They bare whole towns with 2 storeyed buildings
  in tact.
• Pots and jugs still in the kitchen
• Meals still waiting on tables.
• Historical records tend to only recount the
  activities of the rich BUT Pompeii gives us
  evidence of how the ordinary people lived.
• Very little of private houses left in Rome but
  here in P and H many private houses and streets
  remain.

4
The city

• The following buildings/amenities have been
  excavatedforumtemplestheatresamphitheatrespub
  lic bathspalaestrashopsprivate dwellings
• Walled city with 8 gates
• Streets paved and guttered with a good water
  supply

5
The Forum
6
The Forum pavement
7
Basilica a public building
8
Basilica in Herculaneum, Hercules and Telephus
with Arcadia
9
The Forum baths
10
Cork model of the Forum
11
Gladiator barracks
12
Temple of Apollo - podium
13
Homes domus

• Usually the wealthy
• Ornately decorated usually
• Might stay in the one family for generations
• Typically faced inwards
• Very plain looking from the outside
• Designed for security, privacy and peace quiet
• Few windows to the streets
• Main hall atrium was fed light by opening in
  roof
• Often 2 storeys
• Greek influence shown by peristyles, large open
  colonnaded courtyards at the back of the house
• These were often embellished with statues,
  fountains gardens

14
Fountain - House of Fontana Grande
15
Homes cont..

• Homes for the poor might have been over a shop.
  Ostia has good examples of this type of housing
  At the time of the eruption many larger houses
  had been divided into a number of smaller flats
• People tended to live in insulae large blocks
• Some houses split into flats for several families
  especially during the last ears before 79AD
• No residential area
• 800 house have been excavated at Pompeii
• The best 50-room mansions of 2000 square metres
  down to homes of only a few rooms

16
Insula of Julia Felix
17
Homes features of a wealthy home

• The houses of Pompeii were exquisitely designed.
  The size and décor of your house usually depended
  on how rich you were.
• The houses in Pompeii never had doorsteps but
  they always had gardens. The gardens were usually
  full of brightly coloured flowers and beautiful
  green trees.
• As soon as you walk in the door of a Pompeian
  house you are standing in the fauces. This is
  also known as the entrance hall. In older houses
  the fauces was usually divided into two. It was
  also sometimes used as a cloakroom the door posts
  in the fauces was beautifully decorated and the
  floor in a wealthy house would be covered with a
  mosaic

18
Heating hypocaust
19
Fauces -HouseofFaun
20
Homes cont.. features of a wealthy home

• If you walk through the fauces you arrive at the
  main room atrium, this was where guests were
  received. The atrium was covered by a roof which
  sloped downwards to allow rainwater to enter the
  impluvium. Every house had an impluvium this was
  a pool for rainwater that then carried the water
  down into a system for general use. In the corner
  of the atrium there was a lararium shrine for
  the household gods. The families would worship
  their household gods every morning and every
  evening.
• After the atrium, there was the tablinum. This
  was a room were all the business between the
  master of the house and his clients took place.
  The tablinum was divided from the atrium by
  curtains or a wooden screen. It opened out into
  the garden

21
Couch, from the House of Carbonized Furniture
22
Atrium from tablinum House of the Tragic Poet
23
Atrium from entrance House of the Tragic Poet
24
CompluviumHouse of the Tragic Poet
25
Homes cont.. features of a wealthy home

• Next to the tablinum was the triclinum, which was
  also known as the winter dining room. This room
  had three large couches with cushions and also
  with niches in the walls for supporting extra
  wooden couches. Each couch was allocated to
  certain people e.g. The first couch was occupied
  by the master of the house and the chief guest
  was seated on the middle couch.  
• At the back of the house was the summer dining
  room also known as the triclinium this room
  opened out into the garden. The couches in this
  room were in the shape of a three-sided square.
  Opening out into the garden was broad windows,
  and in the garden there were stone couches that
  would not rot in the rain.

26
Tablinum House of Faun
27
Triclinum Tragic Poet
28
Kitchen in the House of the Tragic Poet
29
Homes cont.. features of a wealthy home

• In a Pompeian house there was no set place for a
  kitchen but it was usually behind the atrium, the
  toilet was often next door or even inside the
  kitchen. The contents of the toilet drained off
  into a pit. Only public toilets had a sewage
  system.
• Then there was the peristylium, which was the
  garden. The surrounding walls of a Pompeian
  garden were painted with outdoor scenes. The most
  popular style garden was with a colonnade, which
  offered the people of the house some shade during
  summer.
• Pompeian houses were always painted white to keep
  them cool. Around a Pompeian there was always
  beautiful painting representing things like gods
  or there were usually a lot of paintings showing
  sexual scenes.
• Pompeian houses were beautifully built and
  decorated. The richer you were the more mosaics
  and paintings you had in your house.

30
Peristyle - House of Amorini Dorati
31
1st peristyle House of Faun
32
2nd peristyle House of Faun
33
Room off the peristyle House of Amorini Dorati
34
Religion- temples

• 10 excavated in Pompeii
• Two functions to house the gods and be a place
  for rituals to be carried out by the priests
• Not places of regular worship by the public
  except temple of Isis
• Temple of Apollo rebuilt and remodelled several
  times, and enlarged after 62AD
• Temple of Venus which had been destroyed in 62
  had only just begun to be rebuilt in 79
• When Pompeii became a Roman colony in 80BC the
  temple of Jupiter was converted to the temple of
  the Jupiter, Juno and Minerva it had not been
  repaired after 62
• 2 temples associated with imperial Roman rule
  were temples of Vespasian, and Fortuna Augusta

35
Temple of Jupiter
36
Religion

• At least 2 eastern religions practiced in Pompeii
  an ivory figurine of a Hindu fertility goddess,
  Lakshmi and a bronze bust of the near Eastern
  fertility goddess, Sabzias found
• Shrines altars also found on the streets, many
  at crossroads
• 1 shrine near a fountain on the Via
  dellAbondanza had the charred remains of a
  sacrifice made at the time of the eruption
• Images of gods were painted on the alls of shops
• In the temples rituals etc were carried by
  priests and priestesses
• Images of Venus found throughout Pompeii the
  goddess of love and success
• One aspiring politician wrote in graffiti, Vote
  for me and the Venus of Pompeii will bring
  success to everything you undertake

37
Temple of Apollo with altar
38
Religion- Temple of Isis

• Dedicated to the Egyptian god, Isis
• Worshippers of Isis met in then temple twice a
  day
• 1st in the morning celebrating the rising of the
  sun, the rebirth of Osiris
• 2nd in the early afternoon ceremony of water,
  where Nile water was blessed
• Badly damaged in 62 but fully rebuilt by
  freedman in the name of his son, N Popidius
  Celsinus
• Ceremonial objects found with skeletons
  suggesting the priests had fled Vesuvius with
  statues, a silver urn and other vessels

39
Religion- household

• Household religion was central to roman citizens
  at the time.
• Houses in Pompeii had small shrines lararium
• Each day offerings were made to the household
  gods
• After the earthquake of 62 most lararia were
  quickly restored
• In 79AD people fled with their lares as many
  lararia found without their lares as well as many
  being found in the streets near skeletons
• Vesta the goddess of the hearth fireplace
• Panates, guardian spirits of the pantry!!

40
Paintings

• Despite kitchens and bedrooms often being small
  even in the better houses, generally they were
  much more beautiful than modern houses.
• Floor mosaics, wall paintings decoration exist
  in abundance in Pompeii Herculaneum.
• Art historians are able to identify 4 styles of
  painting
• Most famous paintings at Pompeii are those of the
  Villa of Mysteries showing initiation ceremonies
  into the worship of the Greek god, Dionysius.
• These are great works of art BUT also very
  important historical documents.

41
Painting of Narcissus House of Loreius
Tiburtinus
42
Paintings cont.

• 4 main points about Roman wall painting
• Ancient houses were painted much more than today.
  Today we tend to think of individually
  commissioned murals as reserved for only the very
  rich yet in Pompeii and Herculaneum it was a
  daily occurrence.
• Quality varies from room to room. The more
  important, and therefore more highly visible and
  visited rooms, received better paintings.
• Paintings must be considered in the context of
  the architecture settings in which they occur.
  What was the function of the room? Was it well
  lit? How does it work with pavements? With
  furniture?
• Wall paintings are a measure of the artistic
  taste and social aspirations of the owner of the
  house.

43
Painting of the Poet House of Menander
44
Painting to right of fountain in the House of
Fontana Piccola
45
Paintings in the House of Ara Massima
46
Villa of Mysteries
47
Painting in the Villa of Mysteries
48
Streets

• Had raised pavements on either side
• Stepping stones placed at intervals so people
  could sidestep water and rubbish
• Streets were cobbled
• Evidence of many ruts in the streets from traffic
• Streets very narrow by modern standards
• Rarely more than 4 metres wide in Pompeii while
  those of Herculaneum were even narrow hardly wide
  enough for a chariot
• Most intersections had a public fountain with
  sculptured headstones

49
Pompeian Street
50
Villa of Mysteries room with frescoes
51
Another Pompeian street with stepping stones and
wheel ruts. NB how narrow they are!!
52
Shops Hotels etc

• Much evidence of shops, workshops, hotels,
  restaurants places of entertainment
• One hotel in Pompeii has a large dining room,
  kitchen and 6 bedrooms
• Some guest wrote their names in bedrooms
• Two friends, Lucius Primigenus, shared one room
  and 4 actors shred another
• Plenty of snack bars thermopolia in Pompeii
  you can still see food counters containers from
  which dishes were served
• No large scale industry nor factories in Pompeii
  but plenty of small scale business such as dry
  cleaners, bakers

53
Shop with wooden clothes press
54
Thermopolium fountain
55
Public buildings

• Amphitheatre the oldest surviving in the empire
  c 80BC
• Lacks the network of underground rooms found at
  the Colosseum in Rome
• Forum, temples, law courts, council offices,
  business headquarters
• One of the earliest buildings found in Pompeii
  was the Temple of Apollo 6th C BC
• A temple to a Greek god at this time suggests the
  early influence of Greek colonists

56
Fortified towns

• Pompeii has strong walls, towers and gates
• Earliest sections of wall date from 5th C BC
• 12 towers added in about 100BC
• Sulla besieged the town in 89 BC during the
  revolt of much of Italy against Rome in what has
  become known as the Social War socii is Latin
  for allies
• Herculaneum also had walls though les well
  preserved
• An indication of how peaceful the Roman empire
  had become is the existence of grand houses on
  the promontory overlooking the sea at Herculaneum
  often using parts of the defensive wall as sun
  terraces!!
• Cemeteries were outside the town gates by Roman
  custom

57
Graffiti

• This gives us a real insight into the real
  thoughts of the ordinary citizen, adult or child,
  of Pompeii
• Herculaneum a more dignified town!? had far
  less graffiti
• Much related to the annual March elections for
  town officials
• It is said of one candidate that he stands for
  good bread bonam panem fert
• Another said that Vibius Restitutus slept here
  alone and missed his dear Urbana!!!
• One girls rejects the overtures of Tertius
  because he is too ugly!
• Obscene graffiti is very common, both
  heterosexual and homosexual
• Someone else write everyone writes on walls
  except me
• A schoolboy also writes that if you dont like
  the works of Cicero you will be whacked!!

58
Graffiti cont.

• Gladiators get much praise Celadus the Thracian
  is the girls heart throb suspirium puellarum
• Actors seem equally popular one group inform us
  that they are companions of the Paris Club
  while another writes Actius our favourite, come
  back quickly
• There are signs of a high level of literary
  culture with Virgil, Tibullus, Lucretius and Ovid
  being quoted think of you quoting Shakespeare!
• Some of these literary quotes, obviously by
  children judging by their height, are probably an
  attempt to show off what they had learnt at
  school
• One adult quoted or wrote some delightful folk
  poetry Nothing lasts forever though the sun
  shines gold it must sink into the sea The moon
  has also disappeared which but now so brightly
  gleamed so if the loved one rages hold fast,
  this storm will soon yield to the soft Zephyrs

59
Some more graffiti!!!

• Samius to Cornelius go hang yourself!
• Health to those who invite me to lunch
• The weaver, Successus, loves Iris the slave of
  the innkeepers wife
• I am surprised, O wall, that you who have to bear
  the weariness of so many writers, are still
  standing
• Lovers, like bees, need a life of honey

60
Real people!

• It has been possible to identify individuals of
  Pompeii.
• A bronze statue of the banker Lucius Caecilius
  Iucundus includes a wart on his face
• There is also a wall? painting of a young married
  couple holding a papyrus roll and a wax tablet
  possibly showing Paquius Proculus who we know
  rose from being a baker to the town official of
  aedile
• We know that 7 children died in an upper room of
  the house of Paquius Proculus
• Population of Pompeii has been quoted as between
  8000 and 10,000 antiquity 1 but generally as
  about 20,000

61
Real people! Cont.

• One piece of graffiti states Hail, profit!
  perhaps giving us a real glimpse of what
  Pompeians were all about!!
• 40 slaves
• We know that the following were included amongst
  the people of Pompeii artists, metal workers,
  glass blowers, potters as well as bakers, inn
  keepers, weaving spinning cottage industries,
  wine making, olive oil production, bath
  attendants and brothel keepers!
• Venus, goddess of love, was the patron god of the
  city!