HOUSE OF JULIA FELIX - POMPEII

Thanks to its large size and particular typology, this house can be defined ‘Villa’. It extends over an area corresponding to two insulae, of which one-third is occupied by the building proper and two-third were used as a vegetable garden. After the earthquake of 62 A.D., the owner of this sumptuous and elegant house, Julia Felix, daughter of Spurius, decided to ease the difficulties caused by the shortage of accommodation by renting out part of the house. As the Forum Baths could be used only in part, she also opened her private bath to the public. The notice painted on the façade reads “elegant bathing facilities, shops with annexed apartments upstairs and independent apartments on the first floor are offered for rent to respectable people”. Also the maximum lease term, a period of five years “from August 1st next to August 1st of the sixth year”, is specified. The house was divided into three parts. The baths, with access from Via dell’Abbondanza, were provided with all the required facilities and an open swimming-pool. The owner’s apartment looks out onto a magnificent garden with a water channel surrounded on all sides by original marble-embellished quadrangular columns. Lastly there were the shops, some of which opened onto Via dell’Abbondanza and some onto the side-street leading to the Large Palestra. The rented lodgings were also situated on this side-street. The sculptures which decorated the garden and some of the paintings found in the house are now on show at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, while a fresco with Apollo and the Muses is exhibited in the Louvre, Paris.

 

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Just behind the Large Theatre there’s the Temple of Isis with its entrance in the street of the same name. Originally dating from between the late 2nd and early 1st centuries B.C., it was totally rebuilt after the earthquake of 62 A.D. at the expense of an ex slave who had since made his fortune. The cult of Isis became fairly wide spread during the Hellenistic era due to the religious links the Greeks had with Egypt and the Orient, and it had a particularly large following in Pompeii as the town has strong trading ties with the East. The temple stands on a tall podium situated in the centre of a porticoed courtyard. The cella, which is greater in width than in leng ... continue

(Apic. 8, 1, 1) Ingredients:

• Boar meat
• Cumin
• Salt
• Groun pepper
• 2 tbsp honey
• Liquamen (or salt to taste)
• 200 ml caroenum (reduce 500 ml wine to 200 ml)
• 100 ml passum (or dessert wine)

Instructions:
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Remove the bristles and skin of the boar, then scatter over it plenty of sea salt, crushed pepper and coarsely ground roasted cumin. Leave it in the refrigerator for 2-3 days, turning it occasionally. Wild boar can be dry, so wrap it in slices of bacon before you roast it. Then put it into th ... continue

Love was a common topic of conversation in Pompeii. Feelings, passions, poetic love, sex, homosexuality, prostitution and so forth were all part of daily life and not a source of prejudice. The concept of “obscenity” seems to have been unknown. Love and sex were considered earthly practices of a man’s life that were encouraged by the benevolence of Venus. The thousands of examples of graffiti found on the town’s walls are unequivocal proof of what the people of Pompeii thought about love and sex.