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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This building is clearly visible from the sea as it is situated on the promontory of the hill of Pompeii and commands a wide view over the plain below. Passing along Via dell’Abbondanza to the end of Via dei Teatri we find a portico with three Ionic columns and a semicolumn which form the entrance to the Triangular Forum. The Hellenistic style arrangement of the area, which has a colonnade with 95 columns, dates back to the 2nd century B.C. This intervention created a harmonious protective curtain around the pre-existing Doric Temple and at the same time annexed this sacred area to the theatre district and the two gymnasiums as the foursided portico behind the stage of ... continue

(Apic. 4, 5, 4) Ingredients:

• 1 kg firm ripe apricots or nectarines
• 200 ml white wine
• 250 ml Passum
• peppermint tea bag (portion for one cup)
• ground pepper
• Liquamen or salt
• cornstarch
• a little bit of vinegar
• honey

Instructions:
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Wash, cut and stone apricots. Put them with a little cold water in a pan. Pulverize ground pepper and dried mint (that's where the tea bag comes handy), add Liquamen or salt, honey, Passum, wine and vinegar. Pour into the pan with a little oil. Cook approximately 20 minu ... 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.