HOUSE OF M. EPIDIUS RUFUS - POMPEII

This large house, built in the Samnite period in the second half of the 2nd century B.C., must have belonged to Marcus Epidius Rufus or Marcus Epidius Sabinus, to judge from the number of times these two names appear in the election propaganda on the façade and on the walls of the neighbouring buildings. Outside, a two-step podium runs along the façade, an unusual architectural feature. Beyond the entrance vestibule is an atrium of Corinthian type of an imposing size, with sixteen columns with Doric capitals set around the impluvium basin in the centre. This is the most striking of the rare Corinthian atrium in Pompeii (in other words with a row of columns set along the side of the impluvium). All around were various rooms, but unlike the canonical scheme, here the ‘alae’ were at the centre of the side walls instead of at the back. They were preceded by a pair of Ionic columns and the corners piers had capitals with the heads of maenads or divinities. In the ‘ala’ of the northwest side there is a shrine which the dedicatory inscription on the podium tells us was erected by two freedman named Diadumeni in honour of the Lares and the Genius of their master Marcus, certainly one of the two public personages cited above.

 

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On the eastern side of the Foro, there’s a majestic and elegant building with a marble frieze above the portal. Two inscriptions attribute this building to Eumachia, a priestess of Venus and owner of a flourishing business operating in the wool industry, which she had inherited from her husband. Indeed this is thought to be the seat of the Corporation of wool and cloth manufacturers, although another interpretation claim that the building was dedicated by the priestess to the Gens Iulia and was used for cult worship of the Emperor Augustus through the statues of his ancestor. The building itself dates from the Tiberian age and looks onto the Forum from a façade with tw ... continue

(Apic. 6, 8, 14) Ingredients:

• 1 fresh chicken (1–1.5kg)
• 300 g minced meat (half beef, half pork)
• 100 g finely-ground oats
• 2 eggs
• 250 ml white wine
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp lovage
• ¼ tsp ground ginger
• ¼ tsp ground pepper
• 1 tsp green peppercorns
• 50 g pine kernels
• Liquamen (to taste)

Instructions:
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Spread the oats on a baking tray and cook in a ... 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.