HOUSE OF M. OBELLIUS FIRMUS - POMPEII

This house dates back to the Samnite period and was being restored when the volcano erupted. It is built around two atriums and a section of peristyle with a garden. The main atrium is tetrastyle in form, i.e. it has four Corinthian columns supporting the open roof. There is a table on a pedestal (cartibulum) in front of the entrance, between the impluvium and the large tablinum, whereas the lararium is situated in the first right-hand corner. A bronze safe – a clear sign of the family’s wealth – is solidly anchored to the ground near the living room (alae) on the right-hand side of the house. In addition to the fact that it has a tablinum, the importance of the house is also expressed by the size of the adjoining reception hall which opens out onto the peristyle through a wide doorway. A plaster cast of the door is on display. The secondary atrium, which is Tuscan and has no columns, is linked to both the first atrium and the peristyle. The tablinum is situated in this part of the house and is decorated with second style paintings, while the kitchen, which is hidden behind the corridor leading to the peristyle, is annexed to the bath-house which was heated by the kitchen oven. The house extends towards the garden and the peristyle with its three sided colonnade, where the reception rooms and sleeping areas are much smaller and still bear some traces of the fine wall decorations.

 

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In the latter years of Pompeii the four-sided colonnade rising up behind the Theatre was used as the barracks of the organisation of gladiators who performed in the town. Along the wings of the colonnade and on the first floor were the rooms which provided accommodation for the gladiators from other towns. Paraments, helmets and arms belonging to the gladiators were found in many of the rooms. The four-sided colonnade with its 74 Doric columns was originally used as an extension of the theatre: for example, the public could go there for something to eat (performances often lasted most of the day) or to take shelter from the rain. It is likely that for a few years th ... continue

(Apic. 4, 1, 1) Ingredients:

• 300 gr. homemade bread
• 50 gr. emmenthal
• 1 cucumber
• 1 celery stem
• 1 bunch pennyroyal
• 1 bunch pine-kernel
• 2 tbsp honey
• 2 tbsp vinegar
• 3 chicken livers
• 1 tbsp caper
• 1 egg’s yolk
• 3 anchovy
• Pepper to taste
• Salt to taste
• Icy water

Instructions:
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Put in layer, inside a bowl, homemade bread soaked in water and vinegar and then squeezed, finely slic ... 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.