HOUSE OF PAQUIUS PROCULUS - POMPEII

The house may have belonged to one or the other of these two patrician personages whose names appears more than once in the election slogans painted on the facade. The house is Samnite in type and the tall entrance portal leads to a vestibule with a mosaic pavement in which the portal itself and a chained dog are depicted. Next come the atrium decorated with mosaic panels with figures of animals. This had already been damaged in the earthquake of 62 A.D., as had the style IV wall paintings, of which only two still life survive. At the centre of the pavement, an alabaster tondo is surrounded by a double guilloche motif, palmettes and animals in panels. After this come a series of rooms opening onto the peristyle; in one of these the remains of the bodies of seven children who had sought shelter when the volcano erupted were found. The room in the northeast corner is the triclinium and it contains an emblema with a comic scene in Nilotic surroundings with pygmies fishing. One of them is falling from the boat while crocodiles and a hippopotamus with gaping jaws wait for him in the water. At the center, the peristyle has what remains of the summer triclinium which stood under a pergola with four columns near a basin. Below are subterranean chambers used as a storeroom. A room at the back of the peristyle contained the humorous mosaic with an ass collapsing under the weight of a silenus.

 

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The focal point of this house is the peristyle, which is sumptuously decorated with painted garden features (fountains, hedges, birds, flowers, sculptures). The most impressive painting of all is on the rear wall: it portrays a naked Venus with a head of curly hair and resplendent with gold jewels, sailing in a shell with billowing sails accompanied by a retinue of cupids. From an artistic point of view the painting is of poor quality, but its colours are well arranged and the overall effect is highly dramatic.

(Apic. 3, 4, 3) Ingredients:

• 1 gourd (or courgette, small pumpkin or squash)
• peppercorns
• cumin
• coriander seeds
• 3 - 4 mint leaves, shredded
• 1 garlic
• 3 tbsp vinegar
• 50 g dates, finely chopped
• 50 g blanched almonds, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp clear honey
• 60 ml Liquamen (or, in this case, vegetable stock)
• 4 tbsp Defritum (or Wine or Grape Juice reduced by two thirds)
• 20 ml olive oil (or 25g butter)
• Sea salt to taste

Instructions:
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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.