GARUM WORKSHOP - POMPEII

‘Garum’ was the name of a fish sauce which was a favourite throughout Pompeii and was prepared and sold in this small house on Via dell’Abbondanza. As a residues found in six sealed containers in the courtyard have not been yet analysed, it has so far been impossible to establish whether the garum produced here was the high quality type (garum excellens or garum flos flos) or some poorer variety. A large number of empty amphorae were stored in the back garden; they have just been cleaned and were ready to be filled by means of a funnel which was also found in the workshop. This is evidence that the garum from Pompeii was exported to many places throughout the Roman Empire. The name of the manufacturer, A. Umbricius Scaurus was painted on these vessels. Thank to the commercial success of this product especially in Rome, A. Umbricius Scaurus was able to embark on a political career which culminated in the office of duumvir during the reign of the Emperor Nero.

 

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This small house stands opposite the well-known House of Menander in Vicolo Meridionale, which can be reached directly from Via Stabiana by taking the side street almost opposite the Temple of Jupiter Meilichios. The name was given to the house by the archaeologists who chose it from one of the nine election slogans painted on the front wall. The rooms are decorated with original third style paintings: in the winter triclinium, to the right of the four-columned atrium with its fountain in the impluvium, we see a young Bacchus offering wine to a tiger; in the next room, adjacent to the garden, there are paintings of busts of satyrs and maenads. The decorations on the t ... 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.