ASELLINA’S TAVERN - POMPEII

Behind the façade of the tavern, which borders on Via dell’Abbondanza and is covered all over with election propaganda, we can see a masonry counter which contained four terra-cotta vessels for storing cooked meals. At the rear of the tavern are the remains of the staircase which led to the guest rooms on the upper floor. The graffiti on the walls of these rooms suggests that customers could also enjoy the company of Asellina’s waitresses. The tavern-keeper Asellina as well as Zmyrina, Ismurna and Aegle were influential women who used to sign electoral propaganda to support candidates in the elections for high municipal offices.

 

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Walking further down Via dell’Abbondanza in the direction of the Porta di Sarno Gate, we reach Pompeii’s equivalent of a ‘fast-food’ restaurant, where warm meals could be bought and eaten on the spot. Coins for a total weight of about 3 kg, equivalent in worth to about 680 sesterces, were found in one of the wall recesses. Given the large quantity of change (374 asses and 1,237 quadrantes, each worth one of quarter of an as), these were probably the takings of a single day’s business. The shop is completed by a sacellum dedicated to Mercury and Dionysus and a small shrine for the tutelary deities of the household. The publican’s own apartment extended to the rear of t ... continue

(Apic. 7, 13, 8) Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 271 ml milk
• 1 ounce oil
• a little bit ground pepper

Instructions:
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Mix eggs, milk and oil until you have a pancake dough. Fry in a pan and serve topped with a little bit of pepper.

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.