THERMOPOLIUM - POMPEII

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 the shop and was reached through an independent entrance door which opened onto a narrow side street. A magnificent specimen of late 3rd style decoration can be seen in the triclinium.

 

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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 co ... continue

(Apic. 5, 2, 17) Ingredients:

• 1 fillet stockfish
• 1 calves’ brain
• 4 chicken livers
• 7 eggs
• 250 gr. ‘ricotta’ cheese
• 12 grain pepper
• 12 grain lovage
• 1 tblsp dry oregano
• 1 rue berry
• 1/2 glass dry wine (like Marsala)
• 3 tsp honey
• 3 tblsp oil
• Cumin

Instructions:
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Softening stockfish in water for 5 - 6 hours, dry, skin, bone and fry in a little bit of oil. Blanch calves’ brain for 5 minutes and cool. Blanch chicken livers for ... 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.