BASILICA - POMPEII

This is the oldest existing Basilica, dating back to the 2nd century B.C. The seat of the law courts was here and commercial and financial transactions also took place. After a portico comes the main entrance, which opened on the forum and, differently from the majority of basilicas, is located on one of the building’s short sides. The tribunal, part of the Basilica where the law-courts were, was on the short side, opposite the entrance, and consisted in a two meter high podium on top of which were six Corinthian columns. There are no stairs to the podium, this suggests that it could only be reached through wooden stairs, which could be removed in order to separate the judges from the rest of the people. Another hypothesis is that the podium was simply a sacellum for religious statues. The 28 Columns of the portico are made of cut tiles. Judging from their diameter they must have been at least eleven meters tall. They probably supported the big beams of the roof, although some believe the central nave of the building was open to the sky. The walls are decorated with panels of painted stucco. The Basilica had two other entrances on the long sides, one looking south and one north on Via Marina.

 

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Opposite the house of the Vettii, in the triangular-shapes insula on Via Vesuvio, stands the house belonging to the wealthy gens Poppaea – possibly the family of Nero’s second wife. The house obtained its name from the original decoration used for the cubiculum near the shrine of the tutelary gods, where, set into the plaster, there were several glass discs whose gold leaf back bore the engraving of the cupids. The layout of the house is quite unusual as it has an atrium and tablinum but no cubicula (bed chambers) on either side, and all of this is off-set compared to the rest of the house, which elegantly extends out towards the peristyle and garden. The latter was ... continue

(Apic. 7, 19, 3) Ingredients:

• 500g fish fillet (e.g. salmon)
• 250ml white wine
• 500ml beef broth
• 3 leek branches (I hope branch is the correct expression...)
• 100ml oil
• Liquamen or salt, coriander, pepper, Liebstoeckl, Oregano to taste
• a little bit of starch or flour to thicken the sauce

Instructions:
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Put the fish in a pan, add Liquamen, oil, wine and broth. Chop leek
branches and coriander. Chop fillets into a kind of fish goulash.bszRC
Cook approximately 30 minutes on small to moderate heat. When well done
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.