HOUSE OF M. LUCRETIUS - POMPEII

This house is attributed to M. Lucretius because his name appears as addressee on a letter depicted, with a kit for writing letters, in a wall painting in a room near the garden. He was an important figure who held the office of decurion in the city and was a priest of Mars. This patrician house had fine wall paintings, now mostly in the Archaeological Museum in Naples. In the atrium there are still some frescoes in IV style with imaginary architectures, and in the tablinum the Triumphs of Bacchus with a satyr and a Victory. There must also have been various panel paintings in the tablinum which unfortunately have been lost. The atrium lacks a central impluvium and it is therefore to be supposed that it was not covered with the customary shed roofs that sloped down towards the interior, but was covered by a roof that completely covered the house with a watershed towards the exterior (atrio testudinato). The lararium is in the atrium and the large tablinum opens in the back wall, beyond which a lovely garden stretches out in scenic perspective on a higher level. With herms and statues of satyr, cupids and various animals set among the beds, at the back was a fountain with mosaic decoration, where the water poured out of a goatskin held by a marble silenus.

 

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A mosaic depicting a growling dog and the well-known words of warning ‘cave canem’ (beware of the dog) is the decoration found near the entrance of this medium-sized, imperial style house opposite the Forum baths. The house has a Tuscan atrium and a peristyle with lararium situated on the rear wall. The atrium leads into the cubicula (bedrooms) and the tablinum. The house derives its name from a fine mosaic with a theatrical scene which was found in this tablinum along with paintings representing episodes from the Iliad. These finds are now exhibited at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples. To the right of the peristyle we find the triclinium whose frescoes a ... continue

(Apic. 3, 2, 4) Ingredients:

• 8 small beetroot
• 100 ml mead (or sweet white wine with a tablespoon of honey)
• 40 ml olive oil
• Chicken pieces part-cooked in the oven (about 15 chunks)
• Sea salt
• Black pepper to taste

Instructions:
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Cleaned well the beetroot, put them in a saucepan and add the mead, olive oil, salt and pepper and enough water to cover. Bring the liquid to the boil, add the chicken and continue cooking until the beetroot are done. Drain and serve immediately.

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.