HOUSE OF TREBIUS VALENS - POMPEII

A multitude of inscriptions covered the facade of this house, but they were unfortunately lost in the bombardment of 1943. In the front, the house is laid out around an atrium with a basin in the centre, surrounded by the various rooms. The first cubicle on the left is decorated with full II style paintings with the name of the owner of the house, Valens, scratched into one of the walls. In another cubicle, on the right, the discovery of a casket with precious objects and ointment jars would seem to indicate that it was the mistress’s bedroom. On this side there is also a rectangular hall with birds and other animals painted on the back-ground walls. As usual, the back wall of the atrium has the tablinum at the centre with a large window opening onto the peristyle which can be reached through the adjacent corridor. There were water-works in the peristyle and at the back of the garden, under a bower, there was a triclinium. In the southeast corner is a bath which consists of two small rooms, the first used as a tepidarium and the second, with an apse, as a calidarium. The walls of the peristyle are decorated with checkerwork painting and a graffito of the first line of Vergil’s Aeneid is found here.

 

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Thanks to its large size and particular typology, this house can be defined ‘Villa’. It extends over an area corresponding to two insulae, of which one-third is occupied by the building proper and two-third were used as a vegetable garden. After the earthquake of 62 A.D., the owner of this sumptuous and elegant house, Julia Felix, daughter of Spurius, decided to ease the difficulties caused by the shortage of accommodation by renting out part of the house. As the Forum Baths could be used only in part, she also opened her private bath to the public. The notice painted on the façade reads “elegant bathing facilities, shops with annexed apartments upstairs and independ ... continue

(Apic. 9,10 ,10) Ingredients:

• 250 gr. mixed livers (chicken, hare, lamb)
• ½ tsp ground pepper
• Salt
• Oil

Instructions:
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Cook the mixed livers in a little bit of water or broth. Drip and whip, adding pepper, salt and oil until You obtain the desired thickness. Press into an oily fish-shape mould. If it should be preserved for a long while, cook in oven, 110°C, for 30 minutes. Keep in the fridge. Sprinkle with virgin oil before serve.

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.