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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This covered theatre situated near the Large Theatre was mainly used for concerts, although it was also the chosen venue for poetry recitals. It was built by the same two duumviri responsible for the construction of the Amphitheatre during the early years of the Roman colony in an area which had originally been developed by the Samnites. The tiered seating was cut away to one side to allow the construction of a perimeter wall designed to support the foursided roof. The first seats in front of the orchestra hemicycle, which was paved with slabs of coloured marble chips, were reserved for the decurions and were laid out on top of four rows of wide tuffstone steps. The ti ... continue

(Apic. 6, 9, 13) Ingredients:

• 1 fresh chicken (approx. 1-1.5 kg)
• 100 ml oil
• 200 ml Liquamen or 200 ml wine + 2 tsp salt
• 1 branch of leek
• Fresh dill
• Fresh savory
• Coriander
• Pepper to taste
• a little bit of Defritum (or wine syrup)

Instructions:
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Start to fry chicken and season with a mixture of Liquamen and oil, together with bunches of dill, leek, savory and fresh coriander. Then cook approximately 1 hour with 220 deg C in the oven. When the chicken is done, moisten a plate with Defritum ... 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.