MACELLUM - POMPEII

In the north-eastern corner of the Forum stood the covered market where the townspeople could buy the food they needed. Built during the Augustan age, its main entrances in the Forum and Via degli Augustali were lined with shops. It originally had a secondary entrance on Vico del Balcone Pensile which was later closed off when the Temple of the Public Lares was built. The entrance under the colonnade in the Forum was divided into two gateways by a votive aedicule and led into the open space which was originally surrounded by a portico. A number of shops opened out onto the right-hand side of Macellum while the rear wall was divided in three areas. The central room acted as ‘sacellum’ or shrine dedicated to the imperial house hold. It comprises four niches on the side walls and a podium on the far wall. The left-hand chamber was used for sacrificial banquets while the room on the right with its long stone counter and drainage system was the fish market.

 

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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 ... continue

(Apic. 8, 8, 9) Ingredients:

• 3 whole hares or wild rabbits
• Pepper
• Lovage (or chopped celery leaves)
• Oregano
• Cumin
• Celery seeds
• 100 g chicken livers
• 3 raw eggs Yolk of a hard-boiled egg
• Liquamen (or soya sauce)
• 70 ml wine
• 20 ml olive oil
• 40 ml white wine vinegar
• Onion, chopped

Instructions:
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Remove the hare brains and fry along with the chiken liver, the hare liver, heart and kidneys. Chop the cooked meats together, add ... 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.