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Syllabus:

The nature of sources and evidenceThe evidence provided by the sources from

Pompeii and Herculaneum for:

social structure:

- Men

- Women

- Freedmen

- Slaves

Everyday life:

- Leisure activities

- Food and dining

- Clothes

Exercise

Draw up a page with three columns. The first two

about the width of a ruler.

Column A: Social Group

Column B: Example

Column C: Evidence

Complete the table as you go through this

presentation.

A graffito from Pompeii.

Social Structure

People in Pompeii and Herculaneum formed part

of one of four general social classes: those born

with wealth, those who made their wealth

themselves, those without wealth and slaves.

Roman society was very conscious of rank, though

the class divisions were not very rigid. A self-

made man could secure higher social rank by

holding public office.

Wall medallion

of ‘pseudo-

Sappho’.

Roman women

could not hold

public office

but could gain

power and

status through

their own

wealth.

Patricians and Equites

Both these upper

classes wore

white togas with

purple trim as a

symbol of their

status. Equites

also wore a gold

ring.

Middle Classes

These were free-born or freed persons who made

money from businesses such as fullonica, pistrina

or wine. They provided essential goods and

services to Pompeiians and the residents of

Herculaneum, and their surrounds.

Many members of these classes were freed slaves.

Sometimes masters would set up skilled slaves in

businesses. When they bought or won their

freedom, they continued as junior partners.

Although a significant

proportion of the

profits went back to the

former owner, the

former slaves could still

make enough money to

purchase their own

property and make

investments, including

the purchase of slaves.

Some became wealthy

enough to move into

the upper class.

Tomb of Naevoleia Tyche

A wealthy businesswoman, probably a freedwoman,

she set up the tomb for herself, for her husband, C.

Munatius Faustus, and for her freedmen and

freedwomen. Pompeii, Street of Tombs.

LADY PLAYING A HARP

Part of a beautiful wall painting in a Pompeian house.

Note how much the little boy looks like his mother,

and the bands they both have in their hair.

Chairs like this one have been found in the ruins. The

same design is on many other pieces of furniture.

The Metropolitan Museum in New York owns the

complete wall paintings for a Pompeian room. They

are put up just as they were in Pompeii. There is

even an iron window grating. A beautiful table from

Pompeii stands in the centre. The room is one of

the brightest in the whole museum.

SlavesSlave labour was the source of the Roman

Empire‟s economic power. A large household could own hundreds of slaves. They worked and lived on the owner‟s premises and were themselves considered as property.

Slaves had no legal rights, could not take action against an owner for maltreatment and were not permitted to raise their own family. Marriages between slaves were considered legitimate. Freed slaves still had to buy their children from their former owners.

PORTRAIT OF LUCIUS

CÆCILIUS JUCUNDUS

He was an auctioneer who

had set free one of his slaves,

Felix.

Felix, in gratitude, had this

portrait of his master cast in

bronze. It stood on a marble

pillar in the atrium of the

house.

Women in the Cities of Vesuvius

Much of our knowledge

of women in Pompeii

and Herculaneum

comes from generally

accepted

understanding of

imperial Roman

society. The lack of

definite archaeological

evidence forces us to

extrapolate and

speculate.

Terentius Neo is holding a scroll. His wife holds a stylus and diptych. This is one of several frescoes from Pompeii that indicate that literacy was a status symbol.

We know many wealthier Roman women were

educated and wrote poetry. The writings of only

one have survived: six poems by Sulpicia from

the late first century BC.

Pliny the Younger mentions that his third wife,

Calpurnia, enjoyed reading and discussing his

writings.

The poet Juvenal wrote scathingly of women who

spend their time reading or singing and playing

the lyre instead of doing embroidery.

Herculaneum

Modern knowledge

of women of all

classes therefore

derives largely

from the writings

of men, from

inscriptions, from

graffiti and from

frescoes.

Sabina Poppaea

A member of a wealthy Pompeian family, she

married Emperor Nero in 62 CE. The House of

the Golden Cupids and the House of the

Menander both belonged to her family.

Following the earthquake of 62AD, Nero repealed

a ban on games in Pompeii. This had been

imposed as a punishment for a riot.

The locals expressed their gratitude with graffiti:

“Three cheers for imperial decrees, three cheers

for the decisions of the emperor and empress.

Long live Empress Poppaea”.

Julia Felix

An independent woman who had inherited a large fortune, she owned an enormous, magnificently decorated house which occupied an entire block near Via dell‟Abbondanza.

The House of Julia Felix is typical of a patrician family: vegetable garden, orchard, private baths, outdoor pool toilets, food and drink bar, as well as a garden with a canal running from one side to the other, with small marble bridges and pools for breeding fish.

Casa Guilia Felix, Pompeii

LEFT: Cushion and belt shop: reproduction of a

relief of the Augustan age. RIGHT: Cloth shop:

reproduction of a relief of the Augustan age.

Civilta Museum. (Florence, Uffizi).

Eumachia

The daughter of a brick manufacturer who made a

fortune, Eumachia married into one of

Pompeii‟s older families.

She used part of the wealth she inherited from her

father and her husband to build the collegium of

the fullers in the Forum.

“To Eumachia, daughter of Lucius,

public priestess; the fullers (set this up).

In gratitude, the fullers set up a statue to Eumachia within the complex. She is depicted wearing the tunica and stola. The long palla draped over her head represents her respectability and role as a priestess.

Inscription on the collegium of the fullersEumachia, daughter of

Lucius, public priestess, in her own name and that of her son, Marcus Numistrius Fronto, built at her own expense the chalcidicum, crypt and portico in honour of Augustean Concord and Piety and also dedicated them.

The Eumachia Building

Priestesses

Eumachia is an illustrative example of the esteem

in which priestesses were held in Roman society.

Along the Via Sepolcri outside Pompeii, stands the

funerary chamber of another priestess who was

honoured in death: “To Mamia, daughter of

Publius, public priestess, a place for burial was

given by decree of the town councillors”.

Business womenWomen in the Roman world often went into

partnership with their husbands. It was not unusual for a widow to take over management of a business when her husband passed away.

Wives of craftsmen and traders would run the shop while their husbands took care of other aspects of the business.

Women could own property and were free to administer it themselves. Inscribed tablets found at Herculaneum show that women were engaged in buying, selling and leasing, but were not allowed to become bankers.

Bronze stamp (signaculum) of a female importer of wine and oil. Tiny amphorae separate the words: “[belonging to] Coelia Mascellina, daughter of Gnaeus”.

Rome, 2nd half 2nd century CE.

Another inscription bearing her name was found

in Rome: “Coelia Mascellina, a woman of

incomparable chastity, a businesswoman

importing oil and wine from Baetica [Spain],

made this for her father Gnaeus Coelius

Masculus and for her most devoted parents”.

M. Veculius Verecundus

A painting in this cloth and felt manufacturer‟s

shop shows his wife sitting at the counter while

a young man chooses a pair of slippers from the

shelves.

Valeria Hedone

Women were also known to operate taverns, inns

and bars. An advertisement for the business of

Valeria Hedone declares:

“Handsome soldier, drink here for just one ass;

for two asses you can drink better, and for four

asses have some really good Falernian wine”.

Women in Trades and Crafts

While most industrial-scale weaving was done by men, some women worked independently in their homes, making and mending clothes. Pay was poor and their status low.

Some women were employed in fullonicae to brush and thicken cloth. The great domestic occupation of women, whether dominae or slaves, was spinning wool. Specialists in this craft were called “basket-women”.

Slave women

Female slaves performed a wide range of duties,

depending on the needs of the household. Some

worked as household slaves, cooking and

cleaning. Others were nutrices (nannies and wet-

nurses).

Some managed businesses or even worked as

labourers for house or ship construction. Others

were personal attendants for wealthy matrons.

Evidence from Pompeii indicates that some slaves

were well treated and esteemed. The skeleton of

a woman recovered outside Pompeii had with

her a quantity of gold jewelry, including this

bracelet: “from the master to his slave girl”.

Prostitutes

Slaves, freedwomen and foreigners could be

prostitutes. Wives, daughters and granddaughters

of patricians and equites were forbidden from

doing so.

Written sources reveal that pimps and prostitutes

made such a nuisance of themselves at the baths

that official action had to be taken to ban them.

DeFelice, J. (2001) Roman Hospitality, 8

This business is interesting because in several election notices painted on its front wall, the women of the tavern supported several candidates. In these notices, Asellina and three others, Maria, Smyrna and Aegle support various candidates for local office. There is no mention of any other activity, social or sexual. Yet Jerome Carcopino proceeds to label this tavern a brothel, because these posters are „suggestive‟. They are „suggestive‟ because they mention the names of „three young ladies on its staff‟.

Fresco from the caupona of Salvius

(Pompeii)


… Thus, when scholars consider women in the

hospitality trades, these stereotypes have

become standard, and there is little said about

alternatives to prostitution in interpreting these

women‟s lives. This assumption is so deeply

rooted in modern scholarship that to contradict

it appears almost as heresy…


My conclusion is that there is little archaeological

or epigraphical evidence that proves that

hospitality businesses frequently doubled as

brothels, or that women associated with them

were prostitutes.


That does not mean that prostitution did not

occur in these businesses. There are several

locations where prostitutes advertised their

prices and a few had their complement of futuo

graffiti. But these occur in a small minority of

Pompeian hospitality businesses. The

assumption that tavern worker equals prostitute,

though echoed in several places in Roman law

of late antiquity is not supported by the evidence

found presently in Pompeii.

Everyday Life


- Food and Dining

- Clothes

- Health

Second Style painting. Stage painting with

Apollonian cult landscape. South wall of the

„Room of the Masks‟, House of Augustus on the

Palatine, Rome. 35 - 30 BCE.

Mosaics of Performers. Pompeii.

Taverna Pompeii

Triclinium

Reconstruction of Roman dining room.

Augusta Raurica, Switzerland.

Everyday Life


- Food and Dining

- Clothes

- Health

From the House of the Faun, Pompeii.

Archaeological Diggings February 2007,40

Carbonised food remains from Vesuvian sites:

(13) onion bulbs from Herculaneum

(14) garlic clove from Herculaneum

(15) fig in pyriform shape from Herculaneum

(16) caprifig showing seed cavities and seed from Pompeii

(17) chestnuts from Villa Poppaea, Oplontis, with modern comparison (18).

A bowl of carbonised figs

Amphorae in a house in Pompeii

Wall painting from Pompeii

Tav. XXXVIII.

Food remains from a latrine pit at Pompeii,

clockwise from top right: grape pips, fig pips, fish

bones, sea urchin shell.

Kettles

and frying

pans and

ladles are

made of

bronze,

an alloy

of copper

and tin.

Some rich Pompeian had a pair of beautiful silver

cups with graceful handles. The design was made

in hammered silver, and showed Centaurs talking

to Cupids that are sitting on their backs.

Bronze and gold pieces, Herculaneum

Bronze food warmer from the House of the Four Styles,

Pompeii. Detail: head of Medusa over double doors.

A bronze jug

recovered from

Pompeii.

Archaeological

Diggings

February 2007,32

This bronze candleholder is the figure of Silenus. He was the son of Pan, and the oldest of the satyrs. He was very fond of wine, always getting into mischief.

The grape design at the base of the little statue, and the snake supporting the candleholder, both are symbols of the sileni.

The bowl held olive oil. A wick came out at the

nozzle. These lamps gave a dim and smoky light.

Five lamps

hung from

the

branches

of this 20

inch high

bronze

tree.

A Marble Table:

The lions‟ heads were painted yellow.

Archaeological

Diggings

February 2007,33

The mosaic of the watch dog is from the vestibule of the House of the Tragic Poet, Pompeii.

It says “Beware the dog!” A real dog, or two or three, probably was standing inside the door, chained, or held by slaves.

Probably from the

dining-room floor of

a Pompeian house. A

reminder to guests to

eat, drink, and be

merry because

tomorrow you may

be dead!

Skulls and skeletons

were a popular theme

throughout Pompeii.

Exact findspot

uncertain.

Another reminder to live for the day! From the

Villa of the Pisanella at Boscoreale near

Pompeii, perhaps owned by Caecilius. Now in

the Louvre, Paris.

Everyday Life


- Food and Dining

- Clothes

- Health (see Bodies ppt)

Gold earrings, Herculaneum

Ivory hairpins with two ivory toilet

boxes. One was probably for perfumed

oil.

The Ring Lady of Herculaneum

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