HOUSE OF PAQUIUS PROCULUS - POMPEII

The house may have belonged to one or the other of these two patrician personages whose names appears more than once in the election slogans painted on the facade. The house is Samnite in type and the tall entrance portal leads to a vestibule with a mosaic pavement in which the portal itself and a chained dog are depicted. Next come the atrium decorated with mosaic panels with figures of animals. This had already been damaged in the earthquake of 62 A.D., as had the style IV wall paintings, of which only two still life survive. At the centre of the pavement, an alabaster tondo is surrounded by a double guilloche motif, palmettes and animals in panels. After this come a series of rooms opening onto the peristyle; in one of these the remains of the bodies of seven children who had sought shelter when the volcano erupted were found. The room in the northeast corner is the triclinium and it contains an emblema with a comic scene in Nilotic surroundings with pygmies fishing. One of them is falling from the boat while crocodiles and a hippopotamus with gaping jaws wait for him in the water. At the center, the peristyle has what remains of the summer triclinium which stood under a pergola with four columns near a basin. Below are subterranean chambers used as a storeroom. A room at the back of the peristyle contained the humorous mosaic with an ass collapsing under the weight of a silenus.

 

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This residential complex is situated in a side street of Via dell’Abbondanza, not far from the House of Menander, and actually comprises three building converted into one. It derives its name from the bronze statue of an Ephebe which was found in the house and was used to support oil-lamps needed to light the triclinium couches during evening receptions. Access to the house was through the second entrance-door and a Tuscan atrium which was flanked to the right by the family’s living quarters and, on the left, by the reception room and areas devoted to leisure activities and sport. Here, in addition to a few living-rooms, we find a large open triclinium which was once ... continue

(Apic. 2, 4) Ingredients:

• 1 duck
• 25 g pine nuts
• 2 big dates
• ground pepper
• 1 tblsp privet
• 1 tblsp cumin
• 1 tblsp dry coriander
• 1 tblsp dry mint
• 1 tblsp oregano
• 1 tblsp ground mustard
• 1 tblsp oil
• 1 tblsp honey
• Liquamen or 3 tblsp soya sauce
• 3 tsp anchovy paste
• 1 glass wine (Marsala)
• 1 tsp vinegar
• salt

Instructions:
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Cut in part the duck cutting off fat and bones. Put in a large and low c ... 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.