SUBURBAN BATH - POMPEII

These stood just outside the town walls, which can be seen to the left on the road leading to the Porta Marina Gate, and possibly near a canal port, which is suggested by the mooring rings set in stone blocks. The baths are laid out on three levels and are now visible in all their former glory thanks to recent restoration work. The baths complex was not actually very big and was probably used by people coming from outside the town. The entrance hall stood on a terrace with colonnade which could be reached by a flight of stairs. All the rooms in the complex had window looking out over the Gulf of Naples and were laid out according to the classic criteria for the bathing chambers which here culminate in a large hot-water pool. Thus we find the entrance hall followed by the changing room (apodyterium), two rooms for taking cold baths (frigidarium) a heated chamber (tepidarium) which enabled bathers to get acclimatized to the change in temperature before entering the hot-water bath (calidarium). The walls of the changing room were decorated with eight fresco paintings of a highly erotic nature. This initially led archaeologists to the conclusion that this area must have been a brothel annexed to the bath, but this apparently obvious interpretation has been rejected in favour of another explanation. In this case, the erotic frescoes were probably a humorous method of reminding customers where they had left their clothes by assigning a number and an amusing painting to each of the various chambers.

 

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On the eastern side of the Foro, there’s a majestic and elegant building with a marble frieze above the portal. Two inscriptions attribute this building to Eumachia, a priestess of Venus and owner of a flourishing business operating in the wool industry, which she had inherited from her husband. Indeed this is thought to be the seat of the Corporation of wool and cloth manufacturers, although another interpretation claim that the building was dedicated by the priestess to the Gens Iulia and was used for cult worship of the Emperor Augustus through the statues of his ancestor. The building itself dates from the Tiberian age and looks onto the Forum from a façade with tw ... continue

(Apic. 6, 3, 1) Ingredients:

• 1 partridge for each person
• Pepper
• Lovage (or celery leaves)
• Celery seeds
• Mint
• Myrtle berries (or juniper berries)
• 30 ml red wine
• 30 ml red wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp liquamen (or soya sauce)
• Honey

Instructions:
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Cook the partridge by soaking it in low heated water for about 45 minutes. Grind the spices in a mortar, add honey, wine, vinegar, oil and liquamen. Pour the sauce on the venison and serve. ... 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.