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)
DeFelice, J. (2001) Roman Hospitality, 9
… 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…
DeFelice, J. (2001) Roman Hospitality, 9
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.
DeFelice, J. (2001) Roman Hospitality, 128
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
- Leisure activities
- 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
- Leisure activities
- 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.
Archaeological Diggings February 2007,26
Archaeological Diggings February 2007,28
Archaeological Diggings February 2007,28
Archaeological Diggings February 2007,29
Archaeological Diggings February 2007,29
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
- Leisure activities
- Food and Dining
- Clothes
- Health (see Bodies ppt)
Gold earrings, Herculaneum
Ivory hairpins with two ivory toilet
boxes. One was probably for perfumed
oil.
Archaeological Diggings February 2007,31
Archaeological Diggings February 2007,50
The Ring Lady of Herculaneum
Archaeological Diggings February 2007,33