Some Graffiti from Pompeii
Electoral inscription, Pompeii. Fragment of a Roman wall painting containing an electoral inscription from the officina of Verecundus. Depicts Mercury with caduceus and petasus emerging from a little Etruscan-Italic temple. He holds a purse of money in his right hand. Covering the wall are several inscriptions, including one which reads: "Holconium Priscum / IIvir(um) I(ure) d(icundo) d(dignum) r(ei) p(ublicae) o(ro) v(os) f(aciatis)" or "I ask you to elect Holconius Priscus as duovir. He is worthy of holding office." H 214 cm, W 88 cm.
An inscription found at Pompeii.
Graffito from the House of Obellius Firmus, Pompeii. Gladiator with shield and spear (photo and illustration).
Our most important sources: Pompeii, Herculaneum, Ostia
View of Herculaneum.The cityscape from above.
A. Homes
1. The rich
Atrium of the House of the Silver Wedding. Pompeii. 2nd cent BC.
Peristyle.
Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii.
The original freestanding columns were enclosed by a wall during the
final building period under the early empire.
Herculaneum:
Interior view of a house.The remains of a second story are
intact.
Pompeii:
triclinium.
Reconstruction
of Roman dining room. Augusta Raurica,
Switzerland.
Pompeii:
lararium in a house.
Hypocausts. Seen under the dining room in a private Roman house. Augusta Raurica, Switzerland.
First
style wall painting. Late 2nd / early 1st c. BC, from the Samnite
House, Herculaneum
2nd style
Second
Style wall painting . General view of the Great Frieze of the
Dionysiac Mysteries, Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii.
Augustan period.
Second
Style Wall painting. Stage painting with Apollonian cult landscape.
South wall of the "Room of
the Masks" of the House of Augustus on the Palatine. 35 - 30 BC.
3rd style
Roman
Third Style wall painting: a Cupid stands against an architectonic
background.
Third
style wall painting. A tablinum from the house of Marcus Lucretius
Fronto at Pompeii.
4th style
Fourth
style wall painting sequence. House of the Vettii.
Pompeii. Ca. 62 - 79
AD
Fourth
Style Wall painting from Pompeii. The "Sacro-Idyllic Landscape", ca.
63 - 79 AD. Now in the
Museo Nazionale, Naples.
Imperial Roman Fourth Style wall painting, "Sappho" from house in Pompeii. A young woman holding a stylus and a booklet of wax tablets. A gold hair net binds her hair and she wears large, gold earrings.
Roman Fourth Style wall painting from the exedra of the House of M. Gavinus Rufus, Pompeii: Theseus stands victorious, staff in left arm, flanked by children, after having defeated the Minotaur.
black and white
Roman
mosaic from Pompeii: skeleton of a servant holding two
pitchers.
polychrome
Alexander
Mosaic. The mosaic depicts the Battle at Issus. Alexander rides
against Darius. Ca. 90 BC - 79 AD. Copy of the 4th century BC Greek
painting by Philoxenos of Eretria
From the House of the Faun, Pompeii.
Sculptural relief from Pompeii, after the 2nd cent. BC: scene from a comedy, with the theatrical stage (skene) as backdrop. At left, an irate father (holding a staff) hauls off his drunken son. At right, two slaves. At center, a girl playing the tibiae.
Sculpture Imperial Roman bronze sculpture from the Villa of the Papyri, Herculaneum. View of head and upper torso: young woman fastening her peplos at the shoulder.
Roman
gold lamp with two nozzles from Pompeii.
Lotus decoration in
relief, separately cast spouts and base. The lid, now missing, would
have been the most highly decorated part.
Stools;
bronze; from Pompeii.
Remains
of Roman tibiae from Pompeii.
Naples, Archeological
Museum
Roman
mosaic from the House of the Faun, Pompeii: three white turtledoves
pulling a necklace from an open jewelry box. Naples, Museo
Nazionale.
Peristyle
garden, House of the Vettii,
Pompeii. Restored garden
with water tanks, fountains, and ornamental statuary.
Pompeiian
garden. A fountain topped
by a bronze sculpture of a boar being attacked by two dogs, which is
flanked by a bronze snake and lion.The house these belong to is
visible in the background.
Three
couples in a summer triclinium Pompeii. Fourth Style painting,
70 AD.
2. The poor: insulae
Ostia,
apartment blocks.
Ostia,
reconstruction model of a large apartment house.Museo Civilta
Romana.
Ostia,
reconstruction drawing of apartment blocks.Mid 2nd century
A.D.
Ostia,
House of Diana, reconstruction drawing of the facade.Mid 2nd century
A.D.
Ostia, House of Diana, floor plan.Mid 2nd century A.D.
Ostia. House of Diana. Courtyard and covered spring.Mid 2nd century A.D.
B. Food
Imperial
Roman Fourth Style fresco from Pompeii. Detail: Still life with fish,
squid, and mussel.
Mosaic
showing various foods
Herculaneum:
reconstructed press, probably for
olives.
Pistrinum
(mill) and Panificium (bakery), Pompeii.
Interior view showing
querns for grinding grain and hearth for baking bread.
C. Personal appearance
Roman
citizen in a toga, possibly Herodes Atticus.From the Nymphaion /
Nymphaeum or Exedra of Herodes Atticus at Olympia.Ca. 160 AD.Pentelic
marble.
Statue
of Livia wearing stola
Roman
clothing
Women
Marble portrait of an elderly woman, late 1st c. BC, from Palombara Sabina, Italy. The hairstyle, with nodus in front and tresses gathered up in back, is typical of matrons in the late Republic and early Augustan periods; it was the official hairstyle of Livia when she assumed the title of Augusta.
Portrait
bust of a lady with typical Flavian hairstyle, ca. 96
AD.
Men
Marble
statue of a heroicized man. Copy of a 4th century Greek original, but
from the Julio-Claudian era with the watery gaze and hairstyle
typical of that era. Roman Hall in the Olympia
Museum
Valentinianus
I or Valens.The hairstyle is Trajanic.
Hadrian.ca. 120 AD, marble.Here, Hadrian adopts a Greek hairstyle and a Greek beard (abandoning the clean-shaven tradition).
Gold
jewelry from Pompeii.
Gold
necklace with sapphire beads.Imperial Roman jewelry, second half of
the 2nd c. AD, from the Grottarosa tomb, Rome.
D. Life outside the
home
Via
dell'Abbondanza in Pompeii.
Reconstruction drawing of the Via dell' Abbondanza at Pompeii.
General view of Pompeiian street showing paved street with pedestrian crossing blocks [in background, Mount Vesuvius]
The
Basilica at Pompeii: Plan
Tavern
scene. Roman wall-painting
from Pompeii: a tavern scene, in which two men play a board/dice game
(?) at a small table while two others look on. One of the players
holds a glass.
Pompeii. Forum Baths. Interior of calidarium (hot bath) with marble labrum basin in apsidal end.
Roman bronze bathing utensils from Pompeii. Strigils and a small oil flask on wrist loop.
Pompeii. Great Theater. Interior view showing auditorium seating, orchestra, stage, orig. ca. 2nd c. BC
Pompeii. Odeon (Small Theater). Interior view showing auditorium seating, orchestra, stage, orig. ca. 75 BC.
Reconstruction of an ancient performance inside the Small Theater, Pompeii. Includes view of cavea and spectators, as well as the orchestra with dancers and musicians carrying tibiae and lyres.
Pompeii.
Amphitheater (arena). Exterior,
view from W. showing stairways to upper level seating, original ca.
80 BC.
mosaic
showing animal hunts
Imperial
Roman fresco, ca. 59 - 79 AD,
from House I, 3, 23 at Pompeii. Riot and brawl between Pompeians and
Nucerians in and around the amphitheater.
Thermopolium,
Pompeii. View of wine shop
with corner bar exposed to street. Includes large earthenware
containers (dolia) sunk into the counter from which wine was
served.
Ostia.
Public latrines.
last modified November 10, 2002 by timmoore@mail.utexas.edu
