Part III. Trades and Occupations

Chapter XLVII. The Trades at Pompeii.—The Bakers

In antiquity there was no such distinction between trades and professions as exists to-day. In the Early Empire all activity outside the field of public service, civil and military, or the management of estates, was considered beneath the dignity of a Roman; the practice of law, which had received its impulse largely from the obligation of patrons to protect their clients, was included among public duties. The ordinary work of life was left mainly to slaves and freedmen. Not only the trades, as we understand the term, but architecture and engineering,—in antiquity two branches of one occupation,—the practice of medicine, and teaching, were looked upon as menial. A Roman of literary or practical bent might manifest an interest in such vocations, but it was considered hardly respectable actively to engage in them.

This attitude of mind, especially toward the higher occupations, is only explicable in the light of the social conditions then existing. Men who kept slaves of every degree of intelligence and training, and were at all times accustomed to command, were not disposed to hold themselves in readiness to do another's bidding, excepting in the service of the State alone; and work committed to slaves and freedmen naturally came to be considered unworthy the employment of a gentleman. The freemen of the same craft were often united in guilds or corporations, for the administration of certain matters of mutual interest; but nothing is known in regard to the activities of such organizations at Pompeii.

In a city as large as Pompeii, all the occupations corresponding to the needs of daily life must have been represented. The remains of the appliances and products of labor are of the most varied character, sometimes far from satisfactory, raising more difficulties than they solve; yet often revealing at a glance the ancient methods of work, and casting light upon the economic background of Greek and Roman culture. The excavations have brought before us three sources of information, inscriptions, paintings, and the remains of buildings or rooms used as workshops.

The inscriptions refer to more than a score of occupations; from farming to innkeeping, and from hairdressing to goldworking. Most of them are election notices, in which the members of a craft unite, or are exhorted to unite, in recommending a certain candidate for a municipal office. These are painted in red letters on the walls along the streets, and are much alike, though some are fuller than others. The simplest form contains only three words, as Trebium aed. tonsores,—'The barbers recommend Trebius for the office of aedile.' The more elaborate recommendations may be illustrated by the following: Verum aed. o. v. f. (for aedilem, oro vos, facite), unguentari, facite, rog[o],—'Do make Verus aedile, perfumers, elect him, I beg of you.' The whole craft of goldsmiths favored the election of Pansa: C. Cuspium Pansam aed. aurifices universi rog[ant],—'All the goldsmiths recommend Gaius Cuspius Pansa for the aedileship.'

The recommendations of the fruit sellers are particularly conspicuous. On one occasion they joined with a prominent individual in the support of a ticket: M. Holconium Priscum II vir. i. d. pomari universi cum Helvio Vestale rog.,—'All the fruit sellers, together with Helvius Vestalis, urge the election of M. Holconius Priscus as duumvir with judiciary authority.' There may have been some special reason why the fruiterers wished to keep in favor with the city authorities, and so took an active part in the elections; the dealers in garlic (aliari) also had a candidate.

Among the representatives of other employments that joined in the support of candidates were the dyers (offectores), cloak-cutters (sagarii), pack-carriers (saccarii), mule-drivers (muliones), and fishermen (piscicapi). The inscription in which reference is made to the gig-drivers is mentioned elsewhere (p. 243).

The paintings in which we see work going on are numerous. By far the most pleasing are those in which the workmen are Cupids, busying themselves with the affairs of men. Several pictures of this kind have already been described (pp. 97, -); but we ought to add to those mentioned two scenes from Herculaneum, often reproduced, in which Cupids are represented as carpenters and as shoemakers.

Among the more important paintings in which the figures of men appear are those which picture the life of an inn and those that present the processes of cleaning cloth; both groups are reserved for later discussion. In a house in the ninth Region (IX. v. 9) a stuccoer is pictured at work putting the finishing touches on a wall with a smoothing tool, and in the house of the Surgeon an artist is seen painting a herm (Fig. 133).

In only a few instances are the remains of workshops sufficiently characteristic to indicate their purpose. Among the most impressive, to the visitor at Pompeii, are the ruins of the bakeries, with their large millstones (Fig. 218). Equally important, also, are the remains of the fulleries, and of a large tannery, which, as well as those of the inns and winerooms, will be discussed in separate chapters.

A few out of the hundreds of shops opening on the streets contain remains of the articles exposed for sale. The discovery of charred nuts, fruits, and loaves of bread in the market stalls north of the Macellum has already been noted (p. 96). We know the use of other shops from the remains of paints found in them. The arrangements of such places of business were discussed in connection with those of the Pompeian house.

Several establishments which contain large lead kettles set in masonry, with a place for a fire underneath, have been identified as dyehouses. In the case of one on Stabian Street (VII. ii. 11), the identification seems complete. Nine such kettles stood in the peristyle, which has a direct connection with the street; in a closet were numerous bottles, part of which contained coloring materials. There was formerly a painting on the wall of the entrance, representing a man carrying on a pole an object which had the appearance of a garment fresh from the dye.

On the opposite side of the street is the election notice: Postumium Proculum aed. offectores rog[ant],—'The dyers request the election of Postumius Proculus as aedile.' The house on which this inscription is painted (IX. iii. 2) contained three kettles similar to those already mentioned; the dyers of both establishments may have united in supporting the candidacy of Proculus.

A potter's workshop, with two ovens, is located outside the Herculaneum Gate, where the streets divide opposite the villa of Diomedes (Plan V, 29-30). The ovens, which are not large, have an upper division, in which were placed the vessels to be baked, and a firebox underneath, the floor above being pierced with holes to let the heat through. The vault of one of the ovens was constructed of parallel rows of jars fitted into one another.

There was a shoemaker's shop on the northwest corner of Insula VII. i opening upon two streets. It is connected with the entrance hall of the adjoining house (No. 40), and near the middle is a small stone table. The identification rests upon the discovery here of certain tools, particularly leather-cutters' knives with a crescent-shaped blade; there was also an inscription on the wall, making record of some repairing done 'July 14, with a sharp-cornered knife (scalpro angulato) and an awl.' Apparently the porter of the house (ostiarius) was at the same time a cobbler, as frequently in Italy to-day.

On the same wall is another scribbling: M. Nonius Campanus mil. coh. VIIII pr. 𐆛 Caesi,—'Marcus Nonius Campanus, a soldier of the ninth praetorian cohort, of the century led by Caesius.' The name of the centurion, M. Caesius Blandus, is scratched twice on the columns of the peristyle in the same house. Captain and private may have come from Rome in the escort of an emperor. Perhaps the centurion was quartered in this house; the soldier, waiting to have his shoes mended, scratched his name upon the wall.

The better houses were so freely adorned with statuettes and other ornaments of marble that there must have been marble-workers in the city. The workshop of one was found, in 1798, on Stabian Street, near the Large Theatre. It contained various pieces of carving, as herms, table feet, and table tops; there was also an unfinished mortar, together with a slab of marble partly sawed, the saw being left in the cut.

Signs of shops are not often seen in Pompeii, but two or three may be mentioned. In the wall of a shop-front in the block containing the Baths north of the Forum, there is a terra cotta plaque with a goat in relief, to indicate the place of a milk dealer; and not far away we find a sign of a wineshop, a tufa relief of two men carrying between them an amphora hung from a pole supported on their shoulders.

Not all such reliefs, however, are signs of shops. Near the Porta Marina (at the northwest corner of Insula VII. xv), a tufa block may be seen near the top of the wall, showing a mason's tools in relief; above it is the inscription, Diogenes structor, 'Diogenes the mason.' This is not a sign—the inscription can hardly be read from below; it is, moreover, on the outside of a garden wall, with no house or shop entrance near it. It is rather a workman's signature; Diogenes had built the wall, and wished to leave a record of his skill.

In antiquity the miller and the baker were one person. We rarely find in Pompeii—and then only in private houses—an oven without mills under the same roof. There were many bakeries in the city. The portion already excavated contains more than twenty, each of them with three or four mills; bread was furnished, therefore, by a number of small bakeries rather than by a few large establishments.

The appearance of a bakery to-day, with its mills and its large oven, may be seen in Fig. 218. The arrangements can more easily be explained, however, from the plan of another establishment, one of the largest, in the third Insula of Region VI. (Fig. 219). Entering from the street through the fauces, we find ourselves in an atrium of simple form (8) with rooms on either side; the tablinum (14) is here merely an entrance to the mill room (15). In the corner of the atrium is a stairway leading to a second story, which was particularly needed here, because the living rooms at the rear were required for the bakery; the floor of the second story was supported by brick pillars at the corners of the impluvium, joined by flat arches.

The four mills (b), were turned by animals; the floor around them is paved with basalt flags like those used for the streets. In the same room, at d, were the remains of a low table; at c there is a cistern curb, with a large earthen vessel for holding water on either side, while the wall above was ornamented with a painting representing Vesta, the patron goddess of bakers, between the two Lares. On one side of the oven (17) is the kneading room (18), on the other the storeroom (19). The room at the left (16) is the stall for the donkeys that turned the mills.

The mills of Pompeii, with slight variations, are all of one type; if there were watermills on the Sarno, no trace of them has been found. The millstones are of lava (p. 15). The lower stone, meta, has the shape of a cone resting on the end of a cylinder, but the cylindrical part is in most cases partially concealed by a thick hoop of masonry, the top of which was formed into a trough to receive the flour, and was covered with sheet lead (Fig. 220). A square hole, five or six inches across, was cut in the top of the cone, in which was inserted a wooden standard; this supported a vertical iron pivot on which the frame of the upper millstone turned.

The shape of the upper millstone, catillus, may best be seen in Fig. 221. It was like a double funnel, the lower cavity being fitted to the cone of the lower millstone, while that in the upper part answered the purpose of a hopper. The two cavities were connected at the centre by an opening similar to that of an hourglass, which left room for the standard and allowed the grain to run down slowly, when the catillus was turned, to be ground between the two stones. The flour ran out at the base of the cone and fell into the trough, ready to be sifted and made into bread.

The upper millstone was nicely balanced over the lower, the surface of which it touched but lightly; it could not have rested on the under stone with full weight, for in that case the strength of a draft animal would not have sufficed to move it. The stones could be set for finer or coarser grinding by changing the length of the standard.

The arrangement for turning the mill was simple. In shaping the upper millstone, strong shoulders were left in the narrowest part (Fig. 220), on opposite sides. In these square sockets were cut, in which the ends of shafts were inserted and firmly fastened by round bolts passing through the shoulders (Fig. 221). The shafts were tied to the ends of the crossbeam above by curved vertical pieces of wood, or by straps of iron, which were let into grooves in the stone and so made firm. The crosspiece above, which turned on the pivot in the end of the standard, was sometimes of iron, sometimes of wood with an iron socket fitting the pivot. The framework must necessarily have been exceedingly strong. One of the mills at Pompeii (IX. iii. 10) has lately been set up with new woodwork, and grinds very well.

The smaller mills were turned by slaves, the larger by draft animals. Men pushed on the projecting shafts, but animals wore a collar which was attached by a chain or rope to the end of the crosspiece at the top. The links of the chain running to the crossbeam are distinctly shown in a relief in the Vatican Museum (Fig. 222), in which a horse is represented turning a mill. Blinders are over the eyes of the horse, which seems also to be checked up in order to prevent eating. A square hopper rests on the crossbeam, and the miller is bringing a measure of wheat to pour into it. On a shelf in the corner of the room is a lamp.

The ovens were not unlike those still in use in many parts of Europe. They were shaped like a low beehive, generally with some kind of a flue in front to make the fire burn inside while they were being heated. The oven in the bakery described above, however, has a special device for saving as much heat as possible (Fig. 223); it is entirely enclosed in a smoke chamber (b), with two openings above (d) for the draft. Fires were kindled in such ovens with wood or charcoal; the latter was probably used here. When the proper temperature for baking had been reached, the ashes were raked out (in Fig. 223, e is an ashpit), the loaves of bread shoved in, and the mouth closed to retain the heat. A receptacle for water stands in front of our oven (f), a convenience for moistening the surface of the loaves while baking. The front of the oven (at c) was connected with the rooms on either side, as may be more clearly seen by referring to Fig. 219. In the kneading room (18), where were found remains of a large table and shelves, the loaves were made ready, and could be passed through one opening to the front of the oven; the hot loaves could be conveniently passed through the other opening into the storeroom (19).

In many establishments a machine was used for kneading; the best example is in a bakery on the north side of Insula xiv in Region VI. Such kneading machines are seen also in ancient representations of the baker's trade, as in the reliefs of the tomb of Eurysaces, near the Porta Maggiore at Rome.

The dough was placed in a round pan of lava a foot and a half or two feet in diameter. In this a vertical shaft revolved, to the lower part of which two or three wooden arms were attached (three in Fig. 224); the one at the bottom was strengthened by an iron crosspiece on the under side, the projecting centre of which turned in a socket below. The side of the pan was pierced in two or three places for the insertion of wooden teeth, so placed as not to interfere with the revolution of the arms. As the shaft was turned, the dough was pushed forward by the arms and held back by the teeth, being thus thoroughly kneaded. Modern kneading machines are constructed on the same principle, but have two sets of teeth on horizontal cylinders revolving toward each other.

Chapter XLVIII. The Fullers and the Tanners

The work of the ancient fuller was twofold, to make ready for use the cloth fresh from the loom, and to cleanse garments that had been worn. As the garments used by the Romans were mainly of wool, and needed skilful manipulation to retain their size and shape, they were ordinarily sent out of the house to be cleansed; in consequence the trade of the fuller was relatively important. In the part of Pompeii thus far excavated we find two large fulleries and one smaller establishment that can be identified with certainty; and there were doubtless many laundries, with less ample facilities, the purpose of which is not clearly indicated by the remains. The following account of the processes employed relates exclusively to woollen fabrics.

At the time of the destruction of Pompeii, soap, a Gallic invention, was only beginning to come into use; the commonest substitute was fuller's earth, creta fullonia, a kind of alkaline marl. For raising the nap, teasel does not seem to have been used, as with us, but a species of thorn (spina fullonia) the spines of which were mounted in a carding tool resembling a brush (aena); the skin of a hedgehog also was sometimes utilized for this purpose.

The fulling of new cloth involved seven or eight distinct processes,—washing with fuller's earth, or other cleansing agents, to remove the oily matter; beating and stretching, to make the surface even; washing and drying a second time, for cleaning and shrinking; combing with a carding tool to raise the nap, brushing in order to make it ready for clipping, and shearing to reduce the nap to proper length; then, particularly in the case of the white woollens so commonly used, bleaching with sulphur fumes; and finally, smoothing in a large press. The process of cleaning soiled garments was more simple.

A series of paintings in the largest of the fulleries, on the west side of Mercury Street, picture several of these processes with great clearness. They were on a large pillar at the front end of the peristyle, from which they were removed to the Museum at Naples; they supplement admirably the scenes of the Cupids' fullery in the house of the Vettii, mentioned in a previous chapter (p. 335).

In the first picture (Fig. 225), the clothes are being washed. They are in four round treading vats, which stand in niches formed by a low wall. One of the workmen is still treading his allotment, steadying himself by resting his arms on the walls of the niche at both sides; the other three have finished treading and are standing on the bottom of their tubs, rinsing the garments before wringing them out.

The next scene (Fig. 226) is threefold. In the foreground at the left sits a richly dressed lady, to whom a girl brings a garment that has been cleaned; that the woman is not one of those employed in the fullery is evident from her elaborate headdress, necklace, and bracelets. In the background a workman dressed in a tunic is carding a large piece of cloth. Near by another workman carries on his shoulders a bleaching frame, over which garments were spread to receive the fumes of the sulphur; he holds in his left hand the pot in which the brimstone was burned. An owl, symbol of Minerva, who was worshipped by fullers as their patron divinity, sits upon the frame; and the man underneath has on his head a wreath of leaves from the olive tree, which was sacred to the same goddess.

In the third picture a young man hands a garment to a girl; at the right a woman is cleaning a carding tool. The fourth (Fig. 227) gives an excellent representation of a fuller's press, worked by two upright screws; it is so much like our modern presses as to need no explanation. The festoons with which it is adorned are of olive leaves.

With these pictures before us, it will be easy to understand the plan of the fullery on the west side of Stabian Street, opposite the house of Caecilius Jucundus (Fig. 228). It was excavated in 1875. The building was not originally designed for a fuller's establishment, but for a private house, and part of the rooms were retained for domestic use, as the well preserved kitchen (d), and some of the other rooms opening off from the atrium (b). The furniture of the atrium—a table in front of the impluvium, with a pedestal for a fountain figure, and a marble basin to receive the jet—is like that of the house the interior of which is shown in Plate VII.

The fuller's appliances are found in the shop next to the entrance (21), and in the peristyle (q). In the former are the foundations of three treading vats, and on the opposite side an oblong depression in which the press was placed. The peristyle contains three large basins of masonry for soaking and rinsing the clothes. A jet of water fell into the one next the rear wall (3), from which it ran into the other two through holes in the sides. Along the wall is a raised walk (4) on a level with the top of the basins, into which the workmen descended by means of steps. At the ends of this walk are places for seven treading vats, five in one group, two in the other. The wall above is decorated with a long sketchy painting, in which the fullers are seen engaged in the celebration of a festival,—doubtless the Quinquatrus, the feast of Minerva; the celebration is followed by a scene before a magistrate, resulting from a fight engaged in by the celebrants. A mass of fuller's earth was found in the passage at m.

From the receipts found in the house of Caecilius Jucundus, it appears that this thrifty Pompeian, in the years 56-60 A.D., rented a fullery belonging to the city. In view of the nearness of this establishment to his house, it seems likely that he was in charge of the business here. At the time of the eruption, however, the enterprise was in the hands of Marcus Vesonius Primus, who lived in the house next door (No. 20), where a portrait herm, dedicated to him by his cashier (arcarius), stands in the atrium; the house is often called the house of Orpheus, from the large painting on the rear wall of the garden.

To judge from the election notices painted on the front of the fullery and on the houses at either side, Primus must have taken an active interest in local politics. He was an ardent partisan, as witness this inscription: Cn. Helvium aed. d. r. p. (for aedilem, dignum re publica) Vesonius Primus rogat,—'Vesonius Primus urges the election of Gnaeus Helvius as aedile, a man worthy of public office.' The endorsement of Gavius Rufus is even stronger: C. Gavium Rufum II vir. o. v. f. utilem r. p. (duumvirum, oro vos, facite, utilem rei publicae) Vesonius Primus rogat,—'Vesonius Primus requests the election of Gaius Gavius Rufus as duumvir, a man serviceable to public interests; do elect him, I beg of you.'

In one of the shorter recommendations, Primus names his occupation: L. Ceium Secundum II v. i. d. Primus fullo ro[gat],—'Primus the fuller asks the election of Lucius Ceius Secundus as duumvir with judiciary authority.' On one occasion he united with his employees in favoring a candidate for the aedileship: Cn. Helvium Sabinum aed. Primus cum suis fac[it],—'Primus and his household are working for the election of Gnaeus Helvius Sabinus as aedile.'

The fullery on Mercury Street, like that just described, had been made over from a private house, built in the pre-Roman period. Among other changes, the columns of the large peristyle were replaced by massive pillars of masonry supporting a gallery above for the drying of clothes. At the rear are four square basins, the two larger of which are more than seven feet across; the water passed from one to the other as in the basins of Primus's fullery. In the corner near the last basin are six rectangular niches for treading vats, separated by a low wall, the purpose of which is clear from Fig. 225. There is a vaulted room at the right of the peristyle, with a cistern curb, a large basin of masonry, and a stone table. Here a substance was found which the excavators supposed to be soap, but which was doubtless fuller's earth, like that found in the establishment on Stabian Street.

There were naturally fewer tanners than fullers; and so far only one tannery has been discovered. That is a large establishment, however, filling almost an entire block near the Stabian Gate (Ins. I. v), excavated in 1873. Like the two larger fulleries, it occupied a building designed for a house. The appliances of the craft are found in only a small part of the structure; they relate to two processes,—the preparation of the fluids used for tanning, and the manipulation of the hides.

The mixture for the tan vats was prepared in a tank under a colonnade opening on the garden. It could be drawn off through two holes in the side into a smaller basin below, or conducted by means of a gutter running along the wall to three large earthen vessels.

The vats, fifteen in number, are in a room formerly used as an atrium (Fig. 229). They are about 5 feet in diameter, and from 4 to about 5½ feet deep; they were built of masonry, and plastered; two holes were made in the side of each to serve as a convenience in climbing in and out. Between adjacent pairs of pits was an oblong basin about twenty inches deep, lined with wood. On either side of this was a large earthen jar, sunk in the earth; a small, round hole between the basin and each jar seems to mark the place of a pipe tile, connected with the former at the bottom. The large pits were for ordinary tanning; the oblong basins were probably used in making fine leather (aluta), a process in which alum was the principal agent, the chemicals being placed in the jars on either side, and supplied to the basins through the pipe tiles.

In the same building four tools were found, similar to those used by tanners at the present time. One was a knife, of bronze, with a charred wooden handle on the back of the blade; two were scraping irons, with a handle on each end; and there was another iron tool with a crescent-shaped blade.

The garden on which the colonnade opened contains an open-air triclinium. The table was ornamented with a mosaic top, now in the Naples Museum, with a characteristic design (Fig. 230). The principal motive is a skull; below is a butterfly on the rim of a wheel, symbols of the fluttering of the disembodied soul and of the flight of time. On the right and on the left are the spoils that short-lived man leaves behind him,—here a wanderer's staff, a wallet, and a beggar's tattered robe; there, a sceptre, with a mantle of royal purple. Over all is a level, with the plumb line hanging straight, symbolic of Fate, that sooner or later equalizes the lots of all mankind. The thought of the tanner, or of the earlier proprietor of the house, is easy to divine: Mors aurem vellens, Vivite, ait, venio,

'Death plucks my ear, and says,

"Live!" for I come.'

Chapter XLIX. Inns and Wineshops

Wineshops, cauponae, were numerous in Pompeii, and the remains are easily identified. Like the Italian osterie, they were at the same time eating houses, but the arrangements for drinking were the more conspicuous, and give character to the ruins. The Roman inn, hospitium, or simply caupona, was a wineshop with accommodations for the night, provision being also made in most cases for the care of animals. Keepers of inns, caupones, are frequently mentioned in Pompeian inscriptions, sometimes in election notices, more often in graffiti.

Several inns have been identified from signs and from scribblings on the walls within. At the entrance of one (west side of Ins. IX. vii) is painted Hospitium Hygini Firmi, 'Inn of Hyginius Firmus.' The front of the 'Elephant Inn' (west side of Ins. VII. i) was ornamented with the painting of an elephant in the coils of a serpent, defended by a pygmy. The name of the proprietor is perhaps given at the side: Sittius restituit elephantu[m], 'Sittius restored the elephant,' referring no doubt to the repainting of the sign. Evidently the owner, whether Sittius or some one else, was anxious to rent the premises; below the elephant is the painted notice: Hospitium hic locatur—triclinium cum tribus lectis,—'Inn to let. Triclinium with three couches.' The rest of the inscription is illegible.

The plan of another inn in the same region (west side of VII. xii) well illustrates the arrangements of these hostelries (Fig. 231). The main room (a), which probably served as a dining room, is entered directly from the street. At one side is the kitchen (h); six sleeping rooms (b-g) open upon the other sides. But the landlord did not provide merely for the entertainment of guests from out of town; he endeavored to attract local patronage also, by means of a wineshop (n), which opened upon the street and had a separate dining room (o). A short passage (i) led from the main room to the stalls (k), in front of which was a watering trough. The vehicles were probably crowded into the recess at m, or the front of a. The two side rooms (l and p) were closets.

The walls of several of the rooms contain records of the sojourn of guests. C. Valerius Venustus, 'a pretorian of the first cohort, enrolled in the century of Rufus,' scratched his name on the wall of c, to which also an affectionate husband confided his loneliness: 'Here slept Vibius Restitutus all by himself, his heart filled with longings for his Urbana.' Four players, one of them a Martial, passed a night together in the same apartment. In the next room (d) a patriotic citizen of Puteoli left a greeting for his native town: 'Well be it ever with Puteoli, colony of Nero, of the Claudian line; C. Julius Speratus wrote this.' This city, as we learn from Tacitus, received permission from Nero to call itself Colonia Claudia Neronensis. Lucifer and Primigenius, two friends, spent a night in room f, Lucceius Albanus of Abellinum (Avellino) in g.

The arrangement of rooms here is so unlike that of an ordinary house that the building must have been designed at the beginning for a tavern. Sometimes a dwelling was turned into an inn, as in the case of the house of Sallust, which, as we have seen, in the last years of the city must in part at least have been used as a hostelry.

Inns near the gates had a paved entrance for wagons, interrupting the sidewalk. A good example is the inn of Hermes, in the first block on the right as one came into the city by the Stabian Gate (Fig. 232). On either side of the broad entrance (a), are winerooms (b, d). Behind the stairway at the right, which leads from the street to the second story, is a hearth with a water heater. On the wall at the left was formerly a painting with the two Lares and the Genius offering sacrifice; below was the figure of a man pouring wine from an amphora into an earthen hogshead (dolium), and beside it was written Hermes, apparently the name of the proprietor. The wagons stood in the large room at the rear (f), with which the narrow stable (k) is connected; in one corner is a watering trough of masonry. On the ground floor were only three sleeping rooms (e, g, and h), but there were upper rooms at the rear, reached by a flight of stairs in f; these were probably not connected with the upper rooms of the front part, which (over a, b, c, d, e), having a street entrance, may have been rented separately.

The Pompeian inns were doubtless fair representatives of their class in the different Roman cities. Those of Rome must have been numerous, but are rarely mentioned, and innkeepers are generally referred to in terms of disrespect. The ordinary charges seem to have been low, and the accommodations were of a corresponding character. Owing to the universal custom of furnishing private entertainment to all with whom there existed any ground of hospitality, places of public entertainment tended to become the resorts of the vicious.

The wineshop of which the plan is here given (Fig. 233) is on the east side of Mercury Street, at the northwest corner of Ins. VI. x. It was designed not only for the accommodation of guests who would go inside to partake of refreshments, but also for the sale of drinks over the counter to those who might stop a moment in passing. This is evident from the arrangement of the main room (a), which has a long counter in front, with a series of small marble shelves arranged like stairs on one end of it, for the display of cups and glasses; on the other is a place for heating a vessel over a fire. Large jars are set in the counter, in which liquids and eatables could be kept. In the corner of the room, at the right as one enters, a hearth is placed. In view of the provision for heating water, we are safe in calling this a thermopolium, a wineshop which made a specialty of furnishing hot drinks. The passage at the rear of the hearth (c) is connected with a small room (d) and also with the adjoining house, which may have been the residence of the proprietor, or may have been used for lodgings.

The long room with an entrance from the side street (b, now walled up) was intended for the use of those who preferred to eat and drink at their leisure. The walls are decorated with a series of paintings presenting realistic scenes from the life of such places. We see the guests eating, drinking, and playing with dice. Some are standing, others sitting on stools; it is the kind of public house that Martial calls a 'stool-ridden cookshop,' in which couches were not provided, but only seats without backs (Mart. Ep. V. lxx. 3).

In one of the scenes (Fig. 234) four men are drinking, about a round table, while a boy waits on them; two of the figures have pointed hoods like those seen to-day in Sicily and some parts of Italy. Strings of sausage, hams, and other eatables hang from a pole suspended under the ceiling.

Some of the figures in the pictures are accompanied by inscriptions. Thus by the side of a guest for whom a waiter is pouring out a glass of wine is written: Da fridam pusillum, 'Add cold water—just a little.' In a similar connection we read, Adde calicem Setinum, 'Another cup of Setian!' The Setian wine came from a town in Latium at the foot of the hills bordering the Pontine Marshes, now Sezze; we infer that our wineshop sold not merely the products of neighboring vineyards, but choice brands from other regions as well. Wines from the locality were probably brought to town in amphorae; the delivery of a consignment from a distance is shown in a separate scene (Fig. 235), in which amphorae are being filled from a large skin on a wagon; the team of mules is meanwhile resting, unharnessed, the yoke hanging on the end of the pole.

The pictures present the life of a tavern from the point of view of the landlord; but occasionally we have a suggestion of the other side, as in the following couplet, the faulty spelling of which we can forgive on account of its pithiness: Talia te fallant utinam me[n]dacia, copo, Tu ve[n]des acuam et bibes ipse merum,—

'Landlord, may your lies malign

Bring destruction on your head!

You yourself drink unmixed wine,

Water sell your guests instead.'

The wineshop in which this graffito is found (I. ii. 24) is larger than that on Mercury Street, and has several dining rooms. Connected with it is a garden with a triclinium, once shaded by vines, which calls to mind the invitation of the barmaid in the Copa:—

'Here a garden you will find,

Cool retreat, with cups and roses,

Lute and pipe, for mirth designed,

Bower that mask of reeds encloses.

'Come, weary traveller, lie and rest

'Neath the shade of vines o'er-spreading.

Wreath of roses freshly pressed

On your head its fragrance shedding.'

All the pictures found in Pompeian wineshops bear out the inference, based upon numerous allusions in classical writers, that such places everywhere were in the main frequented by the lower classes; among the adjectives applied to taverns by the poets are 'dirty,' 'smoky,' and 'black.' They were haunted by gamblers and criminals, and the life was notoriously immoral.

KEY TO THE LEFT SIDE

• 24. Villa of Diomedes.
• 16-23. Tombs—Group III.
• 16. Unfinished tomb.
• 17. Tomb of Umbricius Scaurus.
• 18. Round tomb.
• 19. Sepulchral enclosure.
• 20. Tomb of Calventius Quietus.
• 21. Sepulchral enclosure of Istacidius Helenus.
• 22. Tomb of Naevoleia Tyche.
• 23. Triclinium Funebre.
• 5-15. So-called Villa of Cicero.
• 1-4 a. Tombs—Group I.
• 1. Sepulchral niche of Cerrinius Restitutus.
• 2. Sepulchral bench of A. Veius.
• 3. Tomb of M. Porcius.
• 4. Sepulchral bench of Mamia.
• 4 a. Tomb of the Istacidii.
• A. Herculaneum Gate.
• C. Bay Road.

KEY TO THE RIGHT SIDE

• 33-43. Tombs—Group IV.
• 33. Unfinished tomb.
• 34. Tomb with the marble door.
• 35. Unfinished tomb.
• 36. Sepulchral enclosure with small pyramids.
• 37. Tomb of Luccius Libella.
• 38. Tomb of Ceius Labeo.
• 39. Tomb without a name.
• 40. Sepulchral niche of Salvius.
• 41. Sepulchral niche of Velasius Gratus.
• 42. Tomb of M. Arrius Diomedes.
• 43. Tomb of Arria.
• 31-32. Samnite Graves.
• 10-30. Villa.
• 10, 11, 13, 14. Shops.
• 12. Garden belonging to Tombs 8 and 9.
• 15. Street entrance of Inn.
• 16-28. Rooms belonging to the Inn.
• 29-30. Potter's establishment.
• 1-9. Tombs—Group II.
• 1. Tomb without a name.
• 2. Sepulchral enclosure of Terentius Felix.
• 3, 4. Tombs without names.
• 5. Sepulchral enclosure.
• 6. Garland tomb.
• 7. Sepulchral enclosure.
• 8. Tomb of the Blue Glass Vase.
• 9. Sepulchral niche.
• A. Herculaneum Gate.
• B. City Wall.
• D. Road along City Wall.
• E-E. Vesuvius Road.