Houses of Pompeii and Herculaneum

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House of the Vetti

  • Owned by two wealthy brothers
  • Merchants
  • no shops in front of house
  • Two atriums
  • A peristyle Garden
  • no tablinum (study)
  • Main rooms around main atrium
  • Had a second floor
  • Entrance hall, priapus weighing his phallus
  • Compuluvium, impluvium
  • Strongboxes found
  • Lararium
  • frescoes - scenes from mythology - Hercules killing a serpent
  • Triclinium had a long frieze - cupids - making perfume, preparing flowers, selling wine
  • Had a water fountain
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House of the Faun

  • Owned by aristocrat
  • Occupied whole insula (3000 m^2)
  • Had shops at the front
  • Two atriums - One Tuscan (public), one tetrastyle (private)
  • Set of baths
  • Stables
  • Kitchen
  • Two gardens
  • Impuluvium in Tuscan atrium has a bronze statuette of a dancing faun
  • Outside (have) - greeting
  • two larariums
  • entrance had two false pillars
  • Atriums had first style fresco to show ancient legacy
  • Peristyle garden had 28 Ionic columns + fountain
  • Mosaic of Alexander the Great
  • Four triclina (one for each season of the year)
  • Second Peristyle garden - Double colonnade 44 Doric dolums
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Villa of Mysteries

  • Outside was outside of Pompeii
  • dedicated to agriculture (pressing wine and oil)
  • All utility rooms were situated around the peristyle
  • Semi-circular verandah
  • Frescoes in triclinium depict the iniatiation process into the cult of Bacchus
  • Built on slope - cryptoporticus
  • Covered balcony running along one side of villa
  • Entrance did not lead to atrium - led to peristyle garden
  • Torcularium - where grapes were pressed - make wine
  • Suite of baths heated by large oven
  • Small tetrastyle atrium
  • Main atrium - Tuscan atrium
  • Tabliunum (shutters - fiorelli's process)
  • Cubicle - Second Style with columns
  • Tablinum is decorated in the third style (Egyptian)
  • Triclinium - Wall paintings - showing sex cult. (Whipping+lyre-playing)
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House of Caecilius

  • Built using limestone - tufa
  • Apotropaic relief in lararium - showing earlier earthquake at the forum
  • Tablinum has a cast of Caecilius Iucundus
  • and 154 wax tablets
  • Third style frescoes - naked woman
  • peristyle garden
  • Atrium
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House of Menander

  • 1800m^2
  • Poppaei family - Emperor Nero's second wife
  • Peristyle garden - focal point
  • Baths, reception rooms
  • Tuscan atrium has a marble impluvium - fourth style
  • Lararium in the style of a miniature temple
  • Paintings on trojan war - Laocoon + the snake
  • Floor mosaic shows Nile
  • Shows greek playwright Menander, and Euripides
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House of the Tragic Poet

  • Not very big
  • Many mosaics and frescoes
  • Two shops in front
  • Vestibule floor - mosaic - Dog (CAVE CANEM) - 'Beware of the dog'
  • Atrium - compluvium, impluvium
  • Tablinum
  • 4 bed rooms, and an ala (service area for a dining room)
  • Peristyle garden
  • Lararium
  • Not much know aboout layout
  • Tablinum ( mosaic of actors preparing for a satyr play.) Playing the flute. Box of masks.
  • Imaginary garden scene, fresco showing the Scarifice of Iphigenia
  • Atrium - large scale, mythological fresoces, four feet square. 
  • Trojan War related ( Zeus and Hera, Aphrodite, Achilles and Briseis, Helen and Paris.)
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House of Neptune and Amphitrite (Herculaneum)

  • Small (227m^2)
  • Owner was wealthy
  • Many of the paintings and mosaics damaged/missing, raided
  • Entrance -> atrium + lararium
  • Tablinum
  • Two tricliniums (summer and winter)
  • Triclinium was the largest room of the house
  • No garden but summer triclinium
  • Mosaic of Neptune and Amphitrite - Glass paste mosaic, border of shells (shipping buisness)
  • Nymphaeum (shrine to the nymphs) - glass paste, shells and mother-of-pearl, with marble masks
  • Hunt scenes and garlands
  • Upper room had bronze bed and marble table, decorated in 4th style
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House of the Wooden Partition (Herculaneum)

  • Third Style Frescoes
  • Peristyle Garden
  • Tuscan Atrium (marble table by impluvium)
  • Tablinum
  • Triclinium
  • Cubiculum
  • Workshops
  • Wooden partition stands between atrium and tablinum
  • A wooden bed found in a room around the atrium
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Villa of Diomedes (Pompeii)

  • Large peristyle
  • Private Bath
  • tablinum
  • Sunken Garden
  • Cryptoporticus - wine cellar
  • Monumental pool
  • Open air Triclinium
  • Belonged to Arrius Diomedes (whose tomb is opposite)
  • Modern scholars say no connection
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Apartments

  • Small 
  • Simple
  • Upper shop story apartment
  • No running water
  • No cooking facilities
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