The use of marble in the public places and in the dwellings of Pompeii was common and it gave to the public and private buildings where it was used for, a beautiful impact and a feeling of richness.

Marble is a valuable material. It was used for covering the steps of the Great Theatre, during its last renovation under the rule of the Augustus emperor. Conversely, for its original construction the Samnites used a less expensive and more available material. ​

A particular research reviewed the House of Julius Polybius (Regio IX), with the façade overlooking Via dell’Abbondanza, and the tubs in the garden of the House of the Vettii. The studies of the decoration in white or coloured marble found in Pompeii lead to the classification of 36 kinds of marbles, imported from North Africa, the Greek Islands and Asia Minor. So, the marble was without doubts, at the time, a remarkable sign of richness and social relevance of the owners of the richest houses in Pompeii.

Would you like to discover more about the history of ancient Pompeii? Don’t forget that Pompeii is one of the most significant proofs of Roman civilization and, like an open book, provides outstanding information on the art, customs, trades and everyday life of the past. Book your time-traveling tour through the ancient city with our friendly licensed guides and a VR headset to see how Pompeii looked 2,000 years ago. View your tour options here. We are waiting for you!

Brothels in Pompeii were decorated with murals depicting erotic and exotic scenes: but the reality was far more brutal and mundane, writes Classical Literature and Classical Reception Studies professor Marguerite Johnson of the University of Newcastle (Australia).

Like the anxious men who began excavations at Pompeii in the 18th century and discovered more about the ancient Italians than they had bargained for – such as phallic-shaped lamps – historians of sex are regularly confronted with case studies from the past that challenge their own ethics. Those who worked the streets of Pompeii and served clients in the brothels lived hard lives, yet many of the murals that survive depict the women as erotic and exotic.
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Murals from brothels and buildings that served as brothels (such as inns, lunch counters, and taverns) show fair-skinned women, naked (except for the occasional breast band), with stylized hair, in a variety of sexual positions with young, tanned, athletic men. The figures sport on beds that are sometimes ornate and festooned with decorative quilts.

In buildings identified as brothels, the murals may have been intended to arouse clients. They may also have functioned as pictorial menus or even served as instruction manuals for more inexperienced customers. In buildings identified as private residences, the scenes were most likely decorative but also designed, perhaps, for titillation.

Contrary to the idealized images, the brothels themselves provide evidence that the women worked in cells, usually only big enough for a narrow bed. The absence of windows in most attests to the darkness of the cells, as well as limited air flow.
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Excavations also suggest that the cells were usually without doors, which implies that the rooms may have been curtained. They have also revealed stone beds. Wooden beds as well as pallets were likely also used, but would have perished in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.

The conditions in which the women worked were of no concern to brothel owners, clients or anyone else for that matter, as most sex workers in ancient Italy were slaves. As the ancient attitude towards slaves was one of indifference at best, and violent disdain at worst, the lives of women were no source of empathy to those outside their class.
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The sex workers fulfilled a utilitarian function and nothing else. Confined to the premises by (usually) male pimps who provided them with only their most basic needs, the women were essentially cut off from the outside world. This rendered them vulnerable to the whims of both pimp and client alike.

Women who worked the streets in Pompeii often waited around archways and other standard locations such as graveyards and public baths. In larger towns and cities, where control of the sex trade was harder to manage, some of these women may have worked without pimps. Those who made up this percentage of workers were mostly freed slaves and poor freeborn women.
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In the last few months in Pompeii there began to emerge untouched finds, never seen before, which add new elements to the reading of the history of the ancient city. At the Schola Armaturarum a new excavation of the courtyards has been started, never investigated before (the Schola Armataurarum is a building that comes up now like a symbol of the rebirth for Pompeii, where the original frescoes saved since the bombing of 1943 are being restored).

It is here that 14 new amphorae were found. The amphorae were found intact, they contained oil, wine and fish sauces: one of them has painted some  inscriptions in which we read numbers that indicated the quantities and, probably, the contained product. The use as a deposit for the environment is confirmed by some visible graffiti on one of the walls of the same, which reaffirm the storage activity. At the end of the excavation, scheduled for the end of December, the amphorae will be relocated in situ as part of a wide project to enhance the "widespread museum" that the Archaeological Park is adopting in several areas of the excavations to re-contextualize the finds in the places of origin.

Would you like to discover more about the history of ancient Pompeii? Don’t forget that Pompeii is one of the most significant proofs of Roman civilization and, like an open book, provides outstanding information on the art, customs, trades and everyday life of the past. Book your time-traveling tour through the ancient city with our friendly and prepared licensed guides and a VR headset to see how Pompeii looked 2,000 years ago. View your tour options here. We are waiting for you!