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Section I (Core Study): Cities of Vesuvius - Pompeii and Herculaneum
Quick questions on Social structure of Pompeii and Herculaneum: HSC Ancient History
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What is the legal structure?Show answer
Roman society was divided by legal status. Free-born citizens (ingenui) held full rights. Freed slaves (liberti, libertini) had limited rights and were bound to their former master as patron. Slaves (servi) were legally property.
What is men?Show answer
Pompeii's decurions (ordo decurionum) numbered around 100 free-born adult male citizens of property. They elected the annual magistrates: two duoviri iure dicundo (judicial duumvirs) and two aediles (responsible for markets, streets, public buildings). The cursus honorum at municipal level ran aedile to duumvir, with the quinquennial duumvir (every fifth year) carrying out a census.
What is women?Show answer
Roman women were excluded from formal political office but could hold significant public influence. The clearest evidence is Eumachia, public priestess of Venus and patroness of the fullers' guild. The Building of Eumachia on the east side of the Forum (early 1st century AD) was financed by her; the dedicatory inscription survives. The fullers erected a statue of her with the inscription "Eumachiae L(uci) f(iliae) sacerdoti publicae fullones" ("the fullers to Eumachia, daughter of Lucius, public priestess").
What are slaves?Show answer
Slaves (servi) were legally property. The evidence for slaves at Pompeii and Herculaneum is widespread but fragmentary.
What is skeletal evidence from Herculaneum?Show answer
The 1980-1982 discovery of 340 skeletons in the Herculaneum boat sheds transformed scholarship on the population. Pre-1980 scholarship assumed most inhabitants escaped; the skeletons proved many did not. Sara Bisel's (1987) anthropological study found a mixed population by age, sex, social class, and health.
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