Everyday life in Pompeii and Herculaneum, including leisure activities, food, housing, water supply and sanitation, and the evidence from frescoes, archaeology, and inscriptions

What this dot point is asking

NESA expects you to describe and analyse the lived experience of Pompeii and Herculaneum across food, housing, leisure, water, and sanitation, with specific archaeological and frescoes evidence. The Cities of Vesuvius preserve more daily-life evidence than any other Roman site. Strong answers cite named houses, named baths, named thermopolia, and engage with debate about how representative this evidence is.

The answer

Housing: the Roman atrium-peristyle plan

The wealthy Roman domus combined a public reception space (the atrium with impluvium and tablinum) with a private internal courtyard (the peristyle). Elite houses at Pompeii include the House of the Faun (c. 3,000 square metres, with the Alexander mosaic), the House of the Vettii (freedmen merchants), the House of the Tragic Poet (with the "Cave Canem" mosaic), and the House of the Menander (associated with Quintus Poppaeus, possibly a relative of Nero's wife Poppaea).

At Herculaneum, the smaller and better-preserved houses include the House of the Wooden Partition (with surviving wooden screens), the House of the Mosaic Atrium, and the Samnite House (one of the oldest surviving houses).

Non-elite housing took different forms: the upper storeys of insula buildings (apartment houses), shop-houses with a workshop or shop at ground level and living quarters above, and rented rooms (the Praedia of Julia Felix was a rental complex).

Andrew Wallace-Hadrill (Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum, 1994) demonstrated that Roman houses mixed function and display: kitchens, slave quarters, and workshops sat alongside public reception rooms. The distinction between domestic and economic space is modern, not Roman.

Wall painting: the four Pompeian styles

Wall paintings are categorised in four styles (a scheme proposed by August Mau in 1882).

First Style (Masonry, c. 200 to 80 BC). Stucco simulating coloured marble.

Second Style (Architectural, c. 80 BC to 14 AD). Trompe-l'oeil architecture creating illusionary depth, as in the Villa of the Mysteries.

Third Style (Ornate, c. 14 to 62 AD). Delicate ornamental designs with central mythological scenes on monochrome panels.

Fourth Style (Composite, c. 62 to 79 AD). Fantasy architecture combined with mythological vignettes. The House of the Vettii is the canonical example.

Food and the thermopolia

Diet evidence comes from carbonised food remains (figs, olives, bread, eggs at the House of Iulius Polybius), kitchen archaeology (the carbonised loaves of the Bakery of Modestus), and the over 150 thermopolia.

A thermopolium was a fast-food counter with sunken dolia containing hot food. The Thermopolium of Vetutius Placidus on the Via dell'Abbondanza preserves the painted counter, the lararium, and a cash deposit of around 1,300 sestertii. The 2020 discovery and excavation of the Thermopolium of Regio V provided new painted decoration of food on display.

Garum (fish sauce), wine, bread, olives, cheese, fruit, and pulses formed the dietary core. Meat was a luxury, but evidence from Herculaneum's sewers (the 2008 excavation of the Cardo V sewer) reveals fish, chicken, pork, and game in non-elite diet, refining earlier assumptions of mainly grain-based subsistence.

Public baths

The thermae were the centre of social life. Three major bath complexes at Pompeii: the Stabian Baths (oldest, 2nd century BC), the Forum Baths (1st century BC), and the Central Baths (under construction in AD 79).

Each had a frigidarium (cold), tepidarium (warm), and caldarium (hot), with the hypocaust under-floor heating system. Mixed and gender-segregated bathing varied. The palaestra (exercise courtyard) preserved equipment for ball games, wrestling, and athletics.

Seneca (Letters 56), writing from his Bay of Naples villa, complains about the noise above his lodgings near a public bath: shouting, splashing, and the sounds of every kind of athletic exertion.

Theatre, amphitheatre, and games

The Large Theatre at Pompeii (5,000 seats), rebuilt under the patronage of Marcus Holconius Rufus and his brother, hosted tragedy, comedy, and mime. The smaller Odeon (covered, around 1,500 seats) hosted recitations and music. The Quadriporticus dei Teatri (originally a portico) was repurposed as the Gladiator Barracks after the AD 62 earthquake.

The Amphitheatre (built c. 70 BC by Quinctius Valgus and Marcius Porcius) seated around 20,000. The fresco from the House of Actius Anicetus depicts the AD 59 riot between Pompeians and Nucerians at a gladiatorial show, an event recorded by Tacitus (Annals 14.17). The riot led to a ten-year ban on gladiatorial games at Pompeii, lifted only after the AD 62 earthquake.

The Lupanare and prostitution

The Lupanare on the Vicolo del Lupanare is the best-preserved Roman brothel. Two storeys, ten small cells, painted erotic vignettes above each doorway, and around 120 graffiti naming prostitutes (often slaves with Greek names) and clients. Prices were low (often two asses, comparable to a loaf of bread).

Mary Beard (Pompeii, 2008) cautions against treating the Lupanare as a unique site: cellae meretriciae are scattered throughout the city, often above bars, in side rooms, or in rented spaces.

Water and sanitation

The Aqua Augusta (Serino aqueduct, c. 20 BC under Augustus) supplied the Bay of Naples region. At Pompeii, the Castellum Aquae near the Porta Vesuvio (the city's highest point) distributed water through three lead pipes: one for public street fountains (around 40 city-wide), one for the baths, and one for private connections (paid by tax).

Public latrines existed at the Forum Baths and Stabian Baths. Private houses had latrines, often adjacent to the kitchen for waste disposal. Street drains carried rainwater and waste toward the Sarno. The AD 62 earthquake damaged the aqueduct; in AD 79 some sections were still being repaired.

Everyday life at a glance

How to read a source on this topic

Section I sources on everyday life typically include photographs of houses, frescoes (the AD 59 riot, Terentius Neo and his wife), thermopolium counters, electoral campaign walls, and extracts from Seneca, Tacitus, or Pliny the Elder. Three reading habits.

First, identify the social class implied. The House of the Faun (around 3,000 square metres) represents the top 1 to 2 per cent; the upper-storey rented rooms above a thermopolium represent the urban poor. Don't generalise elite evidence to the whole population.

Second, decode the four Pompeian styles. Mau's 1882 classification still structures scholarship. A Second Style fresco indicates a date c. 80 BC to AD 14; a Fourth Style indicates post-AD 62 redecoration. Date the source.

Third, balance the famous with the typical. The Lupanare and the Villa of the Mysteries are spectacular but unusual. Mary Beard's caution applies: use them as illustrative rather than representative.

Common exam traps

Treating Pompeii and Herculaneum's housing as identical. Herculaneum's smaller scale and better preservation (especially of upper storeys, wooden furniture, and organic materials) is distinctive.

Misdating the wall paintings. Memorise the four styles (Mau 1882) and their date ranges.

Skipping the water system. Section I has used water-supply sources in 2022 verbatim. Memorise the Castellum Aquae, the three lead pipes, and the 40 public fountains.

Forgetting the AD 59 riot. Tacitus Annals 14.17 + the House of Actius Anicetus fresco is a routinely tested combination.

In one sentence

Everyday life in Pompeii and Herculaneum, preserved in elite domus (the House of the Faun, the House of the Vettii) and non-elite spaces (insulae, thermopolia, the Lupanare), the four Pompeian painting styles (Mau 1882), and the AD 79 water and sanitation system (Castellum Aquae, 40 public fountains, the Aqua Augusta), is the most fully documented Roman urban experience anywhere in the empire, as Wallace-Hadrill and Beard emphasise.