2.2 Economy

Replanted vineyard Villa Regina at Boscoreale

Olive press, Antiquarium, Boscoreale Grape press, in torcularium, Villa of the Mysteries

• OLIVE OIL

• Oil production in rural villas: olive presses made from lava stone; storage jars. Presses also have been found in town houses.

• Forum markets may have housed an olive oil market

• Olive oil was primarily used for heating and lighting (oil lamps only source of light in the evenings. Many fancy oil lamps adorned wealthy homes and have also been found in the bathhouses showing they were also open at night. In addition olive oil was also used in cooking.

Inn of Euxinus at Pompeii in Pictures

Inn of the Gladiators and Vineyard at Pompeii in Pictures

Garum

Evidence:

• Pliny the Elder: “Furthermore, there is another type of choice fluid, called garum, produced from the guts of fish and anything else which would have been discarded, steeped in salt – in other words it is the fermentation of decaying matter.” Natural History 31.93

• A prominent manufacturer: Aulus Umbricius Scaurus - four large mosaics of fish sauce bottles were found in the atrium of his house (VII, Ins. Occ. 12-15) with the following inscriptions: “Scaurus’ finest mackerel sauce from Scaurus’ workshop”; “Finest fish purée”; “Scaurus’ finest mackerel sauce”; “Best fish purée from Scaurus’ workshop”.

• Over fifty fish sauce bottles have been found in or around Pompeii. One was even found in southern France. “Finest fish sauce from Umbricia Fortunata, belonging to Veturinus Iulianus” (inscription on a fish sauce bottle).

Garum = Fish sauce (aka Liquaemen, allec, muria)Salsamentarii= sourcemakers

• Made from different types of fish that were left to ferment for approx. 1-3 months

• Used to flavour meat, vegetables, fish, fruit and medicine.

• Most fish fermenting facilities were found outside the town because it was a smelly process – some form of Garum processing did take place in town in a house in Region I

• Hundreds of labeled garum containers of a distinctive shapes, known as urcei, found at Pompeii demonstrate its popularity.

• Pliny the Elder “ no other liquid except perfume has come to be more highly valued”

• Garume was a potent mix, made from “the guts of fish and other parts that would otherwise refuse” Ponsich and Tarradell

• Aulus Umbricius Scaurus – owned at least 6 workshops producing garum – 30% of Garum containers in Campania carry his name or that of his extended family. E.g. epigraphic evidence states “The best liquamen of A. Umbricius Scaurus”

• Mosaic of a garum urceus, from the House of Umbricius Scaurus, the inscription reads ‘flower or liquamen’– stopper is when it is used for trade, the stopper preserves it

Fullonica- Laundries

• Workers trod the cloth in a mixture of fuller’s earth, potash, carbonate of soda and urine. Fullers rinsed, dried and brushed the cloth. It was then bleached with sulfar and died

• Wool was also used in the processing of felt à slippers, hats, blankets, coats

• The Guild of Fullers à powerful organisation à headquarters are interpreted controversially to be in the Eumachia Building

• The large number of fulleries and dye-shops far exceeded local demand and could be interpreted as evidence of an important export trade à physical remains easily identified due to fixed facilities à vats, tanks for washing, cauldrons for heating water

• 4 Fulleries are large – Fullery of Stephanus is one

• Fullery of Stephanus – typical fullery – clothes press, a large balcony, one large basin for washing, 5 small foot-basins and three large interconnecting basins for rinsing.

• Stephanus hung the wet clothes over cans on the upper floor and in the courtyard whilst Lucius Veranius Hypsaeus dried the fabric on brick pillars between the Corinthian columns of a large atrium.

• A clothes press was discovered in a shop attached to the House of the Wooden Partition in Herculaenum.

• Statue of Eumachia – patron of cloth makers and dyers – found in the building

Building of Eumachia from outside and inside, scholars believe it may have been for the wool trade because the Fullers guild dedicated a statue to Eumachia at the rear of the building.

Bakeries

Evidence:

• Thirty bakeries in Pompeii. These are indicated by the lava stone flour mills, a table for kneading dough and a wood-fired oven.

• Some bakeries had a separate area for selling their own bread.

• 81 loaves of bread found in the Bakery of N. Pomidius Priscus (aka Bakery of Modestus).

• Different sized bronze baking pans found in the Sextus Patulcus Felix in Herculaneum.

Bakeries (Pistrina)

• The 33 bakeries that have been identified in Pompeii saved householders from buying the grain , milling it into flour and baking their own bread, which was a basic foodstuff. Because of the poor quality of the flour, the bread was very hard, and due to the lack of yeast, deteriorated quickly. Bakeries did their own refining of the grazing in lava stone mills, usually three or four, set in a paved courtyard with a table for kneading the dough, and a brick oven. A mill was composed of three parts: a fixed conical block called a meta, a mosnry base with a lamina for collecting flour, and a hollow cylinder, catillus, into which was inserted a pole, turned by mules or donkeys. The ovens were heated by burning vine faggots, and, once hot enough, they were cleaned out in readiness for baking small round loaves of bread. These, marked off in eight sections for easy breaking, were dispatched to the various small shops and stalls in surrounding streets. A few bakeries had an adjoining area for selling their own bread, but most did not.

Offellae = pizzas.Bakeries with baking ovens for bread productsPristina = bakeries

• Bread a basic staple food of Romans

• Baking ovens only rarely found in houses. Almost all people went to a bakery for their bread.

• Bakers were highly respected and could become wealthy.

• Made and sold bread on bakery premises and sold either on premises or from stalls.

• Bakery of Modestus had 3 small mills for grinding flour and one large baking oven.· 81 Loaves of bread were found in the Bakery of Modestus – carbonised

• Small mills were turned by donkeys. Two donkey skeletons were found still harnessed to mills in Herculaneum.

• Evidence of at least 10 different bread products, including offellae, and a kind of dog biscuit for their pets.

• Standard loaves were flat, about 5 cms thick.

• Bakers shop in Herculaneum. A seal in shop reads ‘Sextus Patulcus felix’, possibly the baker himself. 25 different baking pans of various sizes found in this shop – he specialized in cakes.

Bakery oven and mills stones

Below- ancient bread preserved from Pompeii with Bakers stamp in it. and famous fresco The fresco depicting the distribution of bread by a political candidate or politician, rather than the sale of bread by a baker or vendor. He bought all the bread produced on one day to distribute for free as part of his desire to win public office.

Other Industries

Evidence:

• Epigraphic evidence shows there were carpenters, plumbers, wheelwrights, tanners, tinkers, ironmongers, goldsmiths, silversmiths, marble-workers, stonemasons, gem-cutters, glassmakers.

• Perfume industry. According to Wilhelmina Jashemski (1979), the Garden of the Fugitives and Garden of Hercules were for flower production for the perfume industry: root cavities probably of rose bushes; fragments of terracotta and glass perfume containers.

This fresco from the House of the Vetti in Pompeii in Italy shows perfume production in Roman times. Male and female figures represent the perfumers, who are using aromatic plants to prepare perfumes and oils. The winged perfumers are working at a bench (left) and vat (right) to mix aromatic oils and prepare new extracts. The cupboard holds cruets and bottles of the extracts.

Markets

Evidence:

• Much commercial activity was centred on the Forum but small shops and industries were scattered around the city as well as mobile vendor selling from horse and cart.

• Macellum: fish and meat market and possibly fruit and vegetables. An arcaded courtyard with shops between the columns; a round covered market in the middle, with probably a pool for live fish. Fish scales and bones have been found in a drainage channel.

• Horrea and/or olitorium: market for grain, vegetables. Contained a table with the official set of standard measures (mensa ponderaria).

• Eumachia building cloth , wool and felt.

The round fish market in the Marcellum The Horrea in the Forum

Mensa Ponderaria Amphorae stored in the Forum

Shops

Evidence:

• Shops attached to most houses. The Via dell’Abbondanza was the main commercial road with many types of shops. Painted signs or paintings on the outside wall indicated the type of shop.

• Thermopolia (take away food shops) are identified by the marble-topped bar with dolia for holding food and drink. As most houses did not have kitchens, these were very popular businesses.

• Cauponae (wine bars and taverns) are often identified by graffiti on the walls.

• “Hedone says, ‘You can drink here for one as, if you give two, you will drink better; if you give four, you will drink Falernian.” (from bar attached to house VII.2.45)

Wine

Wine Industry

• Principal sources of income for Vesuvians; generally, the profitable cultivation of both vineyards and olive groves could only be undertaken by the wealthy, because of the cost of the long wait between planting anf the first harvest, and the cost of olive and wine presses. Many of the landowners who had estates in the countryside lived in the city, visiting their villa irregularly and leaving it to be run by trusted dependents e.g. the rich Pompeian banker Lucius Caecilius Jucundus is believed to have owned the Villa of Pisanella.

• Excavation by Jashemski revealed 2014 vine-root cavities from a large commercial vineyard near the Pompeian amphitheatre; on the site was a torcularium, and a shed with embedded dolia which could each fill 40 amphorae.

• Smalled vineyards adjoining the Inn of Euxinus and Inn of the Gladiators have been found, with torculas; in other places, grapes were pressed by foot

• Generally, wine doesn’t seem to have been stored in large quantities in taverns or bars, but brought in from the countryside when needed.

• Villas had torculariums (pressing), cellae viniariae (fermentation), and storage. The torcula “consisted of a solid wooden crossbar fixed at one end and pushed downwards by means of a winch with an arm lever.”

• Pliny the Elder said “districts with a mild climate store their wine in jars and bury them completely or partially in the ground thus protecting them from the weather…spaces must be left between jars to prevent anything likely to affect the wine from passing from one to the other, as the wine very soon becomes tainted.”. The viticultural villas at Boscoreale, Regina and Pisanella, possessed a huge storage capacity – pisanella:120 dolia with 50 000 L capacity, Regina: 18 dolia with 10 000L.

• A wide variety of wines were produced in the Vesuvian area:

  • a sign on a Herculaneum wine bar inviting patrons to “Come to the Sign of the Bowls” advertised half a dozen types of wine and their vintages.

  • Another tavern in Pompeii advertisement confirms that there was a wide range of wines sold in Pompeii: “…drink here for just one as; for two you can drink better, and for four have some really good Falernian wine.”

  • From Pliny’s Natural History and evidence from labelled wine jars, it seems the two most famous local wines were Vesuvinum and Pompeianum. Of the latter, Pliny said “Wines from Pompeii are at their best within ten years and gain nothing from greater maturity”, but he maintained that they were “injurious because of the hangover they cause, which persists until noon the following day.”

  • Judging from a scrawl on the wall of a Pompeian bar, the quality of wine varied considerably: “Inn – keeper of the devil, die drowned in your own piss-wine. You sell the inferior stuff but you keep for yourself, you swine, the good bottles.”

• Vineyards are found in town and in the country

• Mostly grapes were pressed with a wine press but some were pressed by foot.

• Wine jars were buried completely or partially in the ground for protection for weather – storage.

• Wine was transported to town in large leather wineskins (cullei)

• Most famous local wines: Vesuvinum, Flarerian and Pompianum

• 2014 vine-root cavities of a large commercial vineyard near the Pompeian Ampitheatre à on site was a room set up for wine pressing and a shed with embedded dolia which could each fill 40 amphorae.

• Smaller vineyards adjoining the Inn of Euxinus and the Inn of the Gladiators have been found; grapes were pressed on the premises.

• Villas of Boscoreale- Villa of Pisanella and Villa Regina – Pisanella had an internal courtyard of 120 dolia that could hold up to 50,000 litres| Regina had 18 dolia holding 10,000 litres.

• Large variety- Herculaneum: epigraphic evidence of a sign on a wine bar inviting patrons to ‘Come to the Sign of the Bowls’ advertised half a dozen types of wine and their vintages.

• Large variety – Pompeii: Tavern advertisement “drink here for just one as; for two you can drink better, and for four have some really good Falernian wine”

• Martial stated in his Epigram: “famed grapes filled the dripping vats”

• Amphorae from Pompeii has been found as far afield as Middlesex in the UK

The big thermopolium opposite the entrance to the palaestra, Herculaneum Amphorae in a taverna in Herculaneum

Hotels and Inns

Evidence:

Hotels for travellers have been found inside and outside the walls of Pompeii. Hotel of the Muses on the (ancient) banks of the Sarno. Hotel near the Forum and hotels inside the Herculaneum and Stabian gates. One hotel has also been found at Herculaneum.

Prostitution

• Prostitution was present in Pompeii and Herculaneum, though only one building (VIII.12.18-20) has been identified as being used as a brothel. Prostitution also took place in taverns, bars and baths. Keep in mind most wealthy Pompeiians had female slaves that could also be used for sexual purposes by their owners.

• Evidence:

• Erotic paintings in the Suburban Baths outside the Marine Gate at Pompeii.

• Graffiti in many bars and in the brothel. (They can’t be printed here!)

Agricultural production and fishing

Evidence:

• A number of villa rusticae have been found, e.g. Villa Regina at Boscoreale.

• Fishing gear (nets, hooks) found at Herculaneum.

Trade

Industries

Industry was central to the economies of Pompeii and Herculaneum- agriculture, wine, garum and olive oil production being the most prominent industries.

• Strabo describes Pompeii as a “fortified trading post”

• Imports

  • More imports than exportsà indicates that Pompeian society was wealthy in that they had the luxury to try exotic things at their own expense. Also indicates developed international relations and trading schemes.

  • Tableware- terra sigillata- from Puteoli

    • Such as red-slipped table vessels found in most houses.

  • Terra sigillata from northern Italy, Southern Gaul and Cyprus

    • One specific example is a chest found in 1881 containing 90 carefully packed and unused south gaulish bowls and 37 earthenware lamps. An fact that can be made from the discovery of these items is that they are representative of a recently received consignment to a Pompeian wholesaler of such wares.

  • Wine from Kos, Crete, Rhodes, Turkey, Sicily, Palestine and central Ital.y

  • Olive oil from Libya and Spain

  • Garum from Spain

• Exports

  • Garum

    • A mosaic from the House of Umbricius Scaurus depicts a bottle of garum with the inscription ‘flower of liquament’ and a stopper on the lid. The presence of a stopper indicates that garum was intended for trade.

    • Pliny the Elder “ no other liquid except unguents has come to be more highly valued”

• Wine-Amphorae from Pompeii has been found as far afield as Middlesex in the UK

• Bronzes and metal work

  • From literary sources, we know Campania (more pointedly the town of Capua) was famous for its bronze vessels, thus it is possible that such metal work was also exported from Pompeii.

  • While a marble relief was found depicting metal workers, its find spot was not recorded, only one metal working premises can be securely identified outside the Vesuvian Gate due to the presence of hammers and anvils

The fact that the metal workshop was found outside the gates brings historians to the collective extrapolations regarding the concept of avoiding taxes, positioning workshops close to resources, as well as having a highly developed scheme of specialized labour.

Oil Industry

• The same estates that produced wine produced olives and oil

  • The Villa of Pisanella held enough storage for 5910 L of olive oil

• According to Pliny, more skill was “needed to produce olive oil than wine, because the same tree produces different kinds of oil…the green olive, which has not yet begun to ripen, gives the first oil and this has an outstanding taste…the riper the berry the more greasy and less pleasant is the flavour of the oil”.

• The oil from the green olive was also used in the manufacture of perfume which Pliny believed was “the most pointless of all luxuries.”

• Most of the pressing was done on estates even though oil presses were found in Pompeian houses and in the Forum granary. Because “The cause of oil is warmth” (Pliny), presses and store rooms had to be warmed by large fires.

• Cato, in his Agriculture, recorded that Pompeian presses made from lava stone were the best.

• These trapeta were for the first pressing, to separate the flesh from the pip so as to avoid the oil gaining a bitter taste. The second pressing was done with the grape press torcula. “The first oil from the press is the richest, and the quality diminishes with each successive pressing … age imparts an unpleasant taste to oil and after a year it is old.” (Pliny)

• Within Pompeii, officinae oleariae retailed oil and it is believed that there may have been an olive market near or in the Forum olitorium.

• Oil was not only used as the basic ingredient in perfume, but also for cooking, particularly in the thermopolia which provided a service to those who had limited cooking facilities in their homes, and for lighting. Oil was used in the thermae and palaestra for rubbing into bodies. Pliny disapproved of this practice which he blamed on the Greeks ‘the Greeks, progenitors of all vices, have diverted the use of olive oil to serve the ends of luxury by making it available in gymnasia.’

Garum

• Pompeii was renowned for its garum, a fish sauce which was one of the main condiments used for flavouring roman cuisine. According to Pliny, “no other liquid except unguents has come to be more highly valued.”

They were various flavours depending on the type and quality of the fish used and it’s method of preparation. Apparently the valuable red mullet made the best garum, followed by tuna, mackerel and sardines, while anchovies were used four less refined sauces. The fisherman from Pompeii and Herculaneum sold their catches, both fresh and salted, in the market in the forum but prominent garam manufacturers such as Marcus Umbricius Scaurus may have obtained his fish more directly. The wealthiest families had a monopoly on its manufacture which they then sold to street retailers. Garum was a potent mix, made from ‘the guts of fish and other parts that would otherwise be considered refuse’, probably gills, intestines and blood, and the smell must have pervaded Pompeii. Although it was popular with most some like seneca, hated the foul smell.

• The following gives a more detailed description of its manufacture:

“The entrails of sprats or sardines, the parts that could not be used for sailting were mixed with finely chopped portions of fish and with roe and eggs and then pounded crushed and stirred. The mixture was left in the sun or a warm room and beaten into a homogenous pulp until it fewrmented. When this Liquamen, as it was called, had been much reduced over a period of six weeks by evaporation. It was placed in a basket with perforated bottom through which the residue filtered slowly into a receptacle. The end product decanted into jars was the famous garum; the dregs levft over were also regarded as edible and known as Allec” (M. Ponsich & M. Tarradell)

• A product indispensable to the production of garum was salt. The Pompeians skilfully exploited a depression near the coastal road to Herculaneum to make a salt plant. Saltwater, washed up by the high tides, entered a channel into large shallow basins where it evaporated in the sun. As its concentration increased, it was allowed to overflow into progressively concentrated pools. Eventually, the pure crystallised salt was collected with spades from the final basin.

Cloth Manufacture and Treatment

• Wool was the basis of one of the most important industries in Pompeii, the washing and dyeing of wool and the manufacture of cloth. Associated with this laundering, bleaching and re-colouring of clothes. Both these activities were carried out in workshops and fullonicae or laundries.

  • The raw wool was first sent to an officina lanifricariaae where is was degreased by boiling in leaden boiler.

  • Once carded it was taken to the spinners and weavers, in private homes or in officnae

  • The cloth was next sent to officinae tinctoriae for dyeing, often in bright colours such as purple or saffron.

  • The finished product was distributed to cloth merchants.

• Laundries or fullonicae were scattered all over Pompeii – 18, of which four, like the Fullery of Staphanus, were large. Some occupied the rooms of private houses (possibly rented) and were identified by a number of interconnected basins or tanks with built-in steps for washing and rinsigi. Workers trod the cloth in a mixture of fuller’s earthpotash, carbonate of sode and urine (because of its ammonia content). Although camel urine was the most prized, laundries usually hadd to make do with human urine and male passers-by were urged to supply their urine by filling the jugs hanging outside. There were special areas set aside for urine collection.

• The fullers then rinsed, dried and brushed the cloth. Lucius Veranius Hypsaeus dried his fabric on brick pillars between the Corinthian columns of large atrium, while another fuller, Stephanus, hung the wet clothes over canes on the upper floor and in the courtyard. Once dried, the cloth was bleached with sulphur and then dyed. Igh, and over half a metre tle under two metrres high, and over half a metre wide, was discovered in a shop attached to the House of the Wooden Partition in Herculaneum, and a painted sign over `the Pompeian workshop of M. Vecilius Verecundus, an eminent mill owner and cloth merchant, showed the various processes involved in cloth manufacture.

• Wool was used also in the processing of felt to make slippers, hats, blankets and cloaks. It was impregnated with heated vinegar, creating a matted effect, and then pushed and pressed until it reached the right consistency.

• The Guild of Fullers was a powerful organisation within the city. Its headquarters, as well as a possible wool market, were located in the Eumachia building on the eastern side of the Forum. This magnificent building, with the dimensions and layout of a temple, was paid for by the priestess/business woman Eumachia, who has married a wealthy owner of pastures and flocks of sheep and became the patron of the cloth – makers and dyers. She dedicated it in her own name that of her son, Numistaeius Fronto, to the imperial family. Within the building was a statue of herself.

Bakeries (Pistrina)

• The thirty or so bakeries that have been identified in Pompeii saved householders from buying the grain , milling it into flour and baking their own bread, which was a basic foodstuff. Because of the poor quality of the flour, the bread was very hard, and due to the lack of yeast, deteriorated quickly. Bakeries did their own refining of the grazing in lava stone mills, usually three or four, set in a paved courtyard with a table for kneading the dough, and a brick oven. A mill was composed of three parts: a fixed conical block called a meta, a mosnry base with a lamina for collecting glour, and a hollow cylinder, catillus, into which was inserted a pole, turned by mules or donkeys. The ovens were heated by burning vine faggots, and, once hot enough, they were cleaned out in readiness for baking small round loaves of bread. These, marked off in eight sections for easy breaking, were dispatched to the various small shops and stalls in surrounding streets. A few bakeries had an adjoining area for selling their own bread, but most did not.

Currency

4 copper assus = 1 bronze sestertius

4 bronze sestertii = 1 silver denarius

25 denarii = 1 gold aureus

Roman prices tended to fluctuate according to local conditions, thus historians are unable to determine exact values and make concretised observations

• For example, epigraphic evidence engraved on uneven columns in the atrium walls of a house states that “7 days before the Ides” bread was worth 8 copper asses or 2 sestertii wheras “3 days before the ides” the price of bread went down to only 2 copper asses

Copper asses were the most common form of currency as people did not trust their slaves with the likes of denarii let alone the precious gold aureus.

A collection of 1600 coins was found in the dolium of counter in the Inn of Lucius Vetutius Placidus, indicating that Pompeians had an ancient form of cash registers!

Commercial Life

• Pompeian society placed a significant emphasis on commercial life and commercial success

• The forum as well as the via del’ abbadanza (the main thoroughfare of Pompeii) was crowded with shops

  • Identified shops include a mason’s shop, extrapolated from a fresco depicting masonry tools as well as the owner’s name- Diogenes. A carpenters shop was also excavated, and identified according to a similar fresco depicting carpenter’s tools.

  • Seen in the frieze in the Praedia of Julia Felix where scenes reveal the busy markets in the forum.

• The emphasis on commercial life is evidenced by the fact some shops advertised their commercial interests as well as the strong desire for profit

  • The mosaic on the entrance near the porta antica of the House of Umbricius Scaurus showed a amphorae or vessel of garum à pictures were the universal language as not all were literateà people sent their slaves out to do the shopping

  • Epigraphic evidence proclaimed “profit is joy” found inscribed on the mosaic entrance way of two wealthy men, Siricus and Numerianus.as well as another “welcome gain” inscribed around the impluvium of the house of a carpenterà Pompeian society was concerned with wealth and almost was capitalist!

• Images of Mercury, the god of commerce, were also displayed in numerous places to fain blessings: on a sign outside a shop; on a sale counter; as part of a set of scales; or on the wall of a workshop.

• Over 600 privately owned shops, workshops and inns have been excavated.

• Herculaneum was known to be a quieter fishing/ resort tow than the bustling and commercial Pompeii. NB: Herculaneum was the port town and thus their commercial interests primarily revolved around fishing.

Markets

• Markets, or macellum, were another prominent aspect of the economy.

• Seen in the frieze in the Praedia of Julia Felix where scenes reveal the busy markets in the forum- more specifically the meat and fish market. The existence of these is verified by fish bones found scattered in the forum.

• Temporary markets were also common, these too are represented in the Frieze from the Praedia of Julia Felix which portrays scenes of a mules and carts carrying merchandise; a man displaying shoes; cloth merchants showing their wares to two women; a man selling bread and a fruit and vegetable stall, indicating stalls were set up for vendors to sell goods such as shoes, cloth, metal vessels, fruit and vegetables. As well as stalls situated in the surrounds of the ampitheatre, established to sell refreshments to patrons.

• Markets were set up on specific days, as reinforced by epigraphic evidence on the façade of the Shop of the Potter Zosimus that Pompeian market day was “Saturn’s day”

What does the evidence reveal about the economy in Pompeii and Herculaneum?