Ancient Brothels: Sex Trade in Pompeii (Part Two)

*Disclaimer* as you can guess from the title, this post reverences sexual themes and art work. If you want to see the art work or other things mentioned, feel free to Google Image search "Brothels of Pompeii" but because this is a blog I created for a class, joking about it briefly is ok, but I don't find it appropriate to post graphic photos here. Thank you!

 

For part two about the Brothels of Pompeii, I decided to focus on the layout of the buildings themselves as well as focus on the largest and most famous brothel in the city.

Brothels of this period were usually small and then divided further into a couple small rooms. These rooms were hardly furnished at all, which makes sense for their purpose. Usually they had a mattress of sorts on a brick platform that serves as a bed.

I don't know who this is, but I think he's a few centuries late...
But anyway, this is an example of the brick platform
 that the mattress would be on in the rooms.

The largest brothel in the city was Lupanar. It had ten rooms and is known today for its erotic artwork. Before we get too far into the facts, I wanted to share some translations that I found funny. The word Lupanar is Latin for “brothel” but literally translates to mean “den of she-wolves”. They say this is because lupa was a slang term for “prostitute” in a predatory sense.

Back to the site, the brothel is situated at the intersection of two side roads on Via dell’Abbondanza near the town center, not far from the Forum and the Stabian Baths, which had a rear entrance on the Vicolo del Lupanare. As a trading town, Pompeii was visited every day by people, especially by traders from other towns. Luck for them, phalluses engraved on the road surface or on stones set into the facades of houses gave clear indications on how to reach the brothel. The brothel was managed by the “leno” (an owner of the prostitutes, a.k.a. pimp) who bought the girls as slaves, primarily in the East.

There are some interesting graffiti scribblings that have been found on the walls. 134 different ones to be exact. As you would expect, they are rather crude, they were how customers expressed their opinions of the brothel and the prostitute’s performances. I’ll share a few, with editing on language of course. Though I’m sure you can guess the words I replaced.

 

      Hic ego puellas multas futui----“Here I [had sex with] many girls”

         Felix bene futuis----“Lucky guy, you get a good [time]”

Though the names cannot be linked to any known historical figures, probably because they had their own mistresses or slaves, some have been traced to other graffiti in other parts of the city. There are also a few times when the “authors” respond to each other’s carvings.

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Links to Sources:

http://www.pompeii.org.uk/s.php/pompei-proibita-en-214-s1.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupanar_(Pompeii)#Brothels

Ancient Brothels: Sex Trade in Pompeii (Part One)

*Disclaimer* as you can guess from the title, this post reverences sexual themes and art work. Because of this there will not be many photos in this post. If you want to see the art work, feel free to Google Image search "Brothels of Pompeii" but because this is a blog I created for a class, I don't find it appropriate to post them here. Thank you!

So as many of you have probably figured out from past posts, Pompeii and Roman culture in general was not conservative by any means. They were very sexually open and this is seen in the explicit artwork is everywhere and has caused many controversies. Thus, it was not too surprising when I found out there were many brothels in the city.



This is looking into one of the smaller
rooms within a brothel that the women
 would have 'worked' in

It was once thought that there were as many as thirty-five brothels in Pompeii. That is practically one on every corner! This has since been proven untrue, however. The greatest indicator that thirty-five is too large of a number is the size of the city itself. Pompeii housed around ten thousand inhabitants in 79 CE when it was destroyed. Doing the math, that equates to 286 people or about 71 men for every brothel. That seems excessive, especially when we compare the numbers to the ancient city of Rome, which is estimated to have forty-five brothels for a population over one million. Pompeii could not have supported such a vigorous sex trade. Though it is important to remember that thirty-five is the number of brothels, the houses or ‘place of business’ for the prostitutes, so that was not the number of working women in the city. Some brothels would have housed several women and there would be prostitutes working full or part time in bars and inns, and sometimes the street.

So why did people think there were so many brothels? Well many archaeologists assumed any building with erotic paintings, sculpture or graffiti was a brothel. It was pointed out that visiting any public bathroom today and it is not out of place to see boastful sexual writing, and it does not indicate a sex trade. This is why this form of identification was problematic to say the least. In addition, if you remember the blog about the bathhouses, those too had erotic mosaics but they were probably seen more in humor. I compare it to our culture today, there are many sexual images in the media and in art etc., but that does not mean we have whorehouses everywhere.

Now, after considering the fact that any erotic symbol in any form does not denote a brothel, it seems that there are only ten in the city of Pompeii. This is much more likely because that equates to one brothel for every 250 adult males. However, it is likely that not all buildings used as brothels were created or used for that singular purpose. These would have been counted in the high number of thirty-five but left out of the more conservative estimate of ten. In addition, sex trade probably was not limited to brothels. It was pointed out that wealthy Romans with slaves would not have visited brothels or prostitutes for they already owned people for free sexual use.

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Link to Source:

http://emma-oxenby-wohlfart.suite101.com/how-many-brothels-were-there-in-pompeii-a175213

Amphitheater of Pompeii

The Amphitheater at Pompeii may at first seem like any other roman amphitheater, but it is in fact very unique. It was built around 80 B.C., soon after Pompeii had officially become a Roman colony. Quinctius Valgus and Marcius Porcius, two local officials built the amphitheater at their own private expense. We know this because there is an inscription crediting them with the construction. It can seat around 20,000 people in three tiers. It served not only the people of Pompeii but also surrounding towns. In its time, it was not called an amphitheatrum, for that word was not being used yet. It was called a spectacular. Now why is it so special? This amphitheater is the earliest known permanent stone amphitheater in the Roman world. Before this, they were built from wood. The next stone amphitheater built was the Colosseum, in Rome, more than a century later. The well-preserved amphitheater has given many insights into Roman gladiator culture.

 

The amphitheater is in the southeast part of Pompeii, in the outskirts with very few other buildings near it. It is situated in a corner of two town walls to take advantage of existing structures for support.  Because the arena in the center of the amphitheater was below the ground level of the time, they dug about six meters (19.68 feet) down. This created a lot of extra dirt that was piled against the city walls and used to support half of the seating area. There are six stairways in the amphitheater, two double-sided stairways on the west side and two simple stairways on the north and south sides. The amphitheater’s design is seen by some modern crowd control specialists as near optimal. Its washroom, located in the neighboring palaestra (training field) has also been cited as an inspiration for better bathroom design in modern stadiums. The arena is shaped like an oval and surrounded by a parapet (any low protective wall or barrier at the edge of a balcony, roof, bridge, or the like) that is more than two meters (6.56 feet) high. This was wall or barrier was originally painted with scenes of animal hunts and gladiator fights. There was also a large training field right next to the amphitheater. 

There were bloody shows between gladiators and animals were what people came to see. There were not shows in the winter and the hottest parts of summer. A canopy of black flax material covered the seating area in the summer to protect the audience from the burning sun. Another thing I found interesting about this amphitheater is the deadly brawl between the people of Pompeii and the visiting people of Nuceria that occurred there. It resulted in the ban of events in the amphitheater for 10 years. Below is a illustration of the brawl.

"About this time [AD 59] there was a serious fight between the inhabitants of two Roman settlements, Nuceria and Pompeii. It arose out of a trifling incident at a gladiatorial show...During an exchange of taunts—characteristic of these disorderly country towns—abuse led to stone-throwing, and then swords were drawn. The people of Pompeii, where the show was held, came off best. Many wounded and mutilated Nucerians were taken to the capital. Many bereavements, too, were suffered by parents and children. The emperor instructed the senate to investigate the affair. The senate passed it to the consuls. When they reported back, the senate debarred Pompeii from holding any similar gathering for ten years. Illegal associations in the town were dissolved; and the sponsor of the show and his fellow-instigators of the disorders were exiled."

~Tacitus, Annals (XIV.17)

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Links to sites:



http://www.pompeii.org.uk/m.php/museum-amphitheatre-pompeii-en-69-m.htm

http://www.ancientsites.com/aw/Article/807468

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphitheatre_of_Pompeii

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/gladiators/pompeii.html



Suburban Baths (Terme Suberbane)

This video piqued my interests in the Suburban Baths of Pompeii. Thus the topic for this week’s post.

The Suburban Baths were built at the end of the first century BC. They stood just outside the wall of the town, north of the Porta Marina Gate (see map). Because of this placement outside it is thought that the baths were probably used by people coming from out of town. There are mooring rings (large metal rings used to anchor boats and ships) set into stone bocks which suggested the baths were near a canal port. There are three levels to the baths, which are all visible now due to recent restoration. Despite the three levels, the bath complex its self was not very big. The entrance hall was on a terrace, and all the rooms had a window looking out over the Gulf of Naples. The layout was classically designed to fit the needs for the bathing chambers. Because of this, after the entrance hall, there is a changing room (apodyterium), then two rooms for cold baths (frididarium), followed by a heated chamber (tepiderium), the finally the hot water baths (calidarium). The heated room was there to allow bathers to acclimate to the heat before entering the not bath (like mentioned in the video). I imagine it being similar to a sauna.

The Suburban Baths. The area with all the poeple is the Marina Gate or Porta
 Marina with bath house to the left. The entrance is at the very left edge of the

 picture, the last square window.

The walls of the changing room are lavishly decorated and once again the erotic images are seen. Because of the eight fresco paintings that were highly erotic, the room was first thought to be a brothel annexed to the bath. However, this interpretation has been rejected for another theory. In this instance, the erotic frescos were probably a humorous method for customers to remember where they left their clothes. It is thought that the bathers were assigned a number and an amusing painting, which were different in each of the various chambers, because each painting is located above a numbered box, which may have been used as lockers. (If you really want to see the pictures you can find a few by searching Suburban baths (Pompeii) on Wikipedia but seeing as this blog is an assignment for a class, I will not post them here)

These erotic paintings are also important because scenes this explicit (group sex and oral sex) are not often found in other collections of erotic Roman art. Also, the presence of such paintings in a public bathhouse shared by men and women suggests that people would not have found them offensive.

Below is a link to a great website that has pictures of all the rooms and features of the Suburban Baths. There were too many pictures to post here, wish I could have though. Check it out!

http://www.pompeiiinpictures.com/pompeiiinpictures/R7/7%2016%20a%20plan.htm

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“Suburban Baths (Pompeii).” Wikipedia: Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 22 July 2004. Web. 14 March 2012.

 “Suburban Bath – Pompeii.” Pompeii Tours: Pompeii.org.uk. Tredy S.A.S. 13 May 1998. Web. 14 March 2012.

Conservation Issues

            Now that the sites have been excavated, they are exposed to the elements. The reason everything in the city was so wonderfully preserved was that it was underground. Some weathering and erosion is natural. Several structures have collapsed, and others are unstable so they are closed to the public.  However, there are many other factors attacking the artifacts. Uncovering the artifacts leads to the need to protect them in other ways.

             One of the biggest changes between being buried and being excavated is light. The detail, color and vibrancy of paintings, frescoes and sculptures began to fade in the natural light. Flash photography can also cause a decrease in clarity, which is why it also is not allowed in museums and historic sites. Luckily, this problem is relatively simple to resolve. There are organic methods, which were effective early on, and now a modern method with aluminum and plastic are use with even better results. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find much detailed information about the techniques used.

            Another factor that is not underground is plants. The soil is very fertile and the city is in a temperate are so many plants thrive in the area. Henri de Saint-Blanquette has identified thirty-one parasitic plants in Pompeii. These plants grow in patches, use up the resources in the ground until it is bare earth, then spread out and search surroundings for new fertile ground. They attack buildings and dislodge tiles and mosaics. One culprit, one found in many places, is ivy. It climbs up walls, the root slowly tearing apart the foundations. In the parts of the city with higher levels of tourist visits, the large number of feet tramples the plants, so this is more of a problem in closed off areas. It is severely damaging the buildings. Plants are not the only living thing attacking the ancient city; animals do their share of damage as well. Feral dogs have been removed. Hundreds had lived on the site in the 1980’s and ended up damaging footpaths, roads and walls. There were also issues with them being less than friendly to tourists.

Humans are another creature causing damage. Both purposeful and accidental human activities are the main factors in the decline of the city. A big one that is hard to avoid and fix is tourism. There are 2.5 million visitors every year. While this is good for education, and fund raising, the massive amount of tourists causes massive amounts of problems. One big issue that is hard to both avoid and fix, is the erosion of footpaths, especially in high traffic and popular parts of the city. Tourists with large heavy backpacks bump and sometimes scrape masonry and plaster. Another problem is from past mistakes early in the site’s history. In the early years of the site, some of the bodies were moved and placed differently to increase funding. Many artifacts, in the very beginnings of early excavations were dug up merely for aesthetic and commercial value, removing them from all context and historical meaning. In Herculaneum, another city buried like Pompeii, bronze letters were removed from a wall, without record of their original placement, and tourists were allowed to rearrange them to form messages.

Purposeful damage from humans, which is often the worse and most costly, includes vandalism and theft. As far as vandalism goes, graffiti is the most problematic. Not the spray paint tagging many think of but pens, markers, and carvings. It appears on walls and on paintings and frescoes. Many people also sneak mementos and souvenirs for home by breaking off parts of the city’s structures. As we had talked about in class, the lure of the antiquities market and the money it promises is strong. As a result, many artifacts have been taken from the site and sold. Many frescoes have even been picked off walls. Though the sites are guarded, are many of the stolen artifacts are recovered, many are not and still more are damaged in the thieving process.

 This is a fresco from the House of Chaste Lovers in Pompeii. In 2003, two frescoes were hacked off the walls and sold on the antiquities market. They were found months later, but many other frescoes in the house were damaged.

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“Conservation Issues of Pompeii and Herculaneum.” Wikipedia: Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 22 July 2004. Web. 29 Feb. 2012.           

Rediscovery and Culture Clash

Rediscovery of Pompeii

After the volcano covered the city, the name and location of Pompeii along with several other towns also buried, were forgotten. They would stay forgotten until 1599. This was when workers digging an underground channel ran into ancient walls covered with paintings and inscriptions. Upon discovering the wall, architect Domenico Fontana was called to the site. He uncovered a little more, discovering a few frescos. The wall also had an inscription referencing a decurio Pompeii, meaning “the town councilor of Pompeii”. However, no one seemed to notice that the inscription mentioned a previously unknown ancient Roman city. Then he covered them back up again and the discovery ended there.  Today, there is some debate over Fontana’s actions. Some argue that when he covered the paintings it was a clear act of censorship, in part because of their sexual content. While others champion him, claiming it as an act of preservation for the future. This side claims he knew the sexual content of the paintings were considered very bad taste in the social climate of the time, thus hiding the paintings was preventing their likely destruction.

            There were several more centuries that would pass before anymore of Pompeii was rediscovered. Workers were digging a foundation for a summer palace for the King of Naples, in 1738, and Herculaneum, another city buried by the volcano, was properly rediscovered. These findings lead to the rediscovery of Pompeii ten years later, in 1748. International excavations by Rocque Joaquin de Alcubierre, a Spanish military engineer, unearthed Pompeii, once again. The before mentioned King of Naples, Charles of Bourbon, later became the King of Spain, and took great interest in the towns excavated under where his summer palace was supposed to be. He liked the political and cultural power the antiquities reinforced in Naples.

            *(Some info also in the first post)* Karl Weber was the first to direct real excavations. He was then followed by Fanscisco la Vega in 1764, who was in turn succeeded by his brother, Pietro, in 1804. Pietro also worked with Christophe Saliceti during the French occupation. Next, Giuseppe Fiorelli took charge in 1860. During excavations by afore mentioned excavators, voids in the layers of ash containing human remains were found occasionally. Fiorelli was the one to realize these voids were left by the decomposing bodies of Vesuvius’s victims. He eventually invented the plaster technique to recreate the forms. This is still used today but with clear resin because it does not destroy the bones and is more durable.

           

Sexual Culture Clash

The idea of Fontana, the first to unearth parts of Pompeii, covering up the paintings for protection from the strict modesty prevailing at that time was confirmed by later reports. These reports were by later excavators who suspected that some sites had been discovered and reburied. This is very likely because even many household items had sexual themes, such as phallic oil lamps, which reflected ancient Roman culture, but this was much more liberal than many modern day cultures. As it turns out, what had been thought of as erotic imagery, such as oversized phalluses, was in fact fertility imagery. Regardless, there was a clashing of cultures, which lead to numerous discoveries being hidden. One example is a wall painting depicting the ancient god of sex and fertility, Priapus, in which he has a rather enlarged penis. This was covered with plaster, locked away, and only opened on request. The only reason it was rediscovered in 1998 was due to rainfall.

Another example of the ancient Roman culture opposing the beliefs of the present is in 1819. This is when King Francis I of Naples took his wife and daughter to the National Museum to see the Pompeii exhibit. The erotic artwork had embarrassed him so much that he termed it pornographic and ordered it to be locked away. It was put in the Secret Cabinet, a separate gallery, only accessible to “people of mature age and respected morals”. It went through a series of closings and re-openings for nearly a century, until it was final reopened in 2000. To this day, minors are only allowed entry in the presence of a guardian or with written permission.

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Citations-

“Pompeii.” Wikipedia: Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 22 July 2004. Web. 16 Feb. 2012.

Introduction: The Basics

The city of Pompeii was a thriving Roman city until August 24, 79 A.D. On that day, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius buried the city under 12 to 20 feet of volcanic ash and the city was lost for nearly 1700 years. The city remained buried in its volcanic tomb until it was discovered in 1749. Because of how quickly the city was buried along with the hot ash and pumice, there is an extraordinary amount of details about everyday life preserved. There are human and animal figures frozen in time as well as tools, wine bottles and other artifacts. This incredible preservation helps create an amazing look into first century Roman life.

Karl Weber was the first to start true excavation of the site, however it was Guiseppe Fiorelli, in 1860, who realized the voids in the ash containing human remains were the forms of people's bodies. He created a technique of injecting plaster into the voids to recreate the forms of the volcano's victims.