The ”First Style” The ‘first style’ is also called the ‘structural style’. It is the artistic idiom of the Hellenistic world and is found in Pompei above all from the third to the first century B.C. The preparatory layer of stucco was designed and painted to imitate rectangular panels of various types of colored marble,...Read More

The decorations in Pompeii The technique of fresco decoration consisted of painting on a layer mixed of lime and marble dust, which was spread right before starting to paint and thus still wet. Seven preparatory layers could be spread one after the other on the dry wall. This served to smooth away roughness and to...Read More

Memorial Arches In opus latericium, at one time covered with marble, these elegantly enclose the Forum to the north, in celebration of the imperial family. Of the two built on either side of the Temple of Jupiter, the one to the west is attributed to Augustus, the east to Nero, perhaps demolished following the death...Read More

Basilica (VIII,1,1) Built in the second half of the 2nd cent. BC, as part of the plan to create monuments throughout the city. It has a rectangular layout, with three naves, with a ceiling sloping straight down in both directions from the central columns and half columns at the top of the walls, where there...Read More

Public administration buildings (VIII,2,6-10 and 3,1/32/33) Remodeled in opus latericium after the earthquake in 62 AD, these buildings were not built according to a coordinated plan: the two to the east are from the same period (before 80 BC); the other is more recent, and still has its marble floor. These are rectangular rooms, with...Read More

Forum (VII,8) The first monumental arrangement dates from the 2nd cent. BC, with a few buildings and the porticos with their double row of tufa columns. Booking B&B Pompei Il Fauno.Read More

Triangular Forum (VIII,7,30-34) Located at the southern edge of the hill of Pompeii, stretching towards the sea and the River Sarno, this triangular piazza. Only 1 km from the B&B Pompeii Il Fauno.Read More

There were three organs of public administration in Pompei: the popular assembly, i.e., the pòpulus; the council of decurions, called the òrdo decuriònum; and four administrators: two duòviri iùre dicùndo and two aèdiles. The pòpulus, composed of free male citizens, elected the magistrates and public priests, and ratified the deliberations of the Council of decurions....Read More

House of Menander (I,10,4) Built in the 3rd cent. BC and later expanded to over 1,800 m2, over time the house was renovated (2nd cent. BC -1st cent. AD), moving its fulcrum to the peristyle. It may have belonged to the Poppaei family, related to Poppaea Sabina, Nero’s second wife. The atrium Tuscanicum (with roof...Read More

House of the cithara player (I,4,5 and 25) This occupies most of the block (approximately 2700m²), and in the 1st cent. BC joined together existing buildings through renovations and redecoratings. The name comes from the bronze statue of Apollo the Cithara Player found in the peristyle (now at the Naples Museum, like the sculptures mentioned...Read More