KITCHENS AND DINING ROOMS AT POMPEII ... - Get a Free Blog

that I fear that you will cause me damage, I think your giving security against
threatened damage should suffice. 95
The mere potential of a fire, based on the location of a person's oven (it is not clear if the furnus is
for bath, industrial, or kitchen use, but it presumably does not matter) is enough to warrant
security against damage. In addition, Ulpian makes a distinction between a furnus and a focus.
While Proculus' original opinion legally equates a focus and a furnus as simply being locations
where a live fire is kept, Ulpian seems to think that a furnus, with its larger size and greater heat
output, offers a greater danger that deserves additional security.
Fire produced smoke, and smoke was an inconvenience for both residents and neighbors.
The use of charcoal reduced, but did not eliminate, the need for ventilation. Windows and doors
provided some venting, especially if a kitchen was adjacent to the street or an open area such as a
peristyle or garden. A few kitchens were provided with built chimneys or pierced tiles to allow
smoke to escape through the roof. 96 The fumes had simply to be endured; there were no legal
precepts regulating smoke from private property:
A doubt is raised by Pomponius in the forty-first book of his Readings, as to
whether a man can bring an action alleging that he has a right or that another has
no right to create a moderate amount of smoke on his own premises, for
example, smoke from a hearth ( ex foco). He says that the better opinion is that
such an action cannot be brought, just as an action cannot be brought to maintain
that one has a right to light a fire or wash on one's own land. 97
95 Ulp. dig. 9.2.27.10: Si furnum secundum parietem communem haberes, an damni iniuria tenearis? Et ait Proculus
agi non posse, quia nec cum eo qui focum haberet: et ideo aequius puto in factum actionem dandam, scilicet si paries
exustus sit: sin autem nondum mihi damnum dederis, sed ita ignem habeas, ut metuam, ne mihi damnum des, damni
infecti puto sufficere cautionem (Watson 1985 text and translation).
96 Salza Prina Ricotti 1978/80, 253-256. For example, perforated roof-tiles were found stored in garden (23)
of the Casa del Efebo (I.7.10-12)(PPM I, 712, fig. 163). A pierced roof tile probably belonged to the small
shed roof over the stove of kitchen (5) in Casa I.10.1. The roof tile now rests on top of the stove.
97 Ulp. dig. 8.5.8.6: Apud Pomponium dubitatur libro quadragensimo primo lectionum, an quis possit ita agere licere
fumum non gravem, puta ex foco, in suo facere aut non licere. Et ait magis non posse agi, sicut agi non potest ius esse
in suo ignem facere aut sedere aut lavere (Watson 1985 text and translation).
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