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

Authors constantly complain about smoke from kitchens and hearths, and a favorite epithet for a
kitchen is "black with soot" (nigram). 98 Smoke was useful only when it preserved and flavored
meat or cheese hung in the rafters above the fire. 99
Smoke was a visible symbol of an active home. For Seneca, the amount of smoke coming
from a kitchen was a moral metaphor for the status of the owner, and a sign of whether guests
were present for dinner:
(Yesterday) certain friends happened along, on account of whom a greater
volume of smoke was made, not the kind of fumes which customarily belch from
the kitchens of grand persons and frighten the fire brigades, but the kind of
moderate smoke which signifies that guests have arrived. 100
Seneca admits to producing more smoke on certain dinner occasions, but ironically distances
himself from persons of "grand status" (of whom he is surely one) who produce entirely too
much smoke, enough even to scare the vigiles into thinking there might be a city-wide fire.
Seneca complains in another letter about the detrimental health effects of smoke pollution in the
city of Rome, which he appreciates only as he leaves the city:
I expect you're keen to hear what effect it had on my health, this decision of mine
to leave? Well, no sooner had I left behind the oppressive atmosphere of the city
and that reek of smoking cookers which pour out, along with a cloud of ashes, all
the poisonous fumes they've accumulated in their interiors whenever they're
started up, then I noticed the change in my condition at once. 101
Roman cities must often have seemed to be burning. Their kitchen, bath and industrial fires
created a constant smoke-signal that marked their viability and prosperity, while at the same
time threatening the population with smoke and potential urban disaster.
98 Smoke from a focus: Col. 11.3.60; Fro. Ver. 2.6.1; Mart. 2.90.7; Ov. Nux 178; Petr. 135-136; Pl. Per. 104;
[Quint] Decl. 13.4.13-14; Stat. Silv. 4.5.13-15. Smoke in a culina: Mart. 1.92.9, 3.2.3, 10.66.3-4. For a furnus,
Pomp. Porph., Hor. Ep. 1.11.13 remarks: "That is, we call ovens black from their black color, on account
either of the soot or darkness which they have within"; Furnos, hoc est, nigros, a nigro colore dicimus propter
fuliginem vel obscuritatem, quam intus habent (Hauthal 1864 text, author's translation). See also Hor. S. 1.5.80-
81.
99 Smoke flavoring cheese (Mart. 13.32); smoke curing ham, bacon or sausage (Cato Agr. 162.3; App. Verg.
Moretum 56-59); smoke flavoring grapes and wine (Plin. Nat. 14.160).
100 Sen. Ep. 64.1: Intervenerant quidam amici propter quos maior fumus fieret, non hic qui erumpere ex lautorum
culinis et terrere vigiles solet, sed hic modicus qui hospites venisse significet (Loeb text, author's translation).
101 Sen. Ep. 104.6.1-5: Quaeris ergo quomodo mihi consilium profectionis cesserit? Ut primum gravitatem urbis
excessi et illum odorem culinarum fumantium quae motae quidquid pestiferi vaporis sorbuerunt cum pulvere
effundunt, protinus mutatam valetudinem sensi (Loeb text, R. Campbell translation).
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