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

apartments which are visible in Ostia and which the legal sources call cenacula did not actually
appear in Pompeii before its destruction. A cenaculum therefore has a slightly different definition
in Pompeii than it does in those larger, later cities. Sutherland suggests the following:
"any room in the second storey of a house, other than an intermediate level
(mezzanine), which forms part of the living quarters and is intended to
accommodate a regular traffic of people in the fulfillment of its designated
function" 161
This definition includes areas used for living, eating, and sleeping, and excludes areas used for
storage, such as the pergulae, or mezzanines which sat over most of the shops at Pompeii, and
were reached by a staircase or ladder. 162 The number of dining rooms on upper floors which I
have been able to identify with any certainty is few; cenaculum is an imperfect but serviceable
term to use to describe them. 163
Oecus
Oecus rarely appears in Latin; it is adopted from the Greek o‰kow, in which language
the word has a broad range of meaning. 164 The Thesaurus Lingua Latinae defines the word as
"part of a house, a room, primarily destined for the holding of dinners", and scholars have long
accepted oecus as an alternative term for a dining room. 165 Nearly all occurrences of the word in
Latin appear in Vitruvius, in the context of both Roman and Greek houses. 166 The exception is
the Elder Pliny's description of the "unswept hall" mosaic, in which he merely transliterates the
Greek. 167 Twice in his description of the Greek house, Vitruvius explicitly states that dining
takes place in the rooms he calls oeci. 168 In his discussion of special architectural types in the
161 Sutherland 1990, 6.
162 Sutherland 1990, 3-4, where he makes good use of an inscription (CIL 4.138) from the Casa di Pansa
(VI.6.1) that advertises the rent of both pergulae and cenacula.
163 Pompeii: I.6.7 {r}, I.6.8-9 {k}, I.7.18 {g}; I.10.1 {6}; I.10.11 {20}; I.10.18 {11}; IX.2.27 {1}. See also
Herculaneum, upstairs rooms (2, 5) in the Casa a Graticcio (III.14-15), Maiuri 1958, 416-420.
164 In Greek, an οἶκος can mean a house, part of a house, household goods, the members of a household or
the house of a god (i.e. a temple).
165 domus pars, camera, imprimis ad cenas habendas destinata. See also Dunababin 1991, 124; De Albentiis 1990,
152-157; Salza Prina Ricotti 1987, 124-126; Mau 1908, 265-266; Overbeck 1884.
166 Vitr. 6.3.8-10 (Roman houses); 6.7.2-5 (Greek houses).
167 Plin. Nat. 1.36.60 (table of contents), 36.184: "the most famous exponent (of mosaics) was Sosus, who at
Pergamum laid the floor of what is known in Greek as "the Unswept Room", because, by means of small
cubes tinted in various shades, he represented on the floor refuse from the dinner table and other
sweepings, making them appear as if they had been left there"; celeberrimus fuit in hoc genere Sosus, qui
Pergami stravit quem vocant asaroton oecon, quoniam purgamenta cenae in pavimentis quaeque everri solent velut
relicta fecerat parvis e tessellis tinctisque in varios colores (Loeb text and translation).
168 Vitr. 6.7.4: "In these halls are the men's banquets"; In his oecis fiunt virilia convivia. Vitr. 6.7.5: "For the
Greeks call the andron the hall where men's banquets are supposed to be, because women cannot approach
there"; Graeci enim andronas appellant oecus, ubi convivia virilia solent esse, quod eo mulieres non accedunt (Loeb
texts, author's translations).
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