Summary of the Proceedings and Papers Presented at - World ...

The History of the House
of the Silver Wedding Anniversary
by Wolfgang Ehrhardt and Fabrizio Pesando
italiano
The importance of the House of the Silver Wedding
Anniversary in Pompeii (V 2,i) is based upon a unique
combination of architectural, art-historical and sociological
facts and the quality of the preserved wallpaintings.
This house is one of the less than twenty properties
in Pompeii for which we have information about the
owner. From the time of Claudius, the house had been in the
hands of L. Albucius Celsus I, and afterwards those of his
son L. Albucius Celsus II. Both men were attested aediles
and, therefore, members of Pompeii’s high society. Although
we do not know the name of the man who built the house in
the last quarter of the 2 nd century BC, it is quite clear from
the architecture that he must have been rich and powerful.
The house occupies an area of about 1700 square meters.
Its atrium columns are 6.90m high, the atrium itself occupies
197 square meters. The house enclosed two peristyles, the
smaller the oldest peristyle of the Rhodian type in Pompeii.
During that phase the rooms east of the atrium had a double
face. From the atrium their entrances looked like normal
doors leading into cubicula. But upon entering these rooms
they changed into reception rooms giving free sight to the
vast garden area east of the atrium complex. The house remained
untouched until 40 BC.
Major changes in the building’s structure were effected at
this time, and consequently in the floor and wall decorations.
Also around the same period, the owner decided to add a
second floor around the atrium. That construction called for the lowering of the ceilings inside the rooms around the
atrium. Then also the famous colonnaded oecus was constructed.
It was at this point that the entire house lost the
old decoration in the First Style and was redecorated in the
contemporary Second Style. The Casa delle Nozze d’Argento
remained thus until Neronian times.
The house’s last building phase can be dated by a graffito
to the years before 60 AD. The bath complex was constructed
at this time with a tepidarium, a caldarium and a pool outside
in an open garden area, as well as a separate toilet with
polychromatic wall decorations and a water tap. Also during
this phase, the wide openings between the rooms east of the
atrium and the gymnasium-like garden were closed entirely.
All these changes were ordered by L. Albucius Celsus I. He
wisely kept the older wall decorations painted in the Second
Style, adding to these some new decorations in the Fourth
Style. His behavior is markedly different from that of the previous
owner who had ordered the total removal of the First
Style decorations. The house suffered minor damage during
the earthquake of 62 AD. Although the bath complex was not
used, the house itself was not abandoned by its last owner,
L. Albucius Celsus II. Thus the House of the Silver Wedding
Anniversary maintained from its beginning until the eruption
of Vesuvius the character of a palace-like townhouse built to
house a member of Pompeii’s highest society.