VII.16.3 Pompeii. House of Aemilius Crescens.

Linked to VII.16.4. Excavated 1846, 1872, bombed in 1943, restored in 1950.

VII.16.1-5 Pompeii. October 2020. Looking west along portico with entrance doorway VII.16.1, on left, and VII.16.5, on right.

Photo courtesy of Klaus Heese.

VII.16.3 Pompeii. December 2004. Looking north through entrance doorway towards atrium.

The doorway on the right, in the east wall of the entrance corridor, leads into VII.16.4.

According to Garcia y Garcia, the atrium and four rooms surrounding it were completely destroyed.

This meant the loss of all the plaster decoration from the walls. It was partially restored in 1950.

See Garcia y Garcia, L., 2006. Danni di guerra a Pompei. Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider. (p.131, and figs.308-9).

VII.16.3 Pompeii. Red painted inscriptions from wall between VII.16.2 and VII.16.3, [CIL IV 659] on left, and [CIL IV 660] on right.

Now in Naples Archaeological Museum, inv. 4669.  Photo courtesy of Giuseppe Ciaramella, June 2017.

On the left

SVILIMEA CISSONIO FRATRABILITER SAL

Aemilius fraternally greets Cissonius

On the right

P P P A V C F

M E S Q M

SVILIMEA

(Vote) for Publius Paquius Proculus and Aulus Vettius Caprasius Felix [for duoviri], Marcus Epidius Sabinus and Quintus Marius Rufus [for aediles]. Aemilius C[eler?]

SVILIMEA is Aemilius spelled backwards, a feature that is known from other inscriptions of Pompeii as well.

According to Varone and Stefani, on the left of the entrance doorway between VII.16.2 and 3, two painted inscriptions were found.

They have been detached from the wall, and are now stored in Naples Archaeological Museum, inventory number 4669.

They were CIL IV 659 and CIL IV 660.

See Varone, A. and Stefani, G., 2009. Titulorum Pictorum Pompeianorum, Rome: L’erma di Bretschneider, (p.361 and photos)

According to Epigraphik-Datenbank Clauss/Slaby (See www.manfredclauss.de), they read –

Aemilius Cissonio fratrabiliter sal(utem)       [CIL IV 659]

P(ublium) P(aquium) P(roculum) A(ulum) V(ettium) C(aprassium) f(elicem)

M(arcum) E(pidium) S(abinum) Q(uintum) M(arium) [R(ufum)]

Aemilius C[eler(?)]      [CIL IV 660]

VII.16.3, Pompeii, June 2019. Looking south across the atrium towards entrance doorway, on right. Photo courtesy of Buzz Ferebee.

According to Fiorelli,

“Segue una piccola casa, alla quale era annessa la bottega che viene dopo. Nel protiro a sinistra vedesi un dormitorio, ed a destra la porta di comunicazione con la menzionata taberna. Indi l’atrio tuscanico con impluvio di fabbrica, e la bocca della cisterna di pietra vesuviana: sul destro lato un cubicolo, il tablino, una cella rustica, e da ultimo un angusto e basso repositorio, che anteriormente aveva dovuto essere sottoposto ad una gradinata di fabbrica, scomparsa allorquando furono pure rasate le mura del triclinio, che trovavasi in fondo del l’atrio.”

See Pappalardo, U., 2001. La Descrizione di Pompei per Giuseppe Fiorelli (1875). Napoli: Massa Editore. (p.161)

(translation: “Following on we have a small house, which was annexed to the shop that came after. On the left of the prothyron/entrance corridor we see a doorway into a dormitory, and on the right a doorway with communication to the above-mentioned shop. Then comes the tuscanic atrium with the masonry impluvium, and the cistern-mouth made of Vesuvian stone: on the right side was a cubiculum, the tablinum, a rustic room and last, a narrow and low repository that formerly must have been underneath a masonry staircase, lost at the time when they were adapting the wall of the triclinium, which was found at the rear of the atrium.”)

VII.16.3, Pompeii, June 2019. Looking east across rooms on right side of atrium. Photo courtesy of Buzz Ferebee.

At the rear are the doorways to VII.16.9 and 8 in Vicolo del Gigante.