Networking in Pompeii: Wall Inscriptions, Dwellings, and Social Networks in an Ancient City

2014

Roman society was strongly hierarchical in nature and the status of a person was visible in many ways from items of clothing to the address where one lived. The dominance of the upper classes over the rest of society can be traced in well-preserved Roman cities such as Pompeii. By examining where the large dwellings were located and what kind of activities can be found around them, we can analyse how the rich and the powerful controlled the city. At the level of an individual city block, a study of the arrangements that connected adjacent housing units in one way or another allows us to sketch possible property boundaries. This provides a means to deepen our understanding of social dominance, control, and dependence. It is shown that the social, economic, and political dominance of the Pompeian upper class had an impact on the everyday life of their dependents, and that the lower classes could watch over the elite, too, as various social groups lived side by side in Pompeii.

TRAC 2012. Proceedings of the Twenty Second Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference, Frankfurt 2012, 2013

Writing Matters: Writing Matters Presenting and Perceiving Monumental Inscriptions in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, eds. Irene Berti, Katharina Bolle, Fanny Opdenhoff, Fabian Stroth, 2017

Proceedings of the Twenty-Second Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference (TRAC 2012), 2013

2014

2017

During the period of its political independence (314-167 BC), the small Cycladic island Delos was a polis and mainly a regional centre of trade and commerce for the surrounding islands. Although foreigners from all over the Mediterranean world started to settle on the island towards the end of the third century BC, Delos did not develop into a cosmopolitan trade center until after 167/166 BC when the Romans declared it a free port and handed control of Delos over to Athens. Merchants from all over the Mediterranean, particularly Italy, arrived on the island to do business. While, according to inscriptions, some lived permanently on Delos (katoikountes), others just stayed temporarily (parepidemountes). As a consequence the city grew considerably, in order to suit its new purpose, and most of the visible remains belong to this period. This thriving, bustling harbor city with high fluctuation in its multicultural, commerce-oriented population certainly provided facilities of "ill repute," namely taverns and brothels for activities such as drinking, gambling, and prostitution. It is the aim of this paper to discuss the archaeological evidence of taverns and brothels in Late Hellenistic Delos.

2014