CLASSICAL CIVILISATION

– FURTHER READING AND WEB-LINKS for cc6 –

 

AS Unit CC6 (F386) City Life in Roman Italy

 

 

By Mr G. de la Bédoyère MA FSA FHA FRNS for KSHS

This page is in a continuous process of updating and development

 

 

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Sources for Classical Civilisation A-Level

 

Other background reading pages:

 

Classical Civilisation Reading Page

 

 

 

STOP PRESS for Class Civ students at KSHS: if KSHS Academic Portal is down (as it was on the weekend of 4/5 October 2008) and you cannot access the handouts/assignments and other notes posted there, please email me on the address shown on the Home Page with what you need and I will email you back the relevant sheets.

 

Main books for the course

General weblinks on Pompeii and Roman towns

Pompeii and Roman Houses

Roman society

Pompeii Prescribed Material – all the sites prescribed by the exam board

Ostia prescribed material – all the sites prescribed by the exam board

Herculaneum prescribed material – all the sites prescribed by the exam board

 

There is also a resource booklet produced by OCR at OCR CC6 Resource booklet

 

 

Websites have been carefully chosen that have a lot of basic information and details and/or pictures and plans about all prescribed course material. Take care though – not all websites are necessarily 100% reliable. Don’t be overwhelmed – more options are listed here than you will ever need to chase up. But the point is it’s here and it’s available so it’s up to you to make the most of it:

 

 

 

Unit CC6 (F386) City Life in Roman Italy – the main books

J indicates that there is (or will be) a copy in KSHS Library (reference only for the moment). Some of these books are on order and will be placed in the library as soon as they arrive. * indicates a book that may be particularly useful. J in KSHS Library. SOME of these books are available ONLINE – search on Google Books

 

J * Berry, J., The Complete Pompeii 2007, Thames and Hudson.

 

* Clarke, J. R. The houses of Roman Italy 100 BC – AD 250: Ritual, Space and Decoration 1991, University of California Press. Limited Preview ONLINE at Google Books

J * Cooley, A.E., and Cooley, M.G.L., Pompeii. A Sourcebook, Routledge 2004 (copy in KSHS Library). You can search this online at Amazon Pompeii Sourcebook if you have an Amazon customer log-in: click on the picture of the book’s cover.

 

 

* Ling, R., Pompeii: history, life and afterlife, Tempus 2005

 

*Thorpe M., Roman Architecture, Bristol Classical Press 1995 (relevant pages available on http://www.kshs.lincs.sch.uk/ portal)

 

J * Wallace-Hadrill, A., Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum, Princeton 1994. Available online at Google Books

 

 

THE COURSE COVERS THE FOLLOWING TOPICS:

 

1. The historical context of the cities: development, decline, destruction, discovery and preservation

2. Important people and institutions of the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Ostia

3. The social structure of the cities

4. Expression of social identity in the cities through buildings, inscriptions, houses, decoration and tombs

5. Use of domestic space and use of decoration to define this

6. Changing use of domestic space over time

 

GENERAL WEBLINKS on POMPEII

 

Pompeii in Pictures is an invaluable site with maps and images of every building

 

Pompeii Virtual Tour

 

Pompeii Virtual Field Trip

Home Page of the Soprintendenza of Pompeii

 

is an invaluable site with maps and images of every buildinghas Wikipedia's page on Pompeii

Ad for an interactive CD of Pompeii

Interactive videos of Insula 9

Interactive Dig for Insula VI.1

Current Archaeology magazine's Visiting Pompeii page

British School at Rome on Roman towns

 

Other useful Pompeii links on Houses and so on:

Typical Pompeii House Plan

Typical Pompeii House Plan and elevation (scroll down)

Pompeii House Interiors (and other sites)

Lots of general links on Pompeii

Pompeii's Forum

 

ROMAN SOCIETY

BBC pages on Roman society

USA PBS site on Roman society

Roman Social Classes and Public Display

Roman law and society – with an image of an amphitheatre showing how the audience was divided by status, and references to the Roman freedmen (ex slaves) and their legal status.

Patrons, clients, slaves and freedmen

USA PBS page on freedmen

Petronius and the SatyriconPetronius’ satirical account of Trimalchio, the wealthy, pretentious freedman is a classic piece of Roman literature with a great deal of contemporary comment on Roman society. Passages form part of the prescribed material (see Sources). You can download the whole text here, read Wikipedia on the Satyricon and consult a dedicated ancient history with Petronius links. This page describes the events at Trimalchio's dinner

See also CC6 HO7 and HO8 (KSHS academic portal)

 

PRESCRIBED MATERIAL

The following topics are all those that you need to be familiar with in Unit CC6. These are links that will help you with most of them. Do be warned though – some of the links are to Wikipedia pages which doesn’t mean they’re necessarily 100% reliable, something that applies to all web pages! I have also added now details of my handouts available to KSHS students on the academic portal:

 

POMPEII – prescribed content (each building is one you NEED to know about)

1. The House of the Menander (Region I.x.4). Pictures of the house, interior and its gardens are at Pompeii in Pictures: Menander. This house has been extensively restored in recent years. Take a walk round with the Youtube Menander tour. CC6 HO15 (KSHS academic portal)

2. The House of Octavius Quartio or "Loreius Tiburtinus' (Region II.ii.2), with a discussion Wikipedia: House of Loreius Tiburtinus. This house is better known as the House of Octavius Quartio, named after a ring found in one of the street-front shops. It has an exceptionally fine garden and a number of important wall paintings, as well as a room dedicated to the worship of Isis. Walk round it on a rather gloomy February afternoon on the Youtube Octavius Quartio tour. CC6 HO16 (KSHS academic portal)

3. The House of Aulus Umbricius Scaurus (Region VII.xvi.15), and especially the fish-sauce amphora mosaic on that page. You can now read a full description and see a proper plan at CC6 Scaurus. There is a far better picture of the fish-sauce amphora mosaic on Wikipedia than the one illustrated on p. 165 of Cooley and Cooley. There were two men, father and son, called Aulus Umbricius Scaurus. The father ran the fish-sauce business, which was highly successful (see Sources). His son became a Pompeian magistrate but died relatively young and was awarded an equestrian statue in the Pompeii Forum, the usual 2000 sesterces for his funeral, and a tomb outside the Herculaneum Gate, which bears an inscription recording Scaurus the Younger’s honours. CC6 HO21 (KSHS academic portal)

4. The Building of Eumachia (VII.ix.1) by the Forum is an important example of a commercial building owned by a woman. More pictures at Pompeii in Pictures: Eumachia. The Eumachia Inscriptions help identify the building, and she is represented by her statue. You may now tour the building on Youtube Eumachia. For more details of the inscriptions see CC6 reading on this site. W. Moeller’s The Wool Trade of Ancient Pompeii is useful on Eumachia, and you can read a preview on Google Books here. There is a short discussion of Eumachia here. This page links Eumachia to the world of Pompeian women. The  Tomb of Eumachia is also important evidence for her status since she was not awarded a funeral or tomb at public expense (as would be common for someone of status who had been a benefactor to the town, even a woman), and the burial of others buried at her tomb in later years such as members of the family of Nigidius Maius. You can tour her tomb at Youtube Eumachia tomb. Ref: Cooley and Cooley G15–19. CC6 HO11 (KSHS academic portal)

5. The First Tomb of Munatius Faustus outside the Nocera Gate of Pompeii, and that of his wife, the freedwoman Naevoleia Tyche, outside Pompeii’s Herculaneum Gate, are important evidence for how freedmen and their families could rise to high status. You can take a tour of the tombs at Youtube Pompeii Herculaneum-Gate cemetery. Naevoleia replaced the first tomb with a more impressive one after her husband’s death to commemorate how he had been awarded the bisellium (honorific double chair). ‘Faustus’ means ‘fortunate’, and ‘Tyche’ means ‘god-given fortune’. The two ex-slaves had lived up to their names. Ref: Cooley and Cooley G38–47b and see Sources on this site. CC6 HO18 (KSHS academic portal)

6. Pompeii’s amphitheatre is the oldest known (built c. 80 BC) and a very important public building. Take a walk round on the Youtube amphitheatre tour. The amphitheatre riot of AD 59 was commemorated in a painting in the House of Actius Anicetus (Region I.3.23) and was described by the historian Tacitus at Annals xiv.7 (see here for the text). Ref: Cooley and Cooley D1–7. CC6 HO13 (KSHS academic portal)

7. The Temple of Isis (VIII.vii.28) is one of the most important religious buildings in Pompeii. There is a discussion of its content here and reconstruction drawings here, and you can now take a tour by going to Youtube Isis. You should also study paintings from the Temple of Isis and this evocative reconstruction painting of the temple. Ref: Cooley and Cooley E3–8. CC6 HO14 (KSHS academic portal)

8. The Temple of Jupiter (VII.viii.1) was the main temple overlooking Pompeii’s forum, and was dedicated to the politically important cult of the King of the Gods who was believed to oversee Rome’s destiny. There’s a discussion of it here and more pictures here CC6 HO19 (KSHS academic portal)

 

See also House of the Tragic Poet tour, the Youtube House of the Faun tour, the Youtube Nigidius Maius tour, the House of the Lyre (Cithara) Player tour, House of Venus in a Seashell, the Villa of the Mysteries, the electoral slogans in the Via dell' Abbondanza, and a walk round the Forum or even the Brothel. There’s also a film round the huge so-called Villa of Poppaea at Oplontis at nearby Torre Annunziata.

OSTIA – Rome’s ancient port – prescribed content (each building is one you NEED to know about)

Wikipedia on Ostia

A short article on Ostia's development

 (These links mostly take you to pages on the Ostia Antica site which have plans, descriptions and photos). The clickable general plans of the Regions allow you to explore other buildings too and I recommend that you do this).

Ostia Antica Main Page (takes you to maps of the Regions and its buildings)

Clickable map and reconstructions of Ostia

1. House of the Dioscuri (III.ix.1). Plan, discussion and pictures. You can take a Dioscuri Youtube Tour here. This house is one of the Garden Houses in Region III, Insula ix, which are regarded as an important group of houses, dating originally to c. AD 120–140 , and are quite different from the older houses found at Pompeii and Herculaneum. See also the House of the Nymphaeum (III.vi.6). CC6 HO23 (KSHS academic portal)

2. House of Apuleius (III.ix.1). This house began its life in the Republican period (i.e. before Augustus), and was rebuilt in the mid-second century AD. You can take an Apuleius Youtube here. CC6 HO22 (KSHS academic portal)

You can also explore the House of the Porch (V.ii.4–5) and take the House of the Porch Youtube tour.

3. The House of Diana (I.iii.3–4) is an extremely well-preserved apartment block in the heart of Ostia. CC6 HO26 (KSHS academic portal)

4. The Baths of Mithras (I.xvii.2) and its associated Temple of Mithras (mithraeum). You can take a Youtube tour of the Baths of Mithras and Youtube tour of the Mithraeum. CC6 HO27 (KSHS academic portal)

5. Baths of the Forum  (I.xii.6). A massive town-centre baths and exercise complex for the Ostians. You can take a Youtube tour of the Baths

6. Piazza of the Corporations (II.vii.4). This major commercial development at Ostia had business offices arranged around a central piazza opposite the theatre. Mosaics in the pavement outside the offices stated the trading interests of each company, for example fish-sauce. CC6 HO17 (KSHS academic portal)

7. The Great Warehouse (Grandi Horrea) (II.ix.7). This was a massive warehouse complex in central Ostia. You can take a Warehouse Youtube tour here and read a general discussion of Ostian warehouses here. CC6 HO29 (KSHS academic portal)

8. The Barracks of the Firefighters (Caserma dei Vigili) (II.v.1–2). This was vital to Ostia with all its warehouses packed with valuable goods. You can take a Youtube tour of the Barracks here.

9. The Port of Claudius, begun in AD 42 to resolve the problem of the silted-up River Tiber estuary. It was completed in AD 64 and was known as Portus. CC6 HO9 (KSHS academic portal)

10. The Port of Trajan (AD 98–117) became the commercial centre and eventually superseded Ostia. CC6 HO9 (KSHS academic portal)

Pictures of Ostia here

Inscriptions of Ostia – photos of monumental inscriptions from Ostia

 

 

HERCULANEUM – prescribed content (each building is one you NEED to know about)

Wikipedia on Herculaneum

1. House in Opus Craticium (Herculaneum Insula iii.13–15, also known as the Casa Graticio): scroll down the page to find it. The house was built of opus craticium. Its importance is that it was built after the earthquake of AD 62 and replaced an older house. The owners of the site decided to use a cheap form of building (a timber frame packed with rubble) that would allow as much living space as possible to be packed into the small site, presumably to maximise the rent yield. This anticipated the building of apartment blocks a generation later at Ostia, where far more durable building techniques were used. View a virtual tour of the House in Opus Craticium here, but forget trying to visit the place if you go there. You can see it from outside but inside it is now the most dangerous building on site and cannot be accessed. You can enjoy a look-around from the street on my Youtube House in Opus Craticium tour which also shows how light had to be let in through windows cut into the next door house’s atrium. CC6 HO24 (KSHS academic portal)

 

2. House of the Deer/Stags (Herculaneum Insula iv.21, also known as the Casa dei Cervi). This house’s importance depends on its remarkable plan which created a visual axis through the garden right down to the sea. Little emphasis was placed on living accommodation. This picture (left) shows a digitally restored view through the garden to the Bay of Naples. The view today unfortunately just shows a wall of volcanic rock. See the virtual tour of the House of the Deer here or take my Youtube House of the Stags tour (February) or the .House of the Stags in Autumn tour shot in October (much prettier). CC6 HO06 (KSHS academic portal)

 

 

 

3. The Samnite House (Herculaneum Insula v.2). One of Herculaneum’s oldest houses. It went through a number of stages: first the peristyle was sold off to another property. Then an upstairs level was created, overlooking the vast atrium. Then this was partitioned off into a separate apartment leaving just the atrium and a few downstairs rooms. If you want to walk round you can do so with me at Youtube Samnite House.  CC6 HO20 (KSHS academic portal)

 

4. The Suburban Baths (also known as the Terme Suburbane). One of the best-preserved Roman baths in existence. It lies on a terrace below Herculaneum’s main level and is accessed from a piazza on the way down to the old shoreline. It was built in Claudian times. The replica statue of Marcus Nonius Balbus (the original is in Naples Museum) stands in the piazza alongside his monument and this has led to the suggestion his family built the baths, though he himself lived in the late 1st century BC whereas the baths seem to have been built in the AD 40s. A description of the structure can be found here, and there is an account on the official site, but you can now take the Youtube Suburban Baths tour. You can see the Balbus statue and monument Marcus Nonius Balbus Youtube tour. CC6 HO25 (KSHS academic portal)

Good private website with pictures and plans of Herculaneum buildings

 

See also the Youtube Herculaneum Baths Tour of the baths in Insula VI close to the Basilica.

Literary texts and inscriptions: see Sources

AS: CC1 Archaeology:  Mycenae and the Classical World

A2: CC7 Roman Britain: life in the outpost of the Empire

A2: CC10 Virgil and the world of the hero

 

Other links

Roman Names – the structure of Roman names, and what they tell us

London Association of Classical Teachers

Back to the KSHS Class Civ Home Page

 

OCR’s reading list

Allison, P. ‘Room use in Pompeian houses’ in Descoeudres, J. (ed.) Pompeii Revisited: The Life

and Death of a Roman Town 1994, Meditarch (pages 82-89). ISBN 0646206591

Allison, P. Pompeian Households. An Analysis of the Material Culture (Monograph 42, Cotsen

Institute of Archaeology) 2004, University of California. ISBN 0917956966

Allison, P. (ed.) The Archaeology of Household Activities 1999, Routledge. ISBN 0415205972

Allison, P. Pompeian Households: An On-line Companion 2001

http://www.stoa.org/projects/ph/home

Beard, M., North, J. and Price, S. Religions of Rome 1998, Cambridge University Press. ISBN

0521456460

Bomgardner, D. The Story of the Roman Amphitheatre 2000, Routledge. ISBN 0415301858

Bon, S. E. and Jones, R. (eds.) Sequence and space in Pompeii (Oxbow books Monograph 77)

1997, Oxford. ISBN 1900188309

Bonefas, S. and McManus, B. F. Vroma: A Virtual Community for Teaching and Learning

Classics http://www.vroma.org

Butterworth, A. and Laurence, R. Pompeii: The Living City 2005, Weidenfeld and Nicolson.

ISBN 0297645609

Cambridge Schools Classics Project, Cambridge Latin Course Unit 1 1998, Cambridge

University Press. ISBN 0521635438. (The English sections on Pompeii provide a good

introduction).

Clarke, J. R. The houses of Roman Italy 100 BC – AD 250: Ritual, Space and Decoration 1991,

University of California Press. ISBN 0520084292

Clements, P. Herculaneum: Destruction and Rediscovery http://www.romanherculaneum.com

Connolly, P. Pompeii 1990, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199171580

Cooley, A. E. Pompeii 2003, Duckworth. ISBN 0715631616

*Cooley, A. E. and Cooley, M. G. L. Pompeii: A Sourcebook 2004, Routledge. ISBN

0415262127

Curtis, R. I. ‘A Personalized Floor Mosaic from Pompeii’ in American Journal of Archaeology

88.4, October 1984, (pages 557-566). JSTOR

Deiss, J. Herculaneum: Italy's Buried Treasure 1993, Getty Trust Publications. ISBN

0892361646

Fox, W. Pompeii Interactive 2000, Canis Education www.pompeii.co.uk

Gazda, E. (ed.) Roman Art in the Private Sphere: New Perspectives on the Architecture and

Décor of the domus, Villa and Insula 1994, University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0472083147

28 GCE Classics

Hermansen, G. Ostia: aspects of Roman city life 1981, University of Alberta Press. ISBN

0888640722

Internet Group Ostia, Ostia: Harbour-City of Ancient Rome 1996-2007 http://www.ostiaantica.

org

Laurence, R. Roman Pompeii, Space and Society Routledge, 1994. ISBN 0415391253

Laurence, R. and Wallace-Hadrill, A. F. (eds.) 'Domestic Space in the Roman World: Pompeii

and Beyond' in Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplement 22, 1997, Portsmouth RI. ISBN

1887829229

Pompeii in Pictures http://pompeiiinpictures.com/pompeiiinpictures/index.htm

Ling, R. Pompeii: history, life & afterlife 2005, Tempus. ISBN 0752414593

Morgan, J. Pompeii 2006, J-PROGS www.j-progs.com

Morgan, J. Pompeii Photo CD 2006, J-PROGS www.j-progs.com

Morgan, J. Romana Photo CD 2003, J-PROGS www.j-progs.com

Morgan, J. Rome the Eternal City 2 2004, J-PROGS www.j-progs.com

Morgan, J. Rome Photo CD 2 2005, J-PROGS www.j-progs.com

Shelton, J. A. As the Roman Did: A Sourcebook in Roman Social History 1988, Oxford

University Press. ISBN 0195089731

Sear, F. Roman Architecture 1982, Routledge. ISBN 0801492459

Soprintendenza Archeologia di Pompeii, Home Page (official site)

http://www.pompeiisites.org/database/pompei/pompei2.nsf?OpenDatabase

University of Virginia, The Pompeii Forum Project, 1997 http://pompeii.virginia.edu

Wallace-Hadrill, A. F, Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum 1994, Princeton

University Press. ISBN 0691029091

Ward Perkins, J. B. Roman Imperial Architecture 1992, Yale University Press. ISBN

0300052928

Zanker, P. Pompeii: Public and Private Life 1998, Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674689674