casa de trimalción

7/30/2019 casa de trimalcin

1/25

The House of Trimalchio

Gilbert Bagnani

The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 75, No. 1. (1954), pp. 16-39.

Stable URL:

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-9475%281954%2975%3A1%3C16%3ATHOT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-M

The American Journal of Philology is currently published by The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available athttp://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtainedprior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content inthe JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained athttp://www.jstor.org/journals/jhup.html.

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printedpage of such transmission.

The JSTOR Archive is a trusted digital repository providing for long-term preservation and access to leading academicjournals and scholarly literature from around the world. The Archive is supported by libraries, scholarly societies, publishers,and foundations. It is an initiative of JSTOR, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to help the scholarly community takeadvantage of advances in technology. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

http://www.jstor.orgTue Oct 2 10:43:39 2007
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-9475%281954%2975%3A1%3C16%3ATHOT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Mhttp://www.jstor.org/about/terms.htmlhttp://www.jstor.org/journals/jhup.htmlhttp://www.jstor.org/journals/jhup.htmlhttp://www.jstor.org/about/terms.htmlhttp://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-9475%281954%2975%3A1%3C16%3ATHOT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-M


2/25

T H E H O U S E O F T R I R I A L C R I O .Erery archaeologist knows that the recoristruct ion of any

ancient building. even when extensive remains are stil l preserved,is no easy task. Th e at tem pts to recorer the plan and appearanceof P liny's T il la s or Varro's Av iary show only too clearly th einsufficiency of eyen the most detailed verbal descriptions. T otry to reconst ruct a bui ld ing that never exis ted escept in theimagination of a novelist vould seem to be a complete vaste oft ime. Pe tro niu s lras rnade no at t em pt at giving his readers a nexac t descrip tion of Trim alchio's house, escept as a se tti ng fo rTr in ~a lch io imsel f, an d as an i l lus t rat ion of h is character . Xono\-elist: ancient or modernt has been greatly concerned as towhether the houses in which his characters l ive are structural lypossible or convenient. Only recently, svith th e po pu lari ty of th edetective novel, does the actual dispositiorl of the house heconlei mpor t an t t o au thor a nd reader, bu t I feel qui te cer tain that noar ch ite ct 15-ould e7-er pass lnost of th e elab ora te plans th a t w rit er sof such stories so kindly provide for their

Cf. TS7arren Hun ting Smitll, Srch it ec tz i~ c n Ertglbsh Fietion (YaleStudzes 27, Enq l i s l i , L Y S S I I I [Sen Haven, 1'3341i, 1). 3 . The author ofthis raluable nork has unfortunately restricted liiiuself to only " threemain types of architec tural sett ing: the purely decorative tr pe , used forornament and ' local colottr '; tlie structural type performing a servicein the narrative: and the emotional type, esplaininp the reactions of tliecharacters and ar o~ ~ si nghe feelings of t he readers " (13. 5 ) . He ignoresthe type used a s a means of characterisation, and th ns omits all mentionof such auth ors a s Trollope an d S ~ ~ r t e e s . et llow admirably does th edec;cription of Ullathorne Coart colnplete the character sketches ofWilfrid T horne and his sister, or t h a t of Gatllerutn Castle prepare t hereader for th e Duke of Omnium! Surtee s, iil a series of thumb nailsketches, passes in revielv th e whole domestic architecture of th e~ h i r e s , rom IYnodma~lsterne to I'udclingpotc Bower ; the Iiouses; andtheir inter ior decoration, ar e all quite tvpical of tlleir liind, an d a t thesame time typical of thei r owners. Dumas uses t l ~ e ame technique inLe Comte de So?riccr.isto: the descriptions of the Ildtel dc la Rue dzaHelder, the petit 7;ersailles rue M P s l a ~ ,and the pretentious mansion ofthe ChatcssCe d'dwtin tell us more about their owners than any elaboratepsychological description.


3/25

17H E' H O UH E O F T R I Y A L C H I O .Yet , though Pe t ron ius i s ce r t a in ly no t descr ib ing any rea l

house, he has a c ertain type of house in m ind, a typ e of houseth at was fam il ia r to h is readers , a type of house tha t they wouldassociate w i th a person such as Trim alchio . Pe t ron ius i s anex t remely sub tl e au t ho r ; as a s a t i r ~ s t , f he can be ca ll ed asat ir ist , he obtains his effects, not by the rant ing and exaggera-t ion that become so wearisome in Juvenal , but ra ther by thedelicate juxtaposi t ion of incon gruous detai ls. T his house ofTrimalchio 's is a real house, i t is the kind of house most peopleknow, and many own, but no one, except Trimalchio, wouldhave i t qu i t e tha t way . It should therefore be recognizable as acha racte rist ic type of house of th e t im e of Xero, a nd th is typeof house is not t o be sought for i n Rom e itself . As I have t r iedto show elsen~here,?Petrol l ius is not wri t ing of the upper classesof th e cap ital , he is describing "m oe urs de province," a pro-vincial l i fe, that of the Campania, with which most of hisreaders were only too famil iar .It i s therefore in th e houses of Pom pei i a nd H erculaneu mthat we must seek the model of Trimalchio's house.3 Both thesetowns were not of any great importance and therefore , s incet h e graeca urbs i s alm ost ce rta in ly P ~ t e o l i , ~e must not expectto find exact parallels, but , m ak in g al lon~ances or th is differencein scale , i t i s in Pompei i and Herculaneum that we must lool r .And the paral le ls are even closer than might be expected .Trim alchio ha s no t bui l t h is whole house. he has s imply enlargeda smaller one (77. 4 ) : u t scitis, cusuc em t, nunc t en~p l z inzest :"yo u remem ber. i t used to be a kin d of hotdog sta nd, now i t 'sa temple." A t th is any owner of one of th e gre at Villa s of th e

G. Bagnani, " And passing rich . . ." in Studie s i n Itonour of GilbertKorzoood (Toronto , 1 95 2) , pp. 218-23.

The House of Trimalchio ha s been briefly studied by P . Hars h i nMemoirs American Academy in Ronle, XI1 (1 93 5) , pp. 49-.50 and A.Maiuri, La Cena di Trimalchione (h'aples, 19453, pp. 243-5.

4 Na i u r i , Cena, pp. 5-14 and La Parola del Passato, I11 (1048), pp.106-8, argues convincingly for Pu teol i; BIarmorale, La Questione Pe-troniana (Ba ri, 1 948), p. 129, tends to prefer Sea polis .

= W . B, Sedg~vick's suggestion, C . R . , XXXIX (192 5), p. 118, th atcusuc may have some connexion with the Persian Kushk "kiosk," isnot unlikely: it has been accepted by Marmorale, Cena, p. 174; contraHarsh, op. cit., p. 5 0 . The exact meaning of templum does not concernus here


4/25

18 GILBERT BAGNAN I .Campanla m ust have burs t out laughing. Trimalchio's " t emple "i s not , e le n by th e s tandard s of Pornpeii a nd H erculan eum , verylarge, certainly it is no palace.= It contains four dining-rooms,twenty bedroorns (cu bicu la), two mar ble port icos, thre e l ibraries ;and, upsta i rs , the two master sui tes , besides a wing for guests;some f if ty rooms in a ll , 1e.s th an i n the Vi l la dei 3 1 i ~ t e r i . ~1word m lght be sa id on the fou r d~nin g- ro om s.One of these

was probab ly an open-a ir one as i n so many houses i n P ~ m p e i i , ~where the Casa del Fauno has exact ly the same nunlber ofdining-rooms. These mould seem, from our point of view, avery large number , b ut an exam inat ion of t he houses a t Ponlpei ishows that a plural i ty of t r icl inia is the rule, not the exception.Even the smallest houses have two tr icl inza. one large and onesmal l . Th e reason for thi s 1s c learly hinted a t by lT a rr o whendescrib ing th e habi t s of th e anc ient R oman s: ad focum hiemeac f r igor ibus ce~t i fnbanf,nest iuo tempore in loco propatulo, rurei n chorte, in urbe in fabul ino. . . . In cold weather one dined byth e fi re . In sum me r one t r icd to f ind a cool spot. K i t h th edexelopment of t he s imple I t al ic house und er t he influence ofEIel lenist ic comfort , one no longer dined in the atr ium-li i tchen-l iving room; special dining-rooms mere int roduced. This , how-ever , created i t s own problems; the " Pompe i an " house musthave beer1 one of t he coldest m achines for l iving in ever d e s i p e d .W i n t e r dining-rooms had to be made as small as possible. sothat the gur,sts should. l lke cat t le in a stable, pro\-ide their ownhe at. Tn surnnler suc h a room would hecome into lerab le, an d ala rger t ~ - i c l i ? ~ i ~ r r r z .nd. if possible. an open-air one, mould haveto be p r o ~ i d e d . Aln ot l ler reason fo r t he necessi ty of var ioust ri c lin ia mav be foun d in the genera l a r rangements of a n c i ~ n tbanque ts . tha t remind us of the J l a d Hat t e r ' s t ea -par ty . Tl l t seformal banquets, in any social class, were verv elaborate andinto le rably prot rac ted , a t l eas t f ro m our poin t of ~ ie n * .s they

C f. JIaiuri, C e n n , p. 244.9.3laiuri. T.a T'zlla dei 3listert (2nd ed , 1947) , p . 42, calculates

some t\\ eri t)- t\\ o room, on th e round floor during the Augustan age,while h y 79 he t11ii1l.s it llad abo ut ninety looms in all.

On the open-air triclinia at Pompeli we Pietro Sorano, I t ~ i c l i n ia7l' aperto d t I ' ompe i in P o m p e z a ~ z a (Xaple., 19 50 ), pp 228-310, li sti ngth ir t) -1inie I;nol\n e \am~1le5 .

T'arro, Dr T z t a P o p l r l z X o m a n i , I , apud Konius Narcellus, 83, 21 11;117, 1 6 (1~111clsa).


5/25

19HE H O U B E O F T R Z M A L C H Z O .still are in many parts of the Mediterranean world. Trimalchio'sdinner begins at the usual hour after the bath, about two orthree o'clock p. m.,1 and continues well into the night, for theyhear the cock crow.ll Since there were no plates, all theremnants were thrown on the floor, that after a short time willhave looked like a garbage heap. Every norr and then slavescame in and swept up the debris,12 but i t was often better tobreak off for a short time and resume the feasting in anotherclean dining-room. The four dining-rooms of Trimalchio arenot exceptional or unnecessary.The real peculiarity of the house of Trimalchio, as comparedwith the houses of Pompeii and Herculaneum, is that the frontdoor did not lead into the atrium, large or small, but into agreat portico or peristyle, normally to be found behind the house.Moreover, no mention is made of either an atr ium or a tablinum,and consequently most scholars have denied their existence.13It would appear incredible that Trimalchio who, as an Orientalfreedman, is keen to pose as more Roman than the Romans,14should not have had the most characteristically Roman part ofthe house, and true enough we find an atriensis. .lfter walkinghalf round the peristyle Encolpius says (29 , 9 ) interrogare egoatriensenz coepi, quas i n medio picturas haberent. I n medio can

loJ. Carcopino, L i f e in A n c i e n t R o m e (ed. Rowell, 194 1), p. 264; t heexac t time would depend on the season of the year , which is difficult t oestablish with cet tainty. The probabilities would seem to be either la teau tu mn or early spring,-the question is discussed by Marmorale,Ques t ione , pp. 107-17-but i s of no importance for our present in-vestigation.

Sat . , 74, 1.Even immediately after the gus ta t io , Sa t . , 34, 3. The filth of a n

unslvept dining-room, asaroton oecon, was immortalized in a mosaicpavement by the Pergamene artist Sosus, Pliny, N.H., XXXVI, 184;cf. the commentaries by J e s Blake and Sellers, The Elder P l iny ' s Chap-ter s on the His tory of A rt (London, 18961, p. 224; S. Ferri, Pl in io ilV e c c h i o (Rome, 194B), p. 277; G. E. Rizzo, La Pi t tu ra E l l en i s t i co -R o m a n a (Milan, 19291, p. 42; Helbig-Bmelung, F u h r e r (3 rd ed., 1913 ),11, p. 49.l3Most recently RIaiuri, Cena , pp. 244 and 158. Friedlaender, Cena

(2nd ed., 19 06) , p. 217, right ly sees th a t th e atriensis is standing a tthe entrance to the a t r i u m , but is misled by Biicheler's emendation ofthe i n precario of 30, 9 into i n a t ri o .

Cf. Maiuri's penetrating remarks, Cena , pp. 187-8, on 53, 13.


6/25

20 G IL B E RT B A B N A N I .only refer to the in aln reccptlon roonis i n the ce ntre of the house,th a t is to say th e atri um , fnblinunl, al ld alac. Encolpius, fi l ldingthat the l lfe of Trinlalchio had been painted on the walls of theperistyle, rlaturally monders what 011 ea r th T r ima lch io h as p u tin the r~ los t ~ n po r t an t oon is in the house , those i ? ~ Itnedio.follorrs that an alrium and a irrbZil tum eslst , though the guestsare no t adm i t ted to them. Th e reason fo r th i s 1s no t f a r to seek :Trimalchio 1s no fool and is under no i l lus ions as to the k indof people ~ h ore coming to the house. I I e is not l ikely toleabe 111\ bcst reception roon is open to the ~nspec t ion of anyl lght-fingprpd prowler. T he entran ce to the n f r i u ?n f ron l theportico 1s closed by cul ta ins , or by a wooden partition such asth e o n e t h a t l~ n s een fo u n d a t Hercu lan eu m, a n d in f ro n t ofi t t he n t r i e ~ ~ s i sas heen btationed to see to i t th a t none of t heguests " accidentally " s t ray in to the rooms in medio.15 T h a tthis 1s the functlon of the n t r iens is , and that h is orders are notto move fro111 the entrance to the atrium. is proved by the mayhe sudden ly reappears when Enco lp ins a nd f r iends a re t ry ing t owander of? (7 .3 . 8 ) . A n d th e a t ~ i e ~ i s i ss not a lone; ~t i s a nea ttouch tha t after al l the guests are assembled the watch-dog isse t to gu ard th e in te r io r.

The only rc.al differellee therefore between the Rouse ofT r i m al ch ~ o nd the regu lar P omp eian house is the p resence ofth i s g rea t p o r t i co b t t v ren t h e f ro n t d o o r an d t h e en t ran ce t othe crt rizl~t l. Tl l r o ther n larble port lco wil l be the grea t p ~ r ls tp lebehincl the houce, n-i th gard en. su mn lcr tricl inium . an d fou ntains ,a n d so t h e l i r m g q u a rt er < \ ~ o u l d e, a s t h e F r e nc h \ ~ o u l d ap,entre cour e t inrdin . It i s t h i s cn tr an ci . p or ti co . n ~ t hst at e officesoff i t I R and dccorated with the al legory of Trimalchio 's career,

The sentence that follons t he anqner of the atr i~l zsi s o Fncolpias-30, 1, no?^ Eicebat tnzultactamt consid?i.are-is hopelessly co rr up t an dafter i t there is a short lacuna. All commentators and translator s havefollox\eil Heinsius iu interpreting t l ~ e eneral meaning as " we had notthe t ime to r ~a m i n e, tc." I should plefer to take the ?zo?z lzcebat in itsab?olutc' meaning of a definlte pr ol~i bitl on, nd, if n e accept ('arcopino'sgenial emendatiou multiczanz ( R e v , ittides ancienl~es, 940 , pp. 393 f f . ) ,to translate ..\ye \\ere not allowed to cvamine this ltaleidoscope . . . ."There is no reason to suppose with llarmoralc, Cetia, p. 11, t h a t t h eatriensls was shon ing thcm round.

lo The precarit tm of the steward-see below-certainly opened 0x 1 t h a tpa r t of the portico along which they had come, for they know where


7/25

T H E H O U R E O F T R I M A L C H I O . 21th at he has added to the o ld smal ler house. Since i t does notst r ike Encolpius as in any way remarkable or cur ious, we mustassume th at th i s was a common way of am pl i fy ing a n d modern-iz ing an o ld house. JThile there i s no sim i lar example i nHerculanenm or Pompei i i t se l f , just outside the la t ter townthe Vi l la dei 3I is ter i offers exact ly the same arrangement of aquadripo r t ico added i n f r on t of the a t r ium , a n d a c loser observa-t ion v i l l show th a t between th e house of Tr im alchio an d th islarge and once fashionable dwell ing there are very close resemb-lances. Of course th is resemblance is w ith th e Tills as i t wasdu rin g th e re ign of Augustus, th at i s to say the per iod of i t sg reat e s t prosp er it y, an d n ot wi t h t h e T i l l a a s i t v a s a t t h e t i meof the erupt ion , when i t was being turned in to a farm house.I f we read the descr ip t ion in the Cenn wi th the or ig inal p lanof the Til la dei JIisteri before us we shal l , I hope, be able toclarify many detai ls in the Cenn i tself .17

T r i m a l c h i o l e a ~ e s he Baths in h is l i t ter , accompanied by a l lh is su i te , running footmen, musicians, del ic iae in a bath-chai r ,e tc ., and goes a long a t a good ra te . H is guests , t ru e "meri-d ionnli ," sau nte r a long in a mu ch more le isurely fashion an d arefar behind by the t ime Trin ia lchio and his cor tkge had reachedth e house. One of the cursores m us t ha^-e ru n on a ll ead to warnth e por ter to unbolt the grea t door to le t the master in . As wesee in the gre at doors a t Pompeii ,18 th is m us t ha re been qui te abusiness, needing se~-era1men, but the bol ts mere a t last wi th-draw n an d th e gre at f laps creaked on the i r bronze h inges. T hei t is. I n most houses, even in t he Vil la dei Jlis teri , th e offices are inth e fr ont p ar t of the houqe.

I S Jlaiuri, Villa, pp. 4 1 - 2 and Tav. B. I n the gre at Villa of Bos-coreale, of the same period, the entrance led directly into the quadri-portzcus, Barnabei, Ida Vzlla Pompeiana di P. Fannzo ginistore (Rome,1 9 0 1 ) , Tav. 2 ; P. TV. Lehmann, Ronlalz SOall Paintings from Boscoreale(Cambridge, Jlas s., 1 9 5 3 ) , p. 4 , though in this case there does not seemto h a le been an at rium uriless the small court marked 15 on the plan isreally an atvium Corinthium. For these coloririades I prefer to usePetronius' own term porticus, without dealing with the vezata quaestioconcerning the terms porticus and peristyle on uhich see hlaiuri, " Por-tico e Peristil io" in La Paro la del Passato, I ( 1 9 4 6 1 , pp. 3 0 6 - 2 2 .

Is For th e appearance of th e main door of the Pompeian house seeV. Spinazzola, Pompei alla luce degli Scavi Suovi di Via dell' A bbon -danea (Rome, 1 9 6 3 j , especially I, pp. 3 1 7 - 3 4 .


8/25

22 GILBERT BAGNANI .moment the master was inside the door it was at once closed andbolted agam: the main door mas only used by "l it ter folk,"not by riff-raff such as was coming to dinner. The door itselfwas not directly on the street, but set back from it with a spaciousvestibule in front. On either side of this vestibule were masonrybenches covered with rugs or mattresses for the porter, hisfriends, and the hangers-on of Trimalchio. On one side of thisvestibule opened the celln perbonn of the porter: the pride withwhich Trimalchio mentions it ( ' i?,4) shows that he mas respon-sible for the arrangements of this part of the house and confirmsour conjecture that it mas he who added the portico in front ofthe atrium. On the other side of the vestibule was the littlecorridor used by pedestrian visitors, which we find in the Villadei llisteri and in most of the more sumptuous houses inPompeii.

By the time Encolpius and the gang had arrived all traces ofTrimalchio's adljentus had disappeared : the scene was the normalone presented by the exterior of any large house in a provincialtown. The great door vas closed and the porter was sittingon his bench shelling peas for his dinner.lg This scene mustha^-e been as common 111 ancient Rome as that of a bawnb eatingbread and onions with his cronies on a nznsfnba in modernCairo. But in quch cases it nas unliliely that the porter wasin full 11rerv-prnsinntus, cerasi~lo succinctus cingtclo-andshelling the peas into a silver basin. The talking magpie isprobably a touch of the same kind: not long prerious1;v there hadbeen quite a craze for them in Rome, but they nere still a noveltyin the pro~lnces. '~

The entrance for pedestrians is, as usual. on the right-handIs For the benches along the nal ls of t he ~e s ti b ul e f . the photographs

in Maiuri, Vzlla, figs. 9 and 10 on pp. 4 5 - 6 : fig. 10 shows the " pedes-tri ans ' entrance." The porter is shelling peas for his olvu sup pe r; heis not, so to speak, helping out the cooks, as Sage. Satiricon, p. 150,seems to sup1)ose. The point is that in Trimalchio's house eleri thes l a ~ e sdine off s i l ~ e ~late, c f . 3 7 , 8.

20 Friedlaeniler, Cttta (2n d ed .i, p. 214 , is quit e right-pace Ma r-morale, Ccna. p. 8-in cit ing Plin y, H. S . ,5,78, nuper et adhuc tamenra r a ab ripennino a d urbem versus ce rni coepere picaruna genera, quaelonga insiglzcs cauda varia e appellantur. The term pica varia is clearlyequivalent to a magpie from the Apennines.


9/25

23I I E HOUBE OF T R IMALCH IO .side of the vestibule, opposite to the porter's lodge. Encolpius,whose curiosity is insatiable, does not turn at once into it, butexplores the vestibule still further. On the wall between thedoor of the porter's cella and the main door-ad sinistramintmntibus-is the painting of a watch-dog that terrifies him,so much so that he falls back and almost trips on the step.Two such representations of watch-dogs have been found inPompeii, but in both cases as floor-mosaics: 21 is the paintingof his watch-dog on the wall another of Trimalchio's eccen-tricities? Our friends now pass through the entrance corridorinto the portico where the grex cursorurn is being exercised bytheir trainer. This part of the house is the more public part,where the estate offices and counting rooms are; still, no onebut Trimalchio would allow such an activity in this part of thehouse and, of course, th is is the point that Petronius is making.It is not an indication of the extraordinary size of the porticoitself ; i t would not need to be larger than that of the Villa deiNisteri.I n the portico Encolpius, who takes a keen interest in painting,a t once starts to examine the decorations which are of a singularkind: a half realistic, half allegorical, account of the life andcareer of Trimalchio himself. We hare no comparable examplesof such decoration in any house of this period that has beenpreserved, although historical painting was nell established.The subjects of the extant wall-paintings are usually drawnfrom mythical history or from the great mythological cycles,22and it may well be that Petronius is suggesting that Tri~nalchioviewed his own life as a kind of epic cycle, a kind of " Trimal-chioneia" that sllould be commemorated in the style used tocornmeinorate the lives of the ancient he roe^.'^ At the sametime many of the scenes depicted on the walls of the portico canbe paralleled by representations on tomb monuments, whereallusions to the life of the deceased are fitting and proper, andthe point of the joke map lie in this incongruity. How likeTrimalchio to decorate the main portico with a typicallyfunerary decoration !

In the Casa del Poeta Tragico and the Casa di Paquio Proculo: cf.Maiuri, Cene , p. 154.

22 Cf. Rizzo, La Pit tura, p. 33.23 I am indebted to A . Maiuri for this suggestion.


10/25

24 GILBERT BAGNAIIIII Iom are we to Im agine a l l th i s decora t ion? Ar e these scenes

of the l l fe of Tr imalchlo pa in ted on a smal l f r leze ru nn in ground t he wa ll and fo rmlng pa r t of t h e architectural decorat ion.such as lve comnlonly find In the so-called second style? 24 O rare they "megalographles," occupying the m ain p ar t of th e wal l,such as n e a l so f ind In the ea r ly Empl re ? 2 5 U n f o r t u n a t e l y t h et ex t con t a in ing t he description of the paintings (29 , 3 - 7 ) , t h o u g hpreser7ed bot l i In the Tragurens l s and the Le idens l s , i s no t f reef rom s e r i ous corruptions. I n both the descr lp tlon begins wl ththe IF-ords e m f a l l t e rn r e ~ l a l i c i u i r l t i t u l i s p ic tu lr z . Burnla i ln '6emended t o < c u m > t i i u l i s , cons lder lng tha t the c u r n m i g h t h a v efa l l r il ou t of 'tlie t ex t o n l l ~ g o th e attraction of th e precedingsyllable - c t u t r i , and t l i l s emenda t ion has been adopted bv a l lsubsequell t er ll tols e lc ep t Il fa lurl ." ~ v h o oi ls iders th e a dd l t ionunnec?s s a l j . It n o u ld q eem t o m e , h o n e ~ e r , h a t t h e r e i s as l i gh t hu t impor t an t difference i n m e a n i n g b e t w e e n t h e t ~ v oreadings. If the malluscrl1)t tradition i s cor rec t , the ab la t l ret l t u l i s n o u l d n a t n r a l l ~ define not the I e n a l i c z u n l h u t p z c t u m ,a n d tlic m e an lllg n o ~ l l d e " a s l a ~ e n ar lc etw a s p a i n t ~ dw i t hnamcs ahoxi3 ~ t . "a p r a ct ic e t h a t i s e x t r e i n e l ~ o m nlo il i n t h e~vall -pa111i n p of th is per lod. On the oth er hand. clr J U f i tu l i s~ o n l d c~fer o the n ar es In the s lave marl ie t i tqelf , a. tho ug hthe fu l l phrase Jverc " c e u a l ~ c i zi r r l c t i r l a n c i p i n c u l n t i t u l is . " 1. e.." a slaxc -n ia rlcet a nd t he s l a ~ e s i t h t l l ~ i r r ic e -t ags roun d t he l r~lccl\q" n l ~ i c h 1s t li c n a y a l l c on in~c nta to rs and t rans la tors .~ n c l u d l n g l:llu li. c x p l a ~ n t .S i n c c . r i o r m u l l ~ . i t u l u s can meanbotli " 1alx.l. t ag . n o t ~ c e " an d '. l n s c r ~ p t l o u . ~ l a n l c . ' " ~ b o thnleal ilugi noulcl b~ po sc lh l~ i t 1s t l ierefore nececsary to ~ s a ln i l iet h e u sa ge 01 P e t r o n i u s h ~ n l s c l f . A l l ~ a r troill t lii; passage andtwo otl iel c\amples In T C T S F . f i t l i l t ( s 1' u se d l o d e s c r i b ~ slio rtded lcatol \ - ~i l 'c r lpt iol l on some ki nd of label (30. 3 ) . n o t l c ~ sofsale (38. 1 0 a n d 1 6 ) . t he de sc rlp tlo n o n t h e la be ls of ~ ~ ~ l i c - j a r s(31. 6 : t h c ~ead th e t z i u l i on t he l ~ i f t n c i o ) .and the not ices onth e c c l l n e 111 the brot l ie l ('7. 3 ) . It nou ld s eem the re fo re t ha t

2 4 Case di Loreio Tiburtino and del Criptoportico i11 Ponlpeii and ofthe Farneq i~ia ll Rome.

2 5 Botll i11 the S7111asof the AIysteries and of Boscoreale.2 6 Burniann, S a t y r t c o n (Amsterdam, 1743 ), p. 143.2 T e ~ l a ,1. 03.2 8 Fo~.cellilli,Lexicon, s. u.


11/25

25E E H OU BE OF T R I M A L C H I O .

Petronius uses the word to describe any kind of label, especiallya commercial one, and thus Burmann's enlendation would becorrect, as also the current interpretation " slaves with theirlabels round their necks." If such is the case, it would beimpossible for any painter to paint legible inscriptions on labelsround the necks of figures only a f e ~nches high; the figuresmust have been at least half life size, and it follows that thewalls of the portico are decorated with "megalographies" onthe style of the famous ones in the Vllla dei Misteri.

The slave market was painted on the entrance side of theportico and occupied all that half-wall from the entrance to thecorner: at the corner. marking the change from one wall tothe next, was the isolated figure of Trinlalchio " capillatus," withthe caduceus in his hand. The next wall was devoted to his lifeand here we find inore textual difficulties. The Tragurensis hasJ1inerl;arjzie ducente Romam i~ztrabat,Scaliger's Leidensis has,however, tema vitabnt, with citabat added in the margin, whilethe Pithoean and Tornaesian editions have tenia intrabat. Mosteditors have avoided the difficulty by printing Ro~nnm ntrnbat,~ h i c h ,of coursp, gives such excellent sense that it becomesimmediately suspect, as an emendation of the scribe of theTragurensis. The whole passage seems corrupt, and i t is indeedstrange that if Ronza had been in the archetype, so familiar aword should have become corrupt." Marbach suggests lnoeniaintrabat, which seems improbable on palaeographic grounds.Sage prints Romanz tensn intrabat, thus making the best of thevarious readingq, but hardly convincing, since he does notexplain how Xon~am ould possibly have been omitted by Xcali-ger's codices. Ilarmorale 30 points out that me have no evidencethat Trinlalchio mas ever closely associated with Rome andsuggests either Atella on palaeographic grounds, or that thescribes misunderstood the name of the graecn urbs. To this wecan observe that if there is litt le evidence to connect Trimalchiowith Rome, there is none at all to connect him xvith Atella. As

2 8 See the excellent discussion by Rlarmorale, Cena, p. 9 ; but since heconsiders the ci ty to be Neapolis-Questione, p. 133-it is difficult tosee how t h a t word could have given rise t o the corruptions in the MSS.

01).cit., loc. cit. (n. 29) : in th e whole of th e Sati ricon the onlymention of Atella is in connexion wi th the mimes, 53, 13 and 68, 5.


12/25

26 G I L B E R T B A G h 7 A N I .for the name of the graecu urbs i t i s ce r ta in ly e i the r Pu teo l i o rX e a p ~ l i s , ~ ~oth names a lmos t a s f ami l ia r to copyis t s a s tha tof Rom e i tse lf . Moreover one canno t un der s tan d why Tr im alc hioshould be en te r ing the grnecu urbs; as Marmorale very r ight lypoin ts ou t the venuliciun~at which Orienta l s laves were be ingsold was probably he ld in the grueca. urbs itself, one of thegrea t C 'anlpan ian ma rke ts fo r the t r ade wi th th e Eas t , an d th i sscene , fol lo~v ing s i t does the scene of the ma rket , m ust depic tthe beginning of Trimalchio's l ife af ter he has been sold, notbefore.All scholars who have deal t with the passage seem to haveconsidered tha t the corrupt ion l ies in the s ingle word Ro m a m ,bu t the evidence of the Leidensis ~v ou ld ndica te th a t the cor-rup t ion ex tends to the fo l lo~ ving e rb . I f we re jec t the read ingRonzanz intrabat me lllust reject the int,rabat no le ss than theRomanz. I n this case Sage's em endat ion ma y give a c lue , and Iventure to suggest tha t the rcading of the archetype was31inerl;aque rlucente tema vehebatur, which, the f inal -ur be ingabbrevia ted, might give r ise to the s t range readings of theLeidensis. It is therefore not a scene of arr ival, no joke on theadz.entus rlugusti which h ad not ye t become a s tereotyped sub jec ti n ar t , bu t a scene of depar ture , the b eginning of Tr imalchio 'snew l i fe a f te r his sa le. B e leaves na tu ra l ly l ilie a God, i n thecarr iage used by divini t ies , under the guidance and protec t ionof J l in erv a . Th is Goddess is here se lec ted as his pa troness , no tas r epresen t ing c ra f t iness o r wor ld ly ~ vi sd om ,~ ' u t a s th epatroness of s tudy an d learning. Tr im alchio is qui te s incere inh is g ra t i tude to h is pa t ron for hav ing g iven h im a good educa-t i ~ n , ~ ~ sh o~ vsnd the nest scene, how he learnt booli-keeping,h im p u t t ing th i s l e a r n ing to u se w i th the r csul t t ha t he masappoin ted disjlensator. With this we come to the next corner .On the other s ide of th e mai n entran ce a nd on the o ther opposi tewall of the portico where the cursores are t ra ining, other scenesof th e l ife of Trim alch io will have been represented , those th a tde a l t w i th h i s ~na numis s ionand subsequent ca ree r under thepatro nag e of Me rcury. All these mill have occupied the surfacesof the wal l be tveen the doors leading to the off ices , which wil l

31 Cf. above. 8 2 SO Friedlaender, Sage, hlaiu ri, Marmorale, ad l oc . 3S Sat., 39 , 4.


13/25

T H E H O U BE O F T R I M A L C H I O . 2'1thus have split them up into tableaux. The wall opposite theentrance wall is the one on which opens the door of the atrium,and the two great paintings of Mercury raising him to thetribunal and of the Fates spinning his golden thread will havebeen painted on either side of this entrance to the principalreception rooms.

Encolpius has thus reached the corner of the portico formedby the right wall-since he came in to the right of the main door,I presume he will have continued walking to the right-and thewall of the atrium and of the apartments i r ~medio. I n thiscorner he notes a great wooden cup-board-lararium similar tothe one actually found at Her~ulaneum.~"t this period theZararia are not necessarily in the atrium, but may be found inany part of the house that might be considered suitable. Withthe silver Lares and the golden pyxis containing-or said tocontain-Trimalchio's first beard, is a li tt le marble statue ofVenus. This is somewhat surprising; we should expect Mercury,under whose protection Trimalchio has placed himself, and whowas generally revered by successful freedmen. And why is itof marble? The Lares are of silver, the pyxis of gold, and wewould expect the statuette to be of metal too, perhaps bronze.Some jolie, some incongruity is intended; Friedlaender's expla-nation, accepted by Jlarm~rale,~~hat Trimalchio had a specialdevotion to Venus because his fortune was due in the first placeto his being the deliciae of both his master and his mistress(75, 11) is hardly convincing. Trinlalchio never alludes toVenus in any way. I s her presence in the larariwm due to thehope that she may favour Trimalchio's own eroticism, whichmas definitely frovned on by Fortunata (74, 8-9)? Venus isinvolied by Eumolpus in the story of the Perganlene Boy (85, 5 ) ,and thus the image of Tenus in the lararium might be an indi-cation of the manners of the master of the household.Encolpius looks across the portico, notices the cursores exer-cising in the other wing, and he will have seen, but unfortunatelynot noticed. the large piscina in the centre of the court. intowhich he and his friend will fall in attempting to escape (72, 7 ) .ISe then moves on and comes to the door of the atrium in front

s4Maiuri, C e n a , p. I56 and Tav. IV. 55 Friedlaender, C e n a , p. 217, and Slarmorale, C e n a , p. 11.


14/25

28 GILBERT BAGNAS I .of which s tan ds the atriensis. Encolp ius , su rp r i s ed a t the decora-t lon of the port ico , enquires what k ind of paint ings mere to befo un d in the most e legant par t of th e house, which he takes forg ra n te d he i s no t likely to see. T he bu t le r answers Iliada etUdyss ian ac La~uat i sgladzatoriztn~ nLunzLs. Scenes f rom theIliad a n d t h e Odyssey a re 50 colninon 111 ancien t pa in t lng as torequwe no comnlent . It 1s a d i fferent mat ter wi th the gladia-i o r i u n ~) I Z L L ~ ~ U S .SOsceues of the l l fe of the amphi theatrc halebeen used as decoration In any of the pllrate houses of Pompeii01 of I:ome a t tl us perlo d. The! arcJ, on the oth er han d, qu itecontnlon or1 fu ne ra ry m onument. . of m agis trate s an d othe rs whoha re been ~c2iiot.r ?tcunerurn, a n d 15 ho natural ly des l re the mostspectacular and cxpensire actlon of thelr l lres to be commemo-ra ted fo r pos te r i t j . jb Tr lmalch io , ineligible as a f r eed man fo ran!- of t h e c lv lc ~ n ag ~ s t ra c i e s ,as not been and coulcl never bea n edi fo r nluneris. At th i s d a t e t o p a ln t 011 the walls of one'son n houqe scmeb Lrom one's o v a nluuus vo uld ha \ e been odd an din b ad t a s t e . t o p a i~ l t scenes from sonleone else's mas to bere all^ extraordinary. -\s I'ar as I h n o ~ ~he ear l i es t g lad la to r ia lscpnes used to decorate a pr l la te house are those on the mosaicsof the Yilla a t Zllten , of tllc en d of th e 1 st ce ntu ry of th is era."J ln lurl ' s tentat l ie sugge; t ion that th is Laenas was connectedn-1t11 t h e C'. Pompeius. the patroll of Trimalchio, nus st beregretfully rejcjcted; 3 t h t ~ e s 110 rcason to suppose that C.P o ~ x l p t ~ i u ~.epl.csentqa rea l person . bu t l l a lu r i 1s r lg h t i n I~ i> l iev-~ i l g h a t t h e Laertatis nlzlrizls Ti-as a real an d nlenlorable e ~ e n t .These ce7eb~i~r~irtzi r e m e n ~ b e r e d n o tu d i ~ \ - o u l db e i n e r e l ~byEnc olpiu s artd ( 'o . , bu t by the reade rs of the Satiricon, t h a t i s tobay l e r o a n d t h e c ou rt .

r~ 'l r l n l a l ch io i s c l ea r ly an a ren a " fan "; not only has he suchp ic tu r rs in 111; ,rir.izim a n d tn lr l ir~umb u t he has a r ~ l ~ o l ~en-iceof s i l rer cups decorated ~ 1 ~ 1 t hhe f ights of He rme ros and Pe trai tes (5?, 3 ) . f a ll l o ~i i lad ia to rs ~ ~ h o been th e heroes nax n e l l h a ~ eof the Lrrfnrrfis rnunlls. S o w tl~,oug h he re ar e no picti!res of

3 R Tlie onlv example of pa intcd rep resentations of rni?)ze)-a on a tomba l e t1lo.e on the tomb of C. T7e.itorius Pri icu s in Pompeii il lu qt ~a te d yG. Spano, 31ernorlr. . lceadernia d 'l ta li a . Ser. T-11, 101. 111, pp . 2 3 i 315.

3'S huiigemma, I U o s a t c i cli B I I ~ P ? Lllome, 1926) , p. 278.3 6 > [ a i ~ ~ r i , 1 ; l\l,~lm orale s inclined t o accept the sug-181111. p. 12, n.

gestion, C E ~ I ( L ,. 11.


15/25

T H E H O UN E O F T R I M A L C H I O . 29gladiator ia l l i fe a t Pom pei i , graffi ti an d car icatures of g ladiatorsan d best iar ies are very comll lon indeed, an d fr om th ei r posi t ionon the walls would seem to have been scratched by childrena n d adolescent^.^^ It is therefore possible that a passion forgladlators was considered by the elegant and refined membersof Xeronian society as not merely common, but downrightchi ld ish , an d th at T r imalch io is represented as being both . T hegam e of pila vh ic h he n-as engaged in a t th e baths n-as cer ta in lyconsidered a chi ldish game.40 T h u s the effect of th e IZiada etOdyssiar~;et Laenatis gludiutorium munus o n a c o n t e m p o r a r ~reader would be s imi lar to that produced on us by t h e i n fo r -mat ion tha t someone had f ramed pho tographs o f the S i s t ineNa donn a a nd Joe Lou i s s ide by s ide i n h i s d rawing room. A ndPet ron ius ' must have been a lmost the l as t a t t empt to a r res tthe popu lar i ty o f the amphi thea t re ; by the t ime o f Domi t i anno one is ashamed to own his passion, and i ts l i fe invades eventhe most elegant private houses.

BS now they had a l l come to the en t rance to the main tri-clinium. This vould appear to hare been si tuated on one sideof the apar tments in medio, and would have opened also on asmall court ou the other side of which mere the ki tchens andthe servants ' quar ters .* l From the por t ico i t was approachedthrough a smal l ante-chamber in which the procurator n-asreceiving his accounts. On ei ther side of the entrance werefasces cum securibus fixi, quorum unam partem quasi embolumnavis aelleum finiebat, irz quo erat scriptum: " C. Pompeio Tri-malchioni, seviro dugustali, Cinnamus dispensator." Maiur i 42i s p robab ly r igh t in supposing these fasces of bronze, nailedto a panel form ing pa r t of th e t r im of th e door posts . T he axesare t echn ica l ly reser red to magis t ra tes wi th inzperium, b u t

S8RIaiuri, Pompei ed E,-colano (Padova, 1950), pp. 141-54. It issincerely t o be hoped t h a t the au thor of th is admirab le essay will giveus his projected Corpus of Pompeian car icatures . The graffiti of best ia-ries on the columns of the Temple of Antoninus and F au st in a in Rome(Ch. Huelsen, The Roman Forum [Rome, 2nd ed., 19091, p. 221) wouldappear t o have been scrawled by men, no t children.

do Bianca RIaiuri, in Pompeiana (Kaples, 195 0), p. 106.The kitchens in all large houses are as fa r away a s possible from th e

dining-rooms.b Z Cena, p. 157.


16/25

30 GILBERT BAGWAN I .fa.sces with axes are f req uen t on the tom bstones of m ino r rnagis-t ra tes , though, s ince these were outs lde the pomer i z lm of thecity, th e abuse was less f lagrant th a n i n the case of Tr lma lchio.Th e rea l oddi ty was the way these two fasces ended in someth ingthat looked l lke the enzbo lum of a sh lp an d suppor ted th e~n sc r lp t l on . Th is i s the on ly example of the word ernbolum InLat in , and is obviously the not uncomrnon Greek word i p p oho sn h i c h u su a ll j m e an s t he " b e a k " of a b a t t l e s h ~ p . ~ ~he use ofros t~ .uas an orna me nta l motl f i s bo th anc ien t and common, andappears f requent ly 111 t h e decorative a r t of Pompeii , bu t i ts useIn this particular ins tance is by no means c lear . If ernbo lumi s r ea lly e qul ra le n t to r o s t r u m , it i s d~f f icu l t o unde rs tand whyEncolplus , nh o is not a Greek or an Orienta l, would use i t inpreference to the extremely common La t in w ord. JIoreover it i sstill more difficult to see how the cylindrical fasces could end Ina r o s i r ~ t mthat 1s a projecting and horizontal object." 4 suggesttherefore tha t Encolpius uses the word to mean a decora t iveship's stanchion or moor ing r ing , such as we le presen t in theS e m i ba rges .4a Thlb te rm ina t lon to the fasces i s odd enoughbu t s t r uc tu r a l ly possible, a n d t h e inscription could be engra7 edon i t , o r be a t tached to the moori ilg r lng . A nd the na tura l an dobvlous positlon would be o n th e to p of th e fasces, which" ended " i n t he e m b o l u m , so the emellda t ion i n l a m p a r t e m 461s not only unnecessarj but falsifies the sense . In the fol lowingsent rnce , s u b ~ o d e m ztulo e l lu rprna bi l ych nis de calnera lie lade-bat , B l u m n e r 47 is undoubtcdly 1-1ght In co nsld eiing th e lam p a salso a gif t of Cinnamus, bear ing the same inscription; ~t mouldh a ~ ebeen inscribed on a plaque inserted above the lamp itself ont h e c h a m f r o m n h ic h i t hu ng f r o m the c ei ling.48 T he inscriptionw ould h a w bee n a r r a nge d a s f o l loa s :

41 Cf. 12itldell and Scott' s I,exicon, s. v . ; tlie word can be either mascu-line or neuter, in t he qense of rostr a th e masculine oi 2p. seems preferred.

4 4 Tlii? diffic~~ltyad occurred to Sage, Satzrzcorz, p. 131.46 C. l to le t t i in G. Ccelli, Ide A avi dz Semz (Rome, 1940), pp. 199ff.*@ B yLips ius, ~xhohas been follo\\ed by pract icall y all ed itor s except

Marmorale and Terzaghi.47 Phtlolog~ts,JXXTI (19203, p. 33 3 ; accepted by Ern ou t and Xaiu ri,

rejected by Xlarmorale.It m u i t h a le been ~ e r yike tile htl ycl~lits rom Stab iae reploducedi n Blkmner, Dze Romi.sclte~zPr ira ta l t er t~imcr Xunich, 1911) , p. 137.


17/25

THE HOU8E OF TRZYALCHZO.

C .P O M P E I OT R I M A I ~ C H I O K IV I V I R O .A V G V ST A L I C IN N A M V S D I S P E N S A T O R

Before ente r ing th e f r ic l in ium proper o ur f r iends ar e askedto intercede for one of t he slaves wi th the dispensator whom theyfind (30, 9 ) i n precario azlreos num erantem . Th e word pre-cur ium found in a l l the codices has been lengthi ly d iscussed.As a te rm for a room or a pa r t of th e house i t is fou nd nowhereelse in La t in . Bi icheler emended the text to i n a t r io , a nd hasbeen fo llowed by Er no ut a n d Terzaghi . T o th is conjecture thereare several object ions: i t is improbable palaeographical ly, thereis no reason why the dispensator should be counting his moneyi n t h e a t r i u m an d man y wh y h e sho u ld n o t , En col pi us an d Co.never go in to the a t r iu m or the cen t ra l pa r t of the house . F a rbet ter is JIarbach's 49 suggest ion precario =prooecario, possibleboth palaeographical ly and etymological ly , and the meaningwould be the room or vest ibule in front of the oecus, oecarium,a nd equi~walent , s h larb ach himself says, to p ars p r im a t r ic l in i i .J1aiuri , jo however, points out that , as far as the terminology ofth e house i s concerned, the languag e of i t a l l i s s t r ic t ly La t in ,wi th no Greek neologisms. B u t the real an d decisive object ionto th is conjecture i s that th is prooecar ium would be the veryro o m t h e g u es t s a r e i n a t t h i s mo men t , an d t h e d i sp en sa t o raureos nulnerans would be the same person previously describedas th e procurator ra t iones accip iens, which i s absurd . T heaccount g iven would seem to imply that they go a short way tofind the dispensator, who, as the most important official of thehousehold, ha s his own office. T h e all i te rat ion i n precal-io . . .deprecat i sumus seems del iberate , and Sage, Maiur i , and Mar-mora le have r igh t ly a rgued tha t p recar ium i s the name of theapa r tm ent of th e d ispe~zsator , n " ora to ry "-so Sage-where hereceives petitions, a kind of " Co urt of Pleas." Sin ce Enc olpiusknows where i t is, i t m u 4 open on the port ico, on the s ide th a the has already visi ted, and i ts door would be most sui tablysituated between the scene of Trimalchio's book-keeping lessonsan d th a t of h is appointm ent as d ispensator .

A. Marbach , Wortbildung (Giessen, 1931 ) , p. 127. 5 0 Cena, p. 159.


18/25

32 G I L B E R T B A G A ' A I V I .Tlle t r ic l ir~iunzi tse lf is not descr ibed in any way, but the

descript ion of the b anquet a l lows us to i nfer so mething abo uti t . I t was obviously a large tho ug h no t necessar ily a vast roomand the couches xvere not against the walls s ince the s la~es eemto be able to walk behind them." It mas poscibly oecus Coryn-t h i u s , s uc h as ~ v eind in the Casa del Neleagro or in t he Casa delLabi r in to , wi th co lumns round three s ides.52 I n the cent re ofthe ceilings of some of the larger rooms of Pompeian housesthe re ar e rect an gu lar im ita tio n s1;glights; trac es of one of thesehas been found fo r exam ple in the C asa de l 3 I enandr0 . ~~t i spossible th at these are a h u r v i ~ a l f real skylights of wood. Ifsuch is the case, come could haye easily been mounted on woodenr ai ls a n d been .lid o pe n t o a l l o ~ ~if ts an d food to be le t down onthe guests, a tr icli that mas practised by Trimale1110 (60 ,1-4 ).54

Tlle only other par t of the house that the guests vis i t is thebath , ~ ~ h i c hvill have opened on to the portico. It had been abakery and thus the ovens could be used as the furnaces; " t h i sis a f u r t h ~ r roof th a t th i s i s the p ar t of th e house tha t T r im al -c hi o h a d a d de d to th e o r l g ~ n a l ne, th e rlucleus of ~ ~ h i c har: tilea p a r t m e n t i t z medio. It was dark and small , just l ike the onein th e Tills dei I \I isteri . The other rooms which Trinlalehiodescribes in 7 7 , 4 were e i ther on th e up per floor or i n the backpa rt of the house. T he only poin t abo ut mhicli th ere mi gh t besome doubt is th e mention of the two marble por t icos: i s oneof these the entrance por t ico in f ro n t of th e afrit~rrzo r a r t t h er e

& l I n31, 3 the mashing of the h ands and t he pedicure seem to t ak eplace a t th e same tim e: it is difficult t o see ha\\- the lat ter ol ~r ra ti oncould be performed unless the slaves could go behind the conches.

" Saglio in D . S., V, 1, p. 152; hlau-Kelsey, Ponlpci i (h'ew Tork,1899 1, p. 259; 9.JIaiuri? " 1-isiolzi I ta l i che '' Pompe i (Novara, 1928),pp, 59-60. The largest triclinium in Pompeii is the one in the Villa a tPorta JIarina, 6.00 h y 8.80 meters, wlrich a lso has a ve stibule: Na in ri ,P o m p e i " I t inel-ari " (5 th ed., 1049) , p. 106.

63 31aiuri: L a C a s a d c l U c ? t a ~ z d r o Rome, 19331, p. 171.64 I t \\as a trick a s old as the time of Jietcllus Piu s (Val. XIasimus,I X , 1, .5) but it is referred to by Suetonius, Sera: 31, 2 and Seneca,

Epist.,90, 15. It is probable t ha t only by t he time of Se ro were thetechnical dificulties ~uc ces sfu lly urmounted . \\'as th is perhaps one ofthe elegant iae of P etr oni us himself?

66 The c a l i d a ~ i u n zwas built directly orer the ovens as i n th e Casa delCriptoportico (Ilainri, 3.S., 1033, p. 270) and the Casa del llle~~andro(Maiuri, Cas a del ~ We nandr o , . 220) .


19/25

33HE H O C N E OF TR I YALCH IO .two per is iy les beh ind the cen t ra l block, as in the Casa d ~ la u n o ?Th er e is no example of porticos o r colonnades in m arble i nPompei i , and th is fact , together wi th the pr ide wi th whichTrima lchio refers to them , w o~ l ld ead one to suppose that , ha dthe entrance port ico been of marble, Encolpius would havenoticed it . On th e oth er h a n d M aiu ri 5"iglltly observes th a tth e use of Orie ntal marbles mu st have been m uch commoner inPuteo l i , the cen t re o f the impor t t rade f rom the Eas t . than insmal l ru ra l communi t i es such as Hercu laneum and Pompei i .It is therefore possible that a marble port ico did not s trikeEncolpius as anything real ly out of the ordinary, compared tothe oddity of the decorat ion.

F ro m th is examina t ion of t he H ouse of Trim alchio one curiousfac t is a t once apparen t. Fo r anyone l iv ing du r ing the quin-quennium 2L'eroni.s th is typical house, so typical that Pet roniusassumes that his readers wil l immediately recognize i t , is anextr em ely old- fash ione d one." JTe have seen it s close resem blanceto th e lTi l la dei I l i s ter i , to the Vi l la dei 3 l i s ter i such as i t wasi n the Augu stan age. the t ime of i t s greates t prosperity . T hepaintings and the decorat ive systems are those of the seconds ty le , wi th bands of n a r r a t i ~ e a in t ings w i th inscrip tions . a ndg rea t " megalograph ies." Th i s s t ~ l e ad cer ta in ly ceased be ingf as hio na ble i n R om e by t h e t im e of C a l i g ~ l a . ~ ~ see a nTe canexam ple of decorat ion in the height of contempo rary fashion inthe rooms belonging to Xero's D O M U STrnnsi toria on t he Pa l a -t ine under the Flavian Palace. which are cer tainly ear l ier thanthe fire of 6.2 -1.D. and probably reflect the personal taste ofI'etronius." T he figures ar e sm all a n d th e scenes, thoug ll dra w nfro m the epic cycle , har e no inscrip tions . Th e fo ur th s ty le i sl aunched by Sero ' s Golden House and Naiur i has shown tha tthe most perfect example of this s tyle, the Rouse of the Tett i i ,was executed after the earthquake of 6 3 A. D.O Nothing could

6 e C ena , p. 245.67 F. Marx in X e u e J a h r b . , XXIII (1009), p. 552 had pointed outth at Petro nius was describing the style of house t h a t mas fashionable in

th e second half of th e 1 s t cent. B. C., but did not realize the importanceof this fact.

6 8 C f . G. E. Rizzo, N o n u m e n t i de l la P i t t u r a A n t i c e L e P i t t u r edel l'A4ula I s iac a d i Cal igo la (Rome, 193 6) , especially pp. 32 and 38.

'* C f. Rizzo, L a P i t t u r a E l le n i st ic o - R o m a n a, p. 1 9 and P1. 32.A. hIaiuri, L ' u l t i m a f a s e e d i li z ia di P o m p e i (1942), p. 112.


20/25

34 GILBERT BABNANZ.be more unlike the description of Trimalchio's wall decorationthan either the third or the fourth styles. Though Encolpiusdoes not refer to or cominent on this aspect of the decoration, hedoes comment unfarourahly on the smallness and darkness ofthe bath. Both Jlaiuri and Jlarmorale 61 interpret this as anindication of Trimalchio's plebeian vulgarity, the latter going asfar as to say that a typical nouveau riche such as Trimalchiowould spend vast sums on his reception rooms but neglect thosethat were for personal use. Bu t in the Roman world the bath,as Trimalchlo hiinself proves, is actually part of the receptionrooms; i t is not intended for the exclusively personal use of theowner. It is not that Trimalchio has tried to economize on hisbaths, he has sinlply built an old-fashioned one. Seneca in aTI-ell-known and practically contemporary letter to Lucilius(83,4-7) describes his visit to the villa of Scipio Africanus a tLiternum and his own surprise at finding a balneolum angustunz,tenebricosum-practically the same words as Encolpius'. Hegoes on to cay that such xas the ancient fashion, ex consuetudineccr~tiqun, zon videbntur inaioribus nostris cabdurn nisi obscurum,and contrasts this n i th the luxury of modern private baths,especially those of freedmen. This fashion of wanting to "batheand sun bathe " at the same time was certainly recent in Seneca'sday, for the bath in the Villa dei Xisteri must not have beenunllke Scipio's, angustum et tenebricosum, and was certainlyby later standards far below the comfort, elegance and luxuryof the r e 4 of the house.Hov are ne to elplain this curious fact? The explanation thatwould seen1 obvious is that Petronius has set the time of thenovel in an earlier age, probably in that of ,lugustus. ThatPetronlus may have specified in some lost part of the work thename of the Emperor ill xvhose reign he supposes the action ofthe novel to take place is certainly possible. but there is noe\ideuce to suppolt such a ~ i e w nd i t seems to ine improbablein the extreme. l f we place the action in any time earlier thanK~ro 'sTTe find nulnerouq and glaring anachronisms and incon-sisteucleq, and in any case it 1s perfectly clear that the mannersand custonlq are those of Petronlus' onn age. Since Be is notintending to satirize the Court, but nlerely to amuse it. no

alaiuri, C e x a , 13. 214; Jlarmorale, C e n a , p. 169 .


21/25

T H E H O U SE OF TRZM ALCH ZO. 35reasons of prudence, such as later influenced Juvenal, wouldsuggest the need of placing a novel on contemporary provincialma nners in a n earlier reign. An d who, a t Nero's court, wouldcare to read about how the lower classes behaved in the reignof Augustus, or appreciate the research which the author haddone to be so accurate as to certain particulars, but which hadnot caused him to avoid certain other outrageous blunders?Interest in historical novels, based on more or less accurateresearch, is nowhere evident earlier than the Romantic Move-ment, than Scott, Thackeray, Dumas, Victor Hugo. And what-ever Pe tron ius a n d his readers m ay have been, they werecertainly not Romantics.

T he Satiricon reflects, accurately and consistently, the man-ners of th e tim e of Nero. T he cha racte r of T rimalchio's Ho useis therefore an oddity rather than an anachronism: we knowfro m P om peii tha t m ost of t he houses there stil l preserved theirfirst and second style paintings at the time of the earthquakeof 63 A. D. Since the whole purpose of the minute descriptionof the house and its decoration is to define and illuminate thecharacter of the owner, this oddity must, in the intention ofPetron ius, contribu te some imp ortant detail to our unde rstandin gof T rim alch io him self. It certainly excludes the idea that inTrimalchio Petronius is intending to sat ir ize the enormouslywealthy Im pe rial freedmen, the ostenta tion an d luxury of whosebath ing establishments were censured in Seneca's letter. Ind eedth e purpose of Pe tron ius ma y be th at of dra wi ng a ne at distinc-tion between town mice an d coun try mice, between th e behaviouran d man ner s of th e wealthy freedme n of R ome a nd of the wealthyfreedmen of a provincial city.

Personally, however, I prefer anoth er explanation. Trim alchiois described (27 , 1) as being a senex calvus. If Petronius isusing the word in its strict meaning, he would be over sixtyyears old and the hypothesis th at the soothsayer S erapa ha dp ro ph esie d t h a t he w ould re ac h a h u n d re d is a t t r a c t i ~ e . ~ ~nth is case Trim alch io would be in his seventieth year. On theother hand Petrorlius is more probably using it in its moregeneral meaning, but even so it is difficult to imagine that Tri-ma lchio is less th a n fifty-five at the youngest. Since the d ate

e2 Cf . Sat., 77, 2.


22/25

36 G I L B E R T B A G N A N I .of the Celza is probably 60 il.l). or a few years ear l ier andTrlm alchlo came to I ta ly as a puel- cupi l latus , he m us t havea r r i i ed s omewhere round t he t u rn of t he cen tu ry , an d i n anycase 111 the re lgl i of Li ug us tus . H e was bought a t once by C.Pompe lus , a prominent and ~v ea l th y e rson of t ha t time , thoughthere is no reason to suppose that any real person is meant , ore l e n t ha t t he Pcc tlimon lum l a t zc l a~zum h i ch he l e f t t o T r im a l -chio ( 7 6 . 2 ) means t ha t he was necessarily a s ena to r . H e w i llc e r t a l n l ~ h a ~ e l ~ e d n a large and e legant house decorated inthe f a s h ~ o n f t he t ime , t h a t i s t o s ay i n a hous e \ e r> s imi l a rt o t he T7 llla d (ll R l ~ i t e r i . l nd t l n i is t he o i l l ~ a rge and e legan th ou se T r ~ n l a l c l l ~ o 111 the pro l inces the d i r i s lonai eTer Lnorvll.betwoen tl ie d i f f r re~ l t t ra ta of Society ~ ~ 1 1 1a \e heen preservedmuell mo re strlctl! th an 111 T'rome it se lf . -1s th e delicicte of h ismas te r he n 111 scarce ly ha \ e been ta k e n on I i s i t s to o thr r T lllas ;~ v h e n e begail to interes t h is mis t ress a s wel l. he n as exlled toa d l s tar lt co unt ry es ta te , an d f ina lly he n a s en t i re ly t aken u pby hls busl liess as disp(>nsnfor . AS a f reedm an he n a s excludedfroni thc iocle ty of the tonn. and he was hy no means r lchenough to b u ~11s n a! into ~ t . 11s clrcle n as entirely conlposedof hls ow11 p:lrasltes and hangers-on. other freedmen in similarc i r cun~s t anceq . te rr11)le ~u lpa r i a11s uch a s H a h im a s and t heother s ~ r i r q . 17hat could he I inow of r lcpance an d th e ch anges offash ion? IThen he 11~-m ade 111s plle he n lsh es to r epro du ce t h eonly p~ at house he ha, ei er bno-ii n, the house 111 TI-hichhe se r red~ v h e r lhe came florrl Asla. t h a t hnd st ru ck h is c11ildlsl-r im ag i-na tlon as a mlraclp of com fort an d elegancr. H i s house. old-fashioned, i n c o n ~ r n i e n t .~ i ~ t l e g a n t .n d \ \ l t h a l e a l l j t o rr lb l e) )n th I S s imply the "~r-~sh-fulfillmeut " of the puPr crrprlltrtucof fif ty !ears before, an d a clear p ~ o o f f th e nice psychological1ns1gl1t of o11t of th e g reate st an d n-rost sub tle of lit er ar y a r t ~ s t s .

E ~ c u ~ s u s\- T I lE ENTRASCEO THE HOUSE.Th e ent rance to the Hou se of Tr im alch io rai ses some per-plexing problems ~vh icl l shou ld he discussed in deta i l. It is

c er ta in ly ~ e r y ur ious tha t Encolp ius does not describe h i s a c tua lentry into the House i t se l f . the actual cross ing of the threshold:f ro m t h e ~ ~ p s t l h u l ee wems to pass by a kind of osmosis intothe entra nce port ico. T hi s i s s t rang e in view of th e e laborate


23/25

37H E H O UB E OF T R I M A L C H I O .descr ip t ion of the en t ran ce in to the triclinium. I f T r i m a l c h i owas so fussy as to the a a y gues t s en te red h i s d in ing- room, hewould surely have in lposed a n even more e laborate r i tu al forth e entra nc e in to the llouse i tse l f . O ur tex t of th e Cena isno to r ious ly unsa t i s fac to ry : many shor t l acunae a re admi t ted byal l ed i tors , many o thers have been sugges ted , and i t i s probableth a t o thers ex is t unsuspec ted . Enco lpius, a f t e r h i s f r ig h t a tthe pa in te d watch-dog, cont inues et collegae mei quidem riserunt.ego autenz collect0 spiritu non desliti t o t u ~ n arientem persequi.It is cer tainly no t beyond the hound s of possibil ity t h a t asentence descr ib ing the actual en trance of Encolp ius has fa l lenou t between spiritu a n d non destiti.

I have assun led th a t Pe t ro n ius i s no t th in l i ing of any par t i cu -la r house, but merely of a cer ta in type of house. T h e gr ea tm ajo r i ty of I? o n ~ a n ouses a re l a id ou t on a rough ly sym met r ica lp lan on e i ther side of a ma in ax i s th a t ru ns th rou gh the en t rance ,the centre of the atriunz, a n d the cen t re of the tablinum. T h e r eare, of course , ~l un le ro us xcept ions due to the personal predi lec-t ions of th e owner or th e natu re of the g round , such as the Ho useof L iv ia o n the P ala t ine or the T i l l as of Diomedes or ofBoscoreale. B ut s ince th e typical Rom an house has such a n axis ,and s ince the phrase in nzedio would seem to ind lca te tha t theprincipal recept ion roonls are on th is ax is , I have assumed tha tthe m ain en t ran ce to the H ouse of Tr im alch io is al so on th i saxis , and therefore in the centre of orle of the four walls of thequadriporticus. This would seem to be confirmed by the accountof the a t tempted escape ( 7 2 , 7 ) when they reach the f ro n t doorby ~r-h ich hey h ad en te red the ~ va tch -dog e t up such a howl ingth a t L l scy l tos s tepped back in to the piscina, ~r -h ichwas c erta inlyin the cen t re o f the por t i co and there fo re ~r -ou ldhe d i rect lybeh ind our f r i ends .

T h e w o r d porticus i s u s ed i n La t i n an d b y Pe t ro n iu s t odescribe not merely a s ingle colonnade, a stoa, hu t a lso the wholequi~driporticusor per is tyle . I n such a case it may be said to" b eg in " on ei ther s ide of the entrance a n d to " end," deficere,a t th e point exactly opposite, where th e two sections of t hequadriporticus reun i te . Th is I bel ieve to be the meaning ofin, deficiente porticu a n d I have therefore p laced the t r ibunalscene on one s ide of the entrance to the atrium ; on the o ther


24/25

38 G I L B E R T B A G N A N I .side, pruesto, mere Fortune and the Three Fates. Haring thusreached the " end" of the portico, he 100lis back and remerllbersthat he should mention the grex cursorum on the other side andthe curious armarium in one of the corners he has passed.

The watch-dog was certainly painted on the left wall of thevestibule and, given the constant use of litotes in vulgar speech(cf. Hofmann, limgang~sprache,~p. 147ff.), non longe abostiarii cella must mean "righ t next to the porter's lodge." Ihave therefore placed the fresco on the wall between the porter'sdoor and the main ianua. I have also taken the totum parietemof the sentence 11011 destiti t . p. persequi as equivalent to totumporticus parietenz "the wall-surface of the whole portico," notmerely of a single wing, a usage that is certainly not impossiblein Latin (cf. Forcellini Facciolati, s. v. paries) and very commonin Italian, " esarn~nai ut to il muro del chiostro."

Of course the interpretation of paries as a single wing ofthe portico ib also possible, and in that case, assuming there isno lacuna in the text, it would appear to be the continuation ofthe wall of the vestibule on which the watch-dog was painted.All the frescoes mentioned would be on this wall and the entranceto the triclinium immediately after the nngulus at the end ofthis single wing of the portico. Encolpius mentions only onecorner, but that may be only an afterthought, because it con-tained the nrnzariunz ;the others were not mentioned because theywere not memorable. I n this case the main entrance would beat the extreme left corner of the quadriporticus. I n the 1-illadi Diomede on the Via dei Sepolcri at Pornpeii the entranceis in the right-hand corner (plans of the Villa di Diornedein all handbooks and guides to Pompeii, including Naiuri'sItinerario, and, more accurately in A. Maiuri and R. Pane,La Casa di Loreio Tiburtino et la T'illn di Dionzede, ,110wumentiItaliarzi, 11, I [Rome, 19471, pls. IX-XITI , with sections andreconstructions), and would therefore seem to justify the possi-bility of such an arrangement. Rut the plan of this Villa isentirely abnormal, because of the nature of the ground and itsposition with respect to the road, and on these grounds I havecome to the conclusion that it cannot be regarded as a typicalplan. The position of the entrance in this Villa is due to thedesire of the owner to have as direct an access as possible from


25/25

T H E H O UN E O F T R I M A L C H I O . 39the front door to the great garden peristyle at a lower level.Th e presence of a larger summ er triclinium in this garde n wouldseem to confirm my suspicion that in a large house one mightno t wan t one's din ner guests to wan der a ll over i t before com ingto the tr icl inium.

If, n otw ithsta nd ing these considerations an d th e difficultyof exp laining how Ascyltos falls into the p k i n u , th is arrange -ment be preferred, Petronius then must have some particularan d abn orm al house in mind , perhaps the house of CalvisiusSabinu s. T hi s seems to be imp robable; he could hardly expecthis readers to be fam iliar wi th th e partic ula r house of a pa rticu larnouveau riche. A nd he even mo re certain ly could not expectthat, some twenty centuries later, someone would be foolishenoug h to conduct this kin d of investigation !

casa de trimalción

Documents

Transcript of casa de trimalción