VII.1.36 Pompeii. Modestus Bakery. Linked to VII.1.37.

Excavated 1846. (Strada degli Augustali 25 or 26?).

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VII.1.36 Pompeii. October 2009.

North-east corner of room, with doorway to latrine at rear. Photo courtesy of Jared Benton.

VII.1.36 Pompeii. October 2009. Looking north-east. Photo courtesy of Jared Benton.

VII.1.36 Pompeii. October 2009.

East wall of room in south-east corner, with doorway to latrine, on left. Photo courtesy of Jared Benton.

VII.1.36 Pompeii. October 2009. Doorway to latrine. Photo courtesy of Jared Benton.

VII.1.36 Pompeii. October 2009. Looking east into latrine. Photo courtesy of Jared Benton.

According to Hobson, the workers on the ground floor still required a latrine.

This small room was constructed encroaching onto the property on the eastern side (VII.1.30).

The pedestals had a foot-rest in front of them with a tiled floor into which a rectangular drain was inserted.

A threshold stone had only one pivot hole and the door could not have opened outwards because the stones in the bakery were higher than the threshold.

Perhaps the door folded?

See Hobson, B., 2009. Latrinae et foricae: Toilets in the Roman World. London; Duckworth. (p.53, figs. 71 and 72).

VII.1.36 Pompeii. October 2009. Looking south. Photo courtesy of Jared Benton.

VII.1.36 Pompeii. October 2009. Flooring near south wall. Photo courtesy of Jared Benton.

VII.1.36 Pompeii. October 2009. Flooring. Photo courtesy of Jared Benton.

VII.1.36 Pompeii. October 2009. Looking south-east. Photo courtesy of Jared Benton.

VII.1.36 Pompeii. October 2009. Looking south-west. Photo courtesy of Jared Benton.

VII.1.36 Pompeii. October 2009. Looking towards west wall. Photo courtesy of Jared Benton.

VII.1.36 Pompeii. October 2009. Looking west. Photo courtesy of Jared Benton.

VII.1.36 Pompeii. October 2009.

Looking south towards pilaster dividing two rooms on south side of oven. Photo courtesy of Jared Benton.

VII.1.36 Pompeii. October 2009.

Looking east in south-east corner of atrium. The doorway to the milling room is on the right. Photo courtesy of Jared Benton.

VII.1.36 Pompeii. October 2009. North wall of room on east side of atrium. Photo courtesy of Jared Benton.

According to Breton, this large room was possibly used as a workshop for storing the bread once it was taken from the oven.

There are several massive masonry supports which could serve as supports for a table, and in a corner on the ground lay a small mill.

On the walls were the remains of a well-drawn painting depicting Bacchus and four of his followers.

See Breton, Ernest. 1870. Pompeia, Guide de visite a Pompei, 3rd ed. Paris, Guerin.

According to Boyce (VII.1.36/37), Here*, was found a lararium painting (h.1.16, w.2.58):

in the centre stood an altar and to the right of it was Vesta, wearing a white tunic and a white veil which fell down the back of her head.

In her left hand she held a sceptre and with the right she poured a libation upon the altar, at her side stood an ass.

On the left of the altar was Bacchus, wearing an ivy wreath and red chlamys; in his right hand he held a bunch of grapes, and his left held a thyrsus over his shoulder.

On each side of this central group stood a Lar wearing green tunic and red pallium and holding rhyton and patera.

In the lower zone were two serpents confronted at an altar.

See Boyce G. K., 1937. Corpus of the Lararia of Pompeii. Rome: MAAR 14. (p.60, no.240A).

Boyce added a note : “This is the location of this painting given by Helbig (66b), and the reports of the Ann. Inst. and Bull. Inst:

but Fiorelli in Scavi placed it at VII.12.11, where there is a quite different shrine, and in Descrizione he did not mention the painting at all.”

VII.1.36 Pompeii. 1862 entry, in Latin, in AdI 1862 p. 351-6, Item F says:

F.  In the summer months of the year 1862 that part of the street of the Augustales which gives onto the crossroads of Fortuna was excavated. There, as you enter from the crossroads, on the left the house of a baker is quite big: for behind the atrium is a vast bakery [and] near the door [of the house] is a shop, from which you pass straight into the atrium; and that opens on each side into some bedrooms. As you go in, on the left in second place there seems to have been a storeroom: certainly the brick foundations that lean against the walls allow you to think of neither a sleeping place nor a dining room. On the wall that is opposite as you cross the threshold has been painted a sacrifice of the Lares [!] that already in the month of September in the year 1862 was quite faint. In the centre is seen an altar between two branches of laurel or myrtle or olive. A man wearing a toga and with his head covered is holding out a patera in his right hand, and with his left I have not made out what he was doing; behind him I seemed to see the traces of an animal unsurprisingly, the horns, the head, and the feet of a bullock. On the left a young man is approaching, wearing a garland and naked with a chlamys [a light Greek cloak] flying over his shoulder. In his left hand he carries a thyrsus over his shoulder and in his right a bunch of grapes. Garlanded Lares on each side in their usual dress are seen carrying rhyta and paterae. [A rhyton, plural rhyta, is a Greek word for a drinking horn; a patera is a shallow bowl with a handle that [the patera, not the handle] can be used for pouring libations to gods; and it has other uses.]

Our thanks to Michael Binns for this translation and comments.

See Annali dell’Instituto di Corrispondenza Archeologica (DAIR), 1862, p. 351-6, Item F.

VII.1.36 Pompeii. October 2009. Near west end of north wall. Photo courtesy of Jared Benton.

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