House of Sallust

History

The house was originally a single symmetrical atrium house from the Samnite Period made of tufa blocks. The axially-aligned structure featured a central fauces, set between frontage shops, that lead to an atrium with compluvium and impluvium, three cubicula and alae that flanked the atrium on each side. A tablinum was placed at the rear of the atrium with an oecus and andron on the left and right side of the tablinum respectively. Behind the tablinum was an outdoor garden enclosed by the property wall. It was decorated in the Pompeian First Style.

In successive building phases, additional shops were added on its west side and a peristyle (colonnaded porticus) was added to the garden.

In the late Augustan period the house was converted into a hospitium, a hotel on a grand scale. A counter accessible both from the street and the atrium was constructed to encourage potential guests passing by as well as to serve existing visitors. Rooms were grouped into suites around the atrium and larger spaces 22 and 35 off the northeast corner of the atrium (see plan) provided indoor dining spaces while an outdoor masonry triclinium (25) covered by a pergola supported by two pilasters at the north end of the peristyle garden provided outdoor dining space. A hearth was constructed nearby for hot food preparation.

A large window was installed in the tablinum (19) to provide guests with a view of the garden enhanced by the tablinum's elevation of three steps above the atrium floor. The tablinum was modified to allow access from either end of the colonnade and, although a relatively small 20 by 70-foot space, was painted on the back wall with a garden scene which served as a continuation of the real garden, incorporating garlanded columns, three fountains, and birds.

Even with the addition of these new features, such as the peristyle garden and the second atrium, which became popular around this time, its First Style decoration was retained in some of its public spaces over time, too, imitating the continued use of the First Style in Pompeii's temples, basilicas, and gymnasia into the imperial period.

The First Style marble incrustation decoration of the House of Sallust's spacious atrium was carefully preserved over as long as two centuries while the adjoining peristyle was richly decorated in the "modern" style of the imperial period.

The structure was eventually expanded to use almost all the garden space.

Excavation

An entry dated April 29, 1775, in the Pompeianarum Antiquitatum Historia, clearly indicates the house, or at least a portion containing the fresco of Actaeon, had been exposed and had resulted in its designation as the House of Actaeon.

The earliest work on the house was directed by Francesco La Vega and then his brother Pietro. Queen Maria Caroline of Bourbon, a sponsor and spectator of the excavations of the house, received artistic finds as gifts and work would cease in a room once the finds were stripped. When the house was considered fully cleared in 1809, work turned to reproducing the remains and surviving frescoes with paintings and drawings.

Description

4. Apartment connected with a doorway to apartment 5.

5. Apartment connected with a doorway to Apartment 4. Grouping rooms into suites not only provided more spacious accommodation but allowed guests to pass in astonishment from one fine room to another elevating the perception of wealth of the master of the house.

6. Compluvium for collecting rain water from the room. The bronze sculpture of Hercules and the Golden Hind was found here.

7. Altar with niche for the household gods

8. Tablinum with an adjoining room (9) with views of the porticus and garden. The inner room was probably a small triclinium or cubiculum and was adorned with representations of scenic masks. The space was originally accessed directly from the atrium but this doorway was blocked after the rear wall was replaced with a wide entrance to the porticus overlooking the viridarium.

10. Cella familliaria or bed chamber less than 10 foot square.

11. Alae - side recesses containing the sacred ancestral images. The ala on the left has a doorway to the adjoining room 12 that has a doorway to the colonnaded ambulatory (20) leading to the viridarium (19). A stairway was installed in (12) at a later time to access a new upper floor. The ala on the right has a doorway to an adjoining lararium or pinacotheca (picture gallery) (13). Later archaeologists identify room (13) as a wardrobe. …