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The caupona or tavern of Salvius is located in Pompeii, Regio VI, insula 14 (upper left corner), doorways 35- 36 (in the absence of other evidence, building addresses in Pompeii were created by modern excavators). It was situated on a busy corner where customers would pass along two fairly major streets. Its actual owner’s name is unknown; the shop was named from the election notice for Salvius painted on its outer wall. The two “cartoons” below survived Vesuvius’ eruption to give us a rare glimpse into the language and life of Pompeii’s lower classes (see a modern reconstruction of Asellina's caupona). The frescoes testify to the presence of lower-class women in taverns as barmaids and preserve the kind of exchanges one would expect in a bar. These paintings must have served as signs for the illiterate, informing them of what the shop could offer its customers: drinks and perhaps hired rooms and prostitutes. The images seems to have been painted quickly by an artist of no great talent, perhaps bartered for goods, as happens today; they are in vivid contrast to the elegant frescoes found in Pompeii’s wealthy villas.
| VI.14.36 | ||||||
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| VI.14.35 | |
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Nolo cum Myrtale [hoc facere]! |
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