Tuesday 5 January

10 AM PST
1 PM EST
6 PM GMT
7 PM CET

With Dr. Eireann Marshall

The eruption of AD 79 which buried Pompeii and Herculaneum preserved uniquely important evidence for the political, religious and economic lives of the cities. The 11,000 or so graffiti found in Pompeii include a number of electioneering posts, which, along with the numerous surviving inscriptions, allow us to gauge the political behaviour of citizens of small Roman cities. We also are able to gauge the kinds of jobs ordinary people in the Roman world would have had, as well as the importance of money to the economy, thanks to archaeological evidence such as the banker Caecilius Jucundus’ wax tablets and the discovery of daily takings in taverns and fulleries.

Tombs and houses provide crucial information about the ranks and social distinctions of the inhabitants of Roman towns, enabling us to see how the Pompeii was dominated by freedmen in the last decades of its existence. The importance of religion and its ritualistic nature are also very clear in the Vesuvian cities, from the ever present lararia, or family altars, to the many shrines and temples. This lecture explores the way in which the economies of Pompeii and Herculaneum were surprisingly modern and complex and the way in which the cities had diverse cults, something which may be attributed to their mixed populations.