[Chapter four from J.-P. Descoeudres, Pompeii Revisited: The Life and Death of a Roman Town (Sydney: Meditarch, 1994).]

FAMILY MATTERS

Beryl Rawson

In the cool half-light of dawn, a crowd is gathering in the street outside the entrance.  Clients are coming to pay their respects to their patron, the master of the house.  The morning ceremony, the salutatio, is a regular occasion when men of modest means can demonstrate their loyalty and attachment to a man of higher rank who will in turn, they hope, look after their interests in public and private affairs.  For the patronus, his social standing will be enhanced by the number of clientes and the variety of activity focused on his house.

The Roman citizens in the throng proudly wear the white toga, heavy and inconvenient though it is and an impediment to fast movement.  One man is fussing over mud splashed on his toga by a passing wagon on his way to the house.  He looks enviously at a much better-off citizen who has just been deposited at the house entrance in a litter, which four muscular slaves have gently lowered to the ground.

The doorkeeper (ostiarius) checks the callers as they file into the house through the narrow entry passage which is called the 'throat' (fauces) because of its shape and size.  The narrowness provides some security to the household against attack or a sudden onslaught of unwanted callers.

As they emerge into the atrium the morning light can now be observed streaming in through the central opening (compluvium) above the atrium.  It brightens the water in the pool below (impluvium) and brings out the grain of the marble veneer on the lower walls and the colours of the paintings above.  There is an intake of breath from the callers who have not been here before and for whom this is the first glimpse of wealth and luxury.  Many of them live in cramped lodgings or attics, and everything here is so spacious.  Through the tablinum at the end of the atrium can be seen part of a peristyle garden (only the first of two) with its painted capitals.  The atrium is not elaborately furnished, but the building materials are of fine quality.  There are still signs of decorations associated with yesterday's birthday celebrations.

There is a new baby in the house.  She was born just over a week ago, and yesterday—the eighth day after the birth—was her naming day, the lustratio, when any pollution associated with the birth was cleansed away.  Relatives and friends of the family had gathered here in the atrium to celebrate, to congratulate the parents and wish the child good fortune for the future.  This had been the first opportunity for male relatives and friends to see the baby and its mother.  During the birth and the first few days afterwards only a small group of women had been with the mother and child, visited occasionally by the mother's husband.  The midwife had had the central role of delivering the child and pronouncing it healthy and fit for rearing.  It was only after that that the husband had picked up the child, symbolizing his willingness to raise it.  A wet-nurse was now suckling the child, and long after the child has been weaned the bond between nurse and child will be strong.  The nurse, although a slave, has been carefully chosen for her good health and refined speech and manners: she will have a good chance of winning freedom later, and her former nursling will see that she has adequate means of support.  Other slaves—male and female—will have important roles in the child's life, seeing to her physical and educational needs, and they all have a place in the familia, the household formed of parents, children and other dependants.

Sacrifice has been made, in thanksgiving for the birth, at the family shrine, the lararium in the ala on the left side of the atrium (Fig. 43).  Today's callers can still smell a trace of incense and see crumbs from the cake used in sacrifice.  The lares whose shrine this is oversee the welfare of the household.  The snake so often represented with the lares (see below) symbolizes the fertility and prosperity of the house.

Many slaves are scurrying around, doing household chores or seeing to the needs of their master and his clients.  Some of the more highly trained and educated slaves will not be needed until later in the day or the evening's dinner when friends and family will be entertained.  That is when skilled readers, musicians and actors will be called on to provide entertainment and intellectual stimulus.  The resident Greek philosopher, a freeborn man of some standing, might be called on during the day to assist the studies of an older child.  At present, however, the master has at his elbow his slave accountant (dispensator), as business matters are sure to crop up in one conversation or another, and his nomenclator to remind him of the names of some callers.  His secretary (notarius) is nearby, ready to take notes whenever necessary.

There is a slight commotion when the seven-year-old son of the house comes hurtling across the atrium in pursuit of his spinning top.  Children are frequently present during these semi-public functions: it is never too soon for them to become known to their father's friends and clients, who will be a valuable network as the children grow up and need teachers, husbands or wives, and support for public office (if they are male) or for other public activities (court cases, buying and selling of land and other business deals).  Mingling with the variety of adults who visit the house is a valuable form of socialization for younger members of the family.  The house in this society is public as well as private domain.

Today, however, the young son is being obstreperous—perhaps compensating for being overshadowed yesterday by all the celebrations for the new baby girl.  His paedagogus, the educated slave who will accompany him to school and oversee his lessons, is called to take him away and prepare him for school.  There is some scolding from the boy's mother as she enters from the garden are and family quarters at the back of the house.  She will not stay long today, being still a little weak after the birth of the baby, but her presence amongst the clients is important.  Some of them are her own rather than her husband's, as she comes from a distinguished and wealthy family herself and her connections are important for the fortunes of her conjugal family (husband and children).

As the time set aside for the salutatio comes to an end, the crowd disperses.  Those who do not have to return to work in a shop or workshop or other duties will accompany their patron to the forum nearby where he will try to build up further support for his next electoral campaign.  Some of the clients have already been active painting slogans in his support on the street walls, and their presence in his retinue as he goes about his public business will contribute to his image as an important citizen.