Fig. 234.—Scene in a wineshop.
Wall painting.
The long room with an entrance from the side street (b, now walled up) was intended for the use of those who preferred to eat and drink at their leisure. The walls are decorated with a series of paintings presenting realistic scenes from the life of such places. We see the guests eating, drinking, and playing with dice. Some are standing, others sitting on stools; it is the kind of public house that Martial calls a 'stool-ridden cookshop,' in which couches were not provided, but only seats without backs (Mart. Ep. V. lxx. 3).
In one of the scenes ([Fig. 234]) four men are drinking, about a round table, while a boy waits on them; two of the figures have pointed hoods like those seen to-day in Sicily and some parts of Italy. Strings of sausage, hams, and other eatables hang from a pole suspended under the ceiling.
Fig. 235.—Delivery of wine.
Wall painting.
Some of the figures in the pictures are accompanied by inscriptions. Thus by the side of a guest for whom a waiter is pouring out a glass of wine is written: Da fridam pusillum, 'Add cold water—just a little.' In a similar connection we read, Adde calicem Setinum, 'Another cup of Setian!' The Setian wine came from a town in Latium at the foot of the hills bordering the Pontine Marshes, now Sezze; we infer that our wineshop sold not merely the products of neighboring vineyards, but choice brands from other regions as well. Wines from the locality were probably brought to town in amphorae; the delivery of a consignment from a distance is shown in a separate scene ([Fig. 235]), in which amphorae are being filled from a large skin on a wagon; the team of mules is meanwhile resting, unharnessed, the yoke hanging on the end of the pole.
The pictures present the life of a tavern from the point of view of the landlord; but occasionally we have a suggestion of the other side, as in the following couplet, the faulty spelling of which we can forgive on account of its pithiness: Talia te fallant utinam me[n]dacia, copo, Tu ve[n]des acuam et bibes ipse merum,—
'Landlord, may your lies malign
Bring destruction on your head!