The House of the Vettii

The Floorplan Click for Discussion of Art

Background Information

Click on one of the four colored regions for information about specific rooms. NOTE: Information on specific rooms within the house are heavily based on Penelope M. Allison's, Pompeian Households and particularly the internet version: Casa dei Vettii When other sources are used, they will be noted by citations.

The House of the Vettii was a remodeling of an older house in the Fourth Style in A.D. 62. Its owners were A. Vetiius Restituts and A. Vettius Conviva, who were both freedmen. Their design was somewhat unique from other businessmen of the time. It was common to use parts of the lower floors as shops or some other business, depending on the profession of the homeowner. However, the Vettii did not follow such a practice. Not only did they choose to situate themselves in a quieter part of Pompeii, but they also chose not to have any of the rooms along the main street to have open access, and instead used the spaces for various storage purposes.[22] The house itself was located in the northwestern section of Pompeii (shaded in the map below). On August 24, 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius erupted covering the entire town. Initial excavation began in September of 1894, lasting for two years.[6] During the early excavations it was noted that there was a second story. Allison notes, in her overview of the house, that two of the major historians on this subject, Mau and Sogliano, have very similar accounts of the sight, which she suggested was an indication that they influenced each others work, or were both using the same source. Her greater conclusion from this fact is that Mau might not have been writing based on his own first hand accounts.[21]