The Summer triclinium
The Romans inherited from the Greeks the custom of eating while reclining on couches (kline / lectus). In the Roman world it became common to arrange U-shaped beds each of them accomodating three persons. This piece of furniture was known as the triclinium, a word which later came to refere also to the room containing such couch-beds. The guest would lie leaning on bis left elbow supported by a cushion, with bis feet away from the table and probably resting on a stool. The bed on the left was considered the least important and the patron's family would lie there. Guests instead would occupy the other two, the one in the middle regarded as the most prestigious since it was closer to the owner of the house. As from the mid-First century b.C., a type of single U-shaped bed (siyrna) began to be adopted and was much more comfortable, especially for outdoor banquets. In luxurious houses, dining rooms were built taking into account their exposure to sunlight and at least two of them were provided, one for winter and the other for summer.
The excavations in the Vesuvius area have brought to light many instances of summer tricliniai set in the middle or in the background of a garden. In these cases dining-beds were built with bricks and may have been lined with marble slabs; guests would recline on them in a U-shaped arrangement on matresses, bedspreads and cushions. These outdoor arrangements were often enlivened by fountains and sometimes nymphaeums, as exactly in this case.
The brick triclinium of this building, with a small fountain in the middle, occupies the whole area of an outdoor couriyard where the lack of a true garden is offset by the fresco painting of a garden on the eastern wall including a precious mosaic panel representing two deities (Neptune and Anfitritis) which has given the house its modern name. Behind the tricliuium there is a richly decorated monumental fountain hiding the water reservoir of the triclinium's small fountain. The façade of the nymphaeum,
topped by marble masks
of theatre characters, here presented in casts, is enriched by a fine mosaic with floral motifs and the image of peacocks and deers being chased by dogs. The three niches marking the façade in their turnhoused columns and decorative sculptures and they show no trace of possible lead pipes leading to the reservoir in the rear.
The shop-house
The shop-house for the selling of foodstuffs set in the fa~ade of the dwelling is connected to Casa di Nettuno e Anfitrite. The counter with built-in jars (dolia) for wine and other staples is well preserved as is the board for cooking, and a burnt wooden plank matched to burnt wooden shelves for amphorae. These amphorae do not all come from this shop-house but are typical of the kind of vessels employed for stocking wine, oil and dry fruits in Herculaneum at the moment of the eruption. The partial collapse of the ceiling makes it possible lo observe a room of the upper floor of the house containing another cooking board as well as the remaining bronze foot of a bed.
Source
Soprintendenza
Archeologica di Pompei |
