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Plebs versus the City: The Competition for Space between Public and Private Interests at Pompeii
Gary Devore, Stanford University and Steven J.R. Ellis, University of Cincinnati

This paper presents the results from three seasons of excavating a non-elite neighborhood on the edge of the so-called Entertainment District at Pompeii. Through the full range of archaeological inquiry, the Pompeii Archaeological Research Project: Porta Stabia (PARP:PS) is uncovering the dynamic history of a plebeian district and its intimate connection to its adjacent and monumental public buildings, city fortifications, and other major civic networks. From its earliest archaic habitations, built into the prehistoric lava plateau, to its structural and social rebuilding following seismic damage in the 60s C.E., this corner of Pompeii yields a remarkable story of social and economic interaction among its neighboring inhabitants. Our paper provides new and concrete dating evidence for the dramatic role the insula played in the shaping of its adjoining public space, with its western boundary determining the layout of the eastern arrangement of the Quadriporticus, while the later Odeon instead breached its northern limits. This jostling for land was equally intense within the insula itself. The owners of the central property (VIII.7.9-11) were especially active, tearing down partition walls and procuring their neighbor’s property to install a public dining facility as part of their growing economic monopoly on this plebeian community. Once consigned to neglect and disinterest since its discovery in the shadow of theatres and temples, this diachronic study of some of Pompeii’s more modest establishments illustrates the economic potential of Pompeii’s working class as well as clarifying something of the complex relationship between public and private space in the Roman city.

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