Pompeii offers us a unique opportunity to appreciate the energy with which the occupants of a small harbour town engaged in commercial activities. Pompeii was ideally situated to act as an intermediary for inland areas towards Nuceria (H2). It also hosted one of the region’s weekly markets (H3—4). Some of the inhabitants expressed their enthusiasm for making money, as can be seen in floor mosaics displayed prominently in their houses (H20, H36—37), and there was no shortage of opportunities for doing so. Inscriptions of many kinds (electoral notices, tombstones and graffiti) reveal a wide range of occupations practised in the town (H51—63). Money-making took many forms, from trade to renting out property, from education to prostitution (H38—50). It is also possible to uncover the distribution pattern of fountains, bars and bakeries in much of the town, which (much like the distribution of electoral notices, F29) gives an impression of the relative levels of activity in different parts of the town (H83).
The region’s natural fertility made an important contribution to its productivity and prosperity (H1). Innovative archaeological investigation by Jashemski (1979, 1993) has transformed our picture of land use within the town’s walls. When trees and plants died in the aftermath of the eruption, their roots decayed, so that gradually the cavities left behind became filled by volcanic debris. When excavating, the debris is removed for several metres until the ancient ground level is reached. Cavities filled with volcanic debris then become visible on the surface. These can be carefully cleared of debris and then filled with cement. When this hardens, the soil from around the cast is removed, and often the shape of the root can be identified as being that of a specific plant. Her work has uncovered commercial market gardens and vineyards (note to H10—11), as well as domestic gardens. Some of the locally produced wine was exported (see notes on H47—48), but much of it would have been consumed in the neighbourhood. Pottery transport containers (amphorae) found on the site show that large quantities of wine were also brought into the town, to cater for the market for wines of different taste, quality and price (H6—8).
Pompeii’s fish sauce, however, was of world-class quality. According to Pliny the Elder, the town was famous for its production of fish sauce (garum) (H18). The sites where it was produced on a large scale are still unidentified, probably because they were on the coast or along the river. These areas are still not as yet fully excavated and remain disguised by changes inflicted upon the local landscape by the eruption. The area could certainly provide the necessary ingredients: fish from the sea, salt from the Salt District outside what is now known as the Herculaneum Gate (B5 and F24) and fresh water from the Sarno River. Fish sauce tended to be stored in urcei, clay vessels smaller than those used for wine. The containers of one particular producer, Umbricius Scaurus, far outnumber those of any other producer, and a detailed picture of his business can be built up from these containers and from other finds (H20-29).
Although amphorae were primarily transport containers for fluids, especially wine and olive oil, their inscriptions show a far greater variety of contents. They might contain a whole variety of goods for sale, from edibles such as fruit, nuts and pulses to lotions and medicines (H31—34). The prices of some of these goods are revealed by graffiti (H15—17).
The local authorities were in charge of regulating trade and commerce in the town. The standardization of public measures in the Forum was undertaken by the duumvirs during the Augustan period, apparently adapting the pre-existing Oscan system by erasing the earlier measurements inscribed in Oscan and modifying the measuring holes within the table itself (H64). A series of paintings found in the estate of Julia Felix vividly illustrate other aspects of commercial life in the Forum (H66—68).
Finally, the wax tablets of the banker Lucius Caecilius Iucundus (H69—82) give an impression of the variety of business transactions conducted by individuals. Some also relate to his collection of local taxes on behalf of the town. The discovery of two other wax tablets in the Palaestra Baths (H38), which relate to a business deal between two women, shows that such tablets must have been in common use, and were not just the professional apparatus of the banker.
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