The Casa del Menando hoard was found by Professor Amedeo Maiuri in 1930, in the course of the excavation of the Insula of Menander. This volume provides the first comprehensive study of the hoard, which includes the only surviving complete Roman dinner service for eight people.

The Casa del Menando hoard was found by Professor Amedeo Maiuri in 1930, in the course of the excavation of the Insula of the Menander. There has been no study of it as a whole since Maiuri's publication of 1933. The silver, one of the three largest groups of Roman plate of the first century AD, is the only one which has been found and recorded under modern conditions, and demonstrates what plate was in use in Pompeii in the period of the disasters of AD 62 and 72. The treasure includes two hoards, hidden in the same chest, one consisting of 118 pieces of silver plate, the other of coins and jewellery. Maiuri thought that the hoards, and therefore the house, belonged to the top level of Roman society; but this study suggests that they belonged to a rich citizen of Pompeii, who may have been a local magistrate.

This book contains catalogues, analyses, photographs and drawings of some 2,000 archaeological artefacts excavated from the Insula of the Menander in Pompeii. The catalogues, and analyses are organized by provenance - buildings, rooms, and location within rooms - so that the reader can understand the artefacts as household assemblages. The functions of artefacts and groups of artefacts are discussed, as are the Latin names which are often given to these artefacts, and the relationships of these assemblages to the state of occupancy of the buildings in the Insula during the last years of Pompeii. This study, therefore, provides a wealth of information, not only on the range and use of artefacts in Pompeian houses but also on Roman artefacts, and Roman society, more generally.

The Insula of the Menander is one of the most completely excavated city blocks in Pompeii, with buildings ranging from small shops to large aristocratic houses. This volume, the third in a series of five volumes examining the Insula, is the first ever comprehensive study of the contents of Pompeian houses and buildings within their original contexts. It provides a great insight into living conditions in Pompeii during the final years of the city.

'The book is a model of its kind. As well as dealing specifically with one find, it brings together in quite a small compass a summary of the recent advances in our knowledge of Roman silver tableware. Obviously of the first importance for anyone working in provincial Roman archaeology, Painter's approach should also be of great interest to scholars who study the luxury goods of far later periods of history... Produced to the high standards we expect from this publisher, Painter's study will be a standard work within its field.' -Journal of the British Archaeological Association 155 for 2002, 292-3'Painter is a leading scholar in the field of silver plate and the catalogue of this find demonstrates his mastery of his subject... an important publication and one that is most welcome.' -The Antiquaries JournalThis is the first study in nearly seventy years of one of the largest known hoards of Roman silver plate, found in the House of the Menander, one of the finest houses in the centre of Pompeii, buried in AD 79. It is the only surviving complete Roman dinner service for eight people, belonging to a rich citizen of Pompeii who was probably a local magistrate.

Explores frugal thought and practice in Roman history, from the archaic period to the early empire and beyond.

What was really going on at Roman banquets? In this lively new book, veteran Romanist Matthew Roller looks at a little-explored feature of Roman culture: dining posture. In ancient Rome, where dining was an indicator of social position as well as an extended social occasion, dining posture offered a telling window into the day-to-day lives of the city's inhabitants. This book investigates the meaning and importance of the three principal dining postures--reclining, sitting, and standing--in the period 200 B.C.-200 A.D. It explores the social values and distinctions associated with each of the postures and with the diners who assumed them. Roller shows that dining posture was entangled with a variety of pressing social issues, such as gender roles and relations, sexual values, rites of passage, and distinctions among the slave, freed, and freeborn conditions. Timely in light of the recent upsurge of interest in Roman dining, this book is equally concerned with the history of the body and of bodily practices in social contexts. Roller gathers evidence for these practices and their associated values not only from elite literary texts, but also from subelite visual representations--specifically, funerary monuments from the city of Rome and wall paintings of dining scenes from Pompeii. Engagingly written, Dining Posture in Ancient Rome will appeal not only to the classics scholar, but also to anyone interested in how life was lived in the Eternal City.