Pompeii, excavations in Civita Giuliana reveal better-fed slaves than free citizens

According to what was published in the E-Journal of the Pompeii Excavations, in the first floor of one of the rooms intended for the servants, amphorae containing broad beans were found, one of which was half empty, and a large basket with fruit – pears, apples or rowanberries – foods that supplemented the wheat-based diet, usually intended for agricultural slaves. These “talking instruments” – as the Romans called them – lived in cells of just 16 square meters, each containing up to three beds, but the attention to food conservation and the presence of nutritious foods indicate that the owner of the villa had an interest in maintaining their physical strength and health.

The food stored on the first floor probably had a dual function: on the one hand to protect it from rodents, already documented on the lower floors with remains of mice and rats found in 2023; on the other, facilitate daily rationing, calibrated based on the age, sex and role of each worker. It is possible that the master’s most trusted servants, housed on the upper floor, controlled the distribution of food among the others, according to a hierarchical system already suggested by previous studies on the servile quarter.

Archaeological calculations estimate that to support around fifty workers, the total capacity of the neighbourhood, 18,500 kilograms of grain per year were needed, produced on around 25 hectares of land. However, a diet based exclusively on grain would have exposed slaves to diseases related to malnutrition. Supplementing the diet with proteins, such as broad beans, and vitamins, present in fruit, guaranteed not only the survival, but also the full working efficiency of men, women and children enslaved. This food strategy explains why, in some cases, the slaves of the Pompeian villas were better fed than free citizens, whose families were often forced to ask for alms to survive.

The excavations also revealed numerous finds of architectural and technological interest. On the ground floor of the servient quarter, casts of doors and agricultural tools were recovered, including a possible shoulder plow or a handle, used to guide a plow pulled by animals. Another cast, larger in size, could correspond to a double door leaf, awaiting repair. These elements contribute to reconstructing the functional organization of the villa and the relationship between living spaces, warehouses and laboratories.

The archaeological investigations were concentrated along the urban stretch of Via Giuliana, under which wall structures relating to the upper floors of the villa emerged. Four rooms delimited by opus craticium partitions were identified, located between the residential sector to the north and the servient quarter to the south, an area that has so far been little investigated. The discovery allows us to verify the information recovered from the judicial investigations conducted by the Torre Annunziata Prosecutor’s Office, a fundamental partner of the excavation campaign launched in 2017 to counter the systematic looting of the villa.

“It is in cases like this that the absurdity of the ancient slave system becomes evident – comments Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii and co-author of the study on the servile neighborhood – Treated like machines, the slaves remained human beings: they breathed the same air as the free and, in some cases, ate even better. Themes of slavery and freedom, present then, do not only belong to the past: over 30 million people today live in conditions similar to modern forms of slavery”.

The attention to diet and food conservation shows how the management of the villa was a complex and organized activity, in which the care of the servile workforce was an integral part of agricultural production. The discovery of the amphorae with broad beans and fruit baskets, stored upstairs, highlights the practical knowledge of the risks associated with diseases and parasites and the importance of providing nutritious food safely.

The current project, called “Demolition, excavation and valorisation in the Civita Giuliana area”, involves the demolition of two buildings superimposed on the servient quarter and the expansion of the excavations, financed with ordinary funds from the Archaeological Park. The objective is to reconstruct a more complete picture of the plan of the villa and the daily life of its inhabitants, both servile and free, and to develop new strategies for the conservation and enhancement of the area. The excavations of Civita Giuliana represent a fundamental piece for understanding the organization of the large Pompeian villas and the complex relationship between property, workforce and food. At the same time, they offer food for thought on the concept of freedom and slavery, connecting the Roman past to current problems of inequality and exploitation of work. The small cells, warehouses, doors and agricultural tools convey a story that is both material and human: that of men and women forced to live as instruments of production, but who, through details such as food and space management, reveal their resilience and the complexity of daily life in antiquity.