Pompeii. The House of the Tragic Poet VI.8.5

The House of the Tragic Poet at Pompeii is one of the neatest and most elegant houses. It lies very close to the forum and is now accessed through a side entrance Reg. VI, Insula 8, Building 5). The main entrance to the house where the Cave Canem (dog) mosaic greeted an ancient visitor is currently closed to visitors. This dog mosaic recalls a scene in Petronius' Satyricon. This house is not prescribed content for the UK-based OCR examination board's A-level paper Cities of Roman Italy (CC6) but is of direct relevance to understanding the houses and their decoration. It is also of great interest to anyone studying Pompeii. Note the places where paintings were removed by antiquarians.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Pompeii
• House
• Tragic
• Poet
• Vesuvius
• AD79

[KSHSClassCiv]

The word is 'impresario', not empresario. An impresario is someone who puts on/organizes public shows.

[lizloz13]

hi there! does anyone know what he means about 'emprasario'?

[KSHSClassCiv]

It may have had a partial upper storey - there are remains of what look like two staircases in it. But even if it had an upstairs it probably didn't originally - unfortunately the upper levels were almost invariably destroyed in 79 so it's hard to know the exact arrangements.

[blakeisfate13]

thank-you very much for this video. I am doing a model of this house for my latin class and found it very helpful. One question though, was it a one or two story house? Thankyou!

[KSHSClassCiv]

The latin is 'Cave Canem', and yes there is a mosaic in the entrance with that on. The house is named for one of its wall-paintings but the actual one is now, I think, removed. Actually, I was in it today - about 7 hours ago as it happens but that is pure coincidence.

[parisgala]

great documentry, do you know by any chance what "beware of dogs" in latin is? because i think there is a sign saying that on the floor of the main entrance to this house. and also, why is it named the house of the tragic poet?