House of Paquius Proculus I.7.1

The House of Paquius Proculus, facing onto the Via dell'Abbondanza, is one of the most interesting houses in Regio I for its complex architectural history and, above all, for the exceptional richness of its mosaic floors. Also known as the House of Cuspius Pansa, it was built in the Samnite period, probably in the second century BC, as indicated by the appearance of the entrance and surviving First Style decoration. Over the following centuries the building underwent numerous alterations accompanied by the renewal of its decorative schemes.

The traditional attribution of the house to Publius Paquius Proculus, a prominent figure in Pompeian political life, does not allow the building's owner to be identified with certainty. Several electoral inscriptions were found on the façade and around the entrance, and these include the names both of Paquius Proculus and of Caius Cuspius Pansa, from whom the domus takes its two conventional names.

The entrance leads directly into the fauces, paved in the Augustan period with one of the house's most distinctive mosaics. At its centre a chained guard dog is shown in front of a doorway, while the threshold leading into the atrium bears a figured composition with two centaurs, a goat and a vegetal element. Small rooms open on either side of the entrance corridor and preserve evidence of different decorative phases.

The heart of the house is the large atrium, whose floor is one of the most elaborate mosaic complexes surviving at Pompeii. A geometric grid of numerous panels extends around the impluvium; most contain birds and other figures. Some compartments show male heads, a lion and two large polychrome peacocks in a composition where geometric and figured motifs alternate with great variety.

The form of the atrium reflects the changes made to the domus over time. Several rooms originally stood on its east side but were later reduced or converted into niches. The west side was damaged by the earthquake of AD 62 and rebuilt in the following years. Its new paintings belong to the transitional phase between the Third and Fourth Styles, while earlier decoration survives elsewhere in the house.

The tablinum, one of the house's reception rooms, opens on the south side of the atrium. Its Augustan-period floor consists of a refined polychrome mosaic with a central pseudo-emblema depicting several animals, including panthers, lions, a bull, an elephant, a wild boar and a stag. A circular slab of alabaster occupies the centre of the composition and is surrounded by polychrome motifs.

The tablinum leads into a large oecus that preserves traces of Second Style wall painting. Its pavement consists of a white mosaic scattered with irregular inserts of coloured marble; at the centre is a square emblema made of coloured marble slabs arranged in geometric patterns. This room gives access to the rear of the house and the peristyle.

The peristyle occupies much of the innermost part of the domus and was arranged around a garden. Its columns belong to different building phases and show the successive alterations and repairs made over time. Structures for outdoor living stood in the garden, including a marble-lined basin and a pergola supported by columns, which shaded an area for relaxation and dining.

Some of the house's most refined rooms were arranged around the peristyle. Of particular importance is the triclinium, whose floor retains a circular polychrome emblema with a Nilotic scene. It shows pygmies fishing, animals of the Nile and landscape elements. The subject belongs to a repertoire widespread in Roman art and fostered by the popularity of images of Egypt and the Nilotic landscape.

Another reception room, identified as an oecus, has a polychrome pavement with a pseudo-emblema formed by a grid of bands. The panels contain comic masks, while a band with a scroll of ivy leaves separates the different sections of the floor.

Excavation began in the early twentieth century. After initial work in 1911, the most extensive campaigns took place between 1923 and 1926, bringing the atrium, peristyle and many of the house's rooms to light. The discovery of collapsed upper-storey structures in the rooms below also made it possible to reconstruct at least part of the building's vertical development.

The House of Paquius Proculus consequently provides especially important evidence for the evolution of a large Pompeian residence from the Samnite period to the city's final years. Its successive phases of wall painting, architectural alterations and, above all, exceptional group of mosaics reveal changing tastes and the owners' changing needs over several generations.