This article is an extract from the Figaro Hors-Série “Pompéi”, available here in paper or digital format.
Le Figaro
Whether it rains or it sells, whether the sky is mild or ungrateful, an authentic Pompeii would not miss anything in the world on market day in the city. Until the earthquake of the year 62, he stood within the walls of the macellum, a large rectangular courtyard surrounded by a solid colonnade, to the right of the temple of Jupiter and just next to the sanctuary of the Lares. But during the earthquake, which spared no public or private building, the roof of the market collapsed and, 17 years later, it is still being repaired.
The sellers have taken over the place of the forum, as well as the arches of the amphitheater, the lawn under the plane trees of the grand palestra or the sidewalks and every corner available for which they pay a plating fee, just as they did at macellum.
Read also: "Living and Dying in Pompeii"
The crowd, scattered across the city, seems no less dense. Less noisy. Less colorful. And the stalls
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