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It's exciting seeing people receive proof copies of my book #TheWolfDen set in #Pompeii so I thought I would share a little about the real place where it is set: the ancient town's Lupanar (literally 'wolf den') or brothel. Here it is:
It is the only surviving brothel from the ancient world - Mount Vesuvius didn't take a view on what was worth preserving. Its state of preservation is remarkable. Here is the inside:
There were five cells in which the women worked - small, cramped and with stone beds. The women would almost certainly have been enslaved and had no choice in the work they did.
The most famous aspect of the Lupanar are the erotic frescoes. Less well known is the graffiti which gives a glimpse into the women's lives. My favourite is Victoria, who seems to have been a forceful personality - referred to as "Victoria the Conqueress" (Victoria Victrix)
More poignantly she appears elsewhere as a commodity: "Victoria for 5 asses" (asses were pennies). Much of the graffiti is in this vein - prices or sexually explicit.
There's no question the women who worked in the Lupanar must have led very tough lives. I don't gloss over this in my story - but I preferred to think about how they might have survived this. Their friendships, dreams and ambitions. For don't we all have those?
That last photo is a fresco from Pompeii's House of the Mysteries - a wealthy villa on the outskirts of town...
