The Insula of the Menander at Pompeii: Volume IV: The Silver Treasure

Book excerpt: The Casa del Menando hoard was found by Professor Amedeo Maiuri in 1930, in the course of the excavation of the Insula of the Menander. There has been no study of it as a whole since Maiuri's publication of 1933. The silver, one of the three largest groups of Roman plate of the first century AD, is the only one which has been found and recorded under modern conditions, and demonstrates what plate was in use in Pompeii in the period of the disasters of AD 62 and 72. The treasure includes two hoards, hidden in the same chest, one consisting of 118 pieces of silver plate, the other of coins and jewellery. Maiuri thought that the hoards, and therefore the house, belonged to the top level of Roman society; but this study suggests that they belonged to a rich citizen of Pompeii, who may have been a local magistrate.