The House of the Vettii is a domus located in the Roman town Pompeii, which was preserved by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. The house is named for its owners, two successful freedmen: Aulus Vettius Conviva, an Augustalis, and Aulus Vettius Restitutus. Its careful excavation has preserved almost all of the wall frescos, which were completed following the earthquake of 62 AD, in the manner art historians term the Pompeiian Fourth Style. The House of Vetti is located in region VI, near the Vesuvian Gate, bordered by the Vicolo di Mercurio and the Vicolo dei Vettii. The house is one of the largest domus in Pompeii, spanning the entire southern section of block 15. The plan is fashioned in a typical Roman domus with the exception of a tablinum, which is not included. There are twelve mythological scenes across four cubiculum and one triclinium. The house was reopened to tourists in January 2023 after two decades of restoration.
Floor Plan of the House of the Vettii Pompeii (VI 15,1) by August Mau 1907
Atrium of the House of the Vetti VI 15 1 in Pompeii, 1895, by Luigi Bazzani
House of the Vetti by Luigi Bazzani (watercolor) before 1927
Close up of the Punishment of Ixion in the House of the Vettii in Pompeii
A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves were freed by manumission, emancipation, or self-purchase. A fugitive slave is a person who escaped enslavement by fleeing.
Cinerary urn for the freedman Tiberius Claudius Chryseros and two women, probably his wife and daughter
Arab-Muslim slave traders and their African captives in the Sahara, 19th century.
Freedman with an old horn used to call slaves photographed in Texas, 1939