Venereum (after goddess

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...

) was an element of ancient

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

private apartments found particularly in

Pompeii Pompeii (, ) was an ancient city located in what is now the ''comune'' of Pompei near Naples in the Campania region of Italy. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area (e.g. at Boscoreale, Stabiae), was buried ...

. It was originally interpreted as a specialized apartment or room dedicated to sexual activities. One venereum was found in the

House of Julia Felix The House of Julia Felix, also referred to as the ''praedia'' (Latin for an estate, or land) of Julia Felix, is a large Roman property on the Via dell'Abbondanza in the city of Pompeii. It was originally the residence of Julia Felix, who conver ...

and another one in the

House of Sallust The House of Sallust (also known in earlier excavation reports as the ''House of Actaeon'') was an elite residence (''domus'') in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii and among the most sumptuous of the city. The oldest parts of the house have be ...

, both in Pompeii. In the latter house, the venereum was a garden with several separate rooms. A

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

inscription in the House of Julia Felix reports that "on the estate of Julia Felix... a venereum", among other things, was "to be let for a term of five continuous years, from the first to the sixth of the

Ides Ides or IDES may refer to: Calendar dates * Ides (calendar), a day in the Roman calendar that fell roughly in the middle of the month. In March, May, July, and October it was the 15th day of the month; in other months it was the 13th. **Ides of Mar ...

of August". The accompanying abbreviation SQDLENC is conjectured to stand for "Si quis domi lenocinium exerceat ne conducito" ("Let no one apply who keeps a

brothel A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub par ...

"). The venereum in the House of Sallustius included a bedchamber, a

triclinium A ''triclinium'' (plural: ''triclinia'') is a formal dining room in a Roman building. The word is adopted from the Greek ()—from (), "three", and (), a sort of couch or rather chaise longue. Each couch was sized to accommodate a diner who ...

and a

lararium Lares ( , ; archaic , singular ''Lar'') were guardian deities in ancient Roman religion. Their origin is uncertain; they may have been hero-ancestors, guardians of the hearth, fields, boundaries, or fruitfulness, or an amalgam of these. Lares ...

References

{{reflist Ancient Roman architecture Latin words and phrases Sexuality in ancient Rome Pompeii (ancient city)