HOUSE OF THE TRAGIC POET-REGIO VI, House Of The Tragic Poet-Regio Vi

The House of the Tragic Poet is not named after its owner, Publius Aninius, but after a mosaic found on the floor of his study.

This work, in fact, depicts actors preparing to stage a tragedy. The genre of the performance can be guessed from the type of masks placed on the floor near the actors.

What you are about to visit is a classic Roman domus, with an elegant atrium, preceded by a short corridor along which open the doors to two workshops connected to the house. Around the atrium are several rooms, including the tablinium of Publius Aninius, where the man received customers. Then there is the peristyle with a beautiful inner garden, surrounded on three sides by a colonnaded portico, with a small, elegant sacred shrine, the lararium. Under the portico are rooms reserved for the family, while a mock garden has been painted on the back wall of the peristyle.

All the rooms are very colorful, richly painted with mythological scenes and episodes from the Iliad. The predominant colors are yellow ochre and red on the walls....