Imagine waking up in Pompeii, 2000 years ago - what does your day have in store? What's it like to live and work here? Maybe you'll spend the day trampling clothes in the laundry, up to your ankles in human urine to bleach the togas, or perhaps you're working in the notorious ‘wolf's den' or brothel, having to satisfy the man who the ancient graffiti tells us was known as ‘Mr Garlic Farts', or maybe you're a wealthy landowner, living in luxury and checking the accounts of your lush vineyards.
In this first episode, Dan Snow and Kate Lister explore the working lives of Pompeii's people, from the very rich to the very poor. The town was a buzzing hive of activity as almost everyone, from wealthy merchants to lowly slaves, was busy making a living. Archaeologists have discovered more than 30 bakeries, hairdressers, pubs, places to buy dinner plates and lamps, shops selling everything from wine to oil, ship supplies and hardware. We even have the names of some of the tradespeople, like Nigella, the public pig keeper who kept her hogs right in the centre of Pompeii.
The Pompeii working day wasn't 9-5. Dan discovers that many Pompeii people had two sleeps - getting up in the middle of the night to do some extra work before falling back into bed again. Others woke in the early hours to feed the city. Kate visits a perfectly preserved bakery where workers laboured in suffocating heat and flour-choked air, alongside donkeys turning the millstones. The job was so horrific that criminals were often sent to work here as a punishment.
Pompeii could only operate on the backs of slaves. Thirty percent of the workforce were enslaved, from household slaves to sex-workers and gladiators. Surprisingly, some people doing what we might think of as well-paid ‘professional' jobs – the teachers, accountants, medics, and estate agents – were often slaves too. We explore Pompeii's large slave market, where men, women, and children were sold - ancient accounts show that a human could be bought for the price of three mules.
But there was a glimmer of hope for everyone. Working hard and wheeling and dealing in Pompeii could make you rich. With luck and ambition, even former slaves could rise as traders. Kate explores the lavish house of the Vettii brothers, believed to be entrepreneurial ex-slaves who built the vast fortune that paid for this over-the-top luxury home, full of the latest styles in statues and paintings.
juil. 29, 2025
