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The Collis Viminalis: Subura Villa of Senex Caecilius

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Macellum

The central market of Rome was originally located in the Subura or its environs.

It was the censor Marcus Fulvius Nobilitor who built a macellum on the north side of the basilica Aemilia in 179 BC. According to Livy, he contracted to build a fish market, and it was surrounded by shops which he sold for private use. To make room for the basilica Aemilia, which he also built, Fulvius may have appropriated the land where a previous market was located and felt compelled to build a new one. The location of Rome's market building changed over time, but it was originally situated in an area of the Subura that Martial called primae fauces. It is fairly easy to identify a macellum from its design: a ring of shops surrounds a square courtyard that contains a tholos in the middle. (A tholos is a round structure, usually built upon a low podium, with a ring of columns that supports a domed roof.) Only three such macella are attested for Rome in classical literary sources, and none of them has survived. However, the layout of the market in Pompeii, as seen on the left, is well preserved.

Before Fulvius constructed the first market building, the word macellum referred to various vendor stalls in an open area, but Varro makes it clear that for him, the word denoted the building itself, not just its function: "After all these things which pertain to human sustenance had been brought into one place, and the place had been built upon, it was called a macellum." Apparently Fulvius tried to implement the Hellenistic idea of separating the buying and selling of foodstuffs from the other functions of the Forum.

The form of the macellum appears to have had no precusors; perhaps it just replicated the old market ground plan in a permanent building. However, it remained fairly consistent in its design until the end of the Empire, so the needs of both the buyers and the sellers must have been well understood and incorporated into it. The macellum could be entered either through gates on all four sides or through some of the shops themselves. Most of the shops, or tabernae, were all the same size or two together. (The shops for butchers were together in one area of the building where they were provided with marble counters, presumably to keep the meat cooler, and drains for the removal of water and fluid wastes.) In some cases, all the tabernae faced inward onto the courtyard, but in other cases, there is an additional row that faces outward onto the surrounding streets. A distinguishing feature of a macellum was a water feature in the center of the courtyard. It was typically a tholos provided with water and drains to serve as a fish market, but some macella had a water fountain instead. Also, there was likely a place within the market building where official weights and measures were located as well as as shrines to the market gods.

NOTA BENE: The management of the macellum seeks prospective shop owners: butchers, poulterers, fishmongers, greengrocers, beekeepers, fruiterers, vintners, dairymen, spice traders, grain merchants, oil sellers, cheese vendors, sausage makers, and related provisioners, purveyors, and hawkers. If you would like to open a shop in the market, please contact Senex Caecilius at his domus. Non-subscribing citizens are welcome!

Here are a few resources for additional information about the market buildings in ancient Rome.

An entry in Platner's A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome gives a few facts about the first market building in Rome.

A second entry in Platner's dictionary concerns the Macellum Liviae, the market building on the Esquiline that Augustus named after his wife and Tiberius dedicated in 7 BC.

A third entry in Platner's dictionary concerns the Macellum Magnum, the two-storied market building on the Caelian which Nero built and dedicated in AD 59.

A PDF file allows a comprehensive article about Rome's markets to be downloaded and read with Acrobat® Reader.

A website about buildings depicted on Roman coins provides the obverse and reverse sides of several coins showing the macellum.

An article about the mensa ponderaria has a photo of the table of measures discovered in Pompeii.

For all your baked goods, Senex recommends the nearby pistrinum called Panis Primis, the best in the Subura. Tell Galba that Senex sent you!

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photos courtesy of VRoma and permission of Markus Cassiporis