ABSTRACT
Spanning the length of an entire insula and boasting not one but two euripi, the House of Octavius Quartio (Figure 4.1) can be seen as a quintessential example of aspirational villa architecture in an urban context (Zanker 1979: 470-80; Clarke 1991: 22-5, 193-207). e site was initially excavated by Vittorio Spinazzola in 1918-21, with subsequent work by Amedeo Maiuri (Spinazzola 1953, I; Maiuri 1935, 1947). During this excavation the house was identified with the spurious Loreius Tiburtinus on the basis of an image of an Isiac priest in one of the rooms, underneath which was written the nearly illegible inscription ‘Amplus Alumnus Tiburs (illustrious disciple Tibur)’ (Della Corte 1931-32: 192). Matteo Della Corte connected this inscription to graffiti on the walls of the Via dell’Abbondanza referring to the wealthy and venerable Tiburtii (Della Corte 1931-32: 184-6). is attribution is at best chimerical, for although there is inscriptional evidence for the Loreii and Tiburtii families in Pompeii, there is none for a conjoined cognomen of Loreius Tiburtinus (Castrén 1975: 184, 229; Allison 2001: 186). In addition, another possible reading of the inscription gives us ‘Amulius Faventius Tiburs (Amulius of the gens Faventius, from Tibur)’, which further undermines the house’s association with a Loreius Tiburtinus (Clarke 1991: 196-7). Accordingly, the house is usually identified as the property of one D. Octavius Quartio whose seal bearing that name was discovered in the eastern shop at the front of the house, although this kind of evidence does not constitute a definitive attribution (as will be seen in the House of the Menander).
