Standing at the intersection of two main streets, the forum was the key open public space in Pompeii, says Current Archaeology magazine. The buildings around it housed the city's public administration. You can view the remains of the large administrative building which was originally decorated with large statues. The large rooms would have held meetings of the administrators and housed the city's legal archive, while the "Comitium" witnessed large public meetings.
Current Archaeology magazine calls the area including the Triangular Forum, Doric temple, theaters and gladiators' barracks a kind of leisure complex for the city. Following a large earthquake in 62 A.D., gladiators trained in the area behind the Large Theater. You can view their small cubicles around the outer walls of the courtyard where they did their training. Eighteenth-century archaeologists discovered skeletons, helmets and richly decorated bronze weapons in this area.
The nearby Large Theater took advantage of the natural shape of the land to create an arena where about 5,000 people could watch theatrical performances. The stage and its backdrop are decorated with statues and carved marbles.
A stroll down the Via dell'Abbondanza and its side streets allows you to get a glimpse into everyday Roman life. The House of Venus Marina is famous for the beautiful image of a lush garden painted on one of its inner walls. The Thermopolium of Vetutius Placidus, meanwhile, was a snack bar where residents could buy hot food and drinks, particularly popular at lunchtime. In the Thermopolium you can still see the decorative lararium, a sort of shrine to the gods that would have been common in homes and businesses.
In the northern part of Pompeii you can view the house of the surgeon, so-called because of the surgical instruments--including catheters, scalpels and gynecological forceps--discovered there. This house also features both earlier "first style" and later "fourth style" wall paintings, the latter painted only a few years before the town was buried by the eruption of Vesuvius. This area of the town also includes the Herculean Gate cemetery. In Roman times, cemeteries had to be located outside city walls by law.
