A CENTRAL CONCERN OF THE PRECEDING CHAPTERS HAS BEEN THE relationship between the street and the buildings that faced it: in other words, the exterior and the interior. We have seen this dialogue manifested socially, as façades functioned as outward showpieces that sought to impact urban residents while also offering, in return, a stage where aggrieved streetgoers could reply through acts, scrawled words, or song. Part and parcel of the discourse has been architecture, as façades mediated between a property and the thoroughfare, at times opening shops interiors to the passing crowds and at other times guarding what lay within. This chapter continues such a dialectical inquiry between exterior and interior but expands its scope by considering the city of Pompeii, its street system and urban social dynamics, as a whole. It does so, however, by concentrating on one seemingly ephemeral form of Pompeii's urban environment – the streetside benches that stood along building fronts and were available for the public to sit upon.

Streetside benches constituted a significant urban phenomenon. In the excavated portions of Pompeii, at least 100 benches fronted 69 different properties (Plate I). Rectangular in form and constructed using many masonry techniques, the benches typically measure approximately 0.4 meters in height and depth, while their lengths vary from less than a meter to nearly 10 meters. Some stood flush against building façades (Figs. 39, 44, 53, 54); others were tucked into corners where one building projects further than another (what I call “indented,” Fig. 60); a smaller group was situated against the walls of recessed areas open to the street (thus “subsumed” within properties, Fig. 61). Stone benches were not alone in offering Pompeians places to perch, since spots such as temple steps could have served as improvised seats. Moreover, frescoes from the Praedia of Julia Felix show scenes of life in the forum, including what appear to be wooden stools and benches supporting five figures: a salesman of metal tools and four women in front of a sandal maker. Such furniture undoubtedly lined the streets on occasion as well, yet it is now largely lost to us.