In the Fabii hostel, one of the many "shopping lists" found in Pompei shows daily food purchases for nine days. From documents like this, we know that the basic necessities for survival, such a bread, oil, wine, cheese, fish and meat were very inexpensive and therefore affordable by everyone.
CIL IV 5380
The inscription records the small daily expenses made by a person who stayed in the hostelry over nine days.
Note the convenience of prices of basic necessities such as bread, oil, wine, cheese, sausage, fish and meat that ensured survival even to the more disadvantaged. For example, the recurrence of the item bread for the slave appears as the only food obligations for a servant.
The mystery is yet unsolved for the figure of the tamer who is given a substantial amount of wine one day and fish another.
"Shopping lists" which were found in Pompeii in various places of the city (i.e. CIL IV 4000, 4422, 5380, 8561 etc.) clearly suggest that costs of basic food necessities were very low, affordable to everyone and probably controlled for this purpose. This was to avoid unhealthy conflicts that could lead to the loss of control of the huge mass of the poor in a small economy that had as its reference point the as and the sestertius.
Already by the Republican era the historical sources testify to the crazy amounts that the Roman aristocracy was able to spend on luxury goods, property or even on the organization of a "Lucullus-style" dinner, or the purchase of the biggest mullet on offer at the market.
This was the direct relationship with the equally incredible riches which came to Rome from all over the world, and it is no surprise that Lucullus, for example, spent on organizing a dinner, the equivalent of the annual salary of a grand-commis of the imperial bureaucracy, equal to around 100,000 sestertii, or 400,000 asses.
Special Superintendence for the Archaeological Heritage of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae official site
Naples National Archaeological Museum official site
Italian Numismatic Portal, Virtual showcases of the Archaeological Museum of Naples Coin and Medal Collection
Italian Numismatic Portal, Notiziario n. 1-2013. Archaeological Museum of Naples Coin and Medal Collection
Italian Numismatic Portal, Notiziario n. 2-2013. Archaeological Museum of Naples Coin and Medal Collection
Italian Numismatic Portal, Notiziario n. 5-2014. Superintendence for the Archaeological Heritage of Naples, Archaeological Museum of Naples Coin and Medal Collection