A Brief History of Timeshare II: Pompeii

By Richard Heacock • Jul 15th, 2008 • Category: Opinion, Richard Heacock

“With miles of shimmering sunkissed beaches, easy access to Naples International Port (served by Ryangalley and Rowbe) and breathtaking views of a quaint, non-active volcano, the twin resorts of Pompeii and Herculaneum offer an unmissable opportunity for the shrewd Roman investor. Tired of conquering Gaul? Looking for something to do with all that hard-earned Legionnaire’s pay? Look no further! The new Vesuvius Heights © Development (scheduled for completion by summer AD 79) offers fully-furnished townhouse apartments and out-of-town villas, starting at just 125,000 sesterces. This is prime investment material, and in just a few years, we guarantee it’ll be red-hot!” (Latin inscription found at Pompeii)

Well, it might have been. In the first century AD, the Bay of Naples was the Florida of the Roman empire. Battle-weary generals and overworked senators would flock from Rome to this tourist hotspot for its entertainment (feeding Christians to lions,) watersports (pushing Chrisitians off galleys) and nightlife (pushing Christians off galleys, at night.) We know all this thanks to the Pliny family. The Plinys had a place across the bay at Misenum, and spent most summers there. Pliny the Youger was a great letter-writer, and his surviving letters give a detailed account of life, business, architecture and even garden-design in one of the world’s first purpose-built holiday resorts.

What about the earth-tremors? Well, yes, they did occur every couple of years, but the worst that tended to happen was a few roof-tiles falling off and killing a slave, so nobody paid them much attention. Property development continued apace and more and more luxury villas went up beside the shimmering sunkissed sands and the shimmering sunkissed volcano. Then, in AD 62, disaster.

No, not the one you’re thinking of - an earthquake. Half of Pompeii was seriously damaged, including the vast townhouse of Julia Felix. Julia Felix wasn’t a folk singer, she was a property heiress, who responded to the natural disaster with history’s first fractional ownership scheme. Problem #1 she couldn’t afford all the repairs on her house. Problem #2 there were lots of wealthy but suddenly homeless Pompeiians. Solution: Julia repaired the least-damaged part of her house, divided it into apartments and sold them. With the proceeds, she gradually transformed her former house (it was very big) into a condominium complex, complete with shops, taverns, more apartments and public baths. You can visit the House of Julia Felix today, and some of Julia’s promotional material has survived in the form of an inscription, which boasts that her shared swimming pool is “good enough for Venus.”

OK, now for the one you’re thinking of - the eruption of Vesuvius on 24th August AD 79. The runaway success of Julia Felix Towers™ was cut short, as those who could, er, ran away. Just about everything else in Pompeii was cut short that day, including the House of the Faun, the House of the Vettii and the Villa of Mysteries. Whilst there’s no hard evidence to suggest that these magnificent villas were timeshare properties, there’s none to suggest that they weren’t, and that’s good enough for me. What we do know is that they were decorated with extremely rude murals. So rude, in fact, that King Francis I of Naples had them removed in 1819 to a secret room at the National Museum, to be viewed only by “people of mature age and respected morals”. If that applies to you, go see.