The painted red strip around the outside of Roman Buildings

[Octavianvs]

OK we have grahams pic that shows the dirt on the wall. the red strip would make it less noticeable and probably easier to clean. Why did it go higher? From the pic you can see that the dirt line is at least knee high and this is just from the rain alone coming from th eroof. Now add thousands of people and vehicles and animals treading through the city and you will see a higher dirt line that combined with in some areas at least refuse being thrown from the upper floors ( I remember reading this from one of the writers of the day as to his dislike of the city and moved to the country cant think of his name right now I want to say ither pliny or cicero ) this would probably double the height of teh dirt on the wall. Certainly some splashes would get a little higher so the paint is moved a littl efurther up. we typically think of red due to th epompeji walls I would imagine that the colour would depend on the darkness of the filth needing to be not seen noticbly on th ewall until it can be cleaned. This brings us to Grahams - Posted: 08 Aug 2008 18:29
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Hi
I can add that when I was in Tunisia a few years ago I noticed that traditional Butcher's shops, which looked almost similar to Pompeian shops, also had a dark pink red band. Some other shops were painted with a pale blue band. Continuity perhaps?

Graham.
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Graham could the pink be a faded red? or perhaps this pigmentation was easier/more readily available for them to produce. Also th ecolour differances I think was very probable during roman times. The romans love of colour I seriously doubt that they would have painted everything everywhere the same colour. Obviously the colour would not be a lighter colour when a darker was need I also wonder how much was personal taste as to colour as much as nessisity?

As far as Tunis goes it seems like some of what was in ancient rome has survived throughout the old eastern empire. Turkish bath the medical knowledge that had been in east that the crusaders talked about seemed to be very much like ancient roman and now the painted wall i think Graham could very well be right in that is is something that simply never went away.