This as an appealing advertising element is used in an original manner in the Suburban Baths, the building brought back to light outside of Porta Marina. The monument is divided into two floors.
On the lower are the thermal rooms while on the upper floor are three apartments that were for lease and enjoyed a splendid view of the coastline.
The first thermal room served as an #apodyterium (a changing room). On its southern wall was uncovered a group of eight erotic scenes. Right underneath them were just as many rectangular elements, similar to boxes.
The erotic scenes on a yellow background show a certain attention in their realization, with the use of shadings and shades, they appear more of a bill than those found in the lupanare: among them, in addition to a naked poet, the only testimony, in Roman painting, a fresco depicting the ѕᴇхᴜɑʟvrelationship between two women.
Numbers progressing from I through VIII were added on each box. On the eastern wall, there still is part of another eight boxes marked with the numbers going from IX through XVI.
The erotic scenes connected with them, however, were lost due to the collapse of the plaster during the eruption. The boxes, most likely, depicted containers that really existed in the rooms, where clients would put their clothing away prior to starting their bathing experience.
In the apodyterium, there was a shelf where some boxes, marked by the same numerical sequence as on the fresco, were placed; so that it was possible to put the boxes away on the shelf by using the numbers marked on the fresco as the reference.
The numbers, then, had the double function of numbering both the boxes and the erotic scenes, in a sort of lighthearted relationship so that each numbered container coincided with an erotic scene, itself being numbered as well.
The role of these squares is not clear: they could have a purely ornamental and playful purpose, or they had the aim of showing the ѕᴇхᴜɑʟvperformances that were carried out in a secret lupanar in the rooms on the upper floor, a stratagem used not to incur criminal penalties. This hypothesis is also confirmed by an inscription found near Porta Marina which read:
«Si quis hic sederit, legat hoc ante omnia: si qui futuere volet, Atticen quaereret» (LAT)
«Whoever sits here, read this announcement first of all: if by chance you want to fuck, go look for Attice» (ENG)