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The John Batchelor Show

S8 Ep250: PREVIEW Guest: Emma Southon. Southon profiles Julia Felix, a Pompeian business owner who defied Roman gender norms by independently running a sophisticated entertainment complex. Featuring "bougie" baths, bars, and apartments, her establishment catered to

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

Society & Culture, Arts, News, Books

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 26 December 2025

⏱️ 4 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

PREVIEW Guest: Emma Southon. Southon profiles Julia Felix, a Pompeian business owner who defied Romangender norms by independently running a sophisticated entertainment complex. Featuring "bougie" baths, bars, and apartments, her establishment catered to those seeking luxury near the amphitheater, illustrating how archaeological evidence contradicts written claims about women's lack of financial autonomy.
1850 POMPEII

Transcript

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0:00.0

There's no better feeling than waking up surrounded by comfort from Dunelm, the home of your kind of cosy.

0:08.0

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0:15.0

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0:22.7

little as two hours. The home of your kind of cozy, Denelm. The home of homes. This is John

0:31.0

Bachelor. The second part of my conversation with Emma Southern, her book A Rome of One's Own, the

0:37.3

forgotten women of the Roman Empire.

0:39.5

This time, Julia Felix, a entrepreneur, small business owner in Pompey.

0:45.7

She lost her life with the Vesuvius explosion.

0:49.5

We believe that we found her body inside her complex.

0:53.7

But Emma's describing what you could say was a

0:57.3

high-end restaurant for those who were not rich but wanted to spend a night being rich. This is

1:04.0

Emma Southern, Julia Felix, though women of the Roman Empire were said to not be able to own property or take care of their

1:13.4

own affairs, they always had to assign into a father or brother and uncle, a husband.

1:18.5

Julia Felix is alone and runs this establishment, a beautiful establishment that's there in Pompey

1:23.9

today. Emma Southern on Julia Felix, nearly 2,000 years gone. I think it's more

1:31.6

commonplace than the written sources would allow you to believe. When you look at archaeology,

1:37.0

you find women running all kinds of businesses, being involved in life, in their own right,

1:46.1

in public life, in their own right, in public life in their own right,

1:47.0

all over.

1:51.9

And Pompeii is one of these places where we can see what kind of small businesses looks like.

1:56.9

Julia Felix runs this entertainment complex. Basically, it has a bar that people can visit visit which she says are fitted for the well to do

2:05.5

so they're kind of bougie baths and then she has a hot food restaurant she has gardens

...

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