The so-called Macellum, traditionally interpreted as a meat market (though recent studies have queried this function) is located near one of the city’s main crossroads.

It develops around a courtyard whose walls belong mainly to the mid-2^nd century AD.

The paving and the central basin, made of reused marble, belong to a later phase (4^th century AD), as do the podium with a colonnade at the end of the courtyard and the connected façade with niches, perhaps a nymphaeum.

Proposed reconstruction of the façade on the Decumanus (C. Buonomini, L. Valentini)

Statue of a putto riding a dolphin found in the Macellum

The Macellum is accessed from the Decumanus through an entrance with columns at the sides of which, in the first half of the 3^rd century AD, two tabernae (shops) were created, provided with counters for selling fish and marble basins.

The left-hand room preserves a mosaic depicting a dolphin eating a squid, with the inscription “inbide te calco” (“envious creature, I trample you”), as it was thought that dolphins disrupted fishing.

Detail of the mosaic in one of the tabernae (shops)