The apartment building is seven stories high, although only the three stories above the shops are visible in the painting. You can only see a little more than one-half of one side of the building. There are five shops visible; eight altogether on this street. On the viewer’s far left is a barbershop. To the right is an apothecary. If you look closely, you can see a staircase against the back wall. Most shop owners slept right above their shops. To the right is a cloth seller and to the right of that a shop selling votive offerings. To the right of that is a an entryway that leads into the courtyard. On the other side of that is a butcher shop. This is a very complex composition, so we will point out just two scenes within the painting. First scene: coming down the side street to our left of the barbershop is a senator and his entourage. He is on his way to a law court in the forum. He is accompanied by clients and slaves. There are also bodyguards. On the building to the senator’s right is a boy on a ladder erasing some vulgar graffiti that refers to the senator. What it says is not nice. Second scene: up on the balcony of the Insula Marcia, under an awning, a class is being held. A Grammaticus is teaching a class of boys logic and public speaking. The Grammaticus is also the owner of the building, which is located near the foot of the Capitoline hill. You can see the columns of the Temple of Juno Moneta at the summit. The apartment building, Insula Marcia, got its name from the Aqua Marcia, an aqueduct that feeds the fountain near the barbershop. This aqueduct has some of the cleanest, coolest and best tasting water in the city.