Chapter 1

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THE WONDERS OF POMPEII.

BY

MARC MONNIER.

TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL FRENCH.

NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER & CO., 654 BROADWAY. 1871.

=Illustrated Library of Wonders.=

PUBLISHED BY

Messrs. Charles Scribner & Co.,

654 BROADWAY, NEW YORK.

Each one volume 12mo, Price per volume $1.50

* * * * *

Titles of books. No. of Illustrations

THUNDER AND LIGHTNING, 89 WONDERS OF OPTICS, 70 WONDERS OF HEAT, 90 INTELLIGENCE OF ANIMALS, 54 GREAT HUNTS, 22 EGYPT 3,300 YEARS AGO, 40 WONDERS OF POMPEII, 22 THE SUN, BY A. GUILLEMIN, 58 SUBLIME IN NATURE, 50 WONDERS OF GLASS-MAKING, 63 WONDERS OF ITALIAN ART, 28 WONDERS OF THE HUMAN BODY, 45 WONDERS OF ARCHITECTURE, 50 LIGHTHOUSES AND LIGHTSHIPS, 60 BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN, 68 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL, 70 WONDERFUL BALLON ASCENTS, 80 ACOUSTICS, 114 WONDERS OF THE HEAVENS, 48 * THE MOON, BY A. GUILLEMIN, 60 * WONDERS OF SCULPTURE, 61 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING, 32 * WONDERS OF VEGETATION, 45 * WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD, 97 * CELEBRATED ESCAPES, 26 * WATER, 77 * HYDRAULICS, 40 * ELECTRICITY, 71 * SUBTERRANEAN WORLDS, 27

* In Press for early publication

_The above works sent to any address, post paid, upon receipt of the price by the publishers._

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Facing page

Recent Excavations Made at Pompeii in 1860, under the Direction of the Inspector, Signor Fiorelli 25

The Rubbish Trucks Going up Empty 30

Clearing out a Narrow Street in Pompeii 33

Plan of Vesuvius 39

The Forum 42

Discovery of Loaves Baked 1800 Years Ago, in the oven of a Baker 84

Closed House, with a Balcony, Recently Discovered 87

The Nola Gate at Pompeii 96

The Herculaneum Gate Restored 99

The Tepidarium, at the Thermæ 126

The Atrium of the House of Pansa Restored 138

Candelabra, Trinkets, and Kitchen Utensils Found at Pompeii 148

Kitchen Utensils found at Pompeii 150

Earthenware and Bronze Lamps Found at Pompeii 154

Collar, Ring, Bracelet, and Ear-rings Found at Pompeii 158

Peristyle of the House of Quæstor, at Pompeii 167

The House of Lucretius 169

The Exædra of the House of the Poet 185

The Exædra of the House of the Poet--Second View 189

The Smaller Theatre at Pompeii 206

The Amphitheatre at Pompeii 220

Bodies of Pompeians Cast in the Ashes of the Eruption 239

CONTENTS.

I.

THE EXHUMED CITY. Page The Antique Landscape.--The History of Pompeii Before and After its Destruction.--How it was Buried and Exhumed.--Winkelmann as a Prophet.--The Excavations in the Reign of Charles III., of Murat, and of Ferdinand.--The Excavations as they now are.--Signor Fiorelli.--Appearance of the Ruins.--What is and What is not found there. 13

II.

THE FORUM.

Diomed's Inn.--The Niche of Minerva.--The Appearance and The Monuments of the Forum.--The Antique Temple.--The Pagan ex-Voto Offerings.--The Merchants' City Exchange and the Petty Exchange.--The Pantheon, or was it a Temple, a Slaughter-house, or a Tavern?--The Style of Cooking, and the Form of Religion.--The Temple of Venus.--The Basilica.--The Inscriptions of Passers-by upon the Walls.--The Forum Rebuilt. 37

III.

THE STREET.

The Plan of Pompeii.--The Princely Names of the Houses.--Appearance of the Streets, Pavements, Sidewalks, etc.--The Shops and the Signs.--The Perfumer, the Surgeon, etc.--An Ancient Manufactory.--Bathing Establishments.--Wine-shops, Disreputable Resorts.--Hanging Balconies, Fountains.--Public Placards: Let us Nominate Battur! Commit no Nuisance!--Religion on the Street. 67

IV.

THE SUBURBS.

The Custom House.--The Fortifications and the Gates,--The Roman Highways.--The Cemetery of Pompeii.--Funerals: the Procession, the funeral Pyre, the Day of the Dead.--The Tombs and their Inscriptions.--Perpetual Leases.--Burial of the Rich, of Animals, and of the Poor.--The Villas of Diomed and Cicero. 93

V.

THE THERMÆ.

The Hot Baths at Rome.--The Thermæ of Stabiæ.--A Tilt at Sun Dials.--A Complete Bath, as the Ancients Considered It: the Apartments, the Slaves, the Unguents, the Strigillæ.--A Saying of the Emperor Hadrian.--The Baths for Women.--The Reading Room.--The Roman Newspaper.--The Heating-Apparatus. 120

VI.

THE DWELLINGS.

Paratus and Pansa.--The Atrium and the Peristyle.--The Dwelling Refurnished and Repeopled.--The Slaves, the Kitchen, and the Table.--The Morning Occupations of a Pompeian.--The Toilet of a Pompeian Lady.--A Citizen Supper: the Courses, the Guests.--The Homes of the Poor, and the Palaces of Rome. 135

VII.

ART IN POMPEII.

The Homes of the Wealthy.--The Triangular Forum and the Temples.--Pompeian Architecture: Its Merits and its Defects.--The Artists of the Little City.--The Paintings here.--Landscapes, Figures, Rope-dancers, Dancing-girls, Centaurs, Gods, Heroes, the Iliad Illustrated.--Mosaics.--Statues and Statuettes.--Jewelry.--Carved Glass.--Art and Life. 167

VIII.

THE THEATRES.

The Arrangement of the Places of Amusement.--Entrance Tickets.--The Velarium, the Orchestra, the Stage.--The Odeon.--The Holconii.--The Side Scenes, the Masks.--The Atellan Farces.--The Mimes.--Jugglers, etc.--A Remark of Cicero on the Melodramas.--The Barrack of the Gladiators.--Scratched Inscriptions, Instruments of Torture.--The Pompeian Gladiators.--The Amphitheatre: Hunts, Combats, Butcheries, etc. 199

IX.

THE ERUPTION.

The Deluge of Ashes.--The Deluge of Fire.--The Flight of the Pompeians.--The Preoccupations of the Pompeian Women.--The Victims: the Family of Diomed; the Sentinel; the Woman Walled up in a Tomb; the Priest of Isis; the Lovers clinging together, etc.--The Skeletons.--The Dead Bodies moulded by Vesuvius. 232

DIALOGUE.

(IN A BOOKSTORE AT NAPLES.)

A TRAVELLER (_entering_).--Have you any work on Pompeii?

THE SALESMAN.--Yes; we have several. Here, for instance, is Bulwer's "Last Days of Pompeii."

TRAVELLER.--Too thoroughly romantic.

SALESMAN.--Well, here are the folios of Mazois.

TRAVELLER.--Too heavy.

SALESMAN.--Here's Dumas's "Corricolo."

TRAVELLER.--Too light.

SALESMAN.--How would Nicolini's magnificent work suit you?

TRAVELLER.--Oh! that's too dear.

SALESMAN.--Here's Commander Aloë's "Guide."

TRAVELLER.--That's too dry.

SALESMAN.--Neither dry, nor romantic, nor light, nor heavy! What, then, would you have, sir?

TRAVELLER.--A small, portable work; accurate, conscientious, and within everybody's reach.

SALESMAN.--Ah, sir, we have nothing of that kind; besides, it is impossible to get up such a work.

THE AUTHOR (_aside_).--Who knows?

THE

WONDERS OF POMPEII.

I.

THE EXHUMED CITY.

THE ANTIQUE LANDSCAPE--THE HISTORY OF POMPEII BEFORE AND AFTER ITS DESTRUCTION.--HOW IT WAS BURIED AND EXHUMED.--WINKELMANN AS A PROPHET.--THE EXCAVATIONS IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES III., OF MURAT, AND OF FERDINAND.--THE EXCAVATIONS AS THEY NOW ARE.--SIGNOR FIORELLI.--APPEARANCE OF THE RUINS.--WHAT IS AND WHAT IS NOT FOUND THERE.

A railroad runs from Naples to Pompeii. Are you alone? The trip occupies one hour, and you have just time enough to read what follows, pausing once in a while to glance at Vesuvius and the sea; the clear, bright waters hemmed in by the gentle curve of the promontories; a bluish coast that approaches and becomes green; a green coast that withdraws into the distance and becomes blue; Castellamare looming up, and Naples receding. All these lines and colors existed too at the time when Pompeii was destroyed: the island of Prochyta, the cities of Baiæ, of Bauli, of Neapolis, and of Surrentum bore the names that they retain. Portici was called Herculaneum; Torre dell'Annunziata was called Oplontes; Castellamare, Stabiæ; Misenum and Minerva designated the two extremities of the gulf. However, Vesuvius was not what it has become; fertile and wooded almost to the summit, covered with orchards and vines, it must have resembled the picturesque heights of Monte San Angelo, toward which we are rolling. The summit alone, honeycombed with caverns and covered with black stones, betrayed to the learned a volcano "long extinct." It was to blaze out again, however, in a terrible eruption; and, since then, it has constantly flamed and smoked, menacing the ruins it has made and the new cities that brave it, calmly reposing at its feet.

What do you expect to find at Pompeii? At a distance, its antiquity seems enormous, and the word "ruins" awakens colossal conceptions in the excited fancy of the traveller. But, be not self-deceived; that is the first rule in knocking about over the world. Pompeii was a small city of only thirty thousand souls; something like what Geneva was thirty years ago. Like Geneva, too, it was marvellously situated--in the depth of a picturesque valley between mountains shutting in the horizon on one side, at a few steps from the sea and from a streamlet, once a river, which plunges into it--and by its charming site attracted personages of distinction, although it was peopled chiefly with merchants and others in easy circumstances; shrewd, prudent folk, and probably honest and clever enough, as well. The etymologists, after having exhausted, in their lexicons, all the words that chime in sound with Pompeii, have, at length, agreed in deriving the name from a Greek verb which signifies _to send, to transport_, and hence they conclude that many of the Pompeians were engaged in exportation, or perhaps, were emigrants sent from a distance to form a colony. Yet these opinions are but conjectures, and it is useless to dwell on them.

All that can be positively stated is that the city was the entrepôt of the trade of Nola, Nocera, and Atella. Its port was large enough to receive a naval armament, for it sheltered the fleet of P. Cornelius. This port, mentioned by certain authors, has led many to believe that the sea washed the walls of Pompeii, and some guides have even thought they could discover the rings that once held the cables of the galleys. Unfortunately for this idea, at the place which the imagination of some of our contemporaries covered with salt water, there were one day discovered the vestiges of old structures, and it is now conceded that Pompeii, like many other seaside places, had its harbor at a distance. Our little city made no great noise in history. Tacitus and Seneca speak of it as celebrated, but the Italians of all periods have been fond of superlatives. You will find some very old buildings in it, proclaiming an ancient origin, and Oscan inscriptions recalling the antique language of the country. When the Samnites invaded the whole of Campania, as though to deliver it over more easily to Rome, they probably occupied Pompeii, which figured in the second Samnite war, B.C. 310, and which, revolting along with the entire valley of the Sarno from Nocera to Stabiæ, repulsed an incursion of the Romans and drove them back to their vessels. The third Samnite war was, as is well known, a bloody vengeance for this, and Pompeii became Roman. Although the yoke of the conquerors was not very heavy--the _municipii_, retaining their Senate, their magistrates, their _comitiæ_ or councils, and paying a tribute of men only in case of war--the Samnite populations, clinging frantically to the idea of a separate and independent existence, rose twice again in revolt; once just after the battle of Cannæ, when they threw themselves into the arms of Hannibal, and then against Sylla, one hundred and twenty-four years later--facts that prove the tenacity of their resistance. On both occasions Pompeii was retaken, and the second time partly dismantled and occupied by a detachment of soldiers, who did not long remain there. And thus we have the whole history of this little city. The Romans were fond of living there, and Cicero had a residence in the place, to which he frequently refers in his letters. Augustus sent thither a colony which founded the suburb of Augustus Felix, administered by a mayor. The Emperor Claudius also had a villa at Pompeii, and there lost one of his children, who perished by a singular mishap. The imperial lad was amusing himself, as the Neapolitan boys do to this day, by throwing pears up into the air and catching them in his mouth as they fell. One of the fruits choked him by descending too far into his throat. But the Neapolitan youngsters perform the feat with figs, which render it infinitely less dangerous.

We are, then, going to visit a small city subordinate to Rome, much less than Marseilles is to Paris, and a little more so than Geneva is to Berne. Pompeii had almost nothing to do with the Senate or the Emperor. The old tongue--the Oscan--had ceased to be official, and the authorities issued their orders in Latin. The residents of the place were Roman citizens, Rome being recognized as the capital and fatherland. The local legislation was made secondary to Roman legislation. But, excepting these reservations, Pompeii formed a little world, apart, independent, and complete in itself. She had a miniature Senate, composed of decurions; an aristocracy in epitome, represented by the _Augustales_, answering to knights; and then came her _plebs_ or common people. She chose her own pontiffs, convoked the comitiæ, promulged municipal laws, regulated military levies, collected taxes; in fine selected her own immediate rulers--her consuls (the duumvirs dispensing justice), her ediles, her quæstors, etc. Hence, it is not a provincial city that we are to survey, but a petty State which had preserved its autonomy within the unity of the Empire, and was, as has been cleverly said, a miniature of Rome.

Another circumstance imparts a peculiar interest to Pompeii. That city, which seemed to have no good luck, had been violently shaken by earthquake in the year B.C. 63. Several temples had toppled down along with the colonnade of the Forum, the great Basilica, and the theatres, without counting the tombs and houses. Nearly every family fled from the place, taking with them their furniture and their statuary; and the Senate hesitated a long time before they allowed the city to be rebuilt and the deserted district to be re-peopled. The Pompeians at last returned; but the decurions wished to make the restoration of the place a complete rejuvenation. The columns of the Forum speedily reappeared, but with capitals in the fashion of the day; the Corinthian-Roman order, adopted almost everywhere, changed the style of the monuments; the old shafts covered with stucco were patched up for the new topwork they were to receive, and the Oscan inscriptions disappeared. From all this there sprang great blunders in an artistic point of view, but a uniformity and consistency that please those who are fond of monuments and cities of one continuous derivation. Taste loses, but harmony gains thereby, and you pass in review a collective totality of edifices that bear their age upon their fronts, and give a very exact and vivid idea of what a _municeps_ a Roman colony must have been in the time of Vespasian.

They went to work, then, to rebuild the city, and the undertaking was pushed on quite vigorously, thanks to the contributions of the Pompeians, especially of the functionaries. The temples of Jupiter and of Venus--we adopt the consecrated names--and those of Isis and of Fortune, were already up; the theatres were rising again; the handsome columns of the Forum were ranging themselves under their porticoes; the residences were gay with brilliant paintings; work and pleasure had both resumed their activity; life hurried to and fro through the streets, and crowds thronged the amphitheatre, when, all at once, burst forth the terrible eruption of 79. I will describe it further on; but here simply recall the fact that it buried Pompeii under a deluge of stones and ashes. This re-awakening of the volcano destroyed three cities, without counting the villages, and depopulated the country in the twinkling of an eye.

After the catastrophe, however, the inhabitants returned, and made the first excavations in order to recover their valuables; and robbers, too--we shall surprise them in the very act--crept into the subterranean city. It is a fact that the Emperor Titus for a moment entertained the idea of clearing and restoring it, and with that view sent two Senators to the spot, intrusted with the mission of making the first study of the ground; but it would appear that the magnitude of the work appalled those dignitaries, and that the restoration in question never got beyond the condition of a mere project. Rome soon had more serious cares to occupy her than the fate of a petty city that ere long disappeared beneath vineyards, orchards, and gardens, and under a thick growth of woodland--remark this latter circumstance--until, at length, centuries accumulated, and with them the forgetfulness that buries all things. Pompeii was then, so to speak, lost, and the few learned men who knew it by name could not point out its site. When, at the close of the sixteenth century, the architect Fontana was constructing a subterranean canal to convey the waters of the Sarno to Torre dell' Annunziata, the conduit passed through Pompeii, from one end to the other, piercing the walls, following the old streets, and coming upon sub structures and inscriptions; but no one bethought him that they had discovered the place of the buried city. However, the amphitheatre, which, roofed in by a layer of the soil, formed a regular excavation, indicated an ancient edifice, and the neighboring peasantry, with better information than the learned, designated by the half-Latin name of _Civita_, which dim tradition had handed down, the soil and debris that had accumulated above Pompeii.

It was only in 1748, under the reign of Charles III, when the discovery of Herculaneum had attracted the attention of the world to the antiquities thus buried, that, some vine-dressers having struck upon some old walls with their picks and spades, and in so doing unearthed statues, a colonel of engineers named Don Rocco Alcubierra asked permission of the king to make excavations in the vicinity. The king consented and placed a dozen of galley-slaves at the colonel's disposition. Thus it was that by a lucky chance a military engineer discovered the city that we are about to visit. Still, eight years more had to roll away before any one suspected that it was Pompeii which they were thus exhuming. Learned folks thought they were dealing with Stabiæ.

Shall I relate the history of these underground researches, "badly conducted, frequently abandoned, and resumed in obedience to the same capriciousness that had led to their suspension," as they were? Such are the words of the opinion Barthelemy expressed when writing, in 1755, to the Count de Caylus. Winkelmann, who was present at these excavations a few years later, sharply criticised the tardiness of the galley-slaves to whom the work had been confided. "At this rate," he wrote, "our descendants of the fourth generation will still have digging to do among these ruins." The illustrious German hardly suspected that he was making so accurate a prediction as it has turned out to be. The descendants of the fourth generation are our contemporaries, and the third part of Pompeii is not yet unearthed.

The Emperor Joseph II. visited the excavations on the 6th of April, 1796, and complained bitterly to King Ferdinand IV. of the slight degree of zeal and the small amount of money employed. The king promised to do better, but did not keep his word. He had neither intelligence nor activity in prosecuting this immense task, excepting while the French occupation lasted. At that time, however, the government carried out the idea of Francesco La Vega, a man of sense and capacity, and purchased all the ground that covered Pompeii. Queen Caroline, the sister of Bonaparte and wife of Murat, took a fancy to these excavations and pushed them vigorously, often going all the way from Naples through six leagues of dust to visit them. In 1813 there were exactly four hundred and seventy-six laborers employed at Pompeii. The Bourbons returned and commenced by re-selling the ground that had been purchased under Murat; then, little by little, the work continued, at first with some activity, then fell off and slackened more and more until, from being neglected, they were altogether abandoned, and were resumed only once in a while in the presence of crowned heads. On these occasions they were got up like New Year's surprise games: everything that happened to be at hand was scattered about on layers of ashes and of pumice-stone and carefully covered over. Then, upon the arrival of such-and-such a majesty, or this or that highness, the magic wand of the superintendent or inspector of the works, caused all these treasures to spring out of the ground. I could name, one after the other, the august personages who were deceived in this manner, beginning with the Kings of the Two Sicilies and of Jerusalem.

But that is not all. Not only was nothing more discovered at Pompeii, but even the monuments that had been found were not preserved. King Ferdinand soon discovered that the 25,000 francs applied to the excavations were badly employed; he reduced the sum to 10,000, and that amount was worn down on the way by passing through so many hands. Pompeii fell back, gradually presenting nothing but ruins upon ruins.