The Wonders of Pompeii

Part 1

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THE WONDERS OF POMPEII.

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

Part 2

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.

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

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.

Part 3

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.

THE EXHUMED CITY.

Part 4

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.

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