GETTY RESEARCH INSTITUTE LIBRARY 
 
 Halsted VanderPoel Campanian Collection 
 
/if 
 
THE 
 
 BURIED CITIES OF CAMPANIA; 
 
 ri anb Ijertulatuum, 
 
 THEIR HISTORY, THEIR DESTRUCTION, AND THEIR REMAINS. 
 
 By 
 W. H. DAVENPORT ADAMS, 
 
 Author of" Raordt of N obit Lives,- " Memorable Battles in English History." 
 " Venice Past and Present," &-e. 
 
 ' And In an hour of universal mirth. 
 What time the trump proclaims the festival. 
 Buries some capital city, there to sleep 
 The sleep of ages till a plough, a spade 
 Disclose the secret, and the eye of day 
 Glares coldly on the urrets, the skeletons ; 
 1-ach in his place, each in his gay attire, 
 And eager to enjoy." 
 
 ROGERS. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 T. NELSON AND SONS, PATERNOSTER ROW; 
 EDINBCRCII; AND NEW YORK. 
 
 1*73- 
 
THE GETTY CENTER 
 LIBRARY 
 
fHAKSPEARE makes Malcolm say of the Thane 
 of Cawdor, that " nothing in his life became 
 him like the leaving it." Of Pompeii it may 
 be said, that nothing in its history is equal in interest to its 
 last scene. The fate of the gay Campanian city has been 
 curious. Some cities have secured enduring fame by their 
 commercial opulence, like Tyre ; by their art-wonders, 
 like Athens ; by their world-wide power, like Rome ; or 
 their gigantic ruins, like Thebes. Of others, scarcely less 
 famous for their wealth and empire, the site is almost 
 forgotten; their very names have almost passed away 
 from the memory of men. But this third-rate provincial 
 town the "Brighton" or "Scarborough" of the Roman 
 patricians, though less splendid and far less populous 
 than the English watering-places owes its celebrity to 
 its very destruction. Had it not been ovenvhelmed by 
 the ashes of Vesuvius, the student, the virtuoso, and the 
 antiquary, would never have been drawn to it as to a 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 shrine worthy of a pilgrim's homage. As a graceful 
 writer has justly remarked, the terrible mountain, whilst it 
 destroyed, has also saved Pompeii ; and in so doing, has 
 saved for us an ever-vivid illustration of ancient Roman 
 life. Hence the imperishable interest which attaches to 
 it; hence its charm for every cultivated mind. The 
 year-long labours of the most assiduous German com- 
 mentators could never have thrown such an amount of 
 light upon the manners and customs of the Romans, upon 
 the works of the great Latin writers, as has been accom- 
 plished by the spade and pickaxe of the excavators of 
 Pompeii. They show us the theatre, the forum, and the 
 temple the baker's shop, and the gladiator's training- 
 school the lady's' boudoir, and the wealthy patrician's 
 tablinum, just as they were when the life and motion 
 of the bright city were suddenly arrested, and its annals 
 abruptly closed. What would we not give for a similar 
 illustration of Egyptian or Assyrian manners ! How the 
 historian would rejoice if Persepolis, or Palmyra, or 
 Babylon, could in like manner be restored to the light 
 of day ! 
 
 It is not the object of the present volume to furnish a 
 hand-book to the ruined city. In the works of Cell, Ma- 
 zois, Fiorelli, Overbeck, Dr. Dyer, and Nicolini, scarcely a 
 detail has been overlooked ; the subject is treated with 
 the most exhaustive minuteness and painstaking research. 
 
PREFACE. vii 
 
 The writer's intention in the following pages is simply to 
 furnish a general description of its more remarkable 
 objects, that the reader may form a just conception of 
 their value as illustrative of the customs, arts, and do- 
 mestic economy of the ancients. Then, if so disposed, 
 he may pursue his studies with the assistance of the 
 writers above mentioned. The excellent work on Pom- 
 peii in the " Library of Entertaining Knowledge" is now, 
 to a certain extent, obsolete, and no other compendious 
 summary, in a handy and convenient form, is accessible 
 to the general reader. The writer, therefore, believes 
 that there was a want to be supplied ; and he trusts he 
 has succeeded in supplying it, by bringing within a 
 moderate compass the results of the discoveries made at 
 Pompeii and Herculaneum up to the present time. And 
 as his volume is designed for the young, he has intro- 
 duced concise explanations of various points connected 
 with Roman antiquities, when they seemed needful to a 
 clear comprehension of the subject. Thus : in connec- 
 tion with the baths of Pompeii he has briefly described 
 the general arrangements of the Roman Thermae, and in 
 connection with its theatres the mode of construction 
 adopted by the ancient architects. The critic will be 
 pleased to remember, however, that these descriptions 
 have been purposely rendered as plain and unadorned as 
 was consistent with accuracy. 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 Lastly, the writer has to acknowledge his obligations 
 to the authorities already quoted, and especially to Over- 
 beck's " Pompeji." Some admirable photographs of note- 
 worthy buildings and objects, accompanied by agreeable 
 descriptions, will be found in Dr. Dyer's %< Ruins of Pom- 
 peii;" Sir W. Cell's " Pompeiana" is still a standard work; 
 and the coloured lithographic plates in Nicolini's " Le 
 case ed i Monumenti di Pompeii" are remarkable for their 
 accuracy and spirit 
 
 W. H. D. A. 
 
Pajfe 
 
 I. THE DESTRUCTION OF THE CITIES, .. .. .. .. it 
 
 II. GENERAL VIEW OF THE CITY, .. .. .. .. 47 
 
 III. THE FORUM, .. .. .. .. .. .. 62 
 
 The Temple of Venus, .. .. .. .. .. 69 
 
 The Basilica, .. .. .. .. .. .. 74 
 
 The Curiae, and ^Erarium, .. .. .. .. .. 77 
 
 The Chalcidicum, .. .. .. .. .. .. 77 
 
 Temple of Quirinus, .. .. .. .. .. 81 
 
 The Senaculum, . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 
 
 The Pantheon, .. .. .. .. .. .. 84 
 
 IV. THE TEMPLE OF FORTUNE, .. .. .. .. .. 97 
 
 V. THE AMPHITHEATRES, .. .. .. .. .. 103 
 
 VI. THE THEATRES, .. .. .. .. .. .. 127 
 
 The Great Theatre, .. .. .. .. .. 137 
 
 The Small Theatre, or Odeum, .. .. .. .. 140 
 
 The Soldiers' Barracks, .. .. .. .. .. 143 
 
 Temple of jEscuIapius, .. .. .. .. .. 143 
 
 House of the Sculptor, .. .. .. .. .. 145 
 
 The Iseon, .. .. .. .. .. .. 146 
 
 The Tribunal, .. .. .. .. .. ..150 
 
 VII. THE THERMS, OR BATHS, .. .. .. .. .. 152 
 
 Women's Baths, .. .. .. .. .. .. 170 
 
 The New Baths, .. .. .. .. .. .. 171 
 
x CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 VIII. HOUSES OF POMPEII, .. .. .. .. .. 179 
 
 The House of the Tragic Poet, .. .. .. .. 190 
 
 House of Ceres, . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 
 
 Houses of the Fountains, .. .. .. .. .. 204 
 
 The Fullonica, .. .. .. .. .. .. 206 
 
 The House of Holconius, .. .. .. .. .. 209 
 
 House of Pansa, .. .. .. .. .. .. 212 
 
 House of Sallust, .. .. .. .. .. .. 217 
 
 House of the Dioscuri, .. .. .. .. .. 319 
 
 House of the Centaur, .. .. .. .. .. 223 
 
 IX. THE TOMBS AT POMPEII, .. .. .. .. .. 237 
 
 X. HERCULANEUM, .. .. .. .. .. .. 252 
 
 XI. RECENT DISCOVERIES, .. .. .. .. .. 256 
 
 XII. THE MUSEUM AT NAPLES, .. .. .. .. .. 269 
 
THE 
 
 BURIED CITIES OF CAMPANIA. 
 
 I. 
 gwtnution of fjje Ciites. 
 
 " The long, long night 
 
 That followed, when the shower of ashes fell, 
 When they that sought Pompeii sought in vain : 
 
 It was not to be found." 
 
 ROGERS. 
 
 jjHE shores of the Bay of Naples exhibit a 
 loveliness and a fertility which have in all 
 ages won the admiration of every lover of 
 the beautiful. On this most favoured region 
 Nature seems to have lavished, with unstinting hand, 
 her choicest gifts. The olive, the mulberry, and the 
 vine adorn its verdant slopes ; the bloom of flowers lies 
 on its plains ; cool shadows nestle in its leafy woods ; its 
 sea shines ever with a tranquil azure ; sweet odours are 
 wafted by the breeze from its groves of citron and cedar ; 
 and over all the enchanted scene the cloudless heaven 
 extends its arch of serenest blue. Nor are there want- 
 
12 "FAIR PARTHENOPE." 
 
 ing those associations of song and fable which add to 
 the charm of even the fairest landscape. Here Virgil 
 invoked the happy Muses, among fields which seemed 
 consecrated to their worship. On yonder promontory 
 of Misenum lies buried the trumpeter of Hector and 
 ^Eneas, whose name, as the poet foretold, has become 
 immortal : 
 
 " jEtemumque tenet per saecula nomen." 
 
 In the blossomy isle of ^Eola dwelt the Circean sor- 
 ceress 
 
 " The daughter of the Sun, whose charmed cup 
 Whoever tasted lost his upright shape." MILTON. 
 
 At Sorento, which looks out upon the Parthenopean bay 
 from its castled heights, was bora Torquato Tasso : 
 
 " Once among 
 
 The children gathering shells along the shore, 
 One laughed and played, unconscious of his fate : 
 His to drink deep of sorrow, and through life 
 To be the scorn of them that knew him not 
 Trampling alike the giver and his gift." ROGERS. 
 
 Gorgeous Roman villas glittered of yore amid the 
 purple vineyards, and the shades of Caesar and Pompey 
 and Cicero appear ever present to the wanderer's eye. 
 Once again we seem to hear the choral music swelling 
 on the wind, as the gilded galleys of the imperial court 
 glide across the gleaming bay. Yonder convent of 
 Pozzano recalls the memory of its founder, Gonsalvo de 
 Cordova, the great captain. Amalfi, at the mouth of its 
 deep mountain-gorge, revives the history of a maritime 
 republic, which in the eleventh century was the first 
 naval power in Europe. The radiant columns of 
 Paestum belong to an age which peopled earth with fair 
 
A LAND OF SONG. 13 
 
 creations of god and goddess, nymph and faun. The 
 classic shores are bathed by the Tyrrhene waters ; and 
 blue against the eastern horizon lies the syren's isle of 
 Leucosia. At Puteoli stood Cicero's favourite villa, 
 where the Emperor Hadrian is said to have been 
 interred. Westward of Monte Nuovo, and deep hidden 
 among vine-clad hills, sleeps the celebrated Lake of 
 Avernas 
 
 " Where the dark rock o'erhangs the infernal lake, 
 And mingling streams eternal murmurs wake." HOMER. 
 
 Here, through the cavern of the Sibyl, ^Eneas descended 
 into the realm of shadows. Cumae, planted on its vol- 
 canic steep, is hallowed by the song of Pindar, who cele- 
 brated the great victory of its citizens over the Etruscan 
 armada. At Liternum, cursing an ungrateful country, died 
 the Roman general, Scipio Africanus. And, predomi- 
 nant above all the sweet interchange of cliff, and glen, 
 and plain, its presence everywhere felt, if not directly 
 seen a power and a mystery in the landscape which we 
 instinctively recognize, looms the volcanic mass of 
 mighty Vesuvius, nursing in its heart of hearts the 
 imperishable fire. Viewed from a distance, its flanks 
 covered with wood and grove and bower, crowned with 
 a weird and indescribable beauty 
 
 " An ampler ether, a diviner air, 
 And fields invested with purpureal gleams" 
 
 it seems as if the stories told of its terrible powers of 
 destruction were all the veriest fables. And yet, smiling 
 as is now the bright Campanian plain, and luminous as 
 are now the soft Parthenopean shores, let but Vesuvius 
 
14 POMPEII AND ITS SCENERY. 
 
 awake in its fury, and all will be changed in a moment 
 to the blackness of desolation. 
 
 " Here verdant vines o'erspread Vesuvius' sides ; 
 The generous grape here poured her purple tides. 
 This Bacchus loved beyond his native scene ; 
 Here dancing satyrs joyed to trip the green. 
 Far more than Sparta this in Venus' grace ; 
 And great Alcides once renowned the place. 
 Now flaming embers spread dire waste around, 
 And gods regret that gods can thus confound." MARTIAL.* 
 
 On a slight ascent at the base of this famous moun- 
 tain stood, upwards of two thousand years ago, a fair 
 and flourishing city, which its inhabitants knew as Pom- 
 peii. Its streets sloped towards the right bank of the 
 river Sarno (Sarnus) on the east ; on the west and south 
 they inclined towards the very marge of the crater, as, 
 from its cuplike shape, the ancients called the Bay of 
 Naples. Keeping along the sunny strand, the Pompeian 
 might reach, in a couple of hours, the breezy headland, 
 crowned by the temples, theatres, and glittering houses 
 of the sister city of Herculaneum so named from a tradi- 
 tion that it was founded by the legendary hero Hercules. 
 Both these cities, and the wide stretch of shore between 
 them, were the favourite residence, in ancient days, of 
 the wealthy Romans, who planted their luxurious villas at 
 every vantage-point. You may suppose, therefore, that 
 art bestowed its rarest embellishments on the surround- 
 ing landscapes, and that nothing was left undone which 
 could gratify the taste or soothe the fancy. Yet these 
 prosperous and opulent cities no longer seethe with busy 
 
 * Martial, Epigramm. iv. 44. (" Hie est pampineo virideo modo Vcsvius 
 oinbrii.") 
 
A SUDDEN CHANGE. 15 
 
 life. Vesuvius still casts its awful shadow over the 
 scene ; the air is as sweet and balmy as in times of old ; 
 still ripple the " blue Parthenopean waves " on the 
 enchanted strand, but Pompeii and Herculaneum have 
 ceased to be. From far off lands, which their inhabit- 
 ants had scarcely heard of, come the antiquary and the 
 scholar, the poet and the artist, to muse amid their 
 ruins. Were they then destroyed by the storm of war, 
 or were* their streets swept clean of life by a sudden 
 pestilence 1 Did their peoples migrate in a body 
 to some wealthier region ? Not so. The morning 
 came, and all was bright and joyous. The shops were 
 filled with their usual wares, and crowded by in- 
 tending purchasers ; Campanian peasants stood in the 
 streets with baskets of fruit and flowers ; the slaves 
 drew water at the fountains ; the gambler rattled his 
 dice ; the drunkard quaffed his wine ; in the public 
 places gathered the chariots of the wealthy ; the priest 
 sacrificed at the altar ; the merchant trafficked in the 
 forum ; and in the crowded theatre men and women had 
 gathered " with wolfish eyes " to watch the struggles 
 of the athlete and the gladiator in the bloody arena ; 
 when, suddenly, a great cloud rose above the crest of 
 Vesuvius in the shape of a pine-tree ! The earth shook ; 
 the waves rolled to and fro in hasty tumult j darkness 
 swept over the earth ; flashes of fire broke through the 
 shrouded sky ; showers of stones, and ashes, and fine 
 dust descended heavily and persistently on the plain; 
 rivers of burning, hissing lava, and of steaming mud and 
 water, rolled down the mountain-sides, and poured over 
 
 the doomed cities in a deluge of destruction ! In a few 
 (loo) o 
 
1 6 HISTORICAL DETAILS. 
 
 hours the scene was changed, as if some evil spirit had 
 there wrought out its most fatal spells. Commerce and 
 trade, art and science, pleasure and license, honest in- 
 dustry and voluptuous sloth, all were suddenly dissolved! 
 The gambler perished at his dice, the drunkard over his 
 wine-cup. Terrified fugitives, amazed by the darkness, 
 confused by the horror, were cut off in their retreat, 
 and stricken dead. Alas for Pompeii ! it had ceased 
 to be ! Alas for Herculaneum ! men knew ijts place 
 no more ! Buried beneath the lava and the accumu- 
 lated volcanic debris, lie temple and circus, the tribunal, 
 the shrine, the frescoed wall, the bright mosaic floor; 
 but there is neither life nor motion in either City 
 of the Dead, though the sea that once bore their 
 argosies still shimmers in the sunshine, and the moun- 
 tain that accomplished their destruction still breathes 
 forth smoke and fire ! 
 
 The story of Pompeii and Herculaneum has been 
 often told ; and yet I seek to tell it once again. What 
 I have to say will, however, be said concisely, and in 
 such wise that he who runs may read ; while I hope to 
 embody in my narrative the latest results of the research 
 of many trustworthy authorities. 
 
 At a very remote period the fertile beauty of the Bay of 
 Naples had induced the adventurous Greeks to settle on 
 its shores. Their seamen had carried home to the states 
 of Hellas the praise of its rich landscapes, its orange 
 groves and violet valleys ; nor had they forgotten its 
 manifold capabilities for a maritime and commercial 
 population. It was long before the foundation of Rome 
 
OSCAN AND GREEK. 17 
 
 that the Greeks, instigated by these reports, planted 
 their colony of Cumae upon its trachytic hill* and along 
 its sea-girt cliffs. 
 
 Toi 0' iiirtp KiVtas aXiepxtes f>x.Oa.L. PINDAR. 
 
 From thence arose many other settlements, either on 
 the Gulf of Puteoli or among the Eubaean hills, on the 
 shores of Gaeta or on the site of the modern Naples. 
 Soon the entire margin of the bay, from Sorrentum to 
 Misenum, was studded by flourishing Greek cities, 
 enjoying a virtual independence, and covering the seas 
 with their armadas. The original Oscan inhabitants ot 
 the country were reduced into subjection, and the towns 
 which they had founded were either occupied by the 
 Greeks or acknowledged them as masters. In course of 
 time, it is true, the Oscan language prevailed over that 
 of the invaders, whose inferior numbers were gradually 
 absorbed in the preponderant Oscan population ; but 
 what may be called a leaven of Greek feeling and 
 thought, and Greek perception of the beautiful, existed 
 down to the last hour of the doomed cities. 
 
 Pompeii, Oscan in origin, thus became Greek by 
 conquest, and once more Oscan by the force of numbers. 
 It loved, however, to claim for itself a Greek founder, 
 and, without the slightest justification from facts, or even 
 tradition, asserted that it was built by Hercules. The 
 etymology of its name is uncertain, though some authori- 
 ties consider it to be derived from IIo/iTma, " store- 
 houses." Its earlier history is as doubtful as its 
 
 * Strabo asserts that Cumx was the most ancient of all die Greek cilio in 
 Italy aud Sicily. 
 
i8 A ROMAN MUNICIPIUM. 
 
 etymology, and we can only safely assert that it was 
 successively occupied by the Etruscans and the Sam- 
 nites. The Campanians were conquered by Rome in 
 B.C. 340, but Pompeii preserved its independence for 
 some few years longer. In B.C. 310 it was attacked by 
 the Roman fleet under Publius Cornelius ; but the Pom- 
 peians repulsed their formidable enemy. Another period 
 of obscurity follows, and we hear no more of the city 
 until the outbreak of the Social or MarsicVVarin B.C. 91. 
 It had undoubtedly become an ally or tributary of Rome. 
 But it now joined the other Campanian towns in their 
 rebellion, was besieged by Sulla, and only saved from 
 total destruction by the strategy of Cluentius. The 
 Italian general, however, was defeated with great loss at 
 Nola* (B.C. 89). Sulla was prevented from following up 
 his victory by the Marian intrigues in the capital ; and 
 to this circumstance may be due the lenient terms which 
 Pompeii secured. At all events, while the other Cam- 
 panian cities were severely punished, their inhabitants 
 expelled, and Roman colonies settled in their places, 
 Pompeii escaped with the demolition of its fortifications, 
 was admitted to the rank of a " municipium," and suffered 
 to retain its own laws. Sulla, however, placed a milita y 
 colony (Colonia Vmcria Cornelia) in the suburbs to 
 overawe the citizens ; and frequent collisions ensued 
 between them, necessitating appeals to the Roman 
 senate. 
 
 Its delightful situation, its genial climate, and its 
 numerous sources of recreation, soon attracted to it the 
 \vcalthier Romans. Cicero built himself a villa in its 
 
 * Aj>pian, /// Iti-llo (,'ivili, i. 50 
 
THE COURSE OF EVENTS. 19 
 
 neighbourhood, where he wrote his treatise " De Officiis," 
 and where he held high converse with Hirtius, Balbus, 
 and Pansa. During the Servile War it was the head- 
 quarters of Cossinius, one of the legates in the army of 
 the praetor P. Varinius, and Spartacus nearly surprised 
 and captured him while he was bathing in the " Parthe- 
 nopean waters" (B.C. 73). Augustus planted here a 
 second colony of Roman veterans, in the same suburb 
 as the colony of Sylla, thenceforth named Pagus Augus- 
 tus Felix. Within its walls Claudius found an asylum 
 from the tyrannical vagaries of his uncle Tiberius ; and 
 his son Drusus died here in his childhood, choked by a 
 pear which in play he had been throwing up and catch- 
 ing in his mouth (A.D. 20).* The odious oppressions of 
 Sejanus, the infamous favourite of an infamous master, 
 drove to Pompeii for refuge the fabulist Phaedrus ; and 
 it would appear, from some statements of his own, that 
 in the gay Campanian city Seneca passed much of his 
 studious youth. One of the latest events in its annals 
 was the quarrel between its inhabitants and those of 
 Nuceria (now Nocera), originating in some local sar- 
 casms at a gladiatorial combat which had taken place in 
 the Pompeian amphitheatre. Words led to blows, a 
 battle was fought, and the Nucerians lost the victory. 
 Baffled in the field, they resorted to the council, and 
 laid their complaint before the Emperor Nero, who 
 decided that the Pompeians were in the wrong, and 
 prohibited them from all theatrical entertainments for 
 ten years. Such a sentence remarkably illustrates the 
 importance which the Romans attached to these amuse- 
 
 * Suetonius, Claudius, 27. 
 
20 
 
 A POMPEIAN QUARREL. 
 
 ments, and shows how largely they entered into and 
 made a portion of their daily life. I do not think that 
 the inhabitants of Harrogate or Brighton, for instance, 
 would consider it a severe punishment if their theatres 
 were closed for half-a-dozen decades. 
 
 In the Street of Mercury, and near the city wall, there 
 remains to this day, affixed to the side of a house, a cari- 
 cature or rude drawing scratched on the plaster with a 
 sharp-pointed instrument by some lively Pompeian patriot, 
 in commemoration of this provincial squabble.* An 
 
 armed figure apparently a 
 gladiator is seen descend- 
 ing the steps of the amphi- 
 theatre, with a shield in his 
 left hand, and in his right 
 the victor's emblem, a palm- 
 branch. Two rude figures 
 on the left seem intended 
 for a Pompeian conqueror dragging up a ladder his 
 bound and humiliated prisoner. Underneath is written 
 an explanatory legend, 
 
 " Campani victoria una cum Nucerinis peristis," 
 Campanians, you perished in victory together with the Nuccrians. 
 
 This occurred in A.D. 59. Four years later the history 
 of Pompeii was abruptly terminated by an appalling 
 catastrophe a catastrophe, nevertheless, to which it 
 owes its present fame, and which has communicated to 
 its ruins an importance second only to those of mighty 
 Rome herself. For, while in the Eternal City we find 
 
 * Pompeii : " Library of Entertaining Knowledge," i. 36, 37. 
 
 A 1'OMPEIAN CARICATURE. 
 
A LIVING CITY, 21 
 
 our admiration excited by arch, and frieze, and column ; 
 by the rent palace and shattered temple in Pompeii it 
 is our interest that is stimulated by the exhibition of the 
 inner life and daily habits of their builders. It is this, 
 as Dr. Dyer observes, that makes a visit to Pompeii 
 so attractive, that bestows upon it its sole historic value. 
 Rome possesses monuments of surpassing splendour, 
 which leave on the mind of the spectator an indelible 
 impression. Their remains are unequalled; they can 
 never fail to stir the poet's fancy. But they tell us 
 nothing of the home-life of the Romans, of their domestic 
 arrangements and social customs. At Pompeii, on the 
 contrary, their houses are unroofed for our inspection; 
 we may trace their accustomed haunts; we may enter 
 their innermost chambers; we may see the cook at his 
 oven, the wine-vendor in his shop, the noble lady in her 
 boudoir; we may read their electioneering pasquinades, 
 and admire their pictures : it is, in some sort, a realization 
 of the old fable of the Sleeping Beauty, all vitality, and 
 motion, and energy, after having been suddenly arrested 
 and held in suspense for two thousand years, seem again, 
 at our bidding, to have resumed their wonted course, 
 
 " And all the long-pent stream of life 
 Dashed downward in a cataract." TENNYSON'. 
 
 It has been called a City of the Dead; but the scholar, 
 the artist, the man of vivid imagination and quick con- 
 ceptions, will easily re-people its silent streets, and re- 
 animate its torpid energies, until, for them, it becomes 
 henceforth a city of the living. 
 
 The same great and awful catastrophe which destroyed 
 
22 HERCULANEUM. 
 
 Pompeii involved the cities of Herculaneum and Stabict 
 in ruin. The three cities were situated at nearly the 
 same distance from each other: Herculaneum, north- 
 west, on the site now occupied by Portici and Resina, 
 about four miles from Naples; Pompeii, in the centre, 
 on the right bank of the Sarno, six miles from Her- 
 culaneum; and Stabiae, on the lower slope of Monte 
 San Angelo, south, between four and five miles from 
 Pompeii. Herculaneum and Pompeii formed with Vesu- 
 vius a triangle, of which the volcano was the apex; the 
 shorter leg between Vesuvius and Herculaneum, the 
 longer between Vesuvius and Pompeii, while the base 
 line might be protracted perpendicularly' to Stabise. 
 
 Thus: 
 
 S. \ Stabire. 
 
 Herculaneum, as already stated, was founded, according 
 to the boastful tradition of its Greek colonists, by Hercules; 
 whence Ovid calls it Herculea urbs. It would seem to have 
 been an Oscan settlement, captured by some Greeks from 
 Cumas, and afterwards occupied in succession by the Os- 
 cans, the Tyrrheneans, the Pelasgians, and the Samnites. 
 According to Livy, it was captured from the latter people 
 in B.C. 293 by the Roman consul, Spurius Carvilius, sur- 
 named Maximus. In the Social War it joined the other 
 Cnmpanian cities in their revolt against Rome, but was 
 
STABIJE. 23 
 
 besieged and captured by Didius, B.C. 80. Like Pompeii, 
 it was admitted to the Roman franchise as a municipium, 
 and enjoyed its own local laws and privileges under its 
 Demarchs and Archons. Many splendid villas were 
 erected in its vicinity by the Roman patricians. Servilia, 
 the mother of Brutus, and the favourite mistress of Julius 
 Caesar, resided here on an estate presented to her by the 
 great Dictator. Its position was particularly healthy, 
 for it crowned a projecting headland between two rivers, 
 and looked across the Bay of Naples in a south-westerly 
 direction. Its port was called Retina, a name preserved 
 in the modern Rcsina. 
 
 Stabia, another of the Greek colonies on this delightful 
 coast, lay on the gently rising ground at the base of 
 Monte San Angelo, commanding a noble panorama of 
 the Parthenopean waters. Little of its history is known 
 to us. It suffered severely in the Social War. Sulla 
 drove out its wretched inhabitants, and supplied their 
 places with a colony of his veterans. The Roman nobles 
 planted their villas all about its environs, in order to 
 avail themselves of its mineral waters, which were praised 
 for their sanitary properties by Pliny and Columella. It 
 was overwhelmed by the eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79, 
 when the elder Pliny lost his life, under circumstances to 
 be hereafter related. Its site is marked by the modern 
 port, arsenal, and t0wn of Castdlamare. 
 
 It now seems desirable to furnish the reader with some 
 notes on what may be termed the ancient history of 
 Vesuvius. 
 
24 LEGENDARY MARVELS. 
 
 The whole region of Campania presents abundant in- 
 dications of volcanic activity; wherefore the ancients 
 supposed it to have been the scene of the wars between 
 the giants and the gods, and named it Phlegrcei Campi, 
 the Phlegrsean fields (from Hebrew, Phele Geroh, "mar- 
 vellous strife"). They invested the entire region with an 
 atmosphere of mysterious fable. The horrors of Tar- 
 tarus, the ever-burning Phlegethon, the darkness, and 
 the caverns, and the noisome vapours of Hades, were 
 suggested to their lively imagination by its volcanic 
 features. The rent, scorched, and stricken earth, testi- 
 fied to the awful force of Jupiter's thunderbolts. Lake 
 Avernus " Aornos," the birdless hidden among the 
 gloom of forests, and subject of old to such mephitic ex- 
 halations that no living creature could endure their in- 
 fluence became the mouth of hell. Under the island 
 of Inarime (Ischia) lay fettered the giant Typhon, or 
 Typhceus, who, vainly rebelling against his chains, shook 
 the earth as with an earthquake.* 
 
 '* And Arime, by Jove's behest, 
 
 Firm fixed on Typhon's monster-breast." (ViRGll., /Eneid, ix. 716.) 
 
 And a temple to the omnipotent god of Olympus was 
 reared on the very summit of Vesuvius. 
 
 Vesuvius has been for eighteen centuries one of the 
 most active volcanoes in the world. Yet before the 
 Christian era it must have been quiescent for a very long 
 period, as none of the ancient writers record an erup- 
 tion. They describe it as a volcano, " having cavernous 
 hollows," says Strabo, " in its cindery rocks, which look 
 
 * Homer, " Iliad," ii. 782. See also Strabo, book \iii., p. gag. 
 
ERUPTION OF VESUVIUS. 27 
 
 as if they had been acted on by fire." In configuration, 
 the mountain differed greatly from its present outline. 
 Its summit was then level, with a hollow garlanded by 
 wild vines, in which Spartacus and his gladiators posted 
 their camp. The cone, which now forms so conspicuous 
 a feature of it, did not exist, and the circular ridge called 
 Somma, which now encloses it, was undoubtedly a por- 
 tion of the wall of the ancient crater. Vesuvius was 
 then luxuriantly clothed in vegetation; the vine and the 
 wild olive enriched its rugged flank. Flourishing cities 
 stood at its base. There was no sign of the coming evil. 
 
 But in A.D. 63, and in the reign of Nero, the long 
 period of repose was broken, and the latent fires burst 
 forth with terrific violence. An earthquake overthrew 
 a considerable portion of Pompeii and Herculaneum. 
 Scarcely had their inhabitants in some measure recovered 
 from their alarm, and begun to rebuild their shattered 
 edifices, when a still more terrible catastrophe occurred, 
 and the first recorded eruption of Vesuvius, on the 23rd 
 of August, A.D. 79, completed the ruin of the two cities. 
 
 Of this event we fortunately possess a singularly graphic 
 description by one who was not only an eye-witness, but 
 well qualified to observe and record its phenomena I 
 mean Pliny the Younger, whose narrative is contained in 
 two letters addressed to the historian Tacitus.* These 
 letters run as follows: 
 
 " Your request," he writes, " that I would send you an 
 account of my uncle's death [the elder Pliny, author of 
 
 * C. Plinii Alcib., Epistolee, lib. vi. 16 et 20. The " Epistolse" have been 
 translated by Lord Orrery, anj Melmoth. I follow, to sonic extent, tire version 
 of the latter. 
 
28 PUNTS DESCRIPTION. 
 
 the Historia Naturalis\, in order to transmit a more 
 exact relation of it to posterity, merits my acknowledg- 
 ments; for should the calamity be celebrated by your 
 pen, its memory, I feel assured, will be rendered imperish- 
 able He was at that time, with the fleet under 
 
 his command, at Misenum. On the 24th of August, 
 about one in the afternoon, my mother desired him to 
 observe a cloud which seemed of unusual shape and 
 dimensions. He had just returned from taking the 
 benefit of the sun,* and after a cold water bath and a 
 slight repast, had retired to his study. He immediately 
 arose, and proceeded to a rising ground, from whence 
 he might more distinctly mark this very uncommon 
 appearance. 
 
 "At that distance it could not be clearly perceived 
 from what mountain the cloud issued, but it was after- 
 wards ascertained to proceed from Mount Vesuvius. I 
 cannot better describe its figure than by comparing it to 
 that of a pine tree,t for it shot up to a great height like 
 a trunk, and extended itself at the top into a kind of 
 branches; occasioned, I imagine, either by a sudden 
 gust of air that impelled it, the force of which decreased 
 as it advanced upwards, or by the expansion of the cloud 
 itself, when pressed back again by its own weight. Some- 
 times it appeared bright, and sometimes dark and spotted, 
 as it became more or less impregnated with earth and 
 cinders. This extraordinary phenomenon excited my 
 uncle's philosophical curiosity to inquire into it more 
 
 * The Romans, as one means of preserving their health, were accustomed 
 daily to anoint their bodies with oil, and lie or walk naked in the sun. 
 t This resemblance has been noticed in later eruptions. 
 
A DANGEROUS VOYAGE. 29 
 
 closely. He ordered a light vessel to be got ready for 
 him, and invited me to accompany him if I pleased. 1 
 replied that I would rather continue my studies. 
 
 " As he was leaving the house, a note was brought to 
 him from Rectina, the wife of Bassus, who was in the 
 utmost alarm at the imminent peril which threatened 
 her ; for her villa being situated at the foot of Mount 
 Vesuvius, the only mode of escape was by sea. She 
 earnestly entreated him, therefore, to hasten to her assist- 
 ance. He accordingly changed his first design, and what 
 he began out of curiosity, now continued out of heroism. 
 Ordering the galleys to put to sea, he went on board, 
 with an intention of assisting not only Rectina, but 
 several others, for the villas are very numerous along that 
 beautiful shore. Hastening to the very place which other 
 people were abandoning in terror, he steered directly 
 towards the point of danger, and with so much com- 
 posure of mind, that he was able to make and to dictate 
 his observations on the changes and aspects of that 
 dreadful scene. 
 
 " He was now so nigh the mountain that the cinders, 
 which grew thicker and hotter the nearer he approached, 
 fell into the vessel, together with pumice-stones and 
 black pieces of burning rock ; and now the sudden ebb 
 of the sea, and vast fragments rolling from the mountain, 
 obstructed their nearer approach to the shore. Pausing 
 to consider whether he should turn back again, to which 
 he was advised by his pilot, he exclaimed, ' Fortune 
 befriends the brave : carry me to Pomponianus.' 
 
 " Pomponianus was then at Stabiae,* separated by a 
 
 * Now Castcltamart. (See ante, p. 23.) 
 
30 PLINY ON SHORE. 
 
 gulf which the sea, after several windings, forms upon 
 the shore. He had already sent his baggage on board ; 
 for though not at that time in actual danger, yet being 
 within prospect of it, he was determined, if it drew nearer, 
 to put to sea as soon as the wind should change. The 
 wind was favourable, however, for carrying my uncle to 
 Pomponianus, whom he found in the greatest consterna- 
 tion. He embraced him tenderly, encouraging and 
 counselling him to keep up his spirits; and still better to 
 dissipate his alarm, he ordered, with an air of unconcern, 
 the baths to be got ready. After having bathed, he 
 sat down to supper with great cheerfulness, or, what 
 was equally courageous, with all the semblance of 
 it. 
 
 " Meanwhile, the eruption from Mount Vesuvius broke 
 first in several places with great violence, and the dark- 
 ness of the night contributed to render it still more 
 visible and dreadful. But my uncle, to soothe the 
 anxieties of his friend, declared it was only the burning 
 of the villages, which the country people had abandoned 
 to the flames. After this, he retired to rest; and it is 
 certain he was so little discomposed as to fall into a deep 
 sleep; for being somewhat corpulent, and breathing hard, 
 those who attended without actually heard him snore. 
 
 " The court which led to his apartment being nearly 
 filled with stones and ashes, it would have been impos- 
 sible for him, had he continued there longer, to have 
 made his way out ; it was thought proper, therefore, to 
 awaken him. He got up, and joined Pomponianus and 
 the rest of his company, who were not unconcerned 
 enough to think of going to bed. They consulted to- 
 
A PHILOSOPHER'S DEATIL 31 
 
 gether which course would be the more prudent : to trust 
 to the houses, which now shook from side to side with 
 frequent and violent concussions; or escape to the open 
 country, where the calcined stones and cinders fell in 
 such quantities, as notwithstanding their lightness, to 
 threaten destruction. In this dilemma they decided on 
 the open country, as offering the greater chance of 
 safety ; a resolution which, while the rest of the company 
 hastily adopted it through their fears, my uncle embraced 
 only after cool and deliberate consideration. Then they 
 went forth, having pillows tied upon their heads with 
 napkins; and this was their sole defence against the 
 storm of stones that fell around them. 
 
 " It was now day everywhere else, but there a deeper 
 darkness prevailed than in the obscurest night, though it 
 was in some degree dissipated by torches and lights of 
 various kinds. They thought proper to go down farther 
 upon the shore, to ascertain whether they might safely 
 put out to sea; but found the waves still extremely high 
 and boisterous. There my uncle, having drunk a draught 
 or two of cold water, flung himself down upon a cloth 
 which was spread for him, when immediately the flames 
 and their precursor, a strong stench of sulphur, dispersed 
 the rest of the company, and compelled him to rise. He 
 raised himself with the assistance of two of the servants, 
 but instantly fell down dead; suffocated, I imagine, by 
 some gross and noxious vapour, for his lungs had always 
 been weak, and he had frequently suffered from difficulty 
 of breathing. As soon as it was light again, which was 
 not till the third day after this mslancholy accident, his 
 body was found entire, and free from any sign of vio- 
 
 (190) 3 
 
32 PLINY THE YOUNGER. 
 
 lence, exactly in the same posture that he fell, so that ha 
 looked more like one asleep than dead." 
 
 In his second letter to Tacitus, Pliny relates his own 
 experiences of the phenomenon. 
 
 " The letter which, in compliance with your request, I 
 wrote to you concerning my uncle's death, has raised, it 
 seems, your curiosity to know what terrors and dangers 
 attended me while I continued at Misenum; for there, I 
 think, the account in my former broke off. 
 
 " ' Though memory shrinks with backward start, 
 And sends a shudder to my heart, 
 I take the word.'* 
 
 " My uncle having left us, I pursued the studies which 
 had prevented my accompanying him, until it was time 
 to bathe. After which I went to supper (ad ccenam], and 
 from thence to bed, where my sleep was greatly broken 
 and disturbed. For days before there had been some 
 shocks of an earthquake, which the less surprised us as 
 they are extremely frequent in Campania ; but on that 
 night they were so particularly violent as not only to 
 shake everything about us, but to threaten total ruin. 
 My mother flew to my chamber, where she found me 
 already rising in order to awaken her. We went out 
 into a small court belonging to the house, which sepa- 
 rated it from the sea. As I was at that time but eighteen 
 years of age, I know not whether my behaviour in this 
 juncture may be called courage or rashness; but I took 
 up Livy, and amused myself with turning over that 
 author and making extracts from him, as if all about me 
 
 * Virgil, &>:cid, book ii. (Conington's Translation, p. 35). 
 
A SCENE OP- TERROR. 3J 
 
 had been in full security. While we were thus situated, 
 we were joined by a friend of my uncle's, who had come 
 from Spain on a visit to him ; and he, observing me sit- 
 ting by my mother with a book in my hand, strongly 
 censured her calmness, and reproved me for my careless 
 indifference. Nevertheless, I still went on with my 
 author. 
 
 " Day was rapidly breaking, but the light was exceed- 
 ingly faint and languid ; the buildings all around us tot- 
 tered; and though we stood upon open ground, yet, as 
 the area was narrow and confined, we could not remain 
 without certain and formidable peril, and we therefore 
 resolved to quit the town. The people followed us in a 
 panic of alarm, and, as to a mind distracted with terror 
 every suggestion seems more prudent than its own, 
 pressed in great crowds about us in our way out. 
 
 " As soon as we had reached a convenient distance 
 from the houses, we stood still, in the midst of a perilous 
 and most dreadful scene. The chariots which we had 
 ordered to be drawn out oscillated so violently, though 
 upon the most level ground, that we could not keep them 
 steady, even by supporting them with large stones. The 
 sea seemed to roll back upon itself, and to be driven 
 from its strands by the earth's convulsive throes; it 
 is certain, at least, that the shore was considerably en- 
 larged, and that several marine animals were left upon it 
 On the other side, a black and terrible cloud, bursting 
 with an igneous serpentine vapour, darted out a long 
 train of fire, resembling, but much larger than, the flashes 
 of lightning. Our Spanish friend, whom I have already 
 mentioned, now addressed himself to my mother and me 
 
34 DARKNESS VISIBLE. 
 
 with great earnestness: 'If your brother and your 
 uncle is safe,' said he, ' he certainly would wish that 
 you were also; if he has perished, it was his desire, no 
 doubt, that you might survive him ; why, then, do you 
 delay your escape one moment T We could never think 
 of our own safety, we replied, while uncertain of his. 
 Thereupon our friend took leave of us, and withdrew 
 from the danger with the utmost precipitancy. 
 
 " Soon afterwards the black cloud seemed to descend 
 and enshroud the whole ocean ; as, in truth, it entirely 
 concealed the island of Caprea and the headland of 
 Misenum. My mother implored me to make my escape 
 at any rate, which, as I was young, I might readily do ; 
 as for herself, she said, her age and corpulency rendered 
 the attempt useless. But she would gladly meet death, 
 if she could have the satisfaction of seeing that she was 
 not the occasion of mine. I absolutely refused to leave 
 her, and taking her by the hand I led her on ; she com- 
 plied reluctantly, and not without many reproaches to 
 herself for retarding my flight. 
 
 " The ashes now began to fall upon us, though in no 
 considerable quantity. Turning my head, I perceived 
 behind us a dense smoke, which came rolling in our 
 track like a torrent. I proposed, while there was yet 
 some light, to diverge from the high road, lest she should 
 be crushed to death in the dark by the crowd that fol- 
 lowed us. Scarcely had we stepped aside when darkness 
 overspread us; not the darkness of a cloudy night, or 
 when there is no moon, but that of a chamber which is 
 close shut, with all the lights extinct. And then nothing 
 could you hear but the shrieks of women, the cries of chil- 
 
THE END OF ALL THINGS. 35 
 
 dren, and the exclamations of men. Some called aloud for 
 their little ones, others for their parents, others for their 
 husbands being only able to distinguish persons by 
 their voices ; this man lamented his own fate, that man 
 the fate of his family ; not a few wished to die out of 
 very fear of death ; many lifted their hands to the gods ; 
 but most imagined that the last and eternal night was 
 come, which should destroy the world and the gods 
 together.* Among these were some who increased the 
 real terrors by imaginary ones, and made the terrified 
 multitude falsely believe that Misenum was actually in 
 flames. At length a glimmer of light appeared, which 
 we imagined to be rather the foretoken of an approach- 
 ing burst of flames, as in truth it was, than the return of 
 day. The fire, however, having fallen at a distance from 
 us, we were again immersed in dense darkness, and a 
 heavy shower of ashes fell upon us, which we were at 
 times compelled to shake off otherwise we should have 
 been crushed and buried in the heap. I might boast 
 that, during all this scene of horror, not a sigh or expres- 
 sion of fear escaped me, had not my composure been 
 founded on that miserable though potent consolation, 
 that all mankind were involved in the same calamity, 
 and that I imagined I was perishing with the world 
 itself! 
 
 " After a while, this dreadful darkness gradually disap- 
 peared like a cloud of smoke; the actual day returned, and 
 with it the sun, though very faintly, and as when an eclipse 
 is coming on. Every object that presented itself to our 
 
 The later philosophers taught that all the world would be destroyed by fire, 
 and that the gods themselves would perish in (his final conflagration. 
 
36 ADDITIONAL DETAILS. 
 
 eyes (which were extremely weakened) seemed changed, 
 being covered with a crust of white ashes, like a deep 
 layer of snow. We returned to Misenum, where we 
 refreshed ourselves as well as we could, and passed an 
 anxious night between hope and fear, though, indeed, 
 with a much larger share of the latter; for the earth- 
 quake still continued, while several excited individuals 
 ran up and down, augmenting their own and their friends' 
 calamities by terrible predictions. However, my mother 
 and myself, notwithstanding the danger we had escaped, 
 and all which still impended, entertained no thoughts of 
 quitting the place until we should receive some account 
 from my uncle." 
 
 The interesting statements of Pliny the Younger have 
 been confirmed in every respect by scientific examination 
 of the buried cities. The eruption of the year 79 was 
 not accompanied by any of those seething rivers of 
 molten fiery lava which have been the principal feature 
 in later outbursts. Pompeii, from its elevated position, 
 could not have been destroyed by lava. It was buried 
 under a mass of calcined pumice-stone lapillo, as the 
 Italians call it which descended in such amazing quan- 
 tities as to form an accumulation over the city full twenty 
 feet in depth. Showers of rocks and stones were also 
 among the fatal agents of ruin, and vast streams of water, 
 and of wet sand or mud, which thickened into a species 
 of volcanic paste. This seems to have proved more 
 destructive than the lapillo ; for it is evident, from the 
 researches made among the ruins, that many persons 
 who were escaping on the surface of the lapillo, or had 
 sheltered themselves in corners where it could not pene- 
 
THE BURIED CITY. 39 
 
 trate, were overtaken and buried by the mud. The 
 shocks of earthquake killed many several skeletons 
 have been discovered of persons overwhelmed by a fall- 
 ing wall ; while others were suffocated, like the elder 
 Pliny, by the mephitic vapours with which the atmo- 
 sphere was charged. 
 
 The eruption was terrible in all its circumstances the 
 rolling mud, the cloud of darkness, the flashes of electric 
 fire, the shaking earth but yet more terrible in its 
 novelty of character and the seemingly wide range of its 
 influence. These combined causes would appear to 
 have exercised a fatal effect on the Pompeians, and but 
 for them nearly all might have escaped. Thus, the 
 amphitheatre was crowded when the catastrophe oc- 
 curred, but only two or three skeletons have been found in 
 it, which probably were those of gladiators already killed 
 or wounded. The bold, the prompt, and the energetic 
 saved themselves by immediate flight ; those who lingered 
 through love or avarice, supine indifference, or palsying 
 fear, perished. A majority of the inhabitants probably 
 took to the sea. Judging from the number of bodies 
 found up to this date, we may infer that out of a popula- 
 tion of 20,000, some 2000 fell victims. 
 
 Many, to escape from the lapillo, sought refuge in the 
 lower rooms or underground cellars of their houses, but 
 there the steaming mud pursued and overtook them. 
 Had it been otherwise, they must have died of hunger 
 or suffocation, as all avenues of egress were absolutely 
 blocked up. Thus, in the suburban villa known as the 
 " House of Diomed," eighteen persons, mostly women, 
 had gathered in the spacious quadrangular cellar sur- 
 
40 ELOQUENT MEMORIALS. 
 
 rounding the garden, but were overwhelmed by the in- 
 rush of the destroying flood. " This deluge of fluid 
 matter, which after a time became very tenacious earth, 
 surrounded and enclosed all the substances which it met, 
 and has preserved the impress and mould of them ; as, 
 for instance, of a wooden chest, and of a pile of small 
 logs of wood. The same thing happened to the unfor- 
 tunate human beings who have been discovered ; of their 
 flesh nothing has remained but the impress and mould 
 of it in the earth, and within are the bones in regular 
 order. Even the hair on the skulls is partly preserved, 
 and in some cases is seen to have been curled. Of the 
 dresses nothing but the mere ashes have been found ; 
 but these ashes preserved traces of the quality of the 
 materials, so that it could be easily seen whether the 
 texture was coarse or fine. Several of the persons 
 had upon their heads cloths which descended to the 
 shoulders ; two or three dresses, it would seem, were 
 worn over one another [for the convenience, perhaps, of 
 removing them] ; the stockings were of cloth and linen, 
 cut like long drawers ; some had no shoes at all. That 
 one woman was superior to the rest could be perceived 
 by the ornaments which she wore, by the fine texture of 
 her dress, and by the coins which were found near 
 her."* 
 
 The master of the house, Diomed himself, perished, it 
 is thought, through avarice. At the garden-gate two 
 skeletons were discovered ; one, presumed to be Diomed, 
 
 * Quoted by Dr. Dyer from an Italian periodical, dated December i2th, 1772. 
 for authorities respecting the eruption of Vesuvius, sec Landgrebe's elaborate 
 work on Volcanoes. 
 
A TERRIBLE PICTURE. 41 
 
 held in his hand the key ; on his finger was a serpent- 
 ring ; near him lay about a hundred gold and silver 
 coins. The other, probably a slave, was stretched on 
 the ground beside some silver vases. They would seem 
 to have been suffocated by the vapours while attempting 
 to escape. The incident has been made use of by Lord 
 Lytton in his romance of " The Last Days of Pompeii." 
 It is difficult, I think, to exaggerate the horrors of the 
 last day of the doomed city. The rumbling of the earth 
 beneath the dense obscurity and murky shadow of the 
 heaven above the long heavy roll of the convulsed sea 
 the strident noise of the vapours and gases escaping 
 from the mountain-crater the shifting electric lights, 
 crimson, emerald green, lurid yellow, azure, blood red, 
 which at intervals relieved the blackness, only to make 
 it ghastlier than before the hot hissing showers which 
 descended like a rain of fire the clash and clang of 
 meeting rocks and riven stones the burning houses and 
 flaming vineyards the hurrying fugitives, with wan faces 
 and straining eyeballs, calling on those they loved to 
 follow them the ashes, and cinders, and boiling mud, 
 driving through the darkened streets, and pouring into 
 the public places above all, that fine, impalpable, but 
 choking dust which entered everywhere, penetrating even 
 to the lowest cellar, and against which human skill could 
 devise no effectual protection ; all these things must have 
 combined into a whole of such unusual and such awful 
 terror that the imagination cannot adequately realize it. 
 The stoutest heart was appalled ; the best balanced mind 
 lost its composure. The stern Roman soldier stood 
 rigidly at his post, content to die if discipline required it, 
 
42 THE IVA VE OF OBLIVION. 
 
 but even his iron nerves quailed at the death and de- 
 struction around him. Many lost their reason, and 
 wandered through the city gibbering and shrieking 
 lunatics. And none, we may be sure, who survived the 
 peril ever forgot the sights and scenes they had witnessed 
 on that day of doom ! 
 
 The Emperor Titus, during his brief but busy reign, 
 contemplated the rebuilding of Pompeii. His scheme, 
 however, was not carried into execution. The inhabi- 
 tants evicted by the eruption would seem to have made 
 occasional excavations among the ruins to recover what 
 they could of their goods and chattels ; and the Emperor 
 Alexander Severus plundered the buried city of many of 
 its finest monuments and columns to embellish his public 
 works at Rome. But the troubles of the empire which 
 afterwards ensued, and the successive irruptions of the 
 Northmen, soon occupied men's minds to such an extent 
 that the fate of Pompeii and Herculaneum ceased to be 
 remembered. Not only their site, but their name, sank 
 into oblivion ; although here and there the summit of 
 some of the buildings of Pompeii cropped up above the 
 soil, and the name of rivitcl, or the city, which still 
 lingered in the niouths of peasants, might have served to 
 identify its position. After the Renaissance, indeed, 
 references to the buried cities sometimes occur in Italian 
 authors.* Thus : Nicolo Perotto mentions Pompeii, 
 Herculaneum, and Stabire in his " Cornucopia," published 
 in 1488; the " Herculaneum Oppidum" is marked in 
 the map of Ambrogio Leone, 1513, as the site occupied 
 by Portici ; and Leandro Alberti, in his " Descrizione 
 
 * Dr. Dyer, " Ruins of Pompeii," p. 18. 
 
SSGNS OF THE PAST. 43 
 
 di tulla 1'Italia" (1561) recalls the burying of Hercu- 
 laneum, Stabiae, and Pompeii by the eruption of Vesuvius, 
 while indicating the spots where they were supposed to 
 have existed. Yet no excavations were made to discover 
 their ruins. Archaeology was not then a science. So 
 that when Dominico Fontana, the celebrated Roman 
 architect, carried a subterranean canal from the Sarno to 
 Torre del Greco, actually under the site of Pompeii, and 
 consequently met with the remains of its buildings, in- 
 scriptions, and other memorials, no spirit of scientific 
 curiosity induced him to undertake any researches. No 
 lover of antiquity was found to urge the exploration of 
 the vast remains which evidently existed there.* 
 
 Herculaneum, though buried under the lava-deposits 
 of several successive eruptions of Vesuvius, was discovered 
 before the sister city, and discovered accidentally. 
 
 In 1684 a baker at Portici sank a well on his premises, 
 which, at a depth of ninety feet, terminated near the stage 
 of the Herculaneum theatre. Some twenty-five years 
 later the property was purchased by Prince Emmanuel 
 d'Elbceuf, who prepared to erect a palace upon it. In 
 1713, while enlarging the well, his workmen found some 
 marbles, with which the prince adorned his walls and 
 staircases. He continued his explorations for five years, 
 and discovered several ancient statues, which, however, 
 were claimed by the Austrian viceroy at Naples, and 
 despatched to Vienna. They were afterwards purchased 
 by Frederick Augustus, Elector of Saxony, and are still 
 preserved in the palace at Dresden. 
 
 The excavations were then discontinued until 1736, 
 
 * Ovcrbcck, " Pompoji in seuieu GebauJcn," &c. (z vols., Leipzig, 1866), p. 35. 
 
44 THE WORK OF EXCA VA TION. 
 
 when they were renewed by order of King Charles III., 
 and under the direction of Don Rocco Alcobierre, a 
 Spanish officer of engineers, who explored the great 
 theatre, a basilica, and some private houses, but being 
 totally ignorant of antiquities and of classical history, 
 perpetrated the most barbarous mutilations on the 
 valuable antiques which were recovered. While con- 
 ducting these researches, he was informed by some 
 inhabitants of Torre Annunziata that ancient remains 
 had been discovered about two miles from their town. 
 He accordingly commenced his explorations at the spot 
 now called the Street of Fortune, and was rewarded by 
 finding a skeleton, several coins, and a large fresco 
 painting. Stimulated by this " treasure-trove," he pushed 
 on the works with so much alacrity, that towards the close 
 of 1754 the whole of the amphitheatre was cleared out. 
 
 From that time to the present the excavations have 
 been regularly carried on, except for an interval of three 
 years (from 1813 to 1816). The yearly allowance pro- 
 vided by the Neapolitan government was, however, so 
 small, that only a very slow progress could be effected, 
 and not more than one-third of the city has been laid 
 bare in a century ! The great theatre was discovered in 
 1764; the Temple of Isis in 1765 and 1766; in 1766 
 the Temple of -^Esculapius ; in 1769 the smaller theatre ; 
 the House of Diomed in 1771-1774. The search, for 
 very many years, was conducted in a Vandal spirit, and 
 its sole object was to enrich the royal collection with 
 jewellery, curiosities in gold and silver, statues, and 
 paintings. No pious care was taken of the buildings and 
 monuments of the buried city. No plans were traced of 
 
ROYAL VISITS. 45 
 
 the streets and houses uncovered. The true value of 
 the ruins lay in the life-like pictures they presented of the 
 manners and customs of Roman society, but this was not 
 apparent to the Neapolitan authorities. It is only of late, 
 and under the superintendence of the able and enlightened 
 Cavalier Fiorelli, the present director of the excavations, 
 that they have been conducted in a proper spirit. The 
 frescoes are now very carefully preserved ; the buildings, 
 where necessary, restored ; plaster casts are taken of the 
 bodies exhumed, and detailed plans made of the streets 
 and public places of the city. 
 
 Royal visits to the ruins were formerly very numerous, 
 and on these occasions some object of peculiar interest 
 was invariably discovered. The Emperor Joseph II., on 
 the yth of April 1769, was accompanied on his progress 
 by his empress, Count Kaunitz, his minister, the king 
 and queen of Naples, Sir William Hamilton, then am- 
 bassador at Naples, and several distinguished antiquaries. 
 So brilliant a cortege was received by the genius loci with 
 becoming respect, and such was the number of articles 
 11 found," that the shrewd and energetic emperor could 
 not refrain from hinting to the superintendent, Signer la 
 Vega, that they had been purposely placed there to 
 illustrate the good fortune of sovereigns. La Vega 
 having informed the emperor that only thirty persons 
 were employed on the works, he remonstrated with the 
 King of Naples on the slow progress that must necessarily 
 be made. All would be accomplished by degrees, a poco 
 a poco, replied the indifferent Bourbon ; whereupon 
 Joseph indignantly exclaimed that three thousand men 
 ought to be employed on so noble an enterprise, which 
 
46 LATER VISITORS. 
 
 had not its like in any quarter of the globe, and was a 
 special distinction to the kingdom of Naples. 
 
 During the reign of Joachim Murat, his accomplished 
 queen, Caroline Bonaparte, frequently visited the ruins. 
 She took a special interest in the progress of the explora- 
 tions, and it was her patronage that enabled Mazois to 
 commence his superb work on Pompeii. Among other 
 royal visitors may be named Queen Adelaide, the Em- 
 peror Francis II., the Grand Duke of Tuscany, the 
 Emperor Alexander I. of Russia, the Grand Dukes of 
 Russia (Alexander II. and Constantine), and King 
 Frederick William of Prussia, whose names have been 
 bestowed on some of the more notable houses. 
 
 Other houses, it should be explained, have been dis- 
 tinguished by the supposed pursuits of their owners, or 
 the interesting articles found within them. Thus, we 
 have the Houses of Diomed, of Sallust, of Pansa, of 
 Cicero, of Rufus, of M. Lucretius, of the Tragic Poet, of 
 the Surgeon, of the Faun, of the Fountain, of the 
 Centaur, of the Painted Columns. In a similar fashion 
 has been determined the nomenclature of the streets. 
 
 With these introductory remarks, I proceed to a 
 description of all that is at present interesting in the 
 public and private edifices of the buried city. 
 
II. 
 
 of 
 
 " I stood within the city disinterred, 
 
 And heard the autumnal leaves, like light footfalls 
 Of spirits passing through the streets ; and heard 
 The Mountain's slumberous voice at intervals 
 Thrill through those roofless halls." 
 
 SHELLEY. 
 
 stood on an insulated hill or plateau 
 of moderate elevation and of an oval shape, 
 surrounded by lava which, at some remote 
 antiquity, had been poured forth from the 
 entrails of Vesuvius. Its highest point was occupied by 
 the Forum. The length of this confined area was about 
 seven furlongs, its breadth under half a mile, its entire 
 circuit nearly two miles. The whole town was surrounded 
 by walls except on the west, where it was sufficiently pro- 
 tected by the steepness of the declivity. It was formerly 
 supposed that the sea washed this side of Pompeii, but 
 on the tract now intervening between the town and the 
 waves Dr. Overbeck has discovered the remains of 
 ancient buildings.* On the east it was bounded by the 
 Sarno, which, now but a shallow rivulet, was formerly 
 navigable for a short distance above its mouth. Three 
 
 (100) 
 
 Oveibeck, " Pompeji." &c. 
 4 
 
48 POSITION OF POMPEII. 
 
 principal roads approached it : one, from Naples, ran 
 along the sunny coast through Herculaneum, Retina, and 
 Oplontis ; a second diverged from the Popilian Via at 
 Nola ; and the third consisted of two branches from 
 Nocera and Stabise, which united into one before reaching 
 the Sarnus. 
 
 Thus situated, it seemed to possess all the local ad- 
 vantages which the most zealous citizen could have 
 desired for his birth-place. On the edge of the sea, at 
 the entrance to a fertile plain, on the bank of a navigable 
 river, and at the base of the vine-clad slopes of Vesuvius, 
 it combined the strength and security of a military station 
 with the facilities and conveniences of a commercial town. 
 Its neighbourhood in every direction was studded with 
 glittering villas, and the shore of the " Baian Ocean," 
 even as far as Naples, was so thronged with gardens and 
 hamlets as to appear one city an Elysian city, bathed in 
 
 " The purple noon's transparent light." 
 
 Itwas surrounded this fair and once-fortunate Pompeii 
 ' with walls on every side but the western or seaward; 
 these, for the greater part of their circuit, are curvilinear, 
 and without any projecting angles. On the north and 
 north-east they consist of an earthen terrace or agger, 
 fourteen feet wide, walled and counter-walled, and 
 ascended from the city by flights of steps, broad enough 
 to admit the passage of several men abreast. The outer 
 face, including the battlement, was about twenty-five feet 
 high, and undefended by a ditch; the inner measured 
 a few feet higher, but was useless in a military sense, 
 though serving to give a more important character to the 
 
fTS WALLS AND GA TES. 49 
 
 fortifications. Both walls are built of large blocks of 
 volcanic tufa and travertine, laid in horizontal courses 
 \vithout cement. Here and there patches of later work, 
 known as opus incertum, and consisting of fragments of 
 stone and lava embedded in mortar and coated with 
 stucco, have been introduced; to repair, perhaps, the 
 portions injured by Sulla's siege machines. 
 
 At intervals the walls were strengthened with square 
 towers, constructed with small rough pieces of tufa, plain 
 in front, but stuccoed and decorated on the sides. Near 
 the western gate they are only eighty paces distant from 
 each other, but towards the east they are planted at two, 
 three, and even four hundred and eighty paces. Each 
 consisted of several stories, had a sally-port, and an arch- 
 way to enable the troops, when necessary, to move along 
 the agger. About ten are still extant, though sorely di- 
 lapidated, a circumstance which Sir William Cell attri- 
 butes to injuries sustained in the siege by Sulla at the 
 end of the Social War. 
 
 There were eight Gates. The most important was that 
 of Herculaneum, at the north-west; thrown across the 
 Via Domitiana, a branch of the Appian Way which led 
 to Herculaneum, and thence to Rome. For about a 
 quarter of a mile from the entrance the road is lined with 
 tombs, in accordance with the Roman custom. Hence it is 
 now known as the Strada delle Tombe, or Street of Tombs. 
 The gate was double, so as to offer a greater obstacle to 
 assault The agger was ascended by ten irregular steps, 
 and strengthened by massive buttresses of stone. Like 
 Temple Bar, the Herculaneum gate possessed a large 
 central and two small lateral entrances; the former open 
 
50 THE HERCULANEUM GATE. 
 
 to the sky, the latter vaulted; the former measuring 
 14^ feet broad and 20 feet high; the latter, for foot-pas- 
 sengers, 4 J feet wide and i o feet high. Passing through 
 the archway, you would see before you a considerable 
 ascent. On the left, outside the gate, stood a pedestal, 
 formerly supporting a colossal statue of bronze, which 
 represented, perhaps, the tutelary deity of the city. 
 There was also a niche where a soldier mounted guard, 
 and the skeleton of one of Rome's legionaries was dis- 
 covered in it, still grasping his heavy lance, the rusty 
 armour clanking on his fleshless bones. Even the hour 
 of doom, which must have seemed to all the last agony 
 of the suffering earth, had failed to break the rigid 
 bonds of discipline, or shake his blind fidelity to his 
 post. The lightnings shivered, the earth shook, and the 
 hissing rain descended; but enough for him that he had 
 not received permission to escape. 
 
 The other gates resembled that of Herculaneum in 
 design as well as in construction. The second led to 
 Vesuvius, whose sides were then clothed with vineyards ; 
 the third to luxurious Capua; the fourth to Nola; the 
 fifth was the Gate of the Sarnus ; the sixth that of Stabiae; 
 the seventh, the Gate of the Theatres; and the eighth, 
 the Sea Gate or Porta della Marina, leading to the 
 harbour. 
 
 The Nola Gate lies within a passage formed of stout 
 masonry, forming a sort of " covered way," which must 
 have proved a dangerous defile to an attacking force. 
 The keystone of the arch is ornamented with a sculp- 
 tured head and an Oscan inscription ; the latter setting 
 forth that the gate was erected by one Vibius Popidius, 
 
STREETS OF POMPEII. 51 
 
 the Medixtuticus or head-magistrate of the city. Out- 
 side the gate was a cemetery, appropriated to the Alex- 
 andrian portion of the population. 
 
 The Gate of the Theatres, excavated in 1851, is of great 
 antiquity. It appears to have been closed with massive 
 double doors. An Oscan inscription in the gateway re- 
 corded the names of some of the streets and principal 
 objects in Pompeii. 
 
 The entrances to the city now in use are the Hercu- 
 laneum Gate, the Sea Gate, and the Gate of Stabiae. 
 
 The Streets of Pompeii can never have presented a 
 stately or superb appearance, from their extreme nar- 
 rowness. Excepting the principal thoroughfares, none 
 will admit the passage of two chariots abreast. The 
 widest, including the side footway, does not exceed 93 
 English feet. Their pavement consists of large irregular 
 pieces of lava joined together with great care ; the ruts 
 worn by Pompeian chariot-wheels are still conspicuous. 
 Their appearance in the old time has been described by 
 Lord Lytton as a scene of "glowing and vivacious ex- 
 citement," owing, not to any architectural graces, but to 
 " the sparkling fountains, that at every vista threw up- 
 wards their graceful spray in the summer air; the crowd 
 of passengers, or rather loiterers, mostly clad in robes of 
 the Tyrian dye; the gay groups collected round each 
 more attractive shop; the slaves passing to and fro with 
 buckets of bronze, cast in the most graceful shapes, and 
 borne upon their heads; the country girls stationed at 
 frequent intervals with baskets of blushing fruit and 
 flowers; the numerous haunts which fulfilled with that 
 
52 THE MAIN STREETS. 
 
 idle people the office of cafes and clubs at this day; and 
 the shops, where on shelves of marble were ranged the 
 vases of wine and oil, and before whose thresholds, 
 seats, protected from the sun by a purple awning, invited 
 the weary to rest and the indolent to lounge."* 
 
 In the wider streets, stepping-stones are placed at fre- 
 quent intervals in the centre for the convenience of the 
 pedestrian. On either side runs a kerb, about twelve to 
 eighteen inches high, and separating the foot-pavement 
 from the road. In obedience to a provision of the law 
 of Caius Gracchus, De viis muniendis, stones and steps 
 for mounting horses are raised at the edge of the foot- 
 way, and holes made in the kerb opposite the principal 
 houses and shops for fastening the halters. 
 
 Of the streets excavated up to the present date, five 
 may be looked upon as the main arteries of the pleasure 
 and business of Pompeii. These are : 
 
 (i.) The Domitiana, or Consularis, leading from the 
 Herculaneum Gate to the Forum. It receives several 
 minor streets on either hand, forming Trivia, or places 
 where three ways meet; 
 
 (2.) The Street of Abundance, or of the Dried Fruits, 
 only partially revealed to modern eyes, seems to have 
 ran in a straight line from the Gate of the Sarno to the 
 Forum ; 
 
 (3.) The Street of the Baths, of Fortune, and of Nola, 
 as it is successively called, struck from the Gate of Nola 
 to the sea; 
 
 (4.) The fourth led from the Gate of Vesuvius to that 
 ofStabioe; and 
 
 * Lord Lytton, " Last Days of Pompeii," book L, chap. i. 
 
THE BUSIEST HIGHWA Y. 
 
 53 
 
 (5.) The fifth, called in the upper part the Street of 
 Mercury, and in the lower, the Street of the Forum, 
 passed from the north wall of the city to the Forum, 
 
 STRAOA DI SAI.U-STIO. 
 
 and was the busiest, broadest, and most animated of all 
 the Pompeian thoroughfares. 
 
 The stranger wandering over Pompeii in search of the 
 curious or interesting, would have had his attention very 
 
54 MURAL LITERATURE. 
 
 forcibly drawn to the street literature blazoned on the 
 walls. The Pompeians, for instance, at election time, 
 gave vent to their partizanship, like English electors, in 
 satires and pasquinades. These were painted in large 
 letters in red and black paint, or sometimes scrawled in 
 charcoal. Old advertisements were wiped out with a coat 
 of white, on which the fresh inscriptions were duly re- 
 corded. In many cases the new coating has fallen off, 
 revealing the old letters, which are generally in the Oscan 
 character, and belong to a period anterior to the Social 
 War. The activity of Pompeian schoolboys is shown by 
 rude scratchings of Greek letters ; the youthful Lepidus 
 endeavouring, it may be, to outvie his comrade Scaurus 
 in illustrating the Greek alphabet. 
 
 In the amphitheatre has been found a mass of inscrip- 
 tions, whose number suggested the following epigram : 
 
 " Admiror paries te non cecidisse r(uinam), 
 
 Qui tot scriptorum taedia sustineas." 
 
 [I marvel, O wall, that thou hast not fallen into ruin, sustaining as thou dost 
 the tediousness of so many writers.] 
 
 The electioneering advertisements are mostly uniform 
 in style, and contain the names of the favourite candi- 
 date, and of the persons who support his claims, termi- 
 nating with the formula O. V. F., that is, Grant (or oral) 
 vosfadatis: in other words We hope you will appoint 
 so-and-so.* On the wall of the so-called House of 
 Pansa appears the following: "Pansam: aed: Paratus 
 rogat" Paratus solicits you to appoint Pansa as aedile. 
 From this inscription we might infer that the house where 
 it is found belonged to Paratus and not to Pansa. If 
 
 * Overbeck, " Pompeji," ii. chap. 6, pp. 04-115. 
 
ITS AMENITIES. 55 
 
 Mr. Smith wished to recommend Mr. Brown as vestry- 
 man, I do not think he would plaster his bills on Brown's 
 mansion. A curious notice is recorded by Overbeck : 
 
 " Sabinum zd[ilem] Procule fac et ille te faciet." 
 [O Proculus, make Sabine aedile, and he will make thee.] 
 
 In our British elections this system of mutual profit is 
 often acted upon, but never, I think, so unblushingly 
 avowed. The epithets bestowed upon the candidates 
 are, of course, eulogistic. The would-be aedile is 
 bonus tprobissimus, verecundissimus, juvenis integer, juvenis 
 egregius, bonus avis, dignus rtipublica, and the like. 
 
 Here is another example : 
 
 "M. Holconium Priscum decemvirum juri dicendo O. V. F. Philippus." 
 [Philippus beseeches you to create M. Holconius Priscus a decemvir of jus- 
 tice justice of peace.] 
 
 Another inscription runs : 
 
 " Marcum . Cerrinium . Vatiam . jEdilem . Oral . Ut . Faveat(is). 
 Scriba . Issus : Dignus Est." 
 
 [The scribe Issus requests you to support M. Cerrinius Vatia as aedile. He 
 is worthy.] 
 
 Many of the recommendations proceed from the 
 trade-guilds or corporations, which would seem to have 
 been numerous and powerful at Pompeii. I find men- 
 tioned : 
 
 Offertores (dyers). Aurifices (goldsmiths). 
 
 Pistores (bakers). Pomarii (fruiterers). 
 
 Caeparii (green-grocers). Lignarii (wood-vendors). 
 
 Plostrarii (cartwrights). Salinenses (sailers). 
 
 Piscicapi (fishermen). Agricolz (husbandmen X 
 
 Forenses (lawyers). Muliones (muleteers). 
 
 Saccarii (sugar-dealers). Culinarii (cooks). 
 
 Fullones (fullers) Lnnifricarius (a wool-washer). 
 
 Perfusor (perfumer). Caupones (innkeepers). 
 
56 POMPEIAN GRAFFITI. 
 
 These titles have suggested to the street wits of Pom- 
 peii an occasional squib, and recommendations are set 
 forth from the scribibi (late tipplers), the dormientes uni- 
 versi (all the free guild of slumberers), and the pilicrepi 
 (or ball players). . Some pedantic schoolmaster is made 
 to come forward with wretched grammar: Valentius, cum 
 discentes sues (Valentius and his pupils). 
 
 The graffiti (inscriptions scratched with a sharp in- 
 strument on the stucco), and the more ambitious painted 
 legends, are of the most various character, embodying a 
 puff, a notice, a wise saying, a jest, a quotation from 
 popular poets, or an amateur essay in versification. 
 Occasionally they indulge in satirical depreciation of 
 let us say Aliquis for not inviting Nemo to sup- 
 per ; or they praise Rufus as a liberal host ; or they 
 express his love for the beautiful Lalage ; or bring 
 the public acquainted with the state of his health. 
 Often the first inscription receives its comment in 
 another, just as in Hotel Albums or Visitors' Books 
 one traveller records his opin- 
 
 r t f\ \- ( TVl^Kl/ 1 ' on ^ t ^ ie remar k of his pre- 
 \V' V ^' / decessor. Within the houses 
 
 they have usually a domestic 
 character. The mistress jots 
 down the birth-day of her 
 eldest son, or the number of 
 tunics and togas sent to the 
 dyer or the washerwoman, or 
 GRAPFITB, OR WALL CARICATURE the daily consumption of oil 
 
 IN POMPKII. 
 
 and wine. 
 The Winchester school-boy will be reminded of the 
 
A FEW SPECIMENS. 57 
 
 famous " Aut disce, aut discede ; aut memet suo tertia 
 csedi " (Learn or go ; the third alternative is to be 
 flogged), by the following : 
 
 " Otiosis hie locus non est, discede morator." 
 [This is no place for the idle let the dawdler begone !] 
 
 And just as Mr. Webster or Mr. Buckstone advertises 
 the performance at the Adelphi or the Haymarket, a 
 keeper of gladiators in the Strada degli Augustali an- 
 nounces, * 
 
 " A. Suettii Certi xdilis farailia gladiatoria pugnabit Pompeis pridie Kalendas 
 
 Junias; venatio et vela erunt." 
 
 [The gladiator company of the aedile Certus will fight at Pompeii the day 
 before the Kalends of June ; there will be a venatio and awnings.] 
 
 To another announcement is added " qua dies patentur," 
 equivalent to our English " weather permitting." 
 
 I transcribe from Overbeck a few of a poetical cast : 
 
 " Quid pote tarn durum saxso aut quid mollius unda ? 
 
 Dura tamen molli saxsa cavantur aqua." 
 
 [What so hard as stone, what softer than water ! Yet the hard rocks are 
 hollowed by the soft water.] 
 
 This Ovidian couplet has been wrongly spelt by some 
 poetical Pompeian. A more original mind has trusted 
 to his own resources, and favoured posterity with, 
 
 " Alliget hie auras si quis obiurgat amantes 
 Et vetet as&iduas currere fontis aquas." 
 
 [If any one can restrain the lover, he may also bind the breezes and forbid 
 the perennial spring to flow.] 
 
 A hungry diner-out exclaims, 
 
 " L. Istacidi ! At quern non csenx barbarus ille mihi est ! " 
 
 [L. Istacidius ! What a barbarian not to ask me to supper ! J 
 
 * Overbeck, " Pompeji," ii. 99 (Leipzig, 1866). 
 
58 POMPEIAN SHOPS. 
 
 Love seems to have entered largely into Pompeian 
 life, for a majority of the inscriptions refer to the uni- 
 versal passion. How the boys of London would titter 
 if they saw written on a " dead wall " some such effusion 
 as the following : 
 
 " Methe Cominiaes atellana amat Chrestum corde, sit utreisque 
 
 Venus Pompeiana propitia et semper Concordes veivant." 
 
 [Methe, the slave of Cominia, loves Chrestus with all her heart : may the Pom- 
 peian Venus be propitious to both, and may they always live happily together !] 
 
 On the wall of the peristyle of the corner-house in the 
 Strada della Fortuna and Vicolo dei Scienziati is scratched 
 a record of the spinning-tasks allotted to the female slaves, 
 with the weight of wool for each (spetisa, spelt peso). 
 Their names were, Vitalis, Florentina, Amaryllis, Jan- 
 uaria, Heracla, Maria (female of Marius), Lalagia (com- 
 pare Horace's Lalage), Cerusa, Damalis, and Doris.* 
 
 Having satisfied himself with these specimens of the 
 street literature of Pompeii, our wanderer may next direct 
 his observations to the shops. To see the best of these 
 he will have to enter the Strada dell' Abondanza, also 
 called the Street of the Silversmiths ; but they are no- 
 where equal to the shops of a second-rate street in an 
 English provincial town. They were usually built round 
 the houses of the wealthier classes, whom they furnished 
 with a very respectable income. From an inscription at 
 Pompeii we learn that one Julia Felix was the owner of 
 nine hundred. The walls were painted in gaudy colours ; 
 the tradesman's sign was placed over his door ; the whole 
 front was open, but closed at night by shutters, which 
 
 " Overbeck, "Pompeji," ii. us, 113. 
 
A BAKER'S. 
 
 59 
 
 slided in grooves cut in the lintel and basement wall 
 before the counter, and by the door. 
 
 Here is the shop of a pistor, or baker. Let us enter. 
 The oven is placed at the end of the counter furthest 
 from the street. The three steps on the left are crowded, 
 you see, with different sorts of measures. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 a. The kerb, with holes for fastening the halters of horses and mules. 
 
 b. The foot-pavement. d. Staircase, leading to upper story. 
 
 c. The shop. e. Back rooms (very small). 
 
 It may here be noted that the Pompeian bakers or 
 cooks were celebrated for their manufacture of a pickle 
 called garum, which was made of the entrails of fish 
 macerated in brine. It was sold at the rate of a thousand 
 sesterces for two congii, or about 4 a gallon. An in- 
 ferior kind, called alec, was made with anchovies.* The 
 shop we are now examining appears to have been a depot 
 for the sale of this and other liquids, of dressed and 
 
 Pliny, " Natural History," xxxi. 43. 
 
6o 
 
 A THERMOPOLIUM. 
 
 undressed provisions. The rooms at the back of the 
 shop are of insignificant dimensions. A staircase in the 
 corner leads to an upper story. 
 
 A corner shop near the Forum seems to have been a 
 T/iermopolium, or shop for the sale of hot drinks. Its 
 walls are brightly painted in blue panels with vermilion 
 borders ; slabs of marble line the counter. A curious 
 
 THEKMOPOUUM AT I'OMI'ICII. 
 
 machine for the preparation of warm drinks has been dis- 
 covered. It may be compared to a modern urn or 
 tripod, supported by three legs. A section of it. with its 
 conical cover, is shown in the accompanying illustration : 
 a a, is the body of the urn : b, a small cylindrical furnace 
 in the centre ; it has four holes in the bottom, as shown 
 in the plan at g, to provide for the escape of the ashes. 
 
A CURIOUS UTENSIL. 
 
 6l 
 
 and to create a draught : c, is a vase-shaped mouth, 
 through which the water was poured in, serving also for 
 the emission of steam : d, a tube which, by means of a 
 cock, served to let off the warm liquid ; it is placed thus 
 high to prevent the pipe being stopped up by the ingre- 
 dients decocted : e, is a conical cover, whose hollow is 
 closed by a thin and somewhat concave plate : f, a 
 movable flat cover, with a hole in the centre, which 
 closes the whole urn except the mouth of the small fur- 
 nace : n n, nuts and screws to fasten this movable cover 
 on the rim of the urn : / /', the rim, convex externally, 
 and concave internally, which, the cover being put on, 
 receives into its concavity the rim of the mouth of the 
 furnace.* 
 
 The shops in Pompeii are all of the same character, 
 differing only in size, fittings, and decorations. We may 
 therefore betake ourselves in the next place on a visit to 
 the public buildings of the city ; among which the Forum 
 will necessarily claim our earliest attention. 
 
 * Pompeii (in " Library of Entertaining Knowledge "), vol. i. p. 127. See also 
 Donaldson's " Pompeii." 
 
III. 
 
 Cj)c Jorum. 
 
 " In many a heap the ground 
 Heaves, as if Ruin in a frantic mood 
 Had done his utmost. Here and there appears, 
 As left to show his handiwork, not ours, 
 An idle column, a half-buried arch." 
 
 ROGERS 
 
 ]N the old days of Roman power, the Forum, 
 in every Roman city, was the great centre 
 of business, of pleasure, of the public life of 
 the people. It served alike tor commercial 
 purposes and for the administration of justice ; it was a 
 market, an Exchange, a place of civic assemblage. It 
 included our Law Courts, our Public Halls, our West- 
 minster Abbey, our Houses of Parliament, our Newgate 
 and Covent Garden Markets, in one common enclosure. 
 There the idler gossipped with others as indolent as him- 
 self ; there the merchants trafficked ; there the orator 
 harangued ; there the decemviri decided the cases brought 
 before them ; there you might buy the piscatory products 
 of the Mediterranean, or rare fruits and dainties from 
 Candia or Cyprus. Under the porticoes were gathered 
 various trades : the money-changers clinked their glitter- 
 ing coins in the stalls below ; in the tabularia were ex- 
 
THE FORUM OF POMPEII. 65 
 
 hibited the public records ; the praetor sat in the basilica 
 to administer the laws. It is impossible to imagine a 
 scene more animated or interesting than the Forum at 
 Pompeii must have presented in the brightest period of 
 its history. Under a cloudless sky of blue was transacted 
 all the business of life, and at this elevated central-point 
 concentrated those who lived to toil, no less than those 
 who lived to make a toil of pleasure. The semi-mari- 
 time, semi-luxurious character of Pompeii, which was both 
 a commercial port and a fashionable watering-place, lent 
 a peculiar aspect of gaiety to the spectacle ; for in the 
 same crowd mingled the Roman patrician, the graceful 
 Greek, the Alexandrian, the Cypriote, the Jew money- 
 changer, their various costumes radiant with many colours. 
 
 Most of the streets of Pompeii led up a considerable 
 ascent to the elevated site of the Forum, which was dis- 
 tant about four hundred yards from the Herculaneum 
 Gate and from the Great Theatre. 
 
 It is surrounded on three sides by Doric columns of 
 grayish-white limestone, each column being about 1 2 feet 
 in height, and 2 feet 3^ inches in diameter. Above this 
 colonnade was formerly a gallery. On the east stood a 
 more ancient arcade, with Doric columns of tufa, which, 
 having been injured by the earthquake of 63, was re- 
 building at the time of the last great catastrophe. The 
 open central area was paved with slabs of limestone. In 
 front of the columns, and of the southern and western 
 porticoes, stood ornamental pedestals of white marble, 
 which, when crowned with statues some of them eques- 
 trian must have contributed materially to the beauty 
 and interest of the spot. They are decorated with a 
 
66 TEMPLE OP JUPITER. 
 
 Doric frieze, and one still retains its dedicatory inscrip- 
 tion : * 
 
 C. CVSPIO. C. F. PANS^E 
 
 ii. VIR. J. D. IVART. QVING. 
 
 EX. D. D. PEE. PVB. 
 
 The names of eminent Pompeian citizens are inscribed 
 upon other pedestals, including Sallust, Gellianus, Rufus, 
 Scaurus. 
 
 At the north end of the Forum stands the TEMPLE 
 OF JUPITER, raised upon an elevated basement, and occu- 
 pying a position which renders it dominant over the whole 
 city, like the Temple of the Capitoline Jove at Rome. 
 It is prostyle (irpo, and o-rvAos), that is, it has a detached 
 columnar portico in front ; of the Corinthian order ; the 
 columns are pycnostyle (TTVKI/OS, and orvAos), or placed 
 close together ; while the portico is hexastyle, or embel- 
 lished with six columns in front, and three at each side. 
 These columns are of the fluted Corinthian pattern. A 
 row of pillars runs on each side along the interior of the 
 cella (or nave), which seems to have been open to the 
 airs of heaven. It is probable that there were two ranges 
 of columns within the cella, one above another, and that 
 the floor of a gallery rested on the lower tier. The clear 
 space or open area of the said cella was about 42 feet 
 by 28 feet 6 inches. The interior has been painted, 
 chiefly in black and red. A broad border of black and 
 white mosaic encloses the pavement, which is formed of 
 lozenge-shaped pieces of marble. The entrance is ap- 
 proached by a flight of steps, ornamented with pedestals 
 for colossal statues. Exclusive of this approach, it mea- 
 
 * Sir W. Cell, " Pompciaua." i. 3*. 
 
THE DUNGEOXS. 67 
 
 sxired 100 feet in length, and 43 feet in width. Its total 
 height, including the basement, was about 60 feet. 
 
 When exhumed in 1817-18 many relics of the past 
 were discovered among its ruins. There was a colossal 
 head of the god whose worship was conducted within 
 the fane ; a votive offering, in bronze, of a woman carry- 
 ing her infant ; a torso of good workmanship, with a 
 statue outlined on its back, and intended to have been 
 cut out of it ; a bronze helmet ; a patera ; a plate ; and 
 two skeletons, one of which had been crushed in the 
 middle by the falling of a marble column; mute yet 
 eloquent witnesses of the sudden destruction which fell 
 upon the unfortunate city ! 
 
 A low brick arch, adjoining the south-western end of 
 the basement, opens into the Prisons dark, narrow, 
 windowless dungeons, whose only light was the faint 
 glimmering that penetrated through the iron grates of 
 the doors. Several skeletons were found in them, with 
 rusty shackles still encircling their leg bones. When the 
 fire and the cloud fell upon Pompeii, the gaolers escaped, 
 giving never a thought of the terrible fate to which they 
 abandoned the inmates of their gloomy cells. 
 
 At the other angle of the temple stands a gateway, 
 which was evidently intended as a triumphal arch. Its 
 massive piers, and part of the columns that embellished 
 them, remain. In each pier were two attached fluted 
 Corinthian columns of white marble, excellently wrought. 
 Between them was a square-headed niche, inclosing 
 statues ; one of which seems to have been connected 
 with a fountain, the water flowing from a vase or cornu- 
 copia placed in the hands of the figures. 
 
68 ANCIENT MEASURES. 
 
 The ancient Romans loved the music and the sparkle 
 of running water, and adorned their cities plenteously 
 with "silvery shafts of spray," which gave a delightful 
 coolness to the air and a grateful pleasure to the senses. 
 Statues, chiefly of bronze, applied to this purpose, were 
 numerous at Pompeii. Among others have been found 
 two boys, of exquisite workmanship, carrying vases on 
 their shoulders, and two others holding masks, both 
 masks and vases resting on pedestals. Water was carried 
 through the figures in leaden pipes, and allowed to run 
 in a glittering stream through the masks and vases. 
 
 Adjoining the prisons stood a long narrow edifice used 
 as a granary or store-house ; and in a recess under the 
 colonnade of the Forum were found the public measures 
 for grain, oil, and wine. The measure for grain consists 
 of a thick horizontal slab of stone, pierced perpendicu- 
 larly by two inverted cones, truncated at the smaller end. 
 Underneath were placed the baskets or sacks, and a flat 
 piece of wood was held in such wise as to prevent the 
 grain from escaping at the bottom, until, the measure 
 being full, the contents, on the removal of the wood, fell 
 into the proper receptacle. " Bonucci mentions a stone," 
 says Sir William Cell, " in the Royal Museum at Naples, 
 which contains measures of liquids as well as of solids, 
 and with the names of the magistrates to authenticate 
 them. Such public measures were probably common to 
 all the cities of antiquity. Travellers may observe one 
 of these stones in a wall near the north gate of Fondi ; 
 and another, with three different measures, on the ground 
 near that of Naples." * 
 
 * Sir W. Cell. " I'ompciana," i. 33. 
 
TEMPLE OF VENUS. 69 
 
 The reader must understand that the buildings I have 
 now described are all situated on the north side of the 
 Forum. Let him suppose that we next continue our 
 journey of exploration along its western border, facing 
 towards the city and the distant Mediterranean. After 
 passing the granary he will see, on the right, the largest 
 and most magnificent of all the Pompeian buildings, 
 
 THE TEMPLE OF VENUS. 
 
 Antiquarians are not agreed, it is true, upon its proper 
 appellation. When first discovered it was considered to 
 be a temple of Bacchus, from two pictures of a Bacchic 
 character which were found within its inclosure. It has 
 also been called the House of the Dwarfs, from a series 
 of quaintly humorous dwarf figures painted on the wall. 
 But when we consider that Venus was the patron goddess 
 of Pompeii, we may reasonably infer that to her worship 
 and in her honour would be dedicated the superbest 
 temple. Moreover, a statue of the ideal beauty, recall- 
 ing in its modest expression * the famous chef-d'xuvre 
 at Florence, 
 
 " There, too, the Goddess lives in stone, and fills 
 The air around with beauty ; we inhale 
 The ambrosial aspect, which, beheM, instils 
 Part of its immortality " 
 
 that Medicean statue which has " charmed the world " 
 and a bust of the goddess, found in the cella, would 
 seem to confirm this supppsition.t And if the following 
 
 * M. Marc Monnier, " Pompci et les Pompe'iens" (in "Tour du Monde" . 
 vol. v., p. 393. 
 
 t Ovcrbeck, " Pompeji," i. 101. 
 
70 ITS DIMENSIONS. 
 
 translation of an inscription discovered on the spot be 
 correct, the question need not further be discussed : 
 
 M. HOLCONIVS . RVFVS. D. V. I. D. TER. 
 C. EGNATIVS . POSTHVMVS . D. V. I. T. TER. 
 EX . D. D. IVS . LVMINVM. 
 OPSTRVENDORVM . US. OO CO 00 
 REDEMERVNT. COL. YEN. COR. 
 
 VSQVE . AD . TEGVLAS. 
 
 FACIVNT. CURARVNT. 
 
 [Marcus Holconius Rufus and Cains Ignatius Posthumus, decemvirs of justice 
 for the third time, by a decree of the Decurions, bought again the right 
 pf closing Uie openings for three thousand sesterces, and took care to 
 erect a private wall to the collegium of the incorpoiated Venerei up to the 
 roof] 
 
 It has been remarked that these openings were pro- 
 bably between the massive piers on the side next the 
 colonnade of the Forum, and that, previous to their 
 being closed, the public could see into the area sur- 
 rounding the fane of Venus. As the rites of the goddess 
 were too frequently of a licentious character, one can 
 easily understand why the magistrates would wish to 
 shut them off from the public gaze. 
 
 Let us now endeavour to restore the Temple in all its 
 pristine magnificence. 
 
 An open area, 150 feet long by 75 feet wide, is sur- 
 rounded by a peristyle of forty-eight marble columns, 
 forming a portico or arcade between thirteen and four- 
 teen feet in breadth. The columns are painted yellow 
 in the lower portion, and white in the upper. They 
 were originally Doric, but, as you see, have been altered 
 to Corinthian, the prevailing fashion, and clumsily spoiled 
 in the alteration. In one of them a perforation has been 
 
INTERIOR. 71 
 
 made to receive the pipe which conducted water for the 
 sacrifices into a basin placed upon a circular fluted 
 pedestal. A consular figure was found here, and it has 
 been supposed that a similar figure was placed before 
 each column of the colonnade. 
 
 At the upper end of" this open area stands the Temple, 
 upon an elevated basement. You ascend to it by a 
 flight of eleven steps, in front of which is placed a large 
 altar, covered with a slab of black lava. According to 
 some authorities, its form is only adapted for offerings of 
 cakes, fruit, and incense, the usual offerings to Venus ; 
 but others assert that the slab, when exhumed, contained 
 three receptacles for fire, and that the ashes of victims 
 were discovered on it. An inscription on the east side, 
 repeated on the west, records that the quartumviri, 
 M. Porcius, M. F. L. Sixtitius, L. F. Cn. Cornelius, and 
 Cn. F. A. Cornelius, erected it at their own expense. 
 
 The walls under the colonnade are vividly painted in 
 many colours, representing, on a black ground, villas 
 and landscapes, dwarfs, pigmies, battles with crocodiles, 
 dancers, sacrifices to Priapus, and various designs of an 
 Egyptian character ; which would seem to show that 
 eventually the worship of Osirei had been combined 
 with that of Venus. Within the cella, which is small, 
 was found a beautiful mosaic border, and, in an apart- 
 ment beyond, an. admirable fresco of Silenus playing on 
 the lyre to the Infant Bacchus. This had been removed 
 from some other place, and carefully fastened in its 
 present situation with iron cramps and cement. 
 
 Continuing our circuit of the Forum, we next arrive, 
 
72 THE CROWDED FORUM. 
 
 on the western side, at the Basilica ; but may pause for 
 a moment to survey once again the animated spectacle 
 which the crowded area presents. 
 
 In yonder stalls, with their glittering heaps before 
 them, sit the money-changers, trafficking with' busy mer- 
 
 fRESCO. A LANDSCAPE (FOUND AT POMPEIl). 
 
 chants, and with seamen, noticeable for their diversities 
 of costume Greeks from the ^Egean, Asiatics from the 
 shores of Asia Minor, Tunisians, and Egyptians from 
 the mouth of the Nile. The lawyers and the clients, 
 clothed in long togas, are streaming in a ceaseless pro- 
 cession towards the seats of the magistrates ; for Law 
 had its priests, its worshippers, and its victims in the 
 
A BUSY SCENE. 73 
 
 first as well as in the nineteenth century. Under the 
 Doric colonnade stand several idlers, refreshing them- 
 selves with a light repast of pieces of bread soaked in 
 diluted wine, and discussing with eager gossip the last 
 bit of scandal or the latest news arrived from Rome. 
 In the open space various petty traders are exercising 
 the arts of their calling. One man recommends his 
 ribbons to a country dame ; another sells to a Cam- 
 panian peasant a pair of heavy shoes ; a third supplies 
 hot drinks from his small and portable stove ; a fourth 
 is a schoolmaster, expounding to his puzzled scholars 
 the mysteries of the Greek alphabet. In the gallery 
 above have collected the more opulent citizens of Pom- 
 peii, intent, as their grave countenances show, upon 
 serious business. 
 
 Lo now! the crowd gives way, and through the respect- 
 ful throng some senator advances to join his illustrious 
 confreres in the Temple of Jupiter. In and out of the 
 public granaries pass the corn-dealer and the wine-seller, 
 to measure their respective wares, and negotiate their 
 sale or exchange. Merrily murmurs the fountain in the 
 niche of yonder arch, on whose bronzed and equestrian 
 statue of Caligula the sunshine glances and shimmers 
 The poorer citizens, with panniers under their arms, force 
 their way through yonder small vestibule into the Pan- 
 theon, where the priests, at a platform placed between two 
 columns, have exposed for sale such provisions as they 
 could rescue from the sacrifice. 
 
 Nothing, in a word, can exceed in variety as Lord 
 Lytton remarks* the costumes, the ranks, the manners, 
 
 * Lord Lytton, " Last Pays of Pompeii," bk. iii. c. i. 
 
74 THE BASILICA. 
 
 the occupations of the crowd; nothing can exceed the 
 bustle, the gaiety, the animation, the flow and flush of 
 life all around. You see here all the myriad signs of a 
 heated and feverish civilization, where pleasure and com- 
 merce, idleness and labour, avarice and ambition, mingle 
 in one gulf their motley, rushing, yet harmonious 
 streams. 
 
 So we follow the togaed train of lawyers into 
 
 THE BASILICA. 
 
 The idea of a Basilica was of Greek origin. This, 
 indeed, might be inferred from its name : Boo-iXua? (sc. 
 oroa), a regal portico, where the Athenian " King 
 Archon" (Archon-Basileus) sat to administer justice 
 publicly. The first erected at Rome was built by 
 Marcus Porcius Cato, the censor, about 182 B.C. ; 
 and was quickly followed by the Basilica Fulvia, the 
 Basilica Sempronia, and, under the Empire, the Ba- 
 silica Julia, the Basilica Ulpia of Trajan, and the 
 Basilica of Constantine. It was invariably of an ob- 
 long form, its breadth not more than one-half, and 
 not less than one-third of its length. A gallery ran 
 around it; an apsis, or recess, either square or circular, 
 terminated its further extremity ; and it was usually 
 open to the sky, or only partially roofed. In the apse 
 was placed the judge's tribunal, separated by a railing 
 from the other portions of the building, which were de- 
 voted to the same purposes as our modern Exchange. 
 Sometimes, as in the Pompeian Basilica, there was no 
 apse, and the magistrate's court was then cut off from 
 the nave. The upper gallery was thrown open to the 
 
ITS CONSTRUCTION. 75 
 
 public; one-half to the men, one-half to the women. As 
 our Christian churches have been imitated from these 
 Basilicas, the reader who would gain a clear conception 
 of their arrangement has only to suppose a church un- 
 roofed, leaving the nave open, but the aisles covered, 
 and in the place of the altar or communion-table, to 
 substitute the judge's curule chair, and the seats of the 
 jndices, or jurymen. 
 
 The Pompeian Basilica the most perfect example of 
 the kind in existence measures 220 feet in length by 80 
 feet in breadth. It is entered through a vestibule having 
 five doorways of masonry, in which grooves have been 
 cut for the insertion of wooden door-jambs. From the 
 vestibule a flight of four steps leads into the interior by 
 five entrances. The open central area is enclosed by a 
 covered gallery resting on a range of twenty-eight fluted 
 Ionic columns, of large size, and constructed 6f brick and 
 tufa, covered with stucco, forming below a colonnade or 
 aisle, where the merchants and lawyers might shelter 
 themselves from the weather. 
 
 The praetor's tribunal, situated at the further extremity 
 of the peristyle for in the Basilica at Pompeii there was 
 no apse is a platform, six or seven feet high, ascended 
 by wooden steps; it is decorated with small columns, 
 between which, at the back, small apertures may be seen, 
 and at the sides closets, probably for the magisterial 
 robes.* Temporary cells for the accused were placed 
 underneath; and through two orifices in the floor orders 
 were transmitted to those who had them in charge. A 
 bronze statue stood on a pedestal in front of the 
 
 " Pompeii" (Library of Entertaining Knowledge), i. 137. 
 
76 A HAND-WRITING ON THE WALL. 
 
 \ 
 
 tribunal ; on each side of which were two enclosed apart- 
 ments, designed, we may suppose, for the accommoda- 
 tion of the suitors and their advocates, the lictors, officers, 
 and attendants of the court. The interior walls were 
 painted in various colours to imitate marble. That 
 loiterers might be found in the Pompeian public places, 
 as in those of London and Paris, is attested by the 
 numerous inscriptions rudely scratched upon these walls; 
 inscriptions which show that a very low state of moral 
 feeling prevailed among the citizens. One, however, of 
 simple character, is valuable in connection with the sup- 
 posed age of the Basilica. It runs, 
 
 C . I'VMJDIVS DIPILVS HEIC FVIT A D V NONAS OCTOBREIS 
 M . LEPID Q CATVL COS. 
 
 It matters little to the world at large that Pumidius 
 Dipilus was in the Pompeian Basilica on the 3rd of 
 October, but the circumstance of his recording the date 
 in the year that Lepidus and Catulus held the consul- 
 ship, or 79 B.C. proves that the building .was erected 
 eighty or ninety years, at all events, before the Christian 
 era. * The name of this idler has thus been preserved 
 nearly two thousand years. 
 
 At the south-west corner of the Forum, beyond the 
 Basilica, are two houses which, having been excavated 
 during the rule of the French general Championnet at 
 Naples, are known as the Houses of Championnet. I 
 shall refer to them in a later section of this volume. 
 
 Proceeding along the southern side, opposite the 
 Temple of Jupiter, we come to three halls of nearly 
 
 * Ovcrbeck, "Pompeji," i. 134. 
 
THE TREASUR Y AND MA GISTERIAL COUR TS. 77 
 
 equal dimensions, which, in the absence of all inscrip- 
 tions to afford a clue to their destination, have been 
 termed 
 
 THE CURVE, AND jERARIUM. 
 
 The central one, which has a square recess, and the re- 
 mains of a raised basement at the end, is called the 
 yErarium, or Treasury, because some two or three 
 hundred coins were found in it. The side buildings, 
 which have apsides, or circular recesses, are supposed to 
 have been the Curia, or courts where cases of minor 
 importance were decided by the municipal magistrates. 
 They appear to have been richly embellished with 
 marbles, frescoes, and statues. 
 
 Proceeding along the eastern side of the Forum, we 
 pass a corner building, whose uses are wholly unknown. 
 It is generally called, but on no good foundation, the 
 Public School of Verna, from an inscription of a certain 
 Verna soliciting the protection of Ccelius Capella, the 
 Decemvir of Justice. 
 
 Next to it stands 
 
 THE CHALCIDICUM, 
 
 or Crypto-Porticus of Eumachia, a large and imposing 
 structure, in the form of a basilica, 130 feet long, and 65 
 feet broad, which is supposed to have been the Cloth 
 Exchange of Pompeii.* It has two entrances, one from 
 
 The youthful reader, amazed at the uncouth words, will inquire their mean- 
 ing. A crypto-portico (.from <cpvnros, hidden) is a gallery, in which the columns 
 in the interior are replaced by walls, merely pierced for windows, kchalcidicum 
 (from the Eubcean city, Chalcis) is an apartment separated by a partition from 
 the body of a basilica, or other large building. It may also be taken lo signify 
 any large portico, but antiquaries still differ upon the exact meaning of the term. 
 
78 THE CHALCIDICUM. 
 
 the Forum, and the other from the Strada dell' Abondanza. 
 The former was graced with a handsome portico of 
 eighteen columns, which was surrounded by raised plat- 
 forms, for the convenience probably of haranguing an 
 audience sheltered from the weather, or for the proclama- 
 tion of edicts and decrees relative to commercial matters.* 
 
 The entrance to the central area is through a passage, 
 on each side of which are other passages, with a staircase 
 on the right leading to upper galleries. The Chalcidicum 
 is approached from the Strada dell' Argentarii (Street of 
 the Silversmiths), forming the southern boundary of the 
 building. Here is a small chamber for the custos, or 
 porter, through which may be seen a flight of steps as- 
 cending to the floor of the Chalcidicum and Crypto- 
 portico ; the wall on either side is painted in black panels, 
 divided by red pilasters. Under the staircase are the 
 remains of a thermopoliuin, whose characteristics I have 
 already described. 
 
 The building, as a whole, consisted of a kypatkrum, 
 or open court ; a portico of forty-eight marble columns ; 
 a chalcidicum, or enclosed apartment, at the further ex- 
 tremity; a semicircular recess at the end, containing a 
 statue of Concord; and a crypto-porticus. The latter 
 ran round three sides of the building north, south, east 
 lighted by windows placed at regular intervals; above it 
 were wooden galleries; and above these an upper cornice, 
 which projected so far over the area as to shelter the 
 little tables, built of lava and covered with marble, on 
 which the fullers and cloth-merchants exhibited their 
 goods. The walls are divided into large panels, painted 
 
 * Sir William Cell, " Puinpciana," i. i j, el scy. 
 
STATUE OF EUMACHIA. 79 
 
 alternately red and yellow, and bordered at the bottom 
 with a gay floral design; their centre is occupied by a 
 small figure or landscape. One of the latter is described 
 by Sir William Cell as " presenting a pretty and pictur- 
 esque group of buildings, and serving to give an idea of 
 the beautiful effects which must frequently have been 
 produced by the various combinations of shrines, columns, 
 and ornamental pediments in the cities of Greece and 
 Italy." The floral decorations include a flower not un- 
 like the lily in form, but of a vermilion colour. The 
 effect of the whole, when fresh and new, must have been 
 very attractive. 
 
 The chalcidicum is raised above the level of the area, 
 and was probably approached by steps of wood ; it is 
 divided into two parts by a semicircular apse or recess, 
 which may have served for a civil tribunal. Here, per- 
 haps, were kept the goods not disposed of during the 
 day. 
 
 Behind the recess, in a niche panelled in green and 
 red, stands the statue of Eumachia, the public priestess, 
 and foundress of the building. It is executed in white 
 marble; is nearly 5 feet 4 inches high; and stands on a 
 pedestal about three feet from the pavement, which bears 
 the following inscription : 
 
 EVMACHL'E . L . F 
 
 SACERD . PVBL. 
 
 FVLLONES. 
 
 from which it appears that the fullers erected it to the 
 memory of their great benefactor. 
 
 Over the side-entrance from the Strada dell' Abondanza, 
 
8o OLD INSCRIPTIONS. 
 
 may be read another inscription, explanatory of the 
 erection of the building. It runs thus, 
 
 EVMACHIA . L . F . SACERD . PVBLIC . NOMINE . SVO . ET 
 M . NVM1STRI . FRONTOMS . FELI . CHALCIDICVM . 
 CRYPTAM . PORTICVM . CONCORDI^E . AVGVSTYE . 
 PIETATE . SVA PEQVNIA . FECIT . EADEMQVE 
 DEDICAVIT. 
 
 TEumachia, the public priestess, daughter of Lucius, in her own name and that 
 of her son, M. Numistrus Fronto, erected this Chalcidicum and Crypto- 
 Porticus at her own expense, and dedicated the same to Concord and 
 Piety.] 
 
 This inscription was repeated on blocks of marble, 
 which formed the architrave of the front of the building. 
 
 It has been conjectured that the chalcidicum suffered 
 severely in the earthquake of A.D. 63 ; and it seems to 
 have been undergoing repair at the time of the great 
 eruption. 
 
 On the outer wall towards the street are two inscrip- 
 tions. The first notifies a gladiatorial show, 
 
 A . SVETTI CERII 
 
 /EDILIS . FAMILIA . GLADIATORIA . PVGNABIT 
 
 POMPEIS . R . K . JVNIAS . VENATIO . ET . VELA . 
 
 ERVNT. 
 
 [The gladiatorial troupe of Sucttius Curius, the <edile, will fight at Pompeii 
 on the last day of May. There will be a chase of wild beasts (venatio,, 
 and awnings (vela] 19 protect spectators from the sun.] 
 
 The second proves the opulence of the city, 
 
 C . CVSPIVM PANSAM . /ED . 
 
 AVRIFICE3 . VNIVERSI 
 
 ROG. 
 
 [All the goldsmiths solicit the protection of Caius Crispius Pausa the xdilc]. 
 
TEMPLE OF QUIRINUS. 8l 
 
 The fullers were an important guild among the an- 
 cient Romans. Wool was then the principal material of 
 dress, and, in so warm a climate as that of Italy, must 
 have needed frequent purification. The fuller and the 
 cloth manufacturer, therefore, played an important rdie, 
 and we need not wonder that a building of such dimen- 
 sions was appropriated to their accommodation.' 
 
 But I now pass on to the so-called 
 
 TEMPLE OF QUIRINUS, 
 
 formerly known as that of Mercury. There is reason to 
 believe, however, that if its former appellation was erro- 
 neous, its present is not correct. It was suggested by 
 an inscription on a basis which stands in front of it, and 
 which commemorates the achievements of Romulus, and 
 his deification under the name of Quirinus. But it 
 should be remembered that the said basis was not found 
 within the temple precincts, but parallel with the colon- 
 nade of the forum ; while a precisely similar pedestal, 
 inscribed to the glory of ^Eneas, stood on the other side, 
 exactly opposite to it. Hence it is evident that they 
 anciently supported statues of the two divine founders of 
 the Roman people. 
 
 A temple, however, the building before us is, most 
 undoubtedly : though we know not to what deity it may 
 have been consecrated. It occupies a roughly quadran- 
 gular area, 57^ feet by 50^ feet ; at whose further extre- 
 mity, elevated on a podium, or basement, stands a 
 sacellum, or sanctuary. On each side of the basement, 
 steps lead up to the platform of the cella. In front of it, 
 and just in the centre of the court, stands a white marble 
 
82 A BAS-RELIEF. 
 
 altar, bearing an unfinished bas-relief, which has absurdly- 
 been supposed to represent Cicero sacrificing, from a 
 fancied resemblance HI the principal figure to the great 
 orator whose eloquence moved the passions of republi- 
 can Rome. But if no dispassionate observer can recog- 
 nize Cicero, the bas-relief is nevertheless of high interest 
 in its details. You see the victim an ox led forward by 
 the popa, or person whose office was to slay it. He 
 bears in his hand the sacrificial axe (malleus), and is 
 stripped naked to his waist. At the altar stands the 
 chief priest, or perhaps magistrate, his brow bound 
 with a triumphal wreath, and his robes partly drawn 
 over his head. In his hand he holds a patera, with 
 which to lustrate and sprinkle the victim. Behind him, 
 carrying a vase and another patera, stands a youthful 
 acolyte, with the sacred vitta, or fillet, hanging from his 
 neck. Near him is a figure also holding a patera, which, 
 apparently, is heaped with cakes. A musician lustily 
 sounds a tibia or double flute, and in the rear gather 
 the lictors with their fasces. The temple is represented 
 in the background, adorned with garlands and fes- 
 toons. 
 
 On the opposite side of the altar, young olive-trees are 
 sculptured, and between them a crown of oak leaves, 
 bound with the sacred vitta ; on the other two sides, you 
 may trace the various implements and ornaments of 
 sacrifice, as the vase, the patera, the vitta, the censor, 
 garlands, a ladle, and a spiral instrument, which mayhap 
 belonged to the haruspex, who examined the entrails of 
 the victims, and from their appearance divined the future. 
 In fine, this altar of white marble is a curious illustration 
 
A DEAD CREED. 83 
 
 of the religious rites of antiquity, and may remind us of 
 one which Paul beheld at Athens, dedicated to an un- 
 known god. 
 
 The sacdlum is built of stone, and decorated exter- 
 nally with pilasters ; it measures but 15^ feet by 13 feet 
 8 inches, and was only just large enough to serve as a 
 shrine for the statue of its presiding deity, whose pedestal 
 is still extant. In the apartments designed for the priests 
 numerous amphora, or wine-jars, have been discovered. 
 These and other relics are still preserved in the temple, 
 which has been converted into a species of temporary 
 museum. The sounds of music no longer float through 
 its pillared aisles ; the victim no longer bleeds on its 
 altar ; the crowds of excited worshippers have ceased to 
 bend before the marble image of their fabulous divinity ; 
 the old creed has died out, the old worship passed away ; 
 and the gods of Rome and Hellas are but as vain 
 shadows, which the brush of the artist and the pen of the 
 poet seek at times to recall to a transient life. They 
 have fallen before the eternal spirit of Infinite Good. 
 
 ' ' The powers of earth and air 
 Fled from the folding star of Bethlehem : 
 
 Apollo, Pan, and Love, 
 
 And even Olympian Jove, 
 Grew weak, for killing truth had glared on them." 
 
 The third important building on the eastern side of 
 the Forum is generally supposed to be 
 
 THE SENACULUM, 
 
 or Senate-House ; but it has also been called the Decu- 
 rionate, the meeting-place of the Town-Council, or, in 
 
84 THE SENACULUM. 
 
 English phrase, the Guildhall. For such a purpose it 
 seems specially adapted by its large dimensions, its 
 spacious area measuring 83 feet by 60. It is semicir- 
 cular in plan. Externally it is embellished with a por- 
 tico of fluted white marble columns of the Ionic order. 
 Internally, a niche for a statue occurs on each side of 
 the entrance, and at the end a recess with a seat for the 
 worshipful magistrates. An altar stands in the centre of 
 the area, where, on important occasions, sacrifices were 
 offered previous to the commencement of public busi- 
 ness. It is a moot question whether the building was 
 open to the sky, or roofed, with glass casements in the 
 roof to admit light. Certainly, if covered, it would not 
 be sufficiently illuminated by the rays which would 
 stream in through the portico. It is a mistake to sup- 
 pose that the ancients were not acquainted with glass 
 windows. A quantity of flat glass has been discovered 
 among the ruins at Pompeii ; and it has also been found 
 " ingeniously fitted " to those rare and minute openings, 
 or loopholes, which were used as windows in that city. , 
 We have now arrived at the north-eastern angle of the 
 Forum, and at an edifice which has been variously 
 designated 
 
 THE PANTHEON, 
 
 the Temple of Augustus, and the House of the Au- 
 gustales.* Bonucci, an Italian archaeologist of consider- 
 able repute, considers a portion of it to have served as 
 the Temple of Augustus, and the remainder as the scene 
 of the sacred banquet of its priests, the Augustales. Sir 
 
 * Ovcrbeck, " Pompeji," ttf anti ; Sir W. Cell, " Pompeiana," i. 46-68. 
 
THE AUGUSTALES. 85 
 
 William Cell observes that the only reason to doubt this 
 theory is " the difficulty of finding so large a piece of 
 ground, in the centre of a city already built, for the 
 erection of such a fabric, and for such a purpose, at so 
 late a period." But Vitruvius gives such a situation for 
 the Temple of Augustus. Fragments of an inscription, 
 too, have been found, which seem to settle the 
 question : 
 
 . . . AMINI . AVGVSTALI . SODALI 
 AVGVSTALI . Q. 
 
 And though Overbeck, apparently on no other ground 
 than that the edifice is of a circular form, calls it the 
 Temple of Vesta, most authorities are now agreed in 
 accepting Bonucci's hypothesis. 
 
 The Augustales were highly honoured ; they were an 
 order founded by Augustus, and it was their privilege, 
 like that of a chosen body of knights, to lead the troops 
 in battle ; they also presided at the feasts called Au- 
 gustalia, held in memory of their founder. At Pompeii, 
 where they were six in number, they exercised a para- 
 mount influence. Their funds supplied them with the 
 means of giving splendid entertainments, a source of 
 civic popularity in other days than those of the Roman 
 empire ! and there can be no doubt that they and the 
 principal citizens of Pompeii often made the walls of the 
 so-called Pantheon resound with the noise of their 
 carousals. I can fancy that with the Pompeians it was 
 as much a matter of eager contention to obtain an invi- 
 tation to a cccna with the Augustales, as it is with a 
 certain class of Londoners now-a-days to partake of the 
 turtle-soup of the Mansion-House ! Nittic pellite curas.' 
 
86 CULINA R Y PIC TURES. 
 
 O Pompeians, let us drink and be merry, for what says 
 our Horace 1 
 
 " Sapias, vina liques, et spatio brevi 
 Spem longam reseces." 
 
 " Be wise ; pour forth the wine : 
 Within one narrow span thy wandering hopes confine." 
 
 It is, at all events, certain that feasting was the prin- 
 cipal motive for assembling in the Pompeian porticoes. 
 The street which runs along the north side of them from 
 the Temple of Jupiter has been called that of Dried Fruits, 
 from the quantity of raisins, figs, plums, chestnuts, pre- 
 served fruits in glass vases, lentils, hempseed, and similar 
 articles, found in the shops. Bread, scales, money, and 
 moulds for pastry, have also been among the " treasure- 
 trove ;" and a finely-wrought statuette of Fame, in 
 bronze, with golden armlets. , 
 
 Many of the smaller paintings which adorned the walls 
 of the building are of a culinary character. At the 
 northern entrance, which has the name CELSVM en- 
 graved on a pilaster, and near which was found a box 
 containing a gold ring, 41 silver medals, and 1036 brass 
 coins, you may see a group of Cupids making bread, or 
 driving the patient ass, crowned with a wreath like Bot- 
 tom in the " Midsummer Night's Dream," after his meta- 
 morphosis which brought the flour. On the opposite 
 side, their dexterous fingers are weaving garlands for the 
 guests. At the southern entrance a tableau is made up 
 of a meat-axe, boars' heads, hams, fish, and other viands. 
 In other places we find paintings of geese, turkeys, dishes 
 of eggs, fowls and game plucked ready for cooking, oxen, 
 sheep, glass salvers of fruit, a cornucopia, a variety of 
 
THE PANTHEON. 87 
 
 amphorae for wine, and every other accessory of a ban- 
 quet The Augustales must have shown considerable 
 taste in drawing up their bills of fare. 
 
 To this pictorial evidence may be added the testimony 
 of a drain or sink near the tholos or dodecagon in the 
 centre of the court, which was found obstructed with 
 fish-bones and other remains of food. 
 
 The Pantheon was a spacious edifice, consisting in- 
 ternally of an open atrium or court, 120 feet by 90 feet, 
 with entrances on three sides ; that from the Forum 
 being decorated with fluted Corinthian columns of white 
 marble, and pedestals for statues. The columns had 
 been overthrown by the earthquake, and were under re- 
 pair at the time of the eruption. In the atrium was 
 placed an altar, surrounded by twelve small pedestals. 
 It was originally supposed that these had borne statues of 
 the twelve Dii Consenies or Magni Jupiter, Juno, Min 
 erva, Vesta, Ceres, Neptune, Venus, Vulcan, Mars, 
 Mercury, Apollo, Diana ; and therefore the building was 
 named the Pantheon. It is more probable, as Over- 
 beck suggests,* that they supported some light wooden 
 structure perhaps a canopy for the protection of the 
 officiating priests which was destroyed in the fire that 
 consumed the city. 
 
 Behind the altar was a niche, in which may have been 
 placed the image of a god, so that the devout Roman 
 had an opportunity of leaving his offering as he entered, 
 and of propitiating the presiding deity. 
 
 The grand entrance from the Forum opens out of the 
 portico north of the Senaculum, and has two doors, be- 
 
 Overbeck, " Porapeji." ui ant). 
 
88 
 
 RELICS OF ANCIENT ART. 
 
 tween which stood a statue probably of the Emperor 
 under a pediment supported by two small Corinthian 
 columns of white marble, whose capitals are enriched 
 with foliage and the Roman eagles. 
 
 On the left of this entrance the wall, with its paintings, 
 has been excellently preserved ; and when it was fresh, 
 nothing could exceed the beauty of the' colouring, or the 
 
 STATUES OF LIVIA AND DROSUS, POUND IN THK J'ANTHEON. 
 
 rich effect of the contrast between its many vivid tints 
 and the deep black of the panelled background. The 
 finest frescoes are those of Ulysses and Penelope, Theseus 
 and yEthra, and the muse Thalia. 
 
 In the first, reference is made to the passage in the 
 1 9th book of the Odyssey, where Penelope inquires of 
 the supposed mendicant who is Ulysses himself for 
 
CLASSIC SCENES, 89 
 
 tidings of the lost Ulysses. She is clothed in a violet- 
 coloured tunic and white veil, with materials for spinning 
 in her hand. Ulysses, who is seated, wears a white 
 tunic, and a yellow chlamys. Eurynome, the attendant, 
 is seen in the background. The expression and attitude 
 of the figures are admirable. 
 
 " Thus the famed hero, perfected in wiles, 
 With fair similitudes of truth beguiles 
 The queen's attentive ear : dissolved in woe, 
 From the bright eyes the tears unbounded flow. 
 As snows collected on the mountain freeze, 
 When milder regions breathe a vernal breeze, 
 The fleecy pile obeys the whispering gales, 
 Ends in a stream, and murmurs through the vales : 
 So, melted with the pleasing tale he told, 
 Down the fair cheek the copious torrent rolled : 
 She to her present lord laments him lost, 
 And views that object which she wants the most ! " * 
 
 Of the next picture the subject seems to have been 
 taken from the story of Theseus, and to represent his 
 discovery of his father's sword by raising the enormous 
 rock under which it lay concealed. His mother ^Ethra 
 sits near, and seems explaining the circumstances to 
 Theseus, whose strength had thus been proved in ac- 
 cordance with the injunctions of his father ^Egeus. But 
 the picture has suffered greatly from exposure, and many 
 antiquarians contend that it really represents Mercury 
 restoring lo ,to liberty, after having slain her custodian 
 Argus with the sword which he holds in his hand. 
 
 Very beautiful in conception and execution is the 
 picture of Thalia, who, crowned with a golden tiara, is 
 represented seated ; &pediun or hooked stick in one hand, 
 
 * Homer, " The Odyssey," book xix. , translation by Pope. 
 
90 FIGURES IN COLOUR. 
 
 and a mask and wreath in the other. A drum or tym- 
 panum is placed by her side, and a graceful female, per- 
 haps a sister muse, leans upon the back of her chair. 
 
 Another striking design represents an architectural 
 composition set between two of the black panels already 
 described. Over a richly ornamented portico, seen 
 through a graceful arch, hangs a pergula or trellis-work 
 of vines. On the right stands a group of Doric columns. 
 Through the opening approaches the figure of the 
 paintress herself, carrying her palette. The little pedi- 
 ments of the shrines on each side are very elegant, and 
 beneath them are pictures of Roman galleys, brightly 
 painted. In a lower compartment, which forms a species 
 of base or substruction, is a female figure with a lyre. The 
 whole glows vividly with bright vermilion, emerald green, 
 deep crimson, golden yellow, and azure blue, while the 
 architecture in the background is tinted with the aerial 
 purple of distance. The general effect is very bright and 
 vivacious. 
 
 That this edifice, so radiantly enriched with design 
 and colour, was intended to accommodate a large num- 
 ber of guests, may be inferred from the very considerable 
 depth of the porticoes,* being 24 feet on the western 
 side. They must have been roofed with timber, and have 
 sloped inwards to the court, where the rain-water was 
 received in a large channel. It is possible that only the 
 southern, western, and northern sides had porticoes, and 
 that the eastern was left open towards the temple to 
 admit light. 
 
 On the south lies a range of eleven small chambers- - 
 
 .* Sir W. Gcll, " Pompciara," L 57. 
 
THE ROMANS A T DINNER. 91 
 
 each about 10 feet by 8 which appear to have been 
 used, like the recesses in a modern restaurant, for the 
 separate repasts of private parties. They are all painted 
 in red panels. 
 
 Above them was a second story, as is evident from the 
 joists which supported the upper floor, and the painted 
 walls of the higher rooms. They would seem to have 
 been approached by an external staircase, and a long 
 narrow gallery. These upper chambers were probably 
 called C&nacula, which, we know, were always placed in 
 the upper story of a Roman house. Here were low 
 circular tables of fir-wood or maple, or occasionally of 
 citron-wood, plated with silver, and supported on legs of 
 ivory. They were covered by draperies of wool or silk, 
 embroidered or striped with gold or purple ; and around 
 them were arranged the triclinia (ires lecti, rpeis K\6i/at, 
 three couches) for the accommodation of the guests 
 who did not sit at table, but reclined. Three commonly 
 rested on each couch. They lay with the upper part of 
 the body resting on the left arm, the head a little raised, 
 the back supported by cushions, and the limbs either 
 slightly bent or stretched out at full -length. The feet of 
 the first came behind the back of the second, and his 
 feet behind the back of the third. A cushion was placed 
 between each guest. 
 
 The cana or dinner of the Romans consisted of two 
 divisions, called Mensa prima, the first course different 
 kinds of meat ; and Mcnsa secunda vcl altcra, the second 
 course fruits and sweets. In later times the first part 
 was called Gustatio or Gust us, and composed of such 
 dishes as might stimulate the appetite ; for example, oys- 
 
02 THEIR BILL OF FARE. 
 
 ters, eggs, asparagus, lettuce, onions, figs, and a mulsuin of 
 wfne mingled with water and sweetened with honey. Then 
 came a plentiful supply of fish mullet, lamprey, sturgeon, 
 pike, and turbot ; and for meat, a peacock, a pheasant, 
 a kid, a guinea-hen, ducks, geese, nightingales, thrushes, 
 and perhaps a whole boar stuffed with the flesh of other 
 animals. To wash down this abundant banquet wines 
 were served up, either mixed with water or with spices, and 
 drunk either hot or cold. 
 
 Some idea of a Roman caena may be obtained from 
 the following passages in Juvenal : * 
 
 " See ! by the tallest servant borne on high, 
 A sturgeon fills the largest dish and eye ! 
 With how much pomp he's placed upon the board ! 
 With what a tail and breast salutes his lord 
 With what expense and art, how richly drest, 
 Garnished with 'sparagus, himself a feast ! . . . . 
 
 Behold a mullet even from Corfu brought, 
 Or near the rocks of Taurominium caught 
 
 The largest lamprey which their seas afford, 
 Is made a sacrifice to Virro's board 
 
 Near him is placed the liver of a goose, 
 That part alone which luxury would choose. 
 A boar entire, and worthy of the sword 
 Of Meleager, smokes upon the board. 
 Next mushrooms, larger when the clouds descend 
 In fruitful showers, and desired thunders rend 
 The vernal air. .... 
 
 If the blood boil, and the adventitious fire 
 Raised by high meats, and higher wines, require 
 To temper and allay the burning heat, 
 Waters are brought, which by decoction get 
 New coolness, such plain nature does not know, 
 Not ice so cool, nor hyperborean snow." 
 
 The dishes of the second course, or dessert, were called 
 bdlaria, and included apples, pears, nuts, figs, olives, 
 
 * Jjuvenal, " Satire" v., translated by Bowles (Dryden's edition of Juvenal). 
 
THE ATRIUM. 93 
 
 grapes ; pistachio, or pistachio nuts ; carica, or dried figs ; 
 uvce passa, dried grapes, or raisins; dactyli, dates; bolcti, 
 mushrooms ; nuclei, or pine-nut kernels ; and sweetmeats 
 or confections, called edulia mellita, cupedice, crustula, liba, 
 placenta, copt<z, almond-cakes, artologani or cheese-cakes, 
 and scriblitce, or cakes. 
 
 Such was the kind of entertainment to which the 
 Augustales would invite their fellow-citizens. 
 
 The open court, or atrium, is paved with pebbles im- 
 bedded in a species of hard cement. In the centre stood 
 a tholos or dodecagonal building, consisting of a roof 
 supported by twelve piers. It was paved with marble, 
 and from the situation and substance of the piers we 
 may conclude that the roof was framed of light timbers 
 meeting in an apex in the centre, and with projecting 
 eaves. At the north-eastern angle a projection from 
 the wall has been supposed by lively imaginations to be 
 an orchestra, a bar for distributing wines and liquors, 
 and a money-taker's office ! The truth is, that no one 
 has the slightest idea of its exact uses, and modern cus- 
 toms suggest a modern appropriation. 
 
 Beyond this, and forming the angle of the build- 
 ing, lies an apartment or enclosure about 35 feet long, 
 and nearly of the same breadth, decorated with many 
 frescoes now defaced. Here also is a sacellum, which has 
 had its statue and its altar, and is likewise embellished 
 with mural paintings, representing sea-horses and griffins, 
 dogs hunting stags, and a lioness chasing two bulls. 
 
 The centre of the eastern side was occupied by the 
 temple, while the other angle includes a chamber whose 
 uses it is difficult to understand, unless it was a refresh 
 
 (190) 7 
 
94 NOTHING NEW. 
 
 ment-room. A species of table runs round three sides 
 of it, at a distance of about 3 feet from the northern 
 and eastern, and 9 feet from the southern walls, leaving 
 an open area in the centre of about 30 feet. The table 
 or bench is about 3 feet wide. It inclines from the 
 walls outward, and a channel beneath is arranged to 
 catch whatever fell from its sloping surface. 
 
 I suppose this table was used by the Augustales or 
 their cooks when cutting up victims for the sacrifice, or 
 carving viands for the feast. Or it may have supported 
 rows of bottles of those beverages, warm and iced, which 
 the Pompeians so largely delighted in ; and vases and 
 dishes of " honied sweets," lucent syrups, and dainty 
 cates. Snow, or rather ice, was much employed by the 
 Romans in cooling water, and the iced water they mixed 
 with their Falernian and Massic wines. And sometimes 
 they tempered the " indomitum Falernium " of Pusius, 
 or the Setinum, which Silius Italicus declares so choice 
 as to be reserved for the God of Wine himself 
 
 " Ipsius mcnsis reposta Lyaei" 
 
 by passing it through a strainer partly filled with snow. 
 Is there anything new under the sun at least, in the 
 way of luxurious living ? The modern epicure, who ices 
 his wines, does but reproduce the practice of a Pompeian 
 gourmand. Ever flourishing seems that vain epicurean 
 philosophy,- " Vivamus, dum licet esse bene." 
 
 I now come to the temple, which occupies the central 
 division on the eastern side of the edifice, and is ap- 
 proached by a flight of steps within its vestibule or 
 pronaos. On the wall of this same pronaos is painted a 
 
VANITY OF VANITIES. 95 
 
 sitting figure, which some authorities represent to be 
 Augustus, but is rather a Bacchanal, with a thyrsus in 
 one hand, and a dish of fruits in the other. A statue of 
 the great Emperor probably stood on a pedestal without 
 the entrance, as a hand grasping a globe was found near 
 the spot. Livia and Drusus was found, at the time of 
 the excavations, in the right and left niches. The walls 
 were probably painted. 
 
 Thus have we completed our survey of the misnamed 
 Pantheon, of the halls and chambers which, two thou- 
 sand years ago, echoed with the sound of laughter and 
 merriment, and are now silent as the grave. Of all the 
 feasting and the revelry, what remains ? Where be now 
 the jibes and jests, the toast to the reigning beauty, the 
 arrowy epigram, the subtle allusion ? Nowhere, perhaps, 
 so keenly as in Pompeii do we understand the full and 
 pregnant meaning of the Preacher's " Vanitas Vanitatum." 
 Not even at Nineveh or Heliopolis, among the marble 
 ruins of Tadmor, or the wondrous colossal effigies of El 
 Karnak, is the sad truth so powerfully obtruded upon us. 
 For there everything is desolate everything tells of a 
 remote decay and spoliation and we regard it with the 
 curiosity of the antiquarian, poring for a name, or a date, 
 or a chance light to be thrown upon the dark passages 
 of history ; but at Pompeii the banquet-hall and the bed- 
 chamber, the theatre and the forum, seem so near to us, 
 and so linked with ourselves in our tastes and feelings 
 and objects, that we start at their eloquent evidences of 
 mutability ! They cry aloud to us with a voice which we 
 cannot but choose to hearken. They flaunt in our faces 
 the constant testimony of our follies. Build, and strive, 
 
96 ALL IS VANITY! 
 
 and labour, and destroy ; drink, and eat, and sleep ; but 
 upon all that you do, and all that you leave undone, wt 
 supply the commentary. It is the same now as yester- 
 day Vanitas Vanitatum ! 
 
 Such, at least, is the lesson, ever trite and ever true, 
 which I read in the silence and the solitude of the Buried 
 City. 
 
IV. 
 
 CtmpU of Jfortime. 
 
 " The old Scythians 
 
 Painted blind Fortune's powerful hands with wings, 
 To show her gifts come swift and suddenly, 
 Which, if her favourite be not swift to take, 
 He loses them for ever." 
 
 GEORGE CHAPMAN. 
 
 |HE next public building to which I propose 
 the reader should accompany me is situated 
 in the Street of Fortune a continuation of 
 the Street of Mercuries and is named the 
 Temple of Fortune. It may be considered, says no mean 
 authority,* one of the best examples of the Roman style 
 now extant, and is doubly interesting, as being the erec- 
 tion of the Tullian family, immortalized in the person of 
 Cicero. 
 
 Before describing it, I may inform my younger readers 
 that the places consecrated by the Romans to the worship 
 of their gods were called Templa, or temples. A small 
 temple or chapel, generally attached to some longer 
 building, was a sacellum or an adicula. The place erected 
 for offering sacrifices was named ara or altare; the secret 
 chamber, to which none but the priests were admitted, 
 
 * Sir W. Cell, " Pompeiana," i. 69, tt uq. 
 
9 8 
 
 TEMPLE OF FORTUNE. 
 
 adytum. The body of the temple, answering to the 
 nave of a modern church, the Romans called the 
 cella; it was approached through the pronaos, or vesti- 
 bule. 
 
 TKMPI.E OF FORTUNE RKSTOKKI). 
 
 The Temple of Fortune is placed cornerwise to trie 
 street, with its portico turned a little towards the Forum, 
 and stands upon an elevated podium or basement, about 
 
THE PORTICO AND CELL A. 99 
 
 eight feet high, built with good blocks of travertine. It had 
 two entrances of three steps each, separated by a pro- 
 jecting platform, which may have supported a statue, 
 or, more probably, the altar where blazed the incense 
 and sacrifices of the numerous votaries of the fickle 
 goddess 
 
 " Fortune, the great commandress of the world." 
 
 The iron rails which prevented the entrance of the 
 profane are yet visible in front of this platform, and were 
 passed by two gates, each 5 palms 4 inches wide, placed 
 on the lower platform after an ascent of four steps. From 
 the platform, which extended the whole width of the 
 temple, you ascended by a flight of eight steps to the 
 portico, and its eight Corinthian columns of white marble. 
 The whole building was veneered, so to speak, both with- 
 out and within, with thin slabs of the same material. 
 The cornice and mouldings were richly carved with 
 floral and other devices. 
 
 From the portico, or pronaos, you entered the cella, 
 decorated externally with five pilasters on each side. It 
 measured about 33 feet 8 inches in length. At its ex- 
 tremity was a semicircular recess, containing a small 
 Corinthian aedicula or shrine, richly finished and de- 
 signed ; and within the jedicula stood of old a statue of 
 the goddess. The recess was 14 feet 2 inches wide ; 
 the shrine, 9 feet 4 inches. 
 
 On the marble architrave of the shrine may be seen 
 the following inscription : 
 
 M . TVLLIVS . M.F. U.V.I. D. TER . QV1NQ . AVGVR . TV . MIL 
 A . POP . ^EUEM . FORTVN^E . AVGVST . SOLO . E T . PEG . SVA. 
 
loo A STATUE OF CICERO. 
 
 That is : Marcus Tullius, the Duumvir, thrice elected 
 Augur by the people, erected this temple to Fortuna 
 Augusta on his own soil and at his own charge. It is 
 generally believed that he was a descendant of the great 
 orator who first made the Tullian family renowned. A 
 statue, of life-size, found in the interior of the building, 
 is described as having borne some resemblance to the 
 authentic busts of Cicero. He was represented clothed 
 in the toga prastexta, or official robe of the Roman magis- 
 trates ; and, which renders the statue of peculiar interest, 
 this robe was entirely painted of the costly imperial dye 
 a deep purple violet. Hence it is believed that the 
 praetexta, instead of being a garment with only a purple 
 hem, was dyed throughout of this famous hue. Its cost 
 was enormous ; the violet, though the less precious kind, 
 was valued, according to Pliny, at 100 denarii, or ^3, 
 45. yd. the pound; the red (rubra Tarentina) at 1000 
 denarii, or ten times that amount. It was obtained from 
 a shell-fish called the murex. The species producing 
 the violet dye was found near Tarentum ; the red was 
 chiefly brought from the neighbourhood of Tyre. The 
 Roman "purple" has passed into our poetry to ex- 
 press any radiance of indescribable beauty, as Gray 
 speaks of 
 
 " The bloom of young desire and purple light of love." 
 
 Within the cella was also found a female statue, life- 
 size, clothed in a tunic falling to her feet, and a toga 
 over it. The face has been sawn off; apparently from 
 economy, as if the Pompeians, desirous of compliment- 
 ing some distinguished personage, had thought the 
 
THE STREET OF FORTUNE. 
 
 cheapest way to do so was by substituting her face for 
 that originally belonging to the statue. 
 
 In the area privata, on the south side of the temple, 
 vestiges may be discerned of 
 what seem to have been the 
 priests' offices. At the end 
 near the altar is a hole, which 
 probably served to facilitate 
 the mysteries of responses or 
 oracles. The ancient priests 
 must have been expert jug- 
 glers ; and it is certain they 
 were acquainted with many of 
 the acoustical and optical de- 
 ceptions which are the stock- 
 in-trade of the modern thau- 
 maturgist 
 
 The street running from the 
 Temple to the Forum is now 
 called the Street of Fortune. 
 A rich harvest of discovery has 
 at various times been dis- 
 covered here. The curious 
 reader may consult the pages 
 of Overbeck for elaborate de- 
 tails of glass bottles, statues, 
 bronze statuettes, bronze lamps 
 
 and Stands, Vases, gold ear- SPECIMEN OP MARBLES FOUND 
 
 AT POMPEII. 
 
 rings, basins, paterae, bells, 
 
 lamps, coins, weights and scales, dishes of clay and 
 
 terra cotta, glazed plates, and other memorials of a re- 
 
02 MEMORIALS OF THE PAST. 
 
 mote antiquity. They are not so much valuable in them- 
 selves, as of interest from the light which they throw upon 
 the manners and customs of a past age, and the com- 
 mentary they furnish on the writings of the Latin classics. 
 The skeleton was also found here of a Pompeian, who, 
 apparently for the sake of sixty coins, a small plate and 
 a saucepan of silver, had delayed in his house till the 
 street was already half filled with volcanic matter. He 
 would seem to have been in the act of escaping from 
 his window, when death suddenly cut short his career. 
 
V. 
 
 " This the crowd surveys 
 Oft in the theatre, whose awnings broad, 
 Bedecked with crimson, yellow, or the tint 
 Of steel cerulean, from their fluted heights 
 Wave tremulous ; and o'er the scene beneath, 
 Each marble statue, and the rising rows 
 Of rank and beauty, fling their tint superb ; 
 While as the walls with ampler shade repel 
 The garish noon-beam, every object round 
 Laughs with a deeper dye, and wears profuse 
 A lovelier lustre, ravished from the day." 
 
 LUCRETIUS, iv. 73 (Translation by Mason Gootfr. 
 
 ijHE Romans borrowed most of their amuse- 
 ments from the Greeks ; and that which they 
 did not borrow* the ludi amphitheatrales, 
 the exhibition of combats of gladiators and 
 wild beasts was marked by the innate cruelty and bar- 
 baric love of excitement peculiar to the Roman character. 
 The refined genius of the Greek shrank from the fierce 
 amusement to be obtained in watching the death-struggles 
 of the hired athletes. Dearer to him the contention in 
 the chariot race, or the wrestle, or the recitation of 
 melodious song. He loved whatever appealed to his 
 
 * It is said that gladiatorial combats were first introduced by the Etruscans ; 
 but the shows of the amphitheatre were, nevertheless, characteristically Roman. 
 
104 GLADIATORIAL SHOWS, 
 
 imagination, whatever cherished his passion for the ideal. 
 Such joys were tame to the ruder and harsher Roman : 
 his blood could only be fired by exhibitions of physical 
 prowess or physical suffering. So when the slave perished 
 in a lion's jaws, or the retiarius sank beneath the deadly 
 blows of the secutor, his eyes flashed and his heart 
 thrilled : he had no pity for the victim, while he bestowed 
 his loudest applause on the victor. 
 
 Gladiators were first exhibited at Rome in B.C. 264, 
 on the occasion of the funeral rites of the elder Brutus. 
 For some years they were confined to public funerals, 
 but afterwards they fought at most funerals of any 
 importance, and even at those of women. They were 
 also exhibited at entertainments and public festivals, to 
 please the people. The appetite grew by what it fed on, 
 and these cruel displays became in time a necessary 
 feature of every great popular show. Wealthy and 
 ambitious individuals vied with each other who should 
 exhibit the most imposing spectacles. The numbers 
 engaged in them were almost incredible. After Trajan's 
 victory over the Dacians, and his consequent triumph, 
 not less than ten thousand gladiators fought in the 
 Flavian amphitheatre. 
 
 The men who thus perilled life and limb " to make a 
 Roman's holiday" were either captives, slaves, condemned 
 criminals, or free-born citizens who fought for hire. Of 
 the criminals some were said to be condemned ad 
 gladium, which gave them a twelvemonth's respite ; 
 others ad ludum, and these might attain their discharge 
 at the expiration of three years. Freemen who volun- 
 tarily assumed the gladiator's sword were called auctorati. 
 
CLASSES OF GLADIA TORS. jos 
 
 In the more licentious days of the empire even equites 
 and senators descended into the arena, and women 
 whom vice and luxury had unsexed ; but the latter prac- 
 tice was prohibited by Severus. 
 
 Schools (ludi) of gladiators were kept by persons 
 called laniste, who either let them out to persons desirous 
 of gaining popularity by a gladiatorial show, or trained 
 them as horses are now-a-days trained for some 
 wealthy citizen. The curriculum which they underwent 
 appears to have been as carefully considered as the 
 training of a modern prize-fighter. 
 
 There were various classes of gladiators, distinguished 
 by their arms, different mode of fighting, or other cir- 
 cumstances. Thus : 
 
 The andabatcR fought blindfold, their helmets having 
 no apertures for the eyes ; and consequently their various 
 manoeuvres, and blows delivered on the empty air, proved 
 highly amusing to the spectators. 
 
 The dimacheri were so called because they fought with 
 two swords. 
 
 The equites fought on horseback ; the essedarii from 
 chariots, like the Gauls and Britons. 
 
 The hoplomachi appeared in a full suit of armour. 
 
 The laqueatorcs were those who employed a noose or 
 lasso to entangle their opponents. 
 
 The mirmillones were so called, it is said, because 
 they bore on their helmets the figure of a fish (nwrmyr y 
 uop/xrpos) in allusion, perhaps, to their nimbleness. 
 Their arms being like those of the Gauls, they were 
 frequently named Galli. They were generally pitted 
 against the retiarii, or Thracians. 
 
io6 THE VENATIO. 
 
 The rctiarii, for their only weapon, carried a three- 
 pointed lance (tridens or fuscina} ; but they also bore a 
 net (rete), which they endeavoured to fling over their 
 antagonists, and then, while they were thus embarrassed, 
 they attacked them with the fuscina. But if they missed 
 their aim in throwing the net, they were liable, while 
 preparing for another cast, to be struck down by 
 the secutores or mirmillones, with whom they usually 
 fought. 
 
 The secutores were probably so named because, in 
 their combats with the retiarii, they pursued the latter 
 when the throw of the net had failed. 
 
 The gladiatorial shows began with a kind of sham 
 battle a prcelusio, or prelude fought with wooden 
 swords, or laths. Then the trumpet sounded, and the 
 bloody battle began. A venatio, or combat with wild 
 beasts, formed one of the earliest portions of the enter- 
 tainment. Either the wild beasts fought with one 
 another, or with men. The Romans had a passion 
 almost amounting to madness for these sanguinary 
 scenes, and thousands of animals were slain in one 
 sanguinary day. One of the earliest venationes was that 
 exhibited by Marcus Fulvius in B.C. 186, when lions and 
 panthers were let loose against each other. A hundred 
 lions were exhibited by Sulla in his prastorship, and 
 destroyed by skilful javelin men sent by King Bocchus 
 for the purpose. At a venatio celebrated by Pompey 
 in his second consulship, B.C. 55, six hundred lions 
 were slaughtered, and eighteen or twenty elephants. 
 Bull-fights were introduced by Julius Caesar ; and Au- 
 gustus brought into the arena six-and-thirty croco- 
 
AN IMPERIAL SHOW. 107 
 
 diles.* At the consecration of the great amphitheatre by 
 Titus, five thousand wild and four thousand tame animals 
 were slain a slaughter which might have sickened the 
 greediest Roman of blood. But in the games celebrated 
 by Trajan after his Dacian wars, no less than eleven 
 thousand animals were butchered. " Under the empe- 
 rors," says a writer already quoted, " we read of a parti- 
 cular kind of venatio, in which the beasts were not killed 
 by bestiarii (gladiators so called, trained to contend with 
 wild beasts), but were given up to the people, who were 
 allowed to rush into the area of the circus and carry 
 away what they pleased. On such occasions a number 
 of large trees, which had been torn up by the roots, was 
 planted in the circus, which thus resembled a forest, and 
 none of the more savage animals were admitted into it. 
 A venatio of this kind was exhibited by the elder Gor- 
 dian in his sedileship, and a painting of the forest with 
 the animals in it is described by Julius Capitolinus. One 
 of the most extraordinary venationes of this kind was 
 that given by Probus, in which there were a thousand 
 ostriches, a thousand stags, a thousand boars, a thousand 
 deer, and numbers of wild goats, wild sheep, and other 
 animals of the same kind. The more savage animals 
 were slain by the bestiarii in the amphitheatre a hundred 
 lions, and the same number of lionesses, a hundred Libyan 
 and a hundred Syrian leopards, and three hundred bears. 
 It is unnecessary to multiply examples, as the above are 
 sufficient to give an idea of the numbers and variety of 
 animals at these spectacles ; but the list of beasts which 
 
 * Dion Cassias, quoted in Dr. Smith's " Dictionary of Antiquities," article 
 I'enatio. 
 
loS THE FIRST AMPHITHEA TRE. 
 
 were collected by the younger Gordian for his triumph, 
 and exhibited by his successor Philip at the secular 
 games, deserve mention on account of their variety and 
 the rarity of some of them. Among them we find men- 
 tion of thirty-two elephants, ten elks, ten tigers (which 
 seem to have been very seldom exhibited), sixty tame 
 lions, thirty tame leopards, ten hyaenas, an hippopo- 
 tamus and rhinoceros, ten archohontes (it is unknown 
 what they were), ten camelopards, twenty anagri (wild 
 asses, or perhaps zebras), forty wild horses, and an 
 immense number of similar animals." 
 
 These exhibitions originally took place in the forum 
 and the circus ; the gladiatorial displays in the former, 
 and the shows of wild beasts in the latter. But as neither 
 was well adapted for such purposes, a new form of build- 
 ing became requisite, in which a multitude of spectators 
 should be so accommodated that all might obtain a good 
 view of the area occupied by the combatants ; while the 
 area required to be of quite a distinct shape to the circus, 
 inasmuch as the combatants were to be confined as much 
 as possible in the same place. Accordingly the amphi- 
 theatre was designed, the idea being suggested by the 
 existing theatre. In fact, the first amphitheatre that of 
 C. Scribonius Curio was simply a double theatre (d/*0t 
 and Otarpov), or two movable theatres, which could be 
 placed face to face, or back to back, according to the 
 species of entertainment to be celebrated. The next 
 amphitheatre, and apparently the first to which the name 
 was applied, was built by Julius Caesar in B.C. 46, and 
 built of wood. The first permanent amphitheatre, partly 
 of stone and partly of wood, was erected by Statilius 
 
THE ROMAN COLISEUM. 109 
 
 Taurus, at the instigation of Augustus, who well under- 
 stood the political value of public shows and festivals as 
 a means of amusing the people. This was burned down 
 in the reign of Nero, and, though restored, did not 
 satisfy the magnificent ideas of Vespasian, who com- 
 menced the gigantic pile, completed by Titus, which, 
 under the name of the Coliseum, has obtained a world- 
 wide celebrity, and whose mighty ruins still command 
 the admiration of the stranger. 
 
 " The gladiators' bloody circus stands, 
 A noble wreck in ruinous perfection ; 
 While Caesar's chambers and the Augustan halls 
 Grovel on earth in indistinct decay." 
 
 Externally the amphitheatre generally consisted of an 
 oval wall, composed of two or more stories of arcades, 
 supported by piers of different architectural orders, 
 adorned with pilasters or attached pillars. Within, an 
 equal number of tiers of galleries (tnaeniana) gave access 
 to the spectators at different elevations. But a better 
 idea of this interior may be obtained from Gibbon's 
 matchless description of the Roman Coliseum than from 
 any elaborate architectural statement. 
 
 " The slopes," he says,* " of the vast concave which 
 formed the inside were filled and surrounded with sixty 
 or eighty rows of marble seats, covered with cushions, 
 and capable of receiving with ease about 80,000 spec- 
 tators. Sixty-four vomitories (for by that name the doors 
 were very aptly distinguished) poured forth the immense 
 multitude ; and the entrances, passages, and staircases 
 were contrived with such exquisite skill that each person, 
 
 * Gibbon, " Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." 
 (190) 8 
 
no ITS CONSTRUCTION AND DECORATION. 
 
 whether of the senatorial, the equestrian, or the plebeian 
 order, arrived at his destined place without trouble or 
 confusion. Nothing was omitted which, in any respect, 
 could be subservient to the convenience and pleasure of 
 the spectators. They were protected from the sun and 
 rain by an ample canopy, occasionally drawn over their 
 heads. The air was continually refreshed by the playing 
 of fountains, and profusely impregnated by the grateful 
 scent of aromatics.* In the centre of the edifice the 
 arena or stage was strewed with the finest sand, and suc- 
 cessively assumed the most different forms. At one 
 moment it seemed to rise out of the earth, like the 
 garden of the Hesperides, and was afterwards broken 
 into the rocks and caverns of Thrace. The subterraneous 
 pipes conveyed an inexhaustible supply of water ; and 
 what had just before appeared a level plain, might be 
 suddenly converted into a wide lake, covered with armed 
 vessels, and replenished with the monsters of the deep. 
 In the decoration of these scenes the Roman emperors 
 displayed their wealth and liberality ; and we read on 
 various occasions that the whole furniture of the amphi- 
 theatre consisted either of silver, or of gold, or of amber. 
 The poet who describes the games of Carinus, in the 
 character of a shepherd attracted to the capital by the 
 
 * To this Lucan alludes in the following passage : 
 
 " . . As when mighty Rome's spectators meet 
 In the full theatre's capacious seat, 
 At once, by secret pipes and channels fed, 
 Rich tinctures gush from every antique head ; 
 At once ten thousand saffron currents'flow, 
 And rain their odours on the crowd below." 
 
 Pliarsalia, book ix. 
 
INTERNAL ARRANGEMENTS. in 
 
 fame of their magnificence, affirms that the nets designed 
 as a defence against the wild beasts were of gold wire, 
 that the porticoes were gilded, and that the belt or circle 
 which divided the several ranks of spectators from each 
 other was studded with a beautiful mosaic of precious 
 stones." 
 
 For the greater security of the spectators, trenches, 
 called euripi, surrounded the arena. These were first 
 dug by Caesar as a protection against the elephants which 
 he exhibited, that animal being supposed to be particu- 
 larly afraid of water. 
 
 In the centre of the arena stood an altar, dedicated 
 sometimes to Diana or Pluto, but more commonly to 
 Jupiter Latiaris, the patron-god of Latium, in whose 
 honour human sacrifices were offered. From certain 
 passages in ancient writers it has been inferred, but on 
 no satisfactory evidence, that the games of the amphi- 
 theatre were usually inaugurated by the sacrifice of a 
 bestiarius to this sanguinary deity. Dens were constructed 
 beneath the arena for the reception of wild beasts ; and 
 conduits provided for its inundation when it was required 
 to be transformed into a lake, where naumachia or sham 
 sea-fights might be exhibited. 
 
 With respect to the spectators, the same order of pre- 
 cedence was observed as at the theatre ; their appropriate 
 place being reserved for senators, equites, and plebeians. 
 It was not a question, as with us, of money, but of rank. 
 The podium was set apart for the senators ; this was a 
 broad cushioned platform which ran immediately round 
 the arena. A covered or canopied seat was here given up 
 to the emperor, or his representative ; and it is supposed 
 
112 LAWS OF THE SHOW. 
 
 that in this part of the building were also places of 
 honour for the exhibitor of the games and the Vestal 
 Virgins. The equites sat in fourteen rows behind the 
 senators, and with them the civil and military tribunes. 
 Behind were the popularia, or seats of the plebeians, 
 divided by passages (scales) into wedge-shaped compart- 
 ments called cunei. The general superintendence of the 
 amphitheatre was intrusted to an officer named villicus 
 amphitheatri, and the distribution of the people in their 
 proper seats to locarii. 
 
 A week or so before the day appointed for a gladia- 
 torial show, he who gave it (the editor) caused bills or 
 pictorial representations to be affixed to the public walls, 
 containing the names and badges of the combatants, and 
 stating how many would fight, and for how long a period. 
 When the day came, the gladiators marched in pro- 
 cession to the amphitheatre. When a gladiator was 
 wounded, the excited populace would shout, " Habet /" 
 (He has it.) He then lowered his arms in token of sub- 
 mission, but his fate rested with the spectators, and not 
 with his antagonist. If he had fought gallantly, they 
 would press down their thumbs-, and his life was saved ; 
 if they were dissatisfied, they turned up their thumbs 
 (pollicem vertebant), and he was doomed to the sword. 
 
 " Influenced by the rabble's bloody will, 
 With thumbs bent back, they popularly kill."* 
 
 The unfortunate victim sometimes submitted to his 
 fate with so calm an intrepidity that the people would 
 relent at the last moment, and grant him his life. But 
 this was only when their blood had not been heated by 
 
 * Juvenal, " Satires," iii. 36. 
 
THE RUDIARIUS. 113 
 
 a series of exciting combats. Timidity, and want of 
 courage, were of such rare occurrence, that Cicero pro- 
 poses the high principle of honour which inspired the 
 common gladiator as an admirable model of heroic con- 
 stancy to animate himself and his friends in enduring all 
 things on behalf of the commonwealth. 
 
 The bodies of the slain were dragged by a hook 
 unco trahebantur through a gate appropriately named 
 Libitenensis, the Gate of Death, to a den called the Spo- 
 liarium. The victors were rewarded with a sum of money, 
 a palm-branch, and a crown of palm gaily ornamented 
 with coloured ribbons. To those who had served three 
 years a wooden sword, rudis, was presented, as a sign 
 that he was released from the arena ; and occasionally a 
 gladiator who displayed remarkable courage or skill 
 was enfranchised on the spot He was then called 
 rudiarius, and offered up his arms in the Temple of 
 Hercules.* 
 
 Certain bas-reliefs discovered upon a tomb at Pompeii 
 exhibit, in a very striking manner, the two main divisions 
 of the gladiatorial spectacles the venationes, and the 
 combats between man and man. 
 
 This tomb is situated in the Street of Tombs, without 
 the Gate of Herculaneum, and consists of a square cham- 
 ber, serving as a basement, surmounted by three steps, 
 upon which, and upon the uppermost part of the base- 
 ment, are placed the bas-reliefs. The whole is sur- 
 
 * Horace, " Epistles," L i. If a person was free before he entered the ludus, 
 he became on his discharge free again ; or if he had been a slave, he returned to 
 slavery. A man who had been a gladiator was considered permanently dis- 
 graced, and even if he acquired wealth could not obtain the equestrian rank. 
 Dictionary of Antiqidties, art. " Glatiiatortt." 
 
ti4 THE BESTIARIUS. 
 
 mounted by a square cippus, or funereal pillar, bearing 
 the following inscription : 
 
 PATRICK) . A. F. MEN 
 
 SCAVRO 
 II VI R. I. D. 
 
 . . . ECVRIONES . LOCVM . MONVM . 
 00 00 00 IN FVNERE ET. STATVAM EQVEST T R. 
 . . . ORO . PONENDAM . CENSVERVNT . 
 SCAVRVS . PATER . FILIO . 
 
 [To Patricius Scaurus, son of Aulus, of the tribe Menenia, Duumvir of 
 Justice, by command of the decurions. The decurions decreed the site 
 of the monument, three thousand sesterces for funeral expenses, and an 
 equestrian statue in the Forum. Scaurus the father to his son.] 
 
 From the nature of the bas-relief one would suppose 
 that this Patricius Scaurus had been renowned for his 
 gladiatorial spectacles. In one of them is given a repre- 
 sentation of the venatio; a man naked and unarmed 'be- 
 tween a lion and a panther, which dart away from him in 
 different directions. In the second, a wild boar seems 
 dashing furiously against another naked and defenceless 
 combatant, who in a half-recumbent posture seems pre- 
 pared to spring at his enemy. The archaeologist Mazois 
 supposes that these figures belonged to a class of 
 bestiarii who, trusting solely in their active limbs and 
 ready minds, entered the arena merely to provoke the 
 wild beasts after they had been let loose. In continua- 
 tion of the same relief, we see a wolf at full speed, gnaw- 
 ing a javelin which is buried deeply in his chest ; and a 
 stag, with a rope attached to his horns, pulled down by a 
 couple of dogs. 
 
 In the next group we may trace some steps of the 
 training by which the bestiarius was fitted for his dan- 
 
SOME CURIOUS BAS-RELIEFS. 115 
 
 gerous profession. A youth, his legs and thighs protected 
 by cuisses, and with a javelin in each hand, attacks a 
 panther, whose movements, however, are fettered by a 
 rope fastened round its neck, and at the other end to a 
 broad band passing round the body of a bull. This 
 arrangement affords the tyro some slight protection, and 
 yet demands his utmost wariness and agility, as the beast 
 is still at liberty to pursue him from point to point. 
 Behind the bull is another figure that perhaps of the 
 lanista or trainer, who goads the bull forward with a lance. 
 
 We see in another bas-relief a man contending with a 
 bear, exactly after the fashion of the matador in the Span- 
 ish bull-fights. In one hand he carries a short sword, 
 in the other a veil with which to baffle his adversary. 
 As this mode of equipment was not introduced into the 
 Roman arena until the reign of Claudius, we may infer 
 from it the date at which the tomb was erected. Claudius 
 became emperor in A.D. 41. In A.D. 59 theatrical exhi- 
 bitions were prohibited at Pompeii for ten years. In 
 A.D. 63 occurred the earthquake by which the monument 
 was evidently injured. It was therefore raised between 
 A.D. 42 and A.D. 59.* 
 
 The upper range of sculptures is devoted to gladiatorial 
 combats. The names of the combatants are given, the 
 number of their victories, and the name of their lanista 
 or owner, one Ampliatus. On this substruction of fact 
 Lord Lytton, in his " Last Days of Pompeii," has raised 
 an agreeable edifice of fiction, and by introducing the 
 actual characters immortalized on these bas-reliefs, has 
 given to his romance a particular air of rraisemblancc, 
 
 * Overbcck, " Pompeji," L 179. 
 
Ii6 NOBILIOR AND BEBRIX. 
 
 There are eight pairs of gladiators. The first pair, on the 
 left, represents an equestrian combat between Bebrix, 
 evidently from his name a foreigner, and Nobilior. Re- 
 sembling much the knights of the feudal days, they bear 
 lances and round shields (parma), beautifully inlaid; 
 their armour is dexterously woven with bands of iron, 
 but covers only the thighs and* the right arms ; short 
 cloaks (inducula\ extending to the seat, enhance the 
 picturesque character of their costume ; their legs are 
 naked with the exception of sandals fastened a little above 
 the ankles ; and on their heads they carry iron helmets, 
 with vizors which protected the whole face. Mounted on 
 light and nimble steeds, we may fancy them curvetting 
 and caracoling round the arena amid the applauding 
 shouts of twenty thousand spectators. And now, at a 
 given signal, they rush impetuously at one another, each 
 advancing his round buckler, each brandishing on high 
 his light but sturdy lance. When within a few paces of 
 his opponent, Bebrix suddenly checks his steed in full 
 career, wheels round, and as Nobilior sweeps by, spurs 
 full upon him. The shield of Nobilior, skilfully and 
 promptly put forward, receives the spear which would 
 otherwise have drained his life-blood. Bebrix in his turn 
 assumes the defensive ; but, we may fancy, too late ; No- 
 bilior's lance seems quivering at his helmet ; he raises 
 his buckler to protect himself; but Nobilior suddenly 
 lowering his weapon, hurls him from his horse dead ! 
 
 The group next in succession depicts two gladiators 
 whose names are defaced. The first wears a richly orna- 
 mented helmet, with a vizor, carries the long buckler 
 (scutum], and, we may presume, a sword ; but the sculp- 
 
A VELES AND A SAMNfTE. 117 
 
 tor has either forgotten to represent it, or intended it to 
 be of metal. Like all the other gladiators, he wears the 
 subligaculum, a short apron of red or white stuff fastened 
 above the hips by a girdle of bronze or embroidered 
 leather. The right leg is cased in a coloured leather bus- 
 kin, the left in an ocrea or greave not reaching to the knee. 
 His antagonist is armed with a helmet ornamented with 
 wings, a smaller buckler, thigh-pieces formed of plates of 
 
 COMBAT BETWEEN A VELES AND A SAMNITE. 
 
 iron, and on each leg the high greave which the Greeks 
 called KVTjfus. These figures appear to represent one of 
 the light-armed class called Fe/es, and aSamnite (Stimuli), 
 so named because armed after the old Samnite fashion.* 
 The former, who has been sixteen times a conqueror in 
 former games, is now himself conquered, 
 
 " The desolator desolate, 
 The victor overthrown." 
 
 "Pompeii" (Library of Entertaining Knowledge 1 , i. 308. 
 
Ii8 A THRACIAN AND A MIRMILLO. 
 
 Wounded in the breast, he has let fall his buckler in token 
 of defeat, and at the same time he solicits the pity of the 
 spectators in the usual manner, by raising his finger 
 towards them. Behind him the Samnite awaits the deci- 
 sion of the public, whether he shall spare his vanquished 
 foe, or put him to death. 
 
 The third couple represents a Thrax, or Thracian so 
 called from the fashion of his armour and a Mirmillo, 
 armed in the Gallic style. The latter, fifteen times a 
 conqueror, now acknowledges a better than himself in 
 
 COMBAT BETWEEN A THRACIAN AND A MIRMILLO. 
 
 his opponent, who rejoices in his thirty-fifth victory. The 
 letters M and over the Thracian's head stand for Mors 
 and Oavatv, indicating that he was killed, according to the 
 cruel law of the arena. * 
 
 In the next group there are four figures; two secutores, 
 and two retiarii. Nepimus, one of the latter, five times 
 victorious, has contended with a secutor his name is 
 lost, but Lord Lytton calls him Eumolpus who has 
 prevailed in six different combats. It is now his turn to 
 
 * Overbeck, " 1'ompeji," i. 176. 
 
THE GLADIATOR'S DEATH. 119 
 
 be defeated. Bleeding from the left arm, the leg, and 
 the thigh, he has in vain implored the mercy of the 
 spectators. The thumbs have been turned backwards. 
 " And now, as the spear of the retiarius is not a weapon 
 to inflict instant and certain death, there stalks into the 
 arena a grim and fatal form, brandishing a short, sharp 
 sword, and with features utterly concealed beneath its 
 vizor. With slow and measured steps, this dismal 
 headsman approaches the kneeling gladiator lays the 
 left hand on his humbled crest uraws the edge of the 
 blade across his neck turns round to the assembly, lest 
 in the last moment remorse should come upon them; 
 the dread signal continues the same; the blade glitters 
 brightly in the air falls and the gladiator rolls upon 
 the sand ; his limbs quiver are still he is a corpse." 
 
 In the bas-relief the figure may be seen in the distance 
 of the retiarius who is now to fight the victorious Nepimus, 
 while the latter is shown (apparently) as pushing (or 
 supporting 1 ?) his defeated and doomed rival. 
 
 This bas-relief terminates with an engagement between 
 a light-armed gladiator and a Samnite. The latter im- 
 plores the multitude to save him, but his appeal has 
 not moved their iron hearts. The conqueror, looking 
 towards the crowded amphitheatre, has seen the dread 
 signal, and prepares to strike. 
 
 Following up the frieze, we find it continued between 
 the pilasters of the door of the tomb. Here two com- 
 bats are portrayed: in the first a Samnite has been 
 vanquished by a Mirmillo, and the latter, in his blood- 
 thirst, would fain become his comrade's executioner, 
 even before the assembly to whom he has appealed pro- 
 
FURTHER COMBATS. 
 
 COMBAT BETWEEN A MIRMILLO AND A SAMNITE. 
 
 nounces its decision. As the master of the show restrains 
 his arm, we may infer that mercy has been shown the 
 destined victim. * 
 
 COMBAT BETWEEN A LIGHT-ARMED GLADIATOR AND A SAMNITE. 
 
 In the other, a combat between a Samnite and a 
 Mirmillo, the latter falls stabbed to death. The wounds, 
 
 * His name is given as Caius Ampliatus, who appears to have been a contractor 
 for the supply of gladiators to the public shows. 
 
A BULL-FIGHT. 121 
 
 the blood, and the inside of the bucklers are painted of 
 a vivid red. 
 
 In some lower bas-reliefs we find various animated 
 representations of the chase, and of combats between 
 men and animals. Hares flee from the hound; a 
 wounded stag, pursued by dogs, is about to become their 
 prey; a wild boar falls a victim to the bold attack of a 
 huge dog; and, in the centre of the composition, a 
 bestiarius has slain a boar with a stroke of his lance. 
 He wears a kind of short hunting-boot, and a light 
 sleeveless tunic, bound about the hips, and called in- 
 dusia, sabucula. His companion, similarly attired, has 
 wounded a bull, which takes to flight, carrying in his 
 chest the heavy spear with which he is transfixed. But 
 he turns his head angrily towards his assailant, as if he 
 would return to the assault ; and the hunter stands 
 amazed and somewhat alarmed, for he sees himself at 
 the mercy of the animal whom he thought to have 
 mortally stricken. 
 
 The reader will consider such subjects as these far 
 from appropriate ornaments for the last resting-place of 
 mortality.* Let him remember that they embellished a 
 heathen's tomb. And for my part, I confess that I have 
 seen even more repulsive sculptures on the sepulchres of 
 many a Christian ! It is strange how much of the old 
 pagan spirit we still carry with us into the cemetery and 
 the grave-yard; how we cling to the pagan emblems; 
 how we picture Death itself with attributes derived not 
 from the bright promises of Holy Writ, but from the 
 
 * These have been nearly all destroyed since 1830, but have fortunately been 
 preserved by Mazois, Overbeck, and others, in engravings. 
 
122 THE AMPHITHEA TRE A T POMPEII. 
 
 sombre meditations of the poets and moralists of 
 antiquity. 
 
 Having thus detailed at some length, but not, I trust, 
 to the reader's weariness, the arrangements and incidents 
 of the Roman gladiatorial spectacles, a very few words 
 
 ARMING FOR THE COMBAT. 
 
 will suffice me for a description of the Amphitheatre at 
 Pompeii. 
 
 The reader must not suppose it to have been an 
 edifice worthy of comparison with the mighty Coliseum. 
 It is smaller even than that of Capua, and more recent, 
 though older than the great Roman structure. It is 
 situated about 600 yards from the theatres, in the south- 
 east angle of the city-walls, between the Gate of the Sarno 
 and the Gate on the Nocera Road. Its form, as usual, 
 is elliptical. The major axis, including the walls, is 430 
 feet; the minor axis, 335 feet; or 190 and 178 feet re- 
 spectively, less than that of the Coliseum. The masonry 
 is the rough work called opus incertum, with quoins of 
 squared stone; the marble slabs with which it was 
 formerly veneered were probably removed after the erup- 
 tion. A few of the key-stones remain ; on one a chariot 
 and two horses (biga) is sculptured, on another a head. 
 
ITS INTERNAL ORDER. 123 
 
 At each end of the ellipse were entrances into the 
 arena for the combatants, who, mounted or on foot, 
 made their appearance to the ringing sound of the 
 trumpet, and in stately procession completed a circuit of 
 the building. The dead were dragged through the same 
 portals into the spoliarium. They were also the princi- 
 pal approaches to the lower ranges of seats, occupied 
 by the senators, magistrates, and equites, by means of 
 corridors to the right and left, which ran round the arena. 
 The ends of the passages were secured against the 
 accidental inrush of wild beasts by metal gratings. The 
 seats were elevated above the arena on a \i\$i podium, or 
 parapet, which, when the amphitheatre was originally 
 excavated, contained several inscriptions and paintings. 
 The former recorded the names of duumvirs who had 
 enlarged the building, or bestowed its site on the city, 
 or presided over the games. The latter represented a 
 battle between a bull and a bear, a stag pursued by a 
 lioness, and a tigress contending with a wild boar. 
 There were also fanciful designs of winged genii, 
 minstrels, musicians, the palm-crowned gladiators, and 
 candelabra; but on exposure to the atmosphere they 
 rapidly vanished. 
 
 The interior contained four-and-twenty rows of seats, 
 separated into different ranges, as already described ; 
 each range approached by a distinct entrance from two 
 different galleries, of which the larger one had forty 
 vomitories, communicating with the same number of 
 scala or flights of stairs dividing the seats into cunci. 
 The arrangements for the egress and ingress of the 
 assembly were perfect, and 10,000 spectators entered or 
 
124 THE VELARIUM, OR AWNING.- 
 
 dispersed with infinitely less confusion than the audience 
 of a small London theatre. The arches of entrance were 
 numbered, and the admission tickets specimens of 
 which are preserved in the Museum at Naples bore 
 corresponding numbers, so that every person proceeded 
 to his proper seat without let or hindrance. 
 
 Outside the wall of the topmost gallery may be seen 
 the perforated stones which received the poles or masts 
 supporting the velarium, or awning. As this was of 
 vast extent, to raise it to its place was a work of 
 great labour and difficulty, and the means by which it 
 was accomplished have been largely discussed by anti- 
 quarians. Of all the explanations I have met with, the 
 following seems to my humble judgment the most pro- 
 bable : 
 
 " The amphitheatre being oval, the velarium would of 
 course be of the same form. We conjecture that a large 
 oval ring of strong rope, about the size of the arena, was 
 first formed, and divided into a certain number of equal 
 parts by metal rings, corresponding in number and situa- 
 tion with the masts by which the awning was to be 
 supported. To these rings long stout ropes would be 
 attached, and rove through pulleys in the heads of the 
 masts, the ends being brought down to the ground, and 
 attached to windlasses. At a given signal this whole 
 framework would begin to ascend by the slow action of 
 the windlasses, and by a little dexterity the whole would 
 be drawn equally tight, and the strain thrown equally on 
 all the masts. The awning itself we imagine to have 
 consisted of a number of pieces, either permanently 
 attached to the framework of ropes, and drawn and un- 
 
ANECDOTE OF COMMODUS. 125 
 
 drawn by an apparatus of smaller ropes and pulleys, or 
 sent aloft at pleasure by similar means." * 
 
 It is recorded among the tyrannical caprices of Caligula, 
 that on one occasion he ordered the velarium to be drawn 
 back, and compelled the spectators in the Roman amphi- 
 theatre to sit in the full outpouring radiance of an 
 Italian sun. The Emperor Commodus, who, vain of his 
 gladiatorial skill, frequently descended into the arena, 
 
 CURRICLE OK CHARIOT BAR FOR TWO HORSES. 
 
 From a picture at Pompeii. 
 
 believed himself mocke*d by the crowd of servile Romans, 
 when, on one occasion, they saluted him with divine 
 honours, and ordered the sailors who were working the 
 vela to fall upon them sword in hand. It was with diffi- 
 culty that his favourites calmed his insane rage. 
 
 On the last day of Pompeii the amphitheatre was 
 crowded with admiring spectators, at the very time that 
 the sudden ruin fell upon the city. To this circumstance 
 
 * "Pompeii" (Library of Entertaining Knowledge), i. 295. 
 (190) 9 
 
126 THE LAST DA Y OF POMPEII. 
 
 may be attributed the escape of so large a number of the 
 inhabitants. When the hissing showers and hail of red- 
 hot stones began, they immediately took to flight, and 
 without attempting to regain their homes, poured through 
 the gates of Nocera and the Sarno into the country 
 beyond. Thus, in the midst of the revel and the 
 festival, closed the history of a city whose whole career 
 had been one of luxurious pleasure. 
 
VI. 
 
 Forum. 
 
 " This player here, 
 
 But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, 
 Could force his soul to his own conceit, 
 That, from her working, all his visage wanned." 
 
 SHAKSPEARE. 
 
 [HE quarter of the Theatres may be approached 
 by two routes by the Street of the Silver- 
 smiths on the eastern side, or by the street 
 opening out at the south-eastern angle of the 
 The space here excavated comprises two 
 theatres, the greater and smaller; the barracks, or 
 soldier's quarters ; the Temple of Isis ; the Temple of 
 Hercules ; and other minor edifices. 
 
 I shall devote this section to a description of the 
 theatres, but to render it intelligible to the reader, a few 
 prefatory remarks will be needed in reference to their 
 general arrangement. It does not come within my pro- 
 vince to explain the peculiarities of the Greek and 
 Roman drama ; but the reader will remember that the 
 actors did not exhibit their skill, as with us, by mobi- 
 lity of feature and variety of expression, but solely de- 
 pended on the excellence of their declamation and the 
 grace or appropriateness of their gestures. The audience, 
 
128 THE ROMAN THEATRES. 
 
 therefore, so long as they could see and hear, did not 
 require, as modern audiences do. to see and hear very 
 distinctly. It was consequently possible for the ancients 
 to erect huge theatres, in which a modern actor's voice 
 would be lost, and from which no modern spectator 
 could hope to watch the play of countenance that so 
 eloquently illustrates the varying emotions. The Greek 
 and Roman actors wore masks of brass, or some equally 
 sonorous material, which gave the voice something of 
 the power of a speaking-trumpet, and carried its sounds 
 to an astonishing distance. It should also be remem- 
 bered that the ancients did not require any rapid changes 
 of scenery ; and the reader will then understand why a 
 Roman theatre differed very widely from an English 
 one why, in fact, the latter can only resemble the 
 former in a few of its principal details. 
 
 The Roman theatre was a semicircular building, 
 divided into two parts the cavea, or auditory, and that 
 appropriated to the business of the drama, which in- 
 cluded, therefore, the orchestra and stage. 
 
 The cavea was bounded by two concentric circular arcs, 
 one separating it from the orchestra and the other form- 
 ing its external limit. It was composed of a succession 
 of seats, as in an amphitheatre, rising tier above tier, 
 so as to afford an uninterrupted view, and divided 
 by numerous scala into compartments, or cunei, of 
 equal dimensions. A vomitory corresponded to each 
 scala. The lowest seats were appropriated to the magis- 
 trates and senators ; fourteen rows behind them to 
 the cquites ; and the remainder, or popularia, to the 
 people. The foremost rows were called cavea prima, or 
 
THE SCENA AND PROSCENIUM. 129 
 
 una; the last, cavea ultima, or summa ; the middle, cavea 
 media. 
 
 The dramatic portions of the theatre were called the 
 scena, postsccnium, proscenium, pulpitum, and orchestra. 
 
 (a.) The scena, or scene, at the back of the proscenium, 
 was richly adorned with gleaming statues, marble columns, 
 pictures, and costly hangings, according to the character 
 of the performance. Sometimes the decorations assumed 
 a more romantic character, as Virgil hints in a well-known 
 passage : 
 
 " High o'er the cove vast rocks extend, 
 A beetling cliff at either end: 
 Beneath their summit far and wide 
 In sheltered silence sleeps the tide, 
 While quivering forests crown the scene, 
 A theatre of glancing green." 
 
 When the scene was suddenly changed by machinery, it 
 was called scena versatilis ; when simply drawn aside, 
 scena ductilis. 
 
 The scenery was concealed by a curtain, which, con- 
 trary to our modern custom, was lowered when the play 
 began, and raised at its conclusion ; this was effected by 
 a machine called exostra. 
 
 (6.) The postscenium, the place behind the scenery, was 
 the actors' dressing-room. 
 
 (c.) The proscenium corresponded to the modern stage. 
 Here Medea declaimed her woes ; here Prometheus 
 braved the wrath of Zeus ; here Ajax harangued the warrior 
 Greeks. The deep passion of ^Eschylus, the tender 
 pathos of Euripides, the grace of Sophocles, the keen 
 flashing pregnant wit of Aristophanes, or the coarser 
 humour of Plautus, and the vis comica of Terence, were 
 
130 
 
 A DRAMA TIC MOSAIC. 
 
 here displayed before enchanted audiences. It was raised 
 only five feet above the orchestra, with a door in the 
 centre for the ingress and egress of kings and princes and 
 mighty chieftains, and side-doors for meaner characters. 
 The stage and postscenium were usually surrounded by 
 elegant porticoes and blooming gardens. These build- 
 ings, being under cover, were more suitable for rehearsals 
 than the open stage. A mosaic, discovered in a Pom- 
 peian house, exhibits the choragus, or stage-manager, in- 
 
 MOSAIC I RKl'RESKNTING ACTORS INSTRUCTED BY THE CHORAGUS. 
 
 structing his actors in their parts. He is represented 
 sitting on a chair in the choragium, or "green-room," 
 surrounded by the performers the " great tragedian," 
 the " walking gentleman," the " leading lady," and other 
 indispensable members of a well-regulated dramatic com- 
 pany. At his feet, on a stool, are the different masks 
 which were used, and which were as various in expression 
 as those in a modern pantomime ; another is behind him, 
 on a pedestal. One of the actors, assisted by a comrade, 
 
THE PULPITUM AND ORCHESTRA. 131 
 
 is attiring himself in a thick shaggy tunic ; another has 
 lifted his mask while receiving the instructions of the 
 choragus. A female, crowned with a wreath, plays on 
 the double flute, or tibia. Two figures wear nothing but 
 goat-skins round their loins, as if the piece to be played 
 were some Arcadian spectacle. The background shows 
 the Ionic columns of the portico, decorated with fes- 
 toons, and a gallery above, enriched with vases and 
 statues. The whole is composed, like the modem 
 Roman mosaics, of minute pieces of glass, and deserves 
 commendation as a beautiful work of art. 
 
 (d.) The pulpitttm was a broad shallow platform, which 
 also formed a portion of what we should now-a-days call 
 the stage. It was the part nearest the orchestra, where 
 the actors stood when they spoke. 
 
 (<?.) Lastly, the orchestra was a semicircular space be- 
 tween the pulpitum and the auditory, extending in front 
 of the spectators, and somewhat below the lowest tier of 
 seats. As its name indicates, it was the place, in the Greek 
 theatre, where the chorus danced (6pxtop.ai) and per- 
 formed their evolutions, for which purpose it was covered 
 with boards. But as the Roman drama had no chorus, 
 the orchestra in a Roman theatre was appropriated for 
 the seats of senators and other illustrious personages, 
 such as foreign ambassadors, which were called " primus 
 subselliorum ordo." * 
 
 I have already hinted that the rapid change of scenery 
 which finds favour with modern audiences was unknown 
 in Greek and Roman plays. Yet the piece was often 
 
 * Dr. Schmitz, in Smith's "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities," art. 
 Tluatnun. 
 
132 SCENERY OF THE ANCIENT THEATRES. 
 
 " mounted " to use a technical expression with sur- 
 prising magnificence, and the art of the painter was called 
 in to supplement the art of the poet. No such mysterious 
 illusions of perspective, or marvels of colour and design, 
 or wonderful reproductions of actual landscape, or embo- 
 diments of fairy visions, as now astonish and delight 
 us, ever astonished or delighted a Greek audience, 
 but the spectacle set before them was often splendidly 
 conceived. It has justly been remarked that the 
 opening of the " CEdipus Tyrannus," with its crowd of 
 citizens kneeling in awe-struck apprehension before the 
 altar in the palace vestibule ; or that grand scene in the 
 " Prometheus," where the Titan, rock-bound in the 
 desolate region of the Caucasus, is consoled by the air- 
 borne daughters of Ocean ; or, I may add, the catas- 
 trophe of the " Medea," where the fate-driven murderess 
 is swept away from human sight in her fiery car; and the 
 grand contest in the " Ajax" for the armour of Achilles; 
 may probably have vied, for picturesque effect, with the 
 most successful achievements of modern machinists. 
 
 Those tragic flights, however, which so did take the 
 imagination of the quick-witted Athenians, found but 
 little favour with the Romans. The Eternal City could 
 give birth to a Cicero and a Caesar, but never rose to the 
 dignity of an ^Eschylus or a Sophocles. Her tragic writers 
 were but third-rate poets, and not a single Roman tragedy 
 was ever composed on a Roman subject. There was 
 more life, force, and originality in their comic dramas. 
 In their mimes and burlesques, indeed, they rivalled the 
 moderns. Their tumblers, their harlequins, their clowns, 
 achieved feats of agility worthy of a Blondin or a Leotard. 
 
THE FIRST THEA TRES A T ROME. 
 
 '33 
 
 They had their walkers upon stilts, their rope-dancers, 
 their Merry-Andrews; and, as a crowning proof of their 
 ingenuity in the " lower walks of the drama," let me re- 
 cord that they succeeded in teaching elephants to dance 
 on the tight-rope, with riders and litters on their back ! 
 
 MASKS, DWARF, AND MONKEY (FROM POMPEIAN FRESCO). 
 
 The earliest theatres at Rome were built of wood; and 
 mere temporary buildings, removed when the occasion for 
 them was over. Stage-players were first introduced in 
 A.U.C 391. The first exhibition of a dramatic performance 
 after the Greek manner was given by Mummius, the de- 
 stroyer of Corinth, about the year 610. The first per- 
 manent theatre was erected by Pompey in 699. Edifices 
 of immense extent and unrivalled magnificence were also 
 built by Scaurus and Curio, but these were of a temporary 
 character. The former, according to Pliny, contained 
 three hundred and threescore columns of marble, and 
 could accommodate eighty thousand persons. The 
 latter consisted of two theatres of timber, which were 
 first used separately for dramatic entertainments, and 
 then put together, face to face, as a circus for gladiatorial 
 shows. 
 
 Pompey's theatre was injured by fire in the reign of 
 Tiberius ; restored by Caligula ; again burned ; and re- 
 
134 THE TRIANGULAR FORUM. 
 
 built by Claudius. A third time it was destroyed by fire, 
 and re-erected by Titus. 
 
 The Theatre of Marcellus, built by Augustus, would 
 contain thirty thousand persons. The splendour of its 
 decorations is commemorated by the classic writers. A 
 third theatre was raised by Cornelius Balbus, at the in- 
 stance of Augustus. 
 
 The Pompeian theatres could not compare with those 
 of Rome either in extent or magnificence, yet they would 
 be considered worthy ornaments of any modern capital. 
 The approach to them, when uninjured, must have com- 
 bined both convenience and beauty. 
 
 Just at the point where the two streets from the Forum 
 unite, stands a propylaum or vestibule, of eight Ionic 
 columns, raised upon two steps, with a fountain in front 
 of one of the columns, which poured its grateful waters 
 through a sculptured mask of stone. This vestibule 
 opens into an extensive Doric colonnade, retaining frag- 
 ments of the iron bars anciently inserted between the 
 pillars to confine the crowds within them. The colon- 
 nade is triangular in form ; the eastern side measuring 
 about 450 feet in length, the western nearly 300 feet. 
 On these two sides extended a portico of ninety columns; 
 the third side had no portico, but appears to have been 
 lined with small offices. At different points were situated 
 four entrances ; three to the Great Theatre, and one to 
 the barracks for the troops. 
 
 Within the ample area or piazza thus formed some- 
 times called the Triangular Forum moulder the ruins 
 of a sacred edifice, called, from its style of architecture, 
 the Greek Temple, otherwise the Temple of Hercules. It 
 
TEMPLE OF HERCULES. 135 
 
 is the most ancient building yet discovered in the " City 
 of the Dead," and from its elevated position must have 
 formed a conspicuous landmark to all mariners navigat- 
 ing the Parthenopean waters. Some authorities date the 
 erection about eight hundred years before Christ. If this 
 be true, it must have been built by some of the earliest 
 colonists, who, migrating from Cumae, or the shores of 
 Hellas, planted themselves at the vine-clad base of 
 Vesuvius. At all events, it possesses in itself in its 
 massive Doric columns, its deep and boldly projecting 
 abaci, and the general details of its construction 
 abundant evidence of its remote antiquity. 
 
 The whole building seems to have stood upon a 
 podium or basement, raised five steps above the level of 
 the ground. It was 120 feet in length, and 70 feet in 
 breadth. Its cella, divided into several compartments, 
 was paved with mosaics, the masonry covered with 
 stucco. A curious enclosure in front of the steps is sup- 
 posed to have been a pen to contain victims two altars 
 standing by its side. A few paces distant are the re- 
 mains of a small circular temple of eight Doric columns 
 of tufa, covering zpurtcal or well, protected by a circular 
 perforated altar. Either the water required for the 
 sacrifices was obtained from hence, or it was a sacred 
 spot a bidental) or locus fulminatus where a thunder- 
 bolt had fallen. Such a place was always regarded by 
 the Romans with peculiar sanctity. It was not allowable 
 to touch, to tread on, or to look at it Whoever pro- 
 faned it would be punished by the gods with madness. 
 To violate its hallowed precincts was a foul sacrilege.* 
 
 * Horace, " Ars Poetica" (Epist. ad Pison.), 471. 
 
136 A GLORIOUS LANDSCAPE. 
 
 It has been conjectured that this most ancient and 
 venerable pile, where the monotonous chant of the 
 priests was heard, and the bleeding sacrifices smoked 
 some two thousand six hundred and sixty years ago, was 
 erected on the site of a pottery of still older date, whose 
 debris have been discovered beneath its base. The spot is 
 elevated several hundred feet above the level of the plain 
 which it overlooks, on what was in fact the crest, the 
 apex of the isolated eminence which bore the houses, and 
 temples, and theatres of Pompeii. An exedra, or semi- 
 circular seat, at the south-west angle of the building, is 
 so placed as to command every detail in a most gorgeous 
 and extensive panorama. I wish that I possessed the 
 pen of a Ruskin to describe its wealth of beauty, its 
 plenitude of inspiration. Little idea could the reader 
 form of all that renders it attractive, from any cold, dull 
 inventory-like enumeration ot sapphire skies, and misty 
 uplands, and azure seas. But let him remember that the 
 view I speak of includes the chestnut-shaded hill of Cas- 
 tellamare the olive-groves and rocky heights of Vico 
 the vineyards, the mulberry-trees, the pomegranates, the 
 richly wooded valleys, and sea-washed cliffs of Tasso's Sor- 
 rento the smiling isle of Capri, where Tiberius revelled 
 in the luxury of vice and the broad unruffled azure of 
 that beautiful bay which he who has once seen never 
 forgets, the full outline of those Parthenop6an shores, 
 which song and fable have rendered famous, and art and 
 nature inexpressibly lovely; let him remember this, I 
 say, and he will own that the scene might task the pencil 
 of a Claude or a Turner, and inspire the most melodious 
 song of a Shelley or a Keats, the former to realize its 
 
THE GREA T THE A TRE. 137 
 
 inner sense of beauty, the latter to embody its wonderful 
 richness of form and colour ! 
 
 The city wall appears to have bounded the portico on 
 the southern side, while parallel to the eastern runs a 
 long low wall, terminated at the one end by the altars 
 and bidental already mentioned, and at the other by a 
 pedestal inscribed : * 
 
 M . CLAUDIO . M . F . MARCELLO . PATRONO. 
 
 I have said that there were three or rather four 
 entrances from the eastern side of the piazza to different 
 parts of 
 
 . THE GREAT THEATRE. 
 
 The two first, as you enter, open upon a large circular 
 corridor surrounding the entire cavea. The third leads 
 into an area behind the scene, from which a communication 
 is made with the orchestra, and the primus subselliorum 
 ordo or what we English designate "orchestra-stalls;" the 
 fourth led down a long flight of steps, at the bottom of 
 which you turn to the right for the so-called Soldiers' 
 Barracks, to the left for the area already mentioned. 
 The corridor is vaulted : it has two other entrances, one 
 by a large passage from the east, and another from a 
 smaller passage on the north. Six inner doors, or 
 vonritoria, opened on an equal number of staircases 
 leading to the first pracinctio.^ 
 
 The theatre is placed on the southern slope of the 
 hill, the corridor being the highest part, so that the 
 audience, upon entering, descended immediately to their 
 
 * Overbeck, " Pompeji," in loco. 
 
 * "Pompeii" (Library of Entertaining Knowledge}, i. 260, aCx. 
 
138 THE AUDITORIUM. 
 
 seats. By the side of the first entrance is a staircase 
 leading up to the gallery where the women sat, for in the 
 ancient theatres they were separated from the men. 
 What a display of gems and embroidered robes, of 
 towering head-dresses and flashing eyes, must that gallery 
 have presented; a mass of the dark-haired, dark-eyed 
 women of the South congregated in one restricted space 
 enough, methinks, to have shaken the confidence of 
 the most self-possessed of actors ! The seats here were 
 divided into compartments, like our boxes; each seat 
 being about fifteen inches high, and two feet four inches 
 wide. What think you was the space allotted to each 
 Pompeian dame 1 ? Exactly one foot three inches and a 
 half! I should like to see an English lady, en grande 
 temie, accommodating herself within such circumscribed 
 limits ! But, owing to this arrangement, space was 
 obtained for seating English ladies would say crowding 
 about five thousand persons. * 
 
 The middle classes usually sat upon cushions, which 
 they brought with them; patricians on chairs of state, 
 carried to the theatre by their slaves. Flanking the 
 orchestra, but raised considerably above it, may be 
 observed two divisions whose appropriation is somewhat 
 uncertain. One, however, we may suppose to have been 
 reserved for the Roman proconsul, or the duumvirs and 
 their suite; the other for the vestal virgins, or for the 
 giver of the entertainments. This is the more probable, 
 says an authority of great credit, because in the smaller 
 theatre, where these boxes, if we may call them so, are 
 also found, they have a communication with the stage. 
 
 * For a good description of a Roman theatre, see Bekker's " Callus." 
 
ITS PAST AND PRESENT. 139 
 
 How splendid an appearance must this structure have 
 presented in its palmy days ! It must have gleamed and 
 glittered in the sunshine like a fairy pile; the walls cased 
 with marble, the benches of marble, the orchestra of 
 marble, the scena, with its decorations all of marble ; 
 but of this magnificence, and its statues, and its scenic 
 embellishments, scarce a vestige remains. There can be 
 no doubt that it escaped the more destructive effects of 
 the eruption, owing to its elevated position and the 
 great height of its outer work, and that the citizens 
 afterwards returned and removed its more precious 
 spoils. 
 
 From an inscription formerly found in it, on the first 
 step of the orchestra, with a central space for a statue, 
 it appears that the theatre, as well as a crypt, and 
 the tribunal, was erected by Marcus Holconius Rufus, 
 Duumvir, Military Tribune, and Patron of the Colony, 
 and that the decurions reared the statue in grateful ac- 
 knowledgment of his services. * 
 
 Let us now suppose we are viewing the interior from 
 one of the entrances leading to the orchestra. On the 
 right hand is the scena. From what remains it can be 
 seen that the three principal doors were deeply recessed ; 
 those at the sides rectangular, the central one circular. 
 In front of the latter stood two columns. Behind it is 
 the postscenium. From the eastern side of the stage a 
 covered portico led into the orchestra of the small 
 theatre, and was intended, perhaps, as a communication 
 between the privileged seats of either house, for the 
 accommodation of those entitled to make use of them. 
 
 * Overbeclc, " Pompcji," i 145. 
 
140 
 
 A VIEW OF THE INTERIOR. 
 
 In the wall supporting the front of the stage are seven 
 recesses, similar to those discovered in the theatre at 
 Herculaneum. There can be little doubt that these were 
 occupied by the musicians. 
 
 In front is the entrance to the orchestra. Above may 
 be seen the six rows of steps which encircled it; then 
 the cavea, despoiled of its marble, but still exhibiting the 
 lines of benches summa cavea, media cavea, and infima 
 cavea the stairs, or scato, dividing them into cunri and 
 the vomitoria, or doors of entrance. Higher still is the 
 women's gallery; and above that the external wall, which, 
 as it was never entirely buried, should surely have 
 pointed out to any observant traveller the exact situation 
 of the lost Pompeii. 
 
 COMIC SCENE (FROM A PAINTING AT POMPEII). 
 
 The same general plan and disposition of parts were ob- 
 served in 
 
 THE SMALL THEATRE, OR ODEUM. 
 
 In form, however, it is different; it approaches nearer to 
 a rectangle, the semicircle being cut off by straight walls 
 
THE SMALL THEATRE. 141 
 
 from each end of the stage. A still more noticeable 
 difference is, that it was permanently roofed, as appears 
 from the following inscription : 
 
 C . QVINCT1VS . C. F . VALG. 
 
 M . PORCIVS . M . F. 
 DVO . VIR . DEC . DECR. 
 
 THEATRVM . TECTVM. 
 FAC . LOCAR . EIDEMQ . PROB. 
 
 [Caius Quinctius Valgus, son of Caius, and Marcus Porcius, son of Marcus, 
 Duumvirs, by a decree of the Decurions, let out the covered theatre to be 
 erected by contract, and the same approved it.] 
 
 Either because built by contract, or because of greater 
 antiquity, it is inferior to the other theatre in construc- 
 tion and decoration. It is supposed to have been erected 
 shortly after the end of the Social War, and may have 
 been used for dramatic entertainments when the state of 
 the weather prevented open-air performances. 
 
 The material employed is tufa (from Nocera), except 
 that the scalse are constructed of hard Vesuvian lava, 
 well suited to resist the constant action of ascending and 
 descending feet. The scena, the front wall of the pro- 
 scenium, and the pavement of the orchestra, were entirely 
 marble; marble of various colours African breccia, purple, 
 and giallo antico. A band of marble, in white and gray 
 stripes, traverses it from end to end of the seats, with 
 inlaid letters of bronze, eight and a half inches long, and 
 level with the surface, forming the following inscrip- 
 tion : 
 
 M . OCVLAT1VS . M . F . VERVS . DVIR . PRO . LVDIS. 
 [Marcus Oculatius Verus, son of Marcus, Duumvir for the Games.] 
 
 The pavement was probably laid down at the expense 
 of this munificent Pompeian. 
 
 (190) 10 
 
142 
 
 CHAIRS OF STA TE. 
 
 Within the orchestra itself were four tiers of benches 
 for the bisellia, or chairs of state, in which the magis- 
 trates and great men of the city sat. The bisellium was 
 usually made of bronze, richly ornamented with silver, 
 and supported on four upright legs. Tsvo inscriptions 
 in the Street of Tombs lead us to infer that the right of 
 using it was a highly prized distinction, and only granted 
 
 KKl'-SCO A LANDSCAPE. (FOUND AT VOMPIHI.} 
 
 as a mark of honour to distinguished persons by the 
 magistrates and people in provincial towns. Though 
 large enough to contain two persons, only one occupied 
 it ; hence its name. The sella curulis, or curule chair of 
 state, was confined to Roman magistrates, or to the pro- 
 consuls and praetors of the provinces. 
 
 The seats of the audience were separated by a passage 
 from the tiers of benches which held the bisellia. This 
 passage was bounded on the side of the stage by a high 
 
THE SOLDIERS BARRACKS. 143 
 
 parapet, ornamented with winged griffins' legs ; on the 
 side of the cavea, by a wall, terminating in two kneeling 
 Herculean figures, which are supposed to have sustained 
 bronze candelabra. 
 
 The cavea contained seventeen rows of seats, and the 
 whole theatre could probably accommodate fifteen hun- 
 dred persons. 
 
 Adjoining the small theatre stands a large rectangular 
 enclosure, which has been variously called Forum Nun- 
 dinarium, or the provision market ; and 
 
 THE SOLDIERS' BARRACKS. 
 
 It measures 183 feet in length by 158 in width, and 
 is surrounded by a Doric colonnade, with twenty-two 
 columns on the longer, and seventeen on the shorter 
 sides. These columns are covered with stucco; one- 
 third (the lower) is plain and painted red ; the upper 
 portion fluted, and coloured alternately red and yel- 
 low. 
 
 Under the colonnade are numerous small tenements, 
 which, it is conjectured, were occupied by butchers, and 
 vendors of vegetables, meats, and liquors. One ap- 
 pears to have been the soldiers' mess-room; another the 
 guard-room ; a third, the prison ; in a fourth, uten- 
 sils for the manufacture of soap, and in a fifth, an 
 oil-mill, have been discovered. There are also stables, 
 a kitchen with all the necessary adjuncts, and stables for 
 the horses. 
 
 Above was a second story, approached by three nar- 
 row flights of steps, as well as by a staircase of better 
 construction, probably leading to the officers' chambers. 
 
144 CURIOUS MEMORIALS. 
 
 A wooden gallery running all round it afforded a means 
 of communication from one room to another. 
 
 It has been matter of dispute whether this building 
 was appropriated as a barrack for the Roman garrison, 
 or as a school for gladiators. The balance of evidence 
 seems to me strongly in favour of the former hypothesis. 
 Over the whole spreads, if I may use the expression, a 
 strong flavour of military life. Among the articles dis- 
 covered here, for instance, were bronze and iron hel- 
 mets, shields, greaves for the legs, lances, swords, leather 
 belts, strigils, sword-belts of bronze richly ornamented, 
 officers' helmets finely inlaid or covered with admirable 
 bas-reliefs, ivory-handled swords, and numerous matters 
 of feminine attire belonging, we may conjecture, to 
 members of the officers' families. Among the latter 
 were gilt pins for the hair, chests of cloth of gold and 
 delicate white linen, ear-rings, jewelled bracelets, finger- 
 rings of gold, and costly necklaces all indicative of 
 luxurious and careful toilets. In the guard-room four 
 skeletons were found, with their legs fixed in strong iron 
 stocks. An upper chamber contained eighteen skeletons 
 of men, women, and children, one of an infant, and 
 several of dogs all surprised at the same moment by 
 an inevitable death. Under the stairs reclined a human 
 skeleton holding a cup of silver. Was he endeavouring 
 to escape with it ? Or had he descended in quest of a 
 draught of wine? Inside one of the entrance gates 
 thirty-four skeletons lay in dread companionship those 
 of the guard, doubtless, who had been summoned hastily 
 at the outbreak of the catastrophe, and overtaken by the 
 Invisible before they could dispose themselves in military 
 
TEMPLE OF &SCULAPIUS. 145 
 
 array. The total number of skeletons discovered among 
 these ruins was sixty-three. 
 
 Behind the two theatres, and at the corner of the 
 street of Stabiae, stands the so-called 
 
 TEMPLE OF AESCULAPIUS, 
 
 excavated in 1766 so called by Winckelmann, but per- 
 haps more generally known as the Theatre of Jupiter and 
 Juno. It is a small but well-proportioned building, 
 raised on a low basement of nine steps, and comprising 
 a small cella, with a tetrastyle pseudo-dystoral portico 
 that is, with an external range of columns surrounding 
 the entire building. In the open court stands a large 
 altar, closely resembling the monument in the Vatican 
 known as the Tomb of the Scipios the frieze being 
 composed of triglyphs with volutes at the corners. The 
 cella contained, when discovered, three terra-cotta statues 
 of ^sculapius, Hygeia, and Priapus.* 
 
 Between the theatres and the temple we observe the 
 
 HOUSE OF THE SCULPTOR, 
 
 remarkable only for its contents (now in the Neapolitan 
 Museum), which illustrated the ancient practice of the 
 " plastic art." Some statues were found here, half 
 finished ; others, just mere blocks of marble, whose 
 future proportions had scarcely been outlined by the 
 sculptor's hand. Here, too, compasses, calipers, pro- 
 portional compasses, rules and weights for drawing per- 
 pendicular lines and levelling, thirty-two mallets, three 
 
 * Overbeck, "Pompeji." 
 
146 THE ISEON. 
 
 or four levers, numerous chisels, and several saws, at- 
 tested the nature of the owner's occupation. In the 
 midst of his work the doom had fallen on the city, and 
 he was suddenly called away from all his bright dreams 
 of the ideal, all his vivid conceptions of the beautiful, all 
 his essays to give a visible embodiment to those dreams 
 and those conceptions to give a " local habitation " to 
 those "airy nothings" of the fervid brain. Did he ever 
 resume the task, I wonder ] Or was he, too, among the 
 victims of the volcanic eruption ? 
 
 Returning westward, along the northern side of the 
 piazza, we arrive at a remarkable structure, the Temple 
 of Isis, or 
 
 THE ISEON. 
 
 It was but of recent erection at the date of the destruc- 
 tion of Pompeii, an older building having been de- 
 molished in the earthquake of the year 63. It stood on 
 a slightly elevated basement in the centre of an open 
 court, surrounded by a Corinthian portico of painted 
 columns, each column about one foot nine inches in 
 diameter. To the two nearest the entrance two lustred 
 marble basins were formerly attached, and a wooden 
 box, reduced to charcoal, probably intended as a re- 
 ceptacle for the contributions of worshippers. Over 
 the entrance was the following inscription : 
 
 N. POPIDIVS . N. F. CELSINVS. 
 >EDEM . ISIDIS . TERR^E . MOTV . CONLAPSAM 
 
 A . FVNDAMENTIS . P. SVA . RESTITVIT. 
 
 HVNC . DECVRIONES . OB . LIBERALITATEM . 
 
 CVM. ESSET. ANNORVM. SEXS. ORDINI . SVO. 
 
 GRATIS . API.EGERVNT. 
 
WORSHIP OF ISIS. 147 
 
 [Numerinus Popidius Celsinus, son of Numerinus, restored from the founda- 
 tion, at his own expense, the jEdes of Isis, overthrown by an earth- 
 quake. The Decurions, on account of his liberality, elected him, when 
 sixty years of age, to be one of their order without paying fees.] 
 
 The reader will observe that this building was an 
 ./Edes, and not a Templum ; that is, it had never been 
 consecrated by the pontiff and augurs, for the worship of 
 Isis had been forbidden by a decree of the Roman Senate 
 in B.C. 57. It was nevertheless very popular in Italy, 
 where it had been introduced in the time of Sulla.* 
 The Roman ladies especially loved to patronize its cere- 
 monies, which combined licentiousness with mystery in 
 a peculiarly piquant manner. The oracles of the god- 
 dess at Pompeii, says Lord Lytton, were remarkable, 
 not more for the mysterious language in which they were 
 clothed, than for the credit which was attached to their 
 mandates and predictions. " If they were not dictated 
 by a divinity, they were framed at least by a profound 
 knowledge of mankind ; they applied themselves exactly 
 to the circumstances of individuals, and made a notable 
 contrast to the vague and loose generalities of their rival 
 temples." 
 
 Altars were erected on each side of the portico ; a 
 Corinthian portico of six columns, flanked by two wings, 
 with niches for the reception of statues. The walls of 
 the altar, elevated on seven steps of Parian marble, were 
 also adorned with statues, and with the pomegranate 
 symbol consecrated to Isis. An oblong pedestal occu- 
 pied the interior building, on which stood two images, 
 one of the great Egyptian goddess; the other of the 
 
 * Dr. Smith's " Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography," art. Isis. 
 
148 PICTURES AND PRIESTS. 
 
 silent Orus the Greek Harpocrates with finger on his 
 iips as if to enjoin on the worshippers a reverent silence 
 regarding the mysteries displayed before them. Isis was 
 attired in purple drapery, holding a bronze sistrum a 
 mystical instrument of music peculiar to her worship* 
 and a key, indicative of her power to unlock the secrets 
 of the universe, or to open the flood-gates of the Nile. 
 The building contained many other deities to grace the 
 court of the Egyptian goddess ; her kinsman Bacchus or 
 Dionysius, the Cyprian Venus, a Greek disguise for 
 herself, rising from her bath, the dog-headed Anubis, 
 the ox Apis, and various Egyptian idols of uncouth form. 
 The walls were covered with allegorical pictures, fantasti- 
 cally painted, but of great interest from their reference to 
 Isiac mysteries. The pedestal was hollow, with two 
 low apertures at the end near the secret stairs, so that 
 the priests, ascending, could enter it unperceived, and 
 astonish the deluded crowd by delivering the responses 
 as if from the very statue of the goddess. These priests 
 were known by the general name of Isiaca. According 
 to Herodotus, they were forbidden to eat the flesh of 
 swine or sheep. They shaved their heads, and wore 
 shoes of papyrus, and garments of linen, because Isis 
 first taught the use of linen, and was therefore called 
 Linigera, or the " linen-bearing." In their temples they 
 burned gums in the morning, myrrh at noon, and kyphy 
 
 * It consisted of a semicircular frame, crossed by four bars, which gave forth, 
 when shaken, a shrill loud sound. Plutarch says, the shaking of the bars within 
 the circular apsis symbolized the agitation of the four elements within the com- 
 pass of the world, by which all things are continually destroyed and reproduced. 
 The cat sculptured upon it represented the moon. Dr. Smith, " Dictionary of 
 Antiquities," art. Sis/rittrr, p. 1046. 
 
ISIAC MYSTERIES. 149 
 
 an unknown mixture of sixteen substances in the 
 evening. Notwithstanding their vows of chastity, they 
 were a dissolute and vicious fraternity, and contributed 
 largely to that moral corruption which undermined the 
 stability of the Roman empire. The forms and cere- 
 monies introduced by them into the Italian cities were 
 but burlesques of the rules of the old Egyptian worship. 
 The profound mysteries of the Nile, it has been well ob- 
 served, were degraded by a hundred meretricious and 
 frivolous admixtures from the creeds of Cephissus and of 
 Tiber. 
 
 In the south-east corner of the temple enclosure 
 stands an cediciilum, or chapel a small building orna- 
 mented with pilasters, with an arched opening in the 
 centre, and over the arch a representation of figures in 
 the act of adoration ; a vase is placed between them. 
 The sediculum covered the sacred well, used for the 
 purification of the worshippers, and is embellished with 
 elegant though capricious arabesques in green, and yel- 
 low, and red. Near it is an altar, on which were dis- 
 covered the charred remains of the sacrifice ; and the 
 wall adjoining is still discoloured with the smoke of the 
 sacrificial fire. Other altars or pedestals remain within 
 the enclosure ; and on the two flanking the steps which 
 ascend to the temple were found two Isiac tables of 
 basalt, covered with hieroglyphics, now in the Museum 
 at Naples.* 
 
 In the south side, opposite the entrance from the 
 street, were the chambers for the priests, and a kitchen 
 in which they cooked their food. A skeleton lay in the 
 
 Pompeii (" Library of Entertaining Knowledge"), i 779. 
 
150 SKELETONS OF THE ISIACI. 
 
 outer room, conjectured to be that of a priest, who, 
 having found his escape at the door blocked up by the 
 fast falling ashes, had striven to cut his way through the 
 walls with an axe ; through two, indeed, he had hewn a 
 passage, but before he could pass the third, was stifled 
 by the deadly vapour. The axe was found lying by his 
 remains. Behind the temple is a large chamber, forty- 
 two feet by twenty-five, in which another skeleton was dis- 
 covered. He seems, like his comrade, to have been at 
 dinner when the supreme hour of Pompeii came. In 
 the sacred precincts lay many other skeletons, probably 
 those of the Isiaci, who, reposing an empty confidence in 
 the power of their deity, or stricken by panic fear, had 
 cowered around the desolate altars, until overtaken by 
 the deadly torrent of ashes. Faithful to their goddess 
 to the last, they perished in the very blindness of their 
 superstitious devotion.* 
 
 From the area, once sacred to the worship of the 
 Egyptian divinity, we pass onward to 
 
 THE TRIBUNAL, 
 
 formerly called the Curia Jsiaca, and the "School," an ob- 
 long open court, 79 feet long by 57 feet wide, surrounded 
 
 * Isis, fabled to be the wife of Osiris, is said, from the Coptic word /si, to 
 mean " abundance." Some identify her with Pallas, others with Ceres ; but she 
 is mostly represented as the goddess of the Moon, the Horn-bearing (icepod^opot), 
 from the lunar changes ; also, the Dark-robed (jueA.ai'OToAof), because she shines 
 through the night. Under the name " Isis," the word Wisdom was occasionally 
 understood ; and in her temple was this inscription : " I am the All that was, that 
 is, that shall be ; no mortal can lift my veil." Wonderful medicinal powers were 
 ascribed to her ; and many diseases, it was supposed, originated in her wrath. 
 She was believed to be the inventor of several medicines even of the healing 
 art itself; and, therefore, the Romans called an universal medicine, /sis. En- 
 nemoser, " History of Magic," i. 244, 245. 
 
MYTHOLOGICAL FRESCOES. 
 
 on three sides by a portico of the Doric order, with two 
 chambers at one end, supposed to be the crypt, and an 
 elevated pulpitum for the judge at the side. Its uses 
 cannot be accurately determined, but it seems to have 
 been the tribunal alluded to in an inscription found in 
 the Greater Temple : 
 
 M. M. HOLCONI . RVFVS FI . CELER 
 
 CRYPTAM . TRIBVNAL . THEATRVM. S. P. 
 
 AD . DECVS. COLONI/E. 
 
 [Marcus Holconius Rufus, son of Marcus, built the crypt, tribunal, and 
 theatre, for the honour of the city (colonia).] 
 
 With a word of reference to a small but elegant house, 
 provided with a peristyle 
 and impluvium, which 
 was situated nearly op- 
 posite the Iseon, in the 
 street of Stabiae, and in 
 one of whose rooms may 
 be seen a rude but vi- 
 gorous picture of Her- 
 cules disguised among 
 the daughters of Om- 
 phale, as well as a 
 cleverly designed group 
 of Venus and Adonis, 
 we take our leave of the 
 so - called Triangular 
 Forum, and all its me- 
 morials of a strange but interesting antiquity. 
 
 MYTHOLOGICAL FRESCOES (FOt 
 AT POMPEII). 
 
VII. 
 
 Cmna, or 
 
 " The garlands, the rose-odours, and the flowers." 
 
 BVRON. 
 
 " All through the lorn 
 Vacuity, winds come and go, but stir 
 Only the flowers of yesterday." 
 
 SYDNEY DOBELL. 
 
 JMONG the public edifices of Rome, scarcely 
 any were more deserving of admiration, on 
 account either of their magnitude, their archi- 
 tectural splendour, or their internal decorations, than the 
 Thermae, or Public Baths. These colossal structures were 
 all arranged on a common plan : they were surrounded 
 by a colonnade of shapely pillars, and stood among well- 
 ordered walks and extensive gardens, which were deco- 
 rated with leafy groves, with statues, and with sparkling 
 fountains. The main building contained not only ample 
 accommodation for bathing and swimming, but salons 
 for the conversation of lounging patricians, halls suitable 
 for gymnastic exercises, and rotundas where philosophers 
 might argue and poets declaim. These chambers were 
 of noble construction, were paved and lined with marble, 
 glittered with bust and statue and painting, and were 
 provided with libraries for the recreation of the studious 
 
THE ROMAN THERMM. 153 
 
 The Thermae were, in fact, for Rome what the clubs are 
 for aristocratic London, except that the public were ad- 
 mitted to them gratuitously, and that they were available 
 for the lower classes as freely as for the wealthiest patri- 
 cians. 
 
 It is not the province of the present writer to describe 
 the Roman Baths ; yet it seems desirable to afford the 
 reader some idea of their arrangement, as they were the 
 models on which those of Pompeii were fashioned. 
 Eustace, an author of eloquence and judgment, thus de- 
 scribes the present condition of the Thermce of Caracalla, 
 among whose ruins, led me add, the poet Shelley wrote 
 his drama of " Prometheus Unbound." They occupy part 
 of the declivity of the Aventine hill, and a considerable 
 portion of the low ground between it, Mons Cceliolus, and 
 Mons Ccelius. " The length of the Thermae," he says, 
 " was 1840 feet, its breadth 1476. At each end were two 
 temples, one to Apollo and another to ^Esculapius, as 
 the tutelary deities (genii tutelares) of a place sacred 
 to the improvement of the mind and the cure of the 
 body. The two other temples were dedicated to the 
 two protecting divinities of the Antonine family, Hercules 
 and Bacchus. 
 
 " In the principal building were, in the first place, a 
 grand circular vestibule, with four halls on each side for 
 cold, tepid, warm, and steam baths ; in the centre was 
 an immense square for exercise, when the weather was 
 unfavourable to it in the open air; beyond it a great 
 hall, where 1600 marble seats were placed for the con- 
 venience of the bathers ; at each end of this hall were 
 libraries. This building terminated on both sides in a 
 
154 THEIR VAST EXTENT. 
 
 court surrounded with porticoes, with an Odeum for music; 
 and in the middle a spacious basin for swimming. Round 
 this edifice were walks shaded by rows of trees, particu- 
 larly the plane ; and in its front extended a gymnasium 
 for running, wrestling, &c., in fine weather. The whole 
 was bounded by a vast portico opening into exedrae, 
 or spacious halls, where the poets declaimed and philoso- 
 phers gave lectures to their auditors. 
 
 " This immense fabric was adorned within and without 
 with pillars, stucco-work, paintings, and statues. The 
 stucco and paintings, though faintly indeed, are yet in 
 many places perceptible. Pillars have been dug up, and 
 some still remain amidst the ruins ; while the Farnesian 
 Bull and the famous Hercules, found in one of these 
 halls, announce the multiplicity and beauty of the statues 
 which once adorned the Thermae of Caracalla. The 
 flues and reservoirs of water still remain. The height of 
 the pile was proportioned to its extent, and still appears 
 very considerable, even though the ground be raised at 
 least twelve feet above its ancient level. It is now 
 changed into vineyards and gardens, its high massive 
 walls form separations, and its tiny ruins, spread over the 
 surface, burn the soil and check its natural fertility."* 
 
 Pompeii, I need hardly say, could boast of no such 
 imperial pile as this ; yet were its Thermae very com- 
 pactly and handsomely arranged, and decorated with 
 much artistic excellence. I shall now attempt a descrip- 
 tion of them, and conclude my description with a sketch 
 of the processes of ablution carried on within their walls. 
 
 The Thermae, or Public Baths, discovered in 1814, is 
 
 * Eustace, " A Classical Tour through Italy," i. 226, sjj. 
 
CHARGES FOR BATHING. 155 
 
 a considerable establishment, having a frontage towards 
 three streets, and a principal entrance from the Street of 
 Fortune. All or most of the rooms opening into the 
 street, on each side this entrance, seem to have been 
 vaulted, and so were made to contribute to the support 
 of the arches thrown over the larger chambers in the in- 
 terior. 
 
 This entry, or passage, opened into a court about 66 
 feet long, bounded on two sides by a Doric portico 
 (ambulacrum}, and on the third by a crypt. The seats, 
 which may be seen arranged round the walls, accommo- 
 dated the slaves while waiting for their masters. In this 
 court were found a sword with a leather sheath, which, 
 perhaps, belonged to the balneator, or keeper of the 
 baths, and the box for the quadrans, or piece of money, 
 which was paid by each visitor. The quadrans was the 
 fourth part of the assis, and the fourteenth of the dena- 
 rius, a sum so small that the cost of heating of the baths 
 could not have been defrayed without a crowd of bathers.* 
 We must, however, remember that many Romans bathed 
 seven times in a day. Horace playfully alludes to the 
 trifling sum at which they thus made themselves supremely 
 happy : 
 
 " Dum tu quadrante lavatum 
 Rex ibis." 
 
 While you can bathe for a quadrans, he says, you are as 
 happy as a king ! In the great Thermae of imperial 
 Rome no charge at all was made for admission. 
 
 In the Doric portico, persons waited for admission to 
 the Thermae, which could not conveniently accommodate 
 
 * Sir W. Cell, " Pompeiana," i. 91. 
 
156 INAUGURATION OF THE BATHS. 
 
 more than thirty bathers at a time. Here, therefore, 
 notices might suitably be exposed of public games, exhi- 
 bitions, and festivals. And here, on the south wall, still 
 may be read the following inscription, carrying back the 
 mind at one sudden bound over the crowded space of 
 eighteen hundred years : 
 
 MAIO 
 DEDICATI (roTv) NE PRINCIPI COLONI/E 
 
 FELICITER 
 
 .... RVM . MVNERIS . CN. ALLEI NIGIDI MAI. 
 VENATIO . ATHLETAE . SPARSIONES . VELA. ERUNT. 
 
 [At the dedication of the Baths, at the expense of Cnjeus Alleius Nigidius 
 Maius, there will be a venatio, athletic contests, sprinkling of perfumes, 
 and awnings. Prosperity to Maius, chief of the colony.]* 
 
 From this inscription, it appears that the dedication or 
 inauguration of the Baths was celebrated by public games 
 at the cost of a liberal or popularity-hunting citizen, 
 named Maius, who had probably been selected by the 
 magistracy for this expressive honour. Evidently he 
 celebrated the event with great pomp. There were com- 
 bats between wild beasts, or between wild beasts and 
 men, gymnastic exercises, wrestling, leaping, throwing, 
 and the like ; while, to increase the comfort of the 
 spectators, awnings would be spread as a protection from 
 the burning sun, and the warm air tempered by showers 
 of perfumed water, t 
 
 From the court we pass, by a small corridor, into the 
 
 * The word poly, in the centre of the letter O, signifies " many," in Latin as 
 well as in Greek. 
 
 t According to Seneca, the perfumes were dispersed abroad by being mixed 
 with boiling water, and then placed in the centre of the amphitheatre, so that 
 rising with the vapour, they floated throughout the building. 
 
THE APODYTERIUM. 157 
 
 apodyterium, or undressing-room, which is also accessible 
 by another corridor from a street now called the Street 
 of the Arch. Here were found above five hundred lamps 
 of terra-cotta, and upwards of a thousand were collected 
 in the whole circuit of the baths. Some were embel- 
 lished with figures of the Graces, and others with the 
 image of Harpocrates, but some were very artistically 
 wrought. The ceiling of this passage is decorated with 
 stars. 
 
 The apodyterium (also called the spoliatorium or 
 apodyterium) derives its name from the ATroSvnjta of the 
 Greeks. It was here the bathers undressed ; and you 
 still observe the holes in the walls in which were inserted 
 the pegs for hanging up their togas, their tunics, or their 
 pallia. Three seats made of lava were also provided for 
 their accommodation. 
 
 The chamber itself, which was always moderately 
 warmed, is spacious, and stuccoed from the cornice to 
 the ground, the stucco being highly finished and coloured 
 yellow. The cornice, of large dimensions, has " some- 
 thing of an Egyptian character ;" the carved frieze below 
 it is sprawled all over with dolphins, griffins, lyres, and 
 vases, on a red ground. The floor is handsomely paved 
 with white marble wrought in mosaic ; the ceiling con- 
 sisted of white panels within vermilion-coloured borders. 
 A little apartment at the north end was either a latrina, 
 or, if the light were sufficient, a tonstrina for shaving ; or 
 more probably it was a closet where the unguents, 
 strigils, and towels required by the bather were generally 
 kept. 
 
 There are six doors. One leading to the pnepurnium ; 
 LUXD 11 
 
158 THE DECORATIONS. 
 
 another into the above-mentioned chamber ; the third, 
 by a narrow corridor, to the Street of the Arch ; the 
 fourth, to the tepidarium ; the fifth, to the frigidarium ; 
 and the sixth, along a corridor, to the vestibule or 
 portico of the Thermse. 
 
 In *he centre of the end wall of the room, a small recess, 
 once covered with a piece of glass, contained a lamp. 
 In the archivolt, or vaulted roof, immediately above this 
 recess, was placed a window, 2 feet 8 inches high, and 3 
 feet 8 inches broad, closed by a single large pane of cast 
 glass, two-fifths of an inch thick, fixed into the wall, and 
 ground on one side, so that persons on the roof might be 
 prevented from curiously prying into the apodyterium. 
 No error has been more general, and yet more absurdly 
 unfounded, than that the use of glass was very limited 
 among the ancients. The fact is, that they had attained 
 to considerable excellence in its manufacture. They 
 imitated every known marble and every precious stone, 
 and employed these admirable imitations in cups and 
 vases of every size and shape. A few years later than 
 the destruction of Pompeii we read of the calices alla- 
 sontes, or glass goblets, which shone with shifting prisma- 
 tic colours. Whole chambers even were lined with this 
 radiant material. In the time of Seneca the chambers 
 in the Thermae had their walls covered with glass and 
 Thasian marble, the water issued from tubes of silver, and 
 the principal decorations were mirrors of various sizes. 
 
 That the ancients were well acquainted with the art 
 of glass-blowing in all its branches, is evident from the 
 vast collection of bottles, glasses, and other utensils dis- 
 covered among the ruins of Pompeii. 
 
THE FRIGIDARIUM. 159 
 
 To return to the apodyterium. In the window-lighted 
 compartment already spoken of, a large bas-relief in stucco 
 was found, whose subject seems to have been the over- 
 throw of the Titans by Jove (or Saturn ?), whose colossal 
 head figures conspicuously in the centre.* 
 
 Passing into thtfrigidariutnfl or cold bath, we see before 
 us a circular chamber, lined with stucco, which appears 
 to have been painted originally in yellow and green. 
 The roof, in the form of a truncated cone, was coloured 
 blue. It had an opening, or window, near the top, from 
 which it was lighted. 
 
 In each angle of the room, which may be strictly de- 
 scribed as a circle enclosed by a square, an alcove is 
 placed, called by the ancients schola> a word derived 
 from the Hebrew, and signifying repose. Each is 5 feet 
 2 inches wide, by 2 feet \ inch deep ; the wall painted 
 blue, the conca or cove red, and the arch encircled with 
 a relieved border in stucco. In these niches were seats 
 for the convenience of the bathers. 
 
 About eight feet from the floor, a cornice encircles the 
 entire chamber, nearly eighteen inches high, coloured red, 
 and adorned in stucco with the representation of a 
 chariot-race of Cupids, with Cupids on horseback and 
 on foot guiding and encouraging the competitors ; the 
 whole distinguished by a remarkable air of truth and 
 
 * Such is the description given by Sir W. Cell. Another authority gives a 
 curiously different version : " A large mask is moulded in stucco, with curling 
 hair and a most venerable floating beard. Water is sculptured flowing from the 
 locks of hair, and on each side two Tritons, with vases on their shoulders, are 
 fighting. There are also dolphins, who encircle with their tails the figures ol 
 iliiklren struggling to disengage themselves." Pompeii, vol. i. p. 157. 
 
 \ Called the Nat.itio, by Sir W. Cell." Pompeiana," vol. i. p. 100, 
 
i6o 
 
 773 1 CENTRAL BASIN. 
 
 lifelike spirit. The plinth, or base of the wall, is of 
 marble ; so is the pavement of the floor, and the seat 01 
 step which surrounds the central basin. 
 
 ! UK I IUC1UARIUM. 
 
 The basin in the centre of the room (alveus) measures 
 12 feet 10 inches in diameter, 2 feet 9 inches in depth, 
 and is entirely lined with white marble. The bather 
 descended into it by two marble steps, and at the bottom 
 
A SWIMMING-BATH. 161 
 
 was a species of cushion (pitlvinus), also of marble, on 
 which, if so disposed, he might rest himself. The water 
 ran into this bath in a large stream, through a spout or 
 lip of bronze four inches wide, placed in the wall at the 
 height of 3 feet 7 inches from the edge of the basin. 
 There was an outlet for the superfluous water ; and, in 
 all, a depth of about three feet for the bather. It was, 
 therefore, what we should call a cold bath, and by no 
 means a swimming bath according to our English notions. 
 What athletic Briton, indeed, would care for a plunge 
 into an artificial pond, about 31 feet in circumference, 
 and only three feet in depth 1 Half-a-dozen strokes 
 would complete its circuit ! We are told, however, that 
 the natatorium of the Baths of Diocletian, at Rome, was 
 200 feet long, and about half that width ; the Aqua 
 Martia supplying copious streams of water, which welled 
 forth in quaint artificial grottoes. The Pompeian piscina 
 can make no pretensions to vie with such imperial 
 magnificence, but not the less it is elegantly and skilfully 
 designed. 
 
 Through folding doors the bather, when his frame had 
 been hardened by the cold-water baths, passed into the 
 Tepidarium, or warm chamber, where a soft and genial 
 temperature insensibly prepared him for the intense heat 
 of the vapour and hot baths, or, vice versa, mitigated the 
 transition from those to the external air.* It was warmed 
 by a twofold agency : first, by means of a suspended 
 pavement heated by the distant fires of the stove of the 
 calidarium ; secondly, by means of a brazier (foculare) 
 7 feet long and 2 feet 6 inches broad, made entirely of 
 
 * Dr. Smith's " Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities," art. Balnea. 
 
1 62 PUNS UPON NAMES. 
 
 bronze, with the exception of an iron casing. The two 
 hind legs are plain, the two front are winged sphinxes, 
 terminating in lions' paws. The bottom consists of brass 
 bars. Bricks were laid on these, and on the bricks 
 lumps of pumice-stone, while the fire was made with 
 charcoal.* The rim is ornamented by thirteen battle- 
 mented summits, a lotus at the angles, and the figure of 
 a cow beneath. 
 
 For the accommodation of the bathers three seats of 
 bronze were provided, all of the same form and de- 
 sign. They were i foot 4 inches high, i foot wide, 
 and about 6 feet long; and inscribed with the name 
 of the donor, thus : 
 
 M. NIGIDIVS . VACCVLA . P. S. 
 
 i.e., Pecunia Sua, intimating that he defrayed the cost. 
 In punning allusion to his name, the legs of the seats 
 terminated in a cow's cloven hoofs, a cow's head forms 
 their upper ornament, and with a cow, as we have seen, 
 was decorated the foculare. Varro, in his " Treatise on 
 Husbandry," informs us that many of the Roman sur- 
 names originated in matters appertaining to a pastoral 
 life ; and especially in the animals to whose breed- 
 ing certain families devoted their particular attention. 
 Thus, the Porcii were originally swine-herds ; the Ovini, 
 sheep-breeders; the Caprilli bred goats, the Equarii 
 horses, and the Tauri bulls. We may conclude, there- 
 fore, that the family of the Vacculae were originally 
 cow -herds, and that the figures of cows so plentifully im- 
 pressed on all the articles which the patrician presented 
 
 * Overbeck, " Pompeji," i. 197. Becker, " Callus," ii. n, etc. 
 
THE TEPWARJUAT. if>5 
 
 to the Thermae of his native town, are what the heralds 
 call " canting arms " puns on his own name as in 
 Rome the family Toria caused a bull to be stamped on 
 their money.* 
 
 The tepidarium was embellished in a very splendid 
 and yet not inappropriate manner. The pavement was 
 of white mosaic, with two small borders of black ; the 
 ceiling worked in stucco, in low relief, with scattered 
 figures and ornaments of little flying genii delicately de- 
 signed on medallions, and surrounded with rich borders 
 of foliage " signis ornatum et jucundis picturis;" the 
 walls glittered with crimson hues ; the cornice supported 
 by small Atlas figures, or Telamones,t about two feet 
 high, made of terra-cotta, encrusted with the finest 
 marble. These stand with their backs placed against 
 square pilasters projecting one foot from the wall, and 
 with an interval of one foot three inches and a half be- 
 tween each. They served to divide the chamber into a 
 number of niches, or recesses, in which the garments of 
 those who went into the sudatorium, or inner apartment, 
 to undergo the perspiring process, were laid up until 
 their return. Their only clothing is a girdle round the 
 loins ; they have been painted flesh colour, with black 
 hair and beards ; the moulding of the pedestal, and the 
 basket on their heads, is in imitation of gold ; and the 
 pedestal itself, as well as the wall behind them, and the 
 recesses for the bathers' clothes, have been coloured to 
 resemble red porphyry. 
 
 Pliny speaks of the tepidarium as " locum laxum et 
 
 Pompeii {" Library of Entertaining Knowledge"), i. 163. 
 t From the Greek roAotw, / sustain; or rti) v <, I eadure. 
 
1 66 
 
 A PLEASANT RETREAT, 
 
 hilarem amoenum a meridie illustratum." Both pleasant 
 and cheerful was that of Pompeii, with its radiant colours 
 and bright ornaments ; and I can fancy that the gay 
 patrician youth idled here through many an hour of 
 
 CEILING OF THE TRPIOARIUM. 
 
 sportive converse, discussing the latest fashion in tunics 
 imported from Rome, the last ode recited by the popular 
 poet of the day, or the comparative superiority of the 
 charms of a Lalage, an Amaryllis, or a Neoera. Here, 
 too, on their return from the Calidarium, they were 
 
THE CALIDARIUM. 
 
 after- 
 
 anointed and perfumed in the fashion which I shall 
 wards describe. 
 
 Into the Calidarium I must 
 now conduct the reader. It 
 answered to the modern va- 
 pour-bath. At Pompeii it was 
 a chamber 37 feet long by 17 
 feet 4 inches broad, with a 
 vault delicately ornamented 
 with stucco mouldings. Its 
 walls are so constructed that 
 a column of heated air en- 
 closes it on every side. This 
 is not effected by a multi- 
 plicity of flues, but by one 
 universal flue ; the said flue 
 being formed by a lining of 
 bricks or tiles strongly con- 
 nected with the outer wall by 
 iron cramps, yet distant about 
 four inches from it, so as to 
 leave a space 
 
 where the 
 heated air 
 might as- 
 cend from 
 
 the furnace, and equalize the temperature of the apart- 
 ment 
 
 For a like reason the pavement is hollow. On a floor- 
 ing of cement (made of lime and pounded bricks) small 
 brick supports are built, 9 inches square, and i foot 
 
 OKNAMENTS OK THB TEP1UAKIUM. 
 
1 68 
 
 VESPAJO FLOORING. 
 
 7 inches high, on which strong tiles, 15 inches square, 
 are carefully laid. The pavement, encrusted with mosaic, 
 rests upon these. The Italians call a flooring of this de- 
 scription vespajo, from its resemblance to a wasp's nest 
 
 THE CAI.IDAKIUM. 
 
 The calidarium, like the other apartments, is well 
 stuccoed, and painted yellow; a highly-enriched cornice 
 is supported by fluted pilasters, coloured red, and placed 
 at irregular intervals. On one side of the room, in a 
 
THE LACONICUM. 169 
 
 large semicircular niche, called the laconicum, 7 feet wide, 
 and 3 feet 6 inches deep, painted red, and embellished 
 with stucco figures of Cupids and animals, was placed 
 the labrum, a vase or tazza of white marble, for washing 
 the face and hands. It was about 5 feet in diameter, 
 but only 7 or 8 inches deep. In the centre the hot 
 water bubbled up through a small tube of brass. It was 
 raised about 3^ feet above the level of the pavement on 
 a round base of lava, stuccoed and coloured red, 5 feet 
 6 inches in diameter, and within it was engraved the 
 following inscription : * 
 
 CM. MELIOS/EO . CM. F. APRO . M . STAIO . 
 M. F. RVFO . II . VIR . ITER . ID . LABRVM . 
 EX. D. D. EX. P. P. F. C. CONSTAT . HS. D.CCL.f 
 
 [Cneius Meliosaeus Aper, son of Cneius Apcr, and Marcus Stains Rufus, son 
 of Marcus Rufus, Duumvirs of Justice for the second time, caused the 
 labrum to be made at the public expense, by order of the Decurions. 
 It cost 750 sestertia (i.e., about ;6).] 
 
 At the other end of the room, opposite to the labrum, 
 was the hot bath, 4 feet 4 inches wide, 1 2 feet long, and 
 i foot 8 inches deep. It was wholly constructed of 
 marble, with one pipe to introduce the water, and was 
 elevated two steps above the floor. Its brink formed a 
 marble seat i foot 4 inches broad, from which the bather 
 descended to a single step, and thence into the hot water. 
 From the shallowness of the basin, it was evidently used 
 as a sitz, or sitting-bath. 
 
 * Overbcck, " Pompeji," i. 200. 
 
 t I give the Latin in full : Cnaeo Meliosaeo Apro, Cnaei Filio Apro, Marco 
 Staio Marci Filio Rufo, Duumviris Iterum, Jure Dicundo Labrum, Ex Decu- 
 rionum Dccreto F.x Pecunia Publica Faciendum Curarunt. Constat Scstcr- 
 limn, u.ccu 
 
i;o THE WOMEN S BA THS. 
 
 We have seen, then, that the Thermae at Pompeii 
 consisted of but four principal rooms : 
 
 The Apodyterium, or Dressing-Room ; 
 
 The Frigidarium, or Cold-Water Bath ; 
 
 The Tepidarium, or Warming-Room ; and 
 
 The Calidarium, or Vapour and Hot-Water Bath. 
 It is hardly necessary to say that the great Roman 
 Thermae were of a more luxurious and complete cha- 
 racter. Yet the Pompeian baths are skilfully arranged ; 
 space is prudently economized ; the parts are so distri- 
 buted as to offer the bather every facility ; the decora- 
 tions are elegant and profuse ; and though the modern 
 architect censures many errors of construction, they form 
 an agreeable and not unsatisfactory whole. 
 
 From the frigidarium a narrow passage led to the fur- 
 nace, upon which were placed three caldrons one above 
 another. These were intrusted to the charge of persons 
 C3\\z<\fornacatorcs, and the furnace was variously named 
 ) ostiumfurni, propnigcnm, and prcrfurniiun. 
 
 WOMEN'S BATHS.* 
 
 The Women's Baths at Pompeii differ only from the 
 men's in their smaller dimensions and less abundant 
 decoration. They were heated by the same fire, and 
 supplied with water from the same caldrons or boilers. 
 They contained a frigidarium, with a cold bath or nata- 
 toriurn, a tepidarium, and a calidarium, with laconicum 
 and hot-water bath. The first chamber measures 25 feet 
 by 12 feet 9 inches. The floor is white mosaic, with a 
 border of black ; the walls have been ornamented with 
 
 * Sir W. Cell, " Pompeiana," i. 131, syq. 
 
THE NEW THERMAL. 171 
 
 alternate red and yellow pilasters, on a blue or black 
 ground. This room was also the undressing or robing- 
 room, and could accommodate ten persons at one tirqe. 
 The tepidarium is about 20 feet square, and painted 
 yellow, with red pilasters. The calidarium contained 
 some grotesque paintings upon a yellow ground ; its 
 pavement was a mosaic of white marble. 
 
 We must now direct the reader's attention to what are 
 called, by way of distinction, 
 
 THE NEW BATHS, 
 
 because excavated as recently as 1858-61. These are 
 on a larger and more magnificent scale than the others, 
 and were probably patronized by the wealthier inhabi- 
 tants of Pompeii. Their decorations are superb, and 
 their " fittings" luxurious. 
 
 The main entrance is from the Street of Abundance, 
 by a wide portal which opens into an ample court or 
 patastra, surrounded by fluted Doric columns with carved 
 capitals. The walls are enriched with a variety of ara- 
 besques, paintings, and figures in relief, some of which 
 are in tolerable preservation. On one side stands an 
 oblong basin for a cold bath, from which the bather 
 ascended to either of two graceful halls, whose walls are 
 embellished with vividly-coloured landscapes, and figures 
 of nymphs and damsels carrying baskets. 
 
 A door opposite the entrance opens on a tepidarium, 
 and on a corridor, from which several private cabinets 
 lead off, each adapted to receive a single bather. On 
 the other side is a spoliatoriuni, with compartments for the 
 
172 THEIR INTERIOR. 
 
 reception of clothes, and a square frigidarhim at one 
 end. From the latter a passage leads into a large square 
 chamber, with hollow walls constructed on the plan 
 already described, for the passage of hot air this was 
 \htcalidarium; and into another chamber of ample dimen- 
 sions, the tepidarium, which contains not only the usual 
 bath, square, and wholly made of marble, but a foun- 
 tain of elegant design. The decorations are everywhere 
 marked by grace and spirit. 
 
 The whole side of the Thermae towards the Street of 
 Stabiae is occupied with apartments. There are three 
 circular sunk spaces, which probably contained the fur- 
 nace for the supply of hot water; two tepidaria, each 
 fitted up with hollow walls and suspended floors, and 
 with square marble-lined basins; a splendid apodyterium, 
 or spoliarium, divided into three portions by as many 
 circular arches, surrounded by marble seats, and richly 
 adorned with stucco relievos of Bacchanals and winged 
 Loves, rosettes, garlands, and fantastic devices. From 
 the apodyterium you pass into a noble atrium, also deco- 
 rated with a profusion of fanciful ornament, and thence 
 into the paltzstra, or into a circular frigidarium, resem- 
 bling in plan and details the frigidarium of the old Thermae. 
 
 A bronze focnlare, and seats of bronze, have been dis- 
 covered here ; a sun-dial, with an inscription in Oscan 
 characters, representing that it was raised by Atinius the 
 quaestor from fines levied according to the municipal law; 
 the conduit which supplied the baths with water, and 
 the smaller tubes that distributed it into the various 
 rooms ; and also another inscription relative to the erec- 
 tion of the laconicum, or vapour-bath, and the dcstrida- 
 
BATHERS AND BATHING. 173 
 
 riiim, where the operation of scraping by the strigil was 
 performed.* 
 
 C. VLIVS . C. F. P. ANINIVS . C. F. H. V. I. D. 
 
 LACONICVM . ET . DESTRICTARIVM 
 
 FACIVND . ET PORTICVS . ET PALAEST* 
 
 R. EFICIVNDA . LOCARVNT . EX. D. D. EX. 
 
 EA . PECVNIA . QVOD . EOS . E. LEGE. 
 
 IN LVDOS . AVT . IN MONVMENTO 
 
 CONSVMERE . OPORTVIT . FACIVN. 
 
 COCRARVNT . EIDEMQVE . PROBARVfAT). 
 
 [Caius Ulius, son of Caius, and Publius Aninius, son of Caius, Duumvirs of 
 Justice, caused to be erected, in obedience to a decree of the Decurions 
 and with the money which, according to law, they were bound to bestow 
 on the games or public monuments, the Laconicum and Destricturium, 
 and restored the Portico and Palxstra ; approving of the same.] 
 
 With this description of the Pompeian Thermae, my 
 readers will probably be content. I now proceed to 
 explain the elaborate bathing processes undergone by 
 their patrons. 
 
 On entering the apodyterium, those who took only 
 the cold bath began to undress; they suspended their 
 garments to pegs fastened in the wall, and named caprarii | 
 from their resemblance to goats' horns, and received, 
 from their own slaves if they were wealthy, or else from 
 the attendants of the Thermae, loose robes more suited to 
 lavatory operations. 
 
 Those who intended to indulge in the hot-bath passed 
 forward into the tepidarium, and, after enjoying for some 
 few minutes its genial voluptuous air, proceeded to un- 
 robe themselves. They were then conducted by slaves 
 called capsarii (from capsa, the case or bag in which chil- 
 
 * Overbeck, " Pompeji," i 205. 
 (100! 12 
 
174 THE SCRAPING PROCESS. 
 
 dren carried their books to school), into the sudatorium, to 
 undergo the gradual process of the vapour-bath, accom- 
 panied by an exhalation of balmy perfumes. This opera- 
 tion over, they were seized by the slaves and subjected 
 to the tender mercies of the strigil, which rasped the skin 
 so as to open its pores very thoroughly. It was not a 
 pleasant process, however skilfully performed, and Sueto- 
 nius asserts that the Emperor Augustus suffered severely 
 from rough usage. However, it cleansed the skin from 
 the copious perspiration induced by the. hot vapour, and 
 gave it a brilliant polish. In the Turkish baths its place 
 is supplied by a bag or glove of camel's hair, which, 
 without pain, peels off the perspiration in large flakes, 
 and leaves the skin wonderfully soft and smooth. Per- 
 sons of quality carried with them their own apparatus, 
 whence Persius says 
 
 " I, puer, et strigilis Crispi ad balnea defer." * 
 [Go, boy, and carry Crispin's strigils to the baths.] 
 
 They were curved at one end like a sickle, and were made 
 of bone, bronze, iron, and silver. Their edge was mo- 
 derately sharp, and softened by the application of oil. 
 Spartianus relates an amusing anecdote in reference to 
 their use. 
 
 " The Emperor Hadrian," he says, " who went to the 
 public baths and bathed with the common people, seeing 
 one day a veteran whom he had formerly known among 
 the Roman troops, rubbing his back and other parts of 
 his body against the marble, inquired of him the reason. 
 The veteran replied that he had no slave to scrape him : 
 
 * Persius, " Satires," v. n6. 
 
A SWEATING BATH. 175* 
 
 \vhereupon the emperor gave him a couple of slaves, and 
 a sufficient sum for their maintenance. Another day, 
 several old men, beguiled by the veteran's good fortune, 
 rubbed themselves also against the marble in the em- 
 peror's presence. They thought by this means to excite 
 the generosity of Hadrian ; but he, perceiving their drift, 
 bade them rub one another."* 
 
 Cooled and refreshed, the bathers now passed into the 
 hot-water bath, over which fresh perfumes were freely 
 scattered. This is called the balineum by Cicero, piscina I 
 by Pliny, and calda lavatio by Vitruvius. The vapour- 
 bath, as I have previously stated, bore the appellation of 
 the laconicum, because it was the custom of the Lacedae- 
 monians to strip and anoint themselves without using 
 warm water after the perspiration produced by the ath- 
 letic exercises. It is termed assa by Cicero, from ao>, 
 to dry ; because it produced perspiration by means of a 
 dry, hot atmosphere which Celsus consequently describes j 
 as sndalione assas, dry sweating. f 
 
 Wrapping themselves in their light bathing-robes, the 
 bathers returned from the calidarium to the tepidarium, 
 and prepared to enjoy the special luxury of this series of 
 luxurious ablutions. They were now anointed by slaves 
 (called unctores and aliptce) from vials of gold, alabaster, 
 or crystal, filled with the rarest unguents collected from 
 all quarters of the world. Of these the ancients possessed a 
 store which would astonish even a Rimmel or a Houbigant! 
 Among the oils named are the mendesium, megalium, L 
 metopium, amaracinum, cyprinum, susinum, nardinum, ' 
 
 * Spartianus, " Hadriani," c. 17. 
 
 t Dr. Smith's " Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities," p. 191. 
 
1 76 . ANCIENT PERFUMES. 
 
 opicatuin, and jasmine ; and the Emperor Heliogabalus 
 never bathed without oil of saffron or crocum, which 
 was esteemed most precious.* We read also of nitre and 
 aphronitrum in the baths. To these were added all kinds 
 of odoriferous powders called diapasmata. The liquid 
 unguents were named stymmata, and the solid, hedys- 
 mata. Pliny speaks of a regal unguent, originally pre- 
 pared for a Parthian king, which consisted of no less 
 than twenty-seven ingredients. Some of these articles 
 were very costly, and sold for as much as 400 denarii, 
 or about ^14 per Ib.f 
 
 Common perfumes were sold in little gilt shells, or 
 vessels made of terra-cotta ; the more valuable, in bottles 
 (iinguentaria) of alabaster, onyx, or glass, numbers of 
 which have been discovered at Pompeii. To such an 
 excess did the Romans carry their use, that the Latin 
 satirists are full of invectives against the practice. Mar- 
 tial describes a dandy of those days in bitter lines : 
 
 " A beau is one who with the nicest care 
 In parted locks divides his curling hair ; 
 One who with balm and cinnamon smells sweet, 
 Whose humming lips some Spanish air repeat ; 
 Whose naked arms are smoothed with pumice-stone, 
 And tossed about with graces all his own."t 
 
 While Juvenal, alluding to the employment of cosmetics 
 for the complexion made into a kind of poultice, which 
 was kept on the face all night and part of the day 
 asserts that a husband never saw his wife's face at home. 
 But when, attired in all her pomp, she issued forth to 
 receive the applause of the unthinking, 
 
 Sir W. Cell, " Pompeiana," i. 112. t Rimmel, " Book of Perfumes," p. 109. 
 J Martial, " Epigramm.," b. Lxiit. 
 
HOURS FOR BATHING. 177 
 
 " The eclipse then vanishes, and all her face 
 Is opened and restored to every grace ; 
 The crust removed, her cheeks as smooth as silk 
 Are polished with a wash of asses' milk ; 
 And should she to the furthest North be sent, 
 A train of these attend her banishment."* 
 
 Our bathers, perfumed and anointed to their hearts' 
 content, may now pass into the portico or palaestra, and 
 enjoy some gentle exercise, previous to their mid-day 
 meal. 
 
 The public were informed, by the ringing of a bell 
 placed above the Thermae, when the water was sufficiently 
 heated, and the baths ready for use. The hour for bath- 
 ing, according to Pliny, was eight in winter and nine in 
 summer ; but this must have frequently varied. Between 
 two and three in the afternoon was, however, considered 
 the most desirable time for the gymnastic exercises of the 
 palaestra and the use of the baths. The Emperor Had- 
 rian forbade all but invalids to enter the Thermae before 
 two o'clock. This was probably done as a check upon 
 the folly and extravagance of the loungers, who would 
 fain have spent all their days in personal adornment. 
 At a certain hour five o'clock in the afternoon, accord- 
 ing to several authorities the fires were extinguished 
 and the baths closed. But Alexander Severus, to gratify 
 the Romans in their frenzy for bathing, not only suffered 
 them to be opened at break of day, which had never 
 before been permitted, but provided them with oil-lamps, 
 that they should not be closed too early in the evening 
 on account of the darkness. 
 
 They became, in course of time, convenient places for 
 
 * Juvenal, " Satires" (Translation by Dryden), Sat. vi. 
 
r 7 8 
 
 LUXURY AND LICENCE. 
 
 the congregation of the dissolute and criminal, and the 
 disorders that took place within them could only be sup- 
 pressed by severe measures. They therefore became 
 unpopular, and as Christianity spread abroad, fell into 
 still greater disrepute : while the magnificent edifices 
 erected by the emperors were destroyed during the bar- 
 barian invasions, or suffered to fall into ruinous decay 
 through the lack of public spirit. 
 
 f WINH-CAKT MEN FILLING 1HK AMPHOKA (FROM A M'ViHJAN FRl.3CO; 
 
VIII. 
 
 jousts of 
 
 ' The Pompeian houses resembled in some respects the Grecian, but mostly tha 
 Roman fashion of domestic architecture. In almost every house there is 
 some difference of detail from the rest, but the principal outline is the same 
 in all. In all you find the hall, the tablinum, and the peristyle, communicat- 
 ing with each other ; in all you find the walls richly painted ; and in all the 
 evidence of a people fond of the refining elegancies of life. The purity of the 
 taste of the Pompeians in decoration is, however, questionable : they were 
 fond of the gaudiest colours, of fantastic designs ; they often painted the 
 lower half of their columns a bright red, leaving the rest uncoloured ; and 
 where the garden was small, its wall was frequently tinted to deceive the 
 eye as to its extent, imitating trees, birds, temples, &c., in perspective a 
 meretricious delusion which the graceful pedantry of Pliny himself adopted, 
 with a complacent pride in its ingenuity." LORD LYTTON. 
 
 fJTHERTO we have occupied ourselves with a 
 consideration of the public life of the Pom- 
 peians. We have traversed their Forum and 
 their streets ; we have visited their theatres 
 and amphitheatres ; we have entered their temples ; we 
 have witnessed their lavatory processes in the Thermae ; 
 in all observing the revealed evidence of manners, 
 customs, and tastes widely different from our own. We 
 must now pass within their domestic penetralia must 
 cross the thresholds of their private houses and gather 
 what information we may concerning their home-economy 
 and the conditions of their daily life, a subject of higher 
 
i8o THE HOME-FEELING. 
 
 and more immediate interest, and which we shall, there- 
 fore, venture to discuss with some degree of detail* 
 
 Previous to the exhumation of Pompeii, the scholar 
 and the antiquary found it difficult to bring before the 
 labouring imagination a correct presentment of a Roman 
 house. But now it is comparatively easy for even the 
 dullest, by the aid of pen and pencil, to know under 
 what manner of roof, and in what species of, " interior," 
 the men of old to most of us mere historical phantoms, 
 instead of what they should be, flesh and blood realities 
 passed so much of their stirring lives as they gave up to 
 home. 
 
 Home ? Did the Romans understand the wealth of 
 domestic happiness, the tender ties, the kindly relation- 
 ships, the genial interests, which we British strive to ex- 
 press by that one word Home? Surely not. They 
 lived more in public than we do. They were always 
 en tenue, I fancy ; always considering in what light they 
 appeared to the great world. There is a fine passage in 
 Catullus : 
 
 " And every dimple on the cheek of Home 
 Shall smile to-night ; " 
 
 but Catullus writes and feels as a poet, and I believe that 
 the home-feeling in these lines was known but to few of 
 his countrymen. Every well-to-do Roman's house was, 
 in fact, divided into two parts ; one intended for the 
 uses of the family, the other for public receptions. This 
 was in some measure due to that Roman institution 
 
 * See Mazois, " Le Palais do Scatirus ; " Becker, " Callus ; " Smith, " Dictionary 
 of Greek and Roman Antiquities," in fact's. 
 
A ROMAN HOUSE. 181 
 
 which permitted every plebeian to choose from among 
 the patricians a patron, whose client he thenceforth called 
 himself. The patron was bound to advise, to defend, to 
 assist, to support his client ; the client to serve his patron 
 with his life and fortune. Thus, the public rooms of a 
 wealthy and influential patrician were crowded from 
 early dawn with his suitors and retainers, who sought his 
 favour, implored his counsel, or supplicated his charity. 
 
 The public part, then, included the portico, vestibule, , 
 cavaedium or atrium, tablinum, alae, fauces, and others of 
 less importance. 
 
 The private: the peristyle, cubicula, trichinium, asci, 
 pinacotheca, bibliotheca, thermae, exedra, and xystus. 
 
 Let us now endeavour to build up a house which shall 
 exhibit to our inspection these various apartments. 
 
 Having passed the janua, or gate, whose folds bent 
 inwards a Roman could not open his door outwards 
 except by a special law ! and taken note of the inscrip- 
 tion at the threshold Cave Canem (Beware of the dog) 
 we pass across the vestibule, and through another door 
 into the atrium, or hall.* 
 
 This, you see, is a large oblong square, surrounded 
 with covered galleries, which rest on pillars of gleaming 
 marble. The side facing you is called the tablinum 
 from tabula, or tabella, a picture and forms a receptacle 
 for the family archives, the " genealogical tree," the busts, 
 the pictures, and other heirlooms of a long line of an- 
 
 * The word atrium, according to Varro, is derived from the Atriates, a Tuscan 
 people, who gave the pattern of it. The caverdium seems to have been but an- 
 other word for the same thing : it was the " hollow of the house " cavum xdium. 
 At first, it was the common room of the whole family, but in due time was giveu 
 up to public purposes. 
 
1 82 THE ATRIUM. 
 
 cestors. The other sides on the right and left, the alee, 
 are similar but smaller recesses, where strangers and 
 other guests may occasionally be lodged. Yonder narrow 
 passages leading into the interior of the house are appro- 
 priately called fauces, or jaws. You may remember 
 Virgil's expressive adoption of the term : 
 
 " Vestibulum ante ipsum, primisque in faucibus Orci;" 
 
 which Conington renders thus : 
 
 " At Orcus' portals hold their lair,' 
 
 missing, I venture to think, the peculiar force of the 
 phrase. Before we enter either of these fauces > however, 
 we have much to notice still 'in the atrium. 
 
 In the centre of the roof observe an opening, com- 
 pluvium, towards which the roof slopes, so as to eject the 
 rain-water into a cistern in the floor called the impluvium. 
 An intolerable nuisance would such an arrangement 
 prove in a wet climate like that of Great Britain ; in 
 Italy it was more endurable, but must still have been un- 
 satisfactory. The edge of the compluvium is ornamented 
 with gay tiles (antefixce), moulded with masks and fantastic 
 figures ; and the spouts at the corners which carry the water 
 into the impluvium are fashioned into the heads of lions 
 and dogs, which probably suggested the corbels and other 
 grotesque devices of the Gothic architects. Usually the 
 atrium was adorned with fountains, supplied with water 
 from the aqueducts through pipes of lead, and very 
 pleasant on a summer's day was the musical fall of the 
 silvery drops, and the coolness which they diffused 
 through the air. Observe that the opening in the roof is 
 
THE TRICLINIUM. 183 
 
 shaded by a gaily-coloured awning, so as to temper the 
 burning heat of Italy's sun, and spread abroad a mellow 
 light. The Roman loved the glow of colours and the 
 beauty of form ; so the walls, as you see, are painted with 
 arabesques of fanciful designs, and landscapes seemingly 
 borrowed from Fairyland, each set round with a border 
 of marble slabs of the rarest and most costly kinds. The 
 'pavement is enriched with mosaics, arranged in exquisite 
 geometrical patterns. 
 
 Let us now pass into the private portion of the house, 
 and leave behind us the hum of the noisy clients. 
 Through the tablinum we enter the peristyle, which re- 
 minds us at once, in its general arrangement, of the 
 atrium. It is a court, open to the sapphire sky in the 
 middle, and surrounded by a bright and stately colon- 
 nade. Its owner has embellished the area with parterres 
 of blooming flowers and clumps of glossy evergreens, so 
 that it is rather what the Romans call a xystus than a 
 peristyle. In shape it is an oblong. 
 
 Turning aside from the cubicula, or bed-chambers, which, 
 indeed, are low and insignificant, and entirely deficient 
 in what we now understand as comfort, we next proceed 
 to inspect the triclinium, or dining-room, so named from 
 the three couches which encompassed the table on three 
 sides, leaving the fourth open to the attendants. This is 
 the most sumptuously decorated apartment in the house ; 
 for our Romans, like aldermen and common-councilmen, 
 loved the pleasures of the table, and failed not to display 
 the utmost magnificence in everything connected with 
 their entertainments. In a wealthy patrician's house were 
 frequently several triclinia. Every school-boy knows the 
 
1 84 TAPESTRIED WALLS. 
 
 story of the sumptuous Lucullus, who had a separate 
 triclinium for each style of banquet, and who, having in- 
 vited Pompey and Cicero to a private supper, merely 
 despatched a message to his servants that he would sup 
 in the hall called Apollo, to ensure the preparation of 
 an entertainment worth 50,000 denarii (about ^1600). 
 The ceiling was sometimes contrived to open, and admit 
 of the descent of a second course, with showers of choice 
 blossoms and a spray of perfumed waters, while rope- 
 dancers, or funambuli, performed their wondrous feats 
 over the heads of the company. 
 
 The triclinium,* into which we have just entered, is 
 twice as long as it is broad, and divided, as it were, into 
 two parts the upper occupied by the table and the 
 couches, the lower left empty for the accommodation of 
 servants and spectators. Around the former the walls, 
 up to a certain height, are- hung with valuable tapestry. 
 It was the fall of these hangings, the classical student 
 will remember, caused dire confusion at that supper of 
 Nasidienus' to which Horace was invited : 
 
 " Interea suspensa graves aulxa ruinas 
 In patinara fecere ; trahentia pulveris atri 
 Quantum non Aquilo Campanis excitat agris," f 
 
 when they filled the chamber with such a cloud of black 
 dust as not even the east wind stirs up on the plains of 
 Campania ! The decorations of the remainder of the 
 room are handsome, and appropriate to its destination : 
 garlands, mingled with the trailing ivy and graceful vine, 
 
 * The following description is adapted in the main from the elaborate and ex- 
 haustive work of Mazois, " Le Palais de Scaurus," c. ix. 
 t Horace, "Satires," bk. ii., s. 8, 1. .s.j-s'). 
 
rOMPEIAN FRESCOES. 
 
 185 
 
 divide the walls into compartments, edged round with 
 fanciful borders ; in the centre of each, touched with the 
 
 FEMALE CENTAUR AND BACCHANTE (FROM A I'OMPEIAN FRESCO). 
 
 painter's liveliest skill, young fawns are frisking, or Cen- 
 taurs and half-naked Bacchanals, riding, sporting, danc- 
 
 MALE CENTAUR AND BACCHANTS (FROM A POMI'EIAN FRBSCO). 
 
 ing, carrying thyrsi, vases, goblets, and other festal 
 appurtenances. A large frieze above the columns is set 
 
1 86 LAMPS, TABLES, AND COUCHES. 
 
 out in twelve compartments ; each is surmounted by one 
 of the signs of the zodiac, and contains a painting of the 
 viands in highest season in that particular month of the 
 year : thus, under Sagittarius, or December, you see 
 shrimps, shell-fish, and birds of passage ; to Capricornus, 
 or January, belong lobsters, sea-fish, wild boar, and game ; 
 and to Aquarius, or February, pigeons, water-rails, ducks, 
 and plovers. 
 
 Bronze lamps, manufactured at ^Egina, and costing 
 from ^200 to ^400 a-piece, suspended from chains of 
 the same metal, as in Dido's regal hall 
 
 " From the gilt roof hang cressets bright, 
 And flambeau-fires put out the light" 
 
 or raised on richly wrought candelabra, stream through 
 the room a brilliant light. Slaves, whose peculiar charge 
 it is to tend them, trim the wicks, and from time to time 
 supply the necessary oil. 
 
 The table, made of citron wood from the extremity of 
 Mauritania, more precious than gold, rests upon an ivory 
 pedestal, and is covered by a plateau of solid silver, 
 chased and carved. The couches, which will accommo- 
 date thirty guests, are made of bronze, overlaid with 
 rich ornamental work in silver, gold, and tortoise-shell. 
 The mattresses, of Gallic wool, are dyed purple ; the 
 luxurious cushions, fit for Venus herself to repose upon, 
 are covered with superb stuffs, embroidered in threads 
 of gold. Our host informs us that they were woven in 
 the looms of Babylon, and cost four millions of sesterces 
 (about ,32,000). 
 
 Now observe the mosaic pavement. You will see that 
 
THE OECI AND EXEDR&. 187 
 
 it represents all the fragments of a feast, as if they had 
 fallen in common course on the floor. At the first 
 glance you would suppose the room has not been swept 
 since the last meal ; and hence it is called dflapwros vucos, 
 the unswept saloon. Large vases of Corinthian brass 
 glitter at the end of the hall. And now, while we 
 stand admiring their graceful shape, some young slaves 
 enter, and strew over the polished pavement sawdust 
 dyed with saffron and vermilion, and mingled with 
 a brilliant powder made from the lapis specularis, or 
 talc. 
 
 Here we may close our imaginary visit to a Roman 
 house, and content ourselves with a brief description of 
 its remaining chambers. 
 
 The Oefi, from the Greek OIKOS, were large halls or 
 saloons, whose design was borrowed from the Greeks, 
 like their name. They resembled the triclinia, but hav- 1 p 
 ing columns, were more spacious. Four kinds are de- 
 scribed by Vitruvius : The tetrastyle, whose roof was 
 supported by four pillars ; the Corinthian, with but one 
 row of columns, which sustained the architrave, cornice, 
 and a vaulted roof; the more splendid Egyptian, resem- 
 bling a basilica, with a gallery resting on pillars, open to 
 the sky, and surrounding the room, so as to afford a 
 pleasant promenade ; and the Cyzicene, intended only 
 for summer use. The latter generally opened upon a 
 flower-garden through folding-doors. 
 
 The Exedra bore a double signification. They were 
 either seats intended to contain a number of per- 
 sons, or spacious rooms for conversation and other 
 social purposes. In the Therms, or public baths, the 
 
iSS 
 
 THE PICTURE-GALLERY. 
 
 same term was applied to the semicircular apartments 
 
 set aside for the resort of philosophers. 
 
 The Pinacotheca, or picture-gallery, was devoted, as 
 
 its name implies, 
 to the reception 
 of paintings and 
 statues. It was 
 of ample size, 
 and faced the 
 north, in order 
 that the light 
 might be equa- 
 ble, and not too 
 
 I strong. 
 
 AN ANCIENT GALLEY (FROM A POMPEIAN FRESCO). 
 
 Only a small 
 room was re- 
 quired for the Bibliotheca, or library. The rolls (volu- 
 mina) which made up the books of the Romans were 
 easily arranged in a very limited space. It was the 
 fashion, however, to set aside a bibliotheca in every opu- 
 lent house, though its owner might be scarcely able to 
 read the titles of his manuscripts. Cases containing the 
 rolls were placed around the walls, and at suitable points 
 statues of Minerva and the Muses, and busts and por- 
 traits of eminent personages, were set up. The cases 
 were variously called armaria, loculamenta, foruli, or nidi. 
 
 Of the Balneae, or baths, frequently found attached to 
 private houses, the arrangements were similar, though 
 necessarily on a smaller scale, to those which obtained 
 in the public institutions. 
 
 Such were the chief apartments of a Roman house. 
 
GENERAL ARRANGEMENTS. 189 
 
 They were on the ground-floor ; the upper stories being 
 generally appropriated to the slaves, freedmen, and lower 
 branches of the family. We must except, however, the 
 terrace upon the top of all (solarium], a favourite prome- 
 nade and place of resort, adorned with rare flowers and 
 shrubs planted in beds of mould, and with statues, 
 sparkling fountains, and garlanded trellises, under which 
 the evening meal might at pleasure be taken. In houses 
 of different classes a different distribution of rooms was 
 found. Some possessed several triclinia ; some had 
 neither bibliotheca nor pinacotheca : as in modern times, 
 all depended upon the wealth and taste of the owner. 
 To men of moderate fortune, says Vitruvius,* magnifi- 
 cent vestibules, and tablina, and atria, are needless, for 
 they attend upon persons of higher rank instead of enter- 
 taining numerous visitors at home. Those who dispose 
 of their rural produce require shops and stables at the 
 entrances of their houses, granaries and storehouses 
 below, and other arrangements appertaining rather to 
 use than to beauty. The houses of money-lenders, and 
 of those who farm the revenue, should be on a hand- 
 some scale, and secure against attacks. Lawyers and 
 public speakers require more elegant accommodation, 
 and apartments capable of receiving a large assemblage. 
 For patricians who hold the offices and honours of the 
 state, and who are consequently exposed to a crowd of 
 suitors, regal vestibules, lofty halls, and ample peristyles 
 are indispensable ; with leafy plantations, and extensive 
 walks, laid out with every attention to magnificence. 
 They should also have libraries, picture-galleries, and 
 
 * Vitruvius, " De Architecture," vi. 7, 8. 
 
 iioo; I 3 
 
190 DECORATION OF ROMAN HOUSES. 
 
 basilicas ordered upon the same scale as public buildings, 
 for in their mansions both public business and affairs are 
 frequently discussed and determined. 
 
 The Roman houses were very sparingly decorated. 
 Neither gold nor silver was generally employed, nor 
 those luxuries in cabinet-work and furniture which are so 
 prized by the moderns. Their mosaic pavements, how- 
 ever, were of exquisite beauty. The walls were adorned 
 with a stucco of great excellence, equally adapted to 
 receive pictorial embellishment or to be modelled into 
 bas-reliefs. This stucco was called albarium, from its 
 whiteness, or opus marmoratum, from its resemblance to 
 marble. It seems to have been made of calcined 
 gypsum (plaster of Paris), mixed with pulverized stone, 
 and, in the more expensive sort, with powdered marble. 
 A wall thus prepared was divided by the artist into rect- 
 angular compartments, which he filled with free and 
 fanciful designs of landscapes, buildings, animals, gar- 
 dens, or ideal subjects.* 
 
 With these introductory remarks, I proceed to an 
 examination of some of the houses of Pompeii. 
 
 THE HOUSE OF THE TRAGIC POET, t 
 
 This elegant mansion, for so it would be termed in 
 Mayfair or Belgravia, was discovered in 1824, when it 
 received the misnomer by which it is still popularly dis- 
 
 [* Compare Mazois, " Lc. Palais dc Scaurus ;" Decker, "Callus ;" and " Pom- 
 peii," in the Library of Entertaining Knowledge. 
 
 t To prevent a recurrence of unnecessary references, I may state at the out- 
 set that my description is based upon the works of Ovcrbeck, Mazois, Sir 
 William Cell, Dr. Dyer, and the volumes of the Library of Entertaining Know- 
 ledge entitled " Pompcu." 
 
THE VESTIBULE. 
 
 193 
 
 tinguished, from a painting extant upon its walls. It is 
 situated in the Street of the Baths, in the same " insula," 
 or block, that contains the Fullonica and Houses of the 
 Fountains. When first excavated, it attracted the ad- 
 miration of every visitor from the beauty and richness of 
 its decorations. Most of these have been removed to 
 the Museum at Naples ; and in the following description, 
 therefore, the reader must understand me to speak of it 
 as it was, not as it is. 
 
 The doors, turning upon pivots received in two brass 
 sockets let into the marble threshold, admit us within a 
 long and narrow VESTI- 
 BULE, where the first 
 object which greets the 
 eye is the somewhat 
 alarming one of a large 
 and fierce dog preparing 
 to spring upon the in- 
 cautious visitor. Look 
 closer, however, and you 
 
 BEWARE OF THK DOG ! 
 
 perceive it is but a de- 
 vice wrought on the pavement in mosaic, with the well- 
 known inscription beneath of 
 
 Cave Canem (Beware of the dog) 
 
 An inscription, as we learn from a passage in Petronius 
 Arbiter, not unfrequently placed at the entrance of 
 Roman houses. 
 
 The vestibule is about 6 feet wide, and nearly 30 
 feet long. On either side lies a chamber of moderate 
 dimensions, which may have been set apart for the re- 
 
194 HOUSE OF THE TRAGIC POET. 
 
 ception of ordinary visitors, or have been occupied by 
 the servants of the family. At all events, I cannot agree 
 with those authorities who would convert them into 
 shops. 
 
 Advancing up the vestibule, and drawing aside a rich 
 curtain, we enter the ATRIUM, which measures about 28 
 feet by 20. It is provided as usual with an impluviutn 
 and a puteal. The floor is prettily paved with white 
 tesserae, spotted at intervals with black ; and round the 
 impluvium is a well-executed pattern, also in black. 
 The walls glow with admirable paintings, bright in" 
 colour, powerful in expression. Their subjects, and those 
 of the adjacent chambers, occur in the following order : 
 Marriage of Peleus and Thetis also called, the Interview 
 of Thetis and Jupiter ; Parting of Achilles and Briseis ; 
 painting, much decayed, supposed to represent the De- 
 parture of Chryseis ; Battle of the Amazons ; Fall of 
 Icarus ; Venus Anadyomene ; Sacrifice of Iphigenia ; 
 Leda and Tyndareus ; Thesus and Ariadne ; Cupid. 
 
 Whoever may have been the owner of this house, he 
 must have possessed a poet's taste, to judge from this 
 selection of Homeric and mythological themes for the 
 painter's brush. 
 
 The subject of the first picture is doubtful. Three 
 figures are represented ; one, a man of middle age, 
 seated, and in the act of taking the left arm of the 
 second, a female, who extends it in no amiable mood. 
 A winged figure, standing behind her, seems to urge her 
 to put forward her right hand. At Peleus' feet sit three 
 children, the offspring, it may be, of his marriage with 
 Antigone. 
 
AN ANCIENT PICTURE. 
 
 >95 
 
 The second picture, one of remarkable merit, describes 
 Achilles delivering his beautiful handmaiden, Briseis, to 
 the heralds, Talthybius and Eurybates, charged with her 
 escort to Agamemnon. It is founded on a well-known 
 
 ACHILLES DELIVERS BRISEIS TO THE HERALDS OF AJAX. 
 
 passage in the first book of the Iliad. The Greeks hav- 
 ing taken two beautiful captives, Chryseis and Briseis, 
 allotted the former to Agamemnon, the latter to 
 Achilles. Chryses, the priest of Apollo," then betook 
 himself to the Greek camp before Troy, to ransom his 
 
196 
 
 ACHILLES AND BRJSEIS. 
 
 daughter, but was injuriously treated by Agamemnon, 
 and dismissed with great contumely. Apollo thereupon 
 revenged his insulted servant by inflicting a pestilence 
 on the Greeks, who were informed by their soothsayer, 
 Calchas, that it could only be stayed by the restoration 
 of Chryseis to her father. The king was accordingly 
 constrained to deliver up his prize, but he avenged 
 himself by seizing on Briseis. who had been allotted to 
 Achilles. 
 
 The artist shows us the bust of the illustrious Greek 
 warrior, who sits in the centre his eyes glowing with in- 
 dignation, and his haughty 
 brow contracted in the effort 
 to restrain his emotion. His 
 faithful Patrocles, with his 
 back towards the spectator, 
 leads in from the left the lovely 
 Briseis, clothed in a long flow- 
 ing veil, and endeavouring to 
 check the gathering tears. 
 Her face is beautiful, and, not 
 to dwell upon the arch vivacity 
 of her eyes, it is evident that " the voluptuous pouting of 
 her ruby lips " was imagined by the painter as one of her 
 most charming attributes. 
 
 The heralds are placed on the right of Achilles ; and 
 behind a breast-high drapery, which partitions off the 
 tent, stand several warriors with golden shields and 
 plumed helms. 
 
 HBAD OK ACHILLES (FROM CELL). 
 
 " With reluctant steps they passed 
 Along the margin of the watery waste, 
 
HOMERIC PICTURES. 197 
 
 Till to the tents and ships they came, where lay 
 The warlike myrmidons. Their chief they found 
 Sitting beside his tent and dark-ribbed ship. 
 Achilles marked their coming, not well pleased : 
 With troubled look, and awe-struck, by the king 
 They stood, nor dared accost him ; but himself 
 Divined their errand, and addressed them thus : 
 
 ' Welcome, ye messengers of gods and men ! 
 Heralds ! approach in safety ; not with you, 
 But with Atrides is my just offence, 
 Who for the fair Briseis sends you here. 
 Go, then, Patroclus, bring the maiden forth, 
 And give her to their hands.' .... 
 
 He spoke : obedient to his friend and chief, 
 Patroclus led the fair Briseis fortii, 
 And gave her to their hands ; they to the ships 
 Retraced their steps, and with them the fair girl 
 Reluctant went." * 
 
 The third picture is to the left of the door of the 
 cubiculum. It is so much defaced that one cannot decide 
 with any certainty upon its subject, but it may probably 
 be regarded as a continuation of the Homeric narrative, 
 and as representing the restoration of Chryseis to her 
 father. 
 
 " Whereat Atrides full of fury rose, 
 And uttered threats, which he hath now fulfilled. 
 For Chryses' daughter to her native land 
 In a swift-sailing ship the keen-eyed Greeks 
 Have sent, with costly offerings to the god." 
 
 Opposite to the picture of Achilles and Briseis was 
 once a representation of the Fall of Icarus. The waxen 
 wings with which he had essayed his daring flight had 
 melted, and he was descending prone into the sea ; there, 
 however, to be rescued from destruction by a winged sea- 
 god riding on a dolphin. 
 
 The colouring of the Venus Anadyomene is described 
 
 * Homer," Iliad," bk. i., translated by Earl of Derby. 
 
198 AN ADMIRABLE MOSAIC. 
 
 a.s reminding the critic in its glow and vividness of the 
 radiant hues which illumine the canvas of Titian. At 
 the feet of the goddess lies a dove with a myrtle-branch 
 in her beak. 
 
 The Battle of the Amazons forms the subject of a 
 broad frieze in a small chamber to the left of the atrium. 
 The figures are sketched with wonderful freedom some 
 in chariots, some on horseback, all armed with bows, as 
 well as with shields and battle-axes. They are clad in 
 blue, green, and purple draperies, and depicted in violent 
 action ; some pursuing the fugitive Greeks, others borne 
 down by their stronger opponents. " An Amazon, whose 
 horse is falling, and who, though wounded herself, yet 
 retains her seat, is a masterpiece of attitude, however 
 negligently the picture may be touched."* 
 
 We now come to the TABLINUM, across which, at 
 either end, hang rich draperies of Tyrian purple, half 
 withdrawn. The most notable thing in it is a mosaic 
 representing the distribution of masks to a chorus. 
 
 Sir William Cell describes it as the best and largest 
 mosaic, deserving the name of a picture, which has yet 
 been discovered. It represents, on a black ground, an 
 Ionic colonnade decorated with shields, festoons, and 
 fillets, in front of which an aged choragus, seated, is 
 apportioning the proper masks and costumes to his 
 various performers. Two youths on the left seem already 
 provided with a scanty savage dress of goat-skins ; a 
 person near the centre plays the double flute, while his 
 habit is adjusted by an attendant behind, and another is 
 
 * Sir W. Cell, " Pompeiana," Second Series, i. 164. 
 
A POET READING. 199 
 
 pulling over the head of a comic actor a species of 
 shirt adapted to his character. 
 
 The dresses are mostly white, but the flute-player's 
 robe is embroidered with purple ; her garland, flutes, and 
 mouth-band (capistruni), with most of the ornaments, 
 are coloured gold. The masks are painted to imitate 
 life, and with different hair and complexions, according 
 to the age and character to be represented. 
 
 The tablinum also contains the picture of a poet read- 
 ing, which originally gave to the house the name which 
 it now bears. In the foreground sits the poet, reading 
 from a roll to two auditors, one male, the other female, all 
 seated. Behind a species of partition appear Apollo and 
 the Muse; and, on the other side of the painting, a woman 
 and an old man. Some authorities would identify the 
 poet with Plautus, because he is represented with a dark 
 skin, like a slave. Others consider him to be one of the 
 Athenians captured at Syracuse, who, according to Thucy- 
 dides, mitigated the harshness of their captivity in conse- 
 quence of the pleasure they afforded their masters by 
 repeating the verses of Euripides. And others, with 
 more probability, conjecture that the painting celebrates 
 a famous incident in the life of Virgil, who, when reciting 
 the /Eneid to Augustus and Octavia, moved the latter to 
 tears by the beautiful eulogium on the dead Marcellus. 
 The only objection to this hypothesis is the nudity of 
 both the poet and the emperor.* 
 
 The walls of this apartment are embellished with an 
 abundance of fantastic ornament : pillars with human 
 heads for capitals, swans, goats, lions, and winged harpies 
 
 * Sir W. Cell, " Pompeiana," ii. 113. 
 
200 THE STOR Y OF IPHIGENIA. 
 
 The peristyle, which we enter from the tablinum, con- 
 sists of a small court, anciently blooming with flowers 
 and foliage, and enclosed by seven Doric columns, whose 
 lower portion, and the podium on which they stand, were 
 painted red. The wall beyond is painted blue, to imi- 
 tate the sky, while below it the tops of trees rise above a 
 parapet, so as to afford the idea of a rural landscape. 
 At the left angle stands a small sedicula, or shrine, in 
 which probably stood a statue, found near the spot, re- 
 presenting a faun carrying flowers and fruits. A railing 
 ran between the pillars, to prevent the garden from being 
 injured by heedless feet. 
 
 ' On the left side are two cubicula, one of which has 
 been called the library, from a circular painting with 
 books and implements for writing; the other contains 
 two pictures, one of Venus and Cupid fishing, the other 
 of Ariadne. The latter is seen awakening from the fatal 
 slumber during which Theseus had deserted her. The 
 vessel that bears away her fugitive lover is careering 
 merrily over the azure sea. 
 
 At the end of the right side of the colonnade is figured 
 the Sacrifice of Iphigenia. Does the reader remember 
 the touching story 1 Her father, Agamemnon, having 
 slain unwittingly a favourite deer belonging to Diana, 
 the soothsayer Calchas declares that the wrath of the 
 goddess can only be appeased by the sacrifice of Iphi- 
 genia. She was bound to the altar, and Calchas as the 
 Pompeian painting shows preparing to strike the fatal 
 blow, when the goddess, relenting, bore her in a cloud to 
 Tauris, and made her a priestess in her temple. This 
 was a favourite theme with the painters of antiquity, and 
 
CHAMBER OF LED A. 
 
 201 
 
 the reader will recollect that Timanthes,* unable to give 
 fitting expression to the father's intense agony, solved the 
 difficulty by covering his head with a cloak. The same 
 expedient is adopted in the Pompeian picture. Above, 
 Diana appears in the clouds, with the hind which was to 
 fill Iphigenia's place as a victim. 
 
 SACRIFICE OF 1PHIGEN1A. 
 
 At the side of this fresco we enter a room near twenty 
 feet square, and of considerable height, which, from a 
 painting on one of its walls, is called the Triclinium, or 
 the Chamber of Leda. This design, representing Leda 
 
 * Polygnotus of Thasos, who lived in the fifth century B.C., had also painted 
 the same subject, and Euripides imagined it, with the same circumstances. 
 
202 ART AND THE ANCIENT LIFE. 
 
 presenting her infant progeny* to Tyndareus, is one of 
 the most admirable productions of ancient art, both as 
 regards its conception, its composition, and its colouring. 
 Thorwaldsen, the Danish sculptor, regarded it with the 
 greatest admiration. There is also a fine painting of a 
 beautiful Cupid, leaning on the knees of Venus, to whom 
 Adonis seems to be addressing himself; and another 
 version of the popular story of Ariadne. Here she is 
 seen asleep ; her head surrounded with a blue nimbus, 
 or glory, which, in all ancient pictures, distinguishes a 
 god-like personage, and probably suggested to the early 
 Christian painters the coronas with which they encircled 
 their saints. Theseus, who has just quitted her, is in the 
 act of stepping on board his galley, while Minerva appears 
 in the air to guide his course and excuse his perfidy. 
 
 On the plinth is represented, with much force and 
 truth, a combat between a lion and two centaurs. The 
 animal is so accurately delineated, that one might sup- 
 pose Pompeii to have boasted of a Sir Edwin Landseer ! 
 
 The flooring is of mosaic, very gracefully arranged, 
 and the lower part of the wall was gaily decorated witli 
 garlands, sea-horses, and other devices. 
 
 Such is a general account of the House of the Tragic 
 Poet. Could we re-create it, in all the novel splendour 
 of its pictured walls, its blooming garden, its vases and 
 statues, and its costly tapestries, the reader would admit 
 that the ancients well knew how to please the eye and 
 charm the refined taste how to throw over their domes- 
 tic life the grace, elegance, and attractiveness of art- 
 how to adorn their houses with things of beauty, which 
 
 * Pollux, Helen, and Castor. 
 
HOUSE OF CERES. 203 
 
 stimulated the imagination and furnished constant sub- 
 jects of contemplation to the thoughtful mind.* 
 
 On the opposite side of the street to the poet's man- 
 sion stands the 
 
 HOUSE OF CERES, 
 
 also called the House of the Bacchantes, and of Zephyrus 
 and Flora. It received the latter appellation in allusion 
 to a large picture supposed to represent the marriage of 
 the goddess of flowers with the " silky, soft Favonius."t 
 Others, however, have seen in the same design an embo- 
 diment of the dream of Rhea ; and all that can be safely 
 said of it is, that it shows a winged figure, conducted by 
 Cupids, approaching a sleeping maiden on the ground. 
 Whether the figure be indeed 
 
 " The frolic wind that breathes the spring," 
 
 must be left to the spectator's imagination. 
 
 From the height and appearance of the walls, it .is 
 conjectured that this house was two stories high. The 
 atrium was gorgeously decorated, and in the palmy days 
 of Pompeii must have presented a very radiant aspect. 
 Its painted walls had been touched by the hand of no 
 insignificant artist Here Jupiter sat in his curule chair, 
 his mighty brow resting on his right hand, while in his 
 left he held the golden sceptre of majesty. The eagle 
 crouched at his feet. His head was surrounded with a 
 
 * A mass of curious and interesting relics was discovered in this house, in- 
 cluding necklaces and bracelets of gold, ear-rings of pearls, a ring of onyx, kitchen 
 utensils, silver and brass coins, a vase for oil, a tripod, glass decanters, iron 
 hatchets and hammers, fifty-six terra-cotta lamps, and a head of Hermes in 
 giallo antico. From the nature of these articles, it has been supposed that the 
 house belonged to a silversmith. If so, " the man had a taste !" 
 
 \ Now in the Museum at Naples. 
 
.204 HOUSES OF THE FOUNTAINS. 
 
 nimbus or glory. The throne and footstool were of gold, 
 ornamented with precious stones ; the former partly 
 covered with green cloth. The god's mantle was violet- 
 hued, and lined with azure. Everywhere colour was 
 distributed with boldness, but not the less with judgment, 
 and the fancy of an original artist shone conspicuous in 
 each fair painting. 
 
 A cistern in front of the impluvium was decorated with 
 coarse mosaics, representing winged sphinxes, a river, 
 and two large masks. 
 
 Returning to what we may call the poet's side of the 
 street, we pass on to the 
 
 HOUSES OF THE FOUNTAINS. 
 
 The first of these is of considerable dimensions. You 
 approach it from the Street of the Mercuries by a hand- 
 some and lofty portal, and enter an atrium of peculiarly 
 imposing character. It measures not less than 50 feet 
 by 40, with the usual arrangement of alae and tablinum. 
 The peristyle only contains three Corinthian columns of 
 indifferent design ; but it possesses a fountain, which, if 
 not of great beauty, is remarkable for its curious con 
 struction. Thus, it is completely incrusted with a species 
 of mosaic, consisting of vitrified tesserae of different 
 colours, but mostly blue. The chief divisions of the 
 patterns and borders are formed by real shells ; nearly 
 all the ornaments have an appropriate meaning, such as 
 aquatic plants and birds. The general outline of the 
 fountain is a semicircular alcove, surmounted by a pedi- 
 ment ; the water trickling from a mosaic mask, and 
 
THE SMALLKK FOUNTAIN. 20$ 
 
 bubbling over a small flight of steps, to be received in a 
 species of raised basin. In front, a round column pierced 
 for a pipe seems to have been intended for a jet d'eau. 
 On each side of the alcove grins a comic mask, hollowed 
 out, it has been conjectured, to receive lights, which at 
 night would have a fantastic, nay, even an eery effect. 
 
 The House of the Small Fountain is not of inferior in- 
 terest. The tablinum is enriched with a lively painting 
 of Cupid milking Goats. The peristyle contains a foun- 
 tain very similar, both in design and construction, to that 
 already noticed. It presents the same kind of alcove, 
 surmounted by a pediment, whose breadth is 7 feet, and 
 whose height 7 feet 7 inches. The face projects 5 feet 
 from the wall. Formerly a little bronze fisherman angled 
 in the piscina, which had in its centre a small pedestal for 
 a bird spouting water, but both fisherman and bird have 
 been removed to the Naples Museum. And not only 
 these, but the caryatid and sleeping fisherman both in 
 marble which formerly ornamented either side of the 
 alcove. How grateful must have been the murmuring 
 lapse of the fountain on a hot summer noon, and beneath 
 a cloudless Italian sky, when the sunshine streamed into 
 the pillared peristyle, and flung a golden lustre on its 
 pictured walls ! Alas ! it will never more gleam and 
 sparkle with iris-like hues ! Never again will its song fall 
 tenderly on the listening ear ! 
 
 Two rooms one called a triclinium, the other an 
 exedra, or hall for company open into the portico. The 
 former is painted in imitation of brick-work ; the latter 
 enriched with vivid pictures of game and the chase. 
 Around the peristyle and atrium lie the usual cubicula, or 
 
 (190) 14 
 
206 A FULLING ESTABLISHMENT. 
 
 sleeping-rooms. As there are two staircases, this house 
 must have had an upper story ; and it should be noted 
 that it possesses a second entrance, affording access to 
 the peristyle and private apartments without passing 
 through the atrium. 
 
 At the corner of this mansion, in the Street of Mer- 
 curies, is the Fountain of Mercury, so called from its 
 rude sculpture of the head and caduceus of the god. On 
 an opposite wall the same nefarious deity is represented 
 running away with a stolen purse ; scarcely an incentive, 
 one would think, to public morality. But morality was 
 not very religiously considered in luxurious Pompeii. 
 
 We turn from the beautiful to the useful ; from the 
 gaily adorned houses of Pompeian patricians to the depot 
 and storehouse of a Pompeian tradesman. Between the 
 House of the Dramatic Poet and the Houses of the Foun- 
 tains stands the 
 
 FULLONICA,* 
 
 or establishment for fulling and scouring cloth. As wool 
 was the only material employed for dresses at this period, 
 and from its nature required constant purification, the 
 fuller's trade was one of great importance. Its different 
 processes are illustrated with much graphic effect on the 
 walls of the Fullonica, and may be briefly described. 
 
 The primary operation was that of washing, which was 
 done in vats, the cloth being well worked and trodden 
 by the fuller's feet, in water mixed with fuller's earth or 
 some detergent clay. 
 
 The cloth was then dried, and afterwards brushed and 
 
 " Sir W, Cell, " Pompciana," i. 189; ii. iz-i2S. 
 
FULLERS A T WORK. 
 
 207 
 
 carded, to raise the nap; at first with thin metal cards, 
 and next with thistles. A plant called teazle is still ex- 
 tensively cultivated in England for the same purpose. 
 The fumigating process followed, sulphur being employed ; 
 and the cloth was afterwards bleached in the sun by throw- 
 ing water repeatedly upon it, while spread out on gratings. 
 
 FULLERS AT WORK. 
 
 In one of the pictures a man is seen carrying a bleaching- 
 frame and a pot to hold sulphur ; the frame has a suspi- 
 cious resemblance to a modern lady's crinoline ! The 
 owl sitting upon it would seem to indicate that the 
 establishment was under the patronage of Minerva, unless 
 it was the portrait of some favourite bird of the owner. 
 
 The last operation was that of pressing. The press 
 consisted of two upright timbers, united by another 
 below, and a fourth above. From the upper horizontal 
 beam two perpendicular screws are brought to bear on 
 a thick board, which presses down several pieces of cloth. 
 The screws are turned by horizontal pins or levers, which 
 are run through them; and the whole is adorned with 
 three little festoons of drapery. 
 
208 
 
 COURT OF THE FULLONICA. 
 
 ANCIENT FULLEKS. 
 
 The court of the Fullonica measures 65 feet by 22 feet 
 6 inches. In the portico was found a large circular vase 
 or jar, which had been broken across the centre hori- 
 zontally, and fastened together in a peculiarly careful man- 
 ner with metal wire, seeming to indicate that such vases, 
 though of common red clay mere pipkins, which an 
 English peasant-woman would despise must have borne 
 a high price at Pompeii. 
 
 The west end of the court is entirely filled up with 
 four large square vats, or tanks, built of solid masonry 
 and lined with stucco. They measure above 7 feet in 
 depth, and it required a little flight of steps to enable 
 the fuller to examine them. The water seerns to have 
 passed from one into the other seriatim ; and the portico 
 on the north side retains the vestiges of six or seven 
 
HOUSE OF HOLCONIUS. 209 
 
 smaller basins, used for washing lighter articles, or to 
 hold the different mixtures which prepared the cloth for 
 receiving a new colour. 
 
 At the east end stood a fountain, or jet d'eau, of pecu- 
 liarly graceful design. 
 
 The next mansion to which I shall conduct the reader is 
 
 THE HOUSE OF HOLCONIUS, 
 
 situated at the corner of the Street of the Theatres and 
 the Street of the Holconii, its principal entrance being 
 in the latter. 
 
 It will be needless, however, to enter into a description 
 of its interior arrangements, which correspond with those 
 of other Pompeian mansions. It has its peristyle, its 
 tablinum, its atrium, its cubicula. The floor of the tabli- 
 num is of pounded brick, cased over with a thin layer of 
 marble.* Most of the paintings have vanished, but you 
 may still recognize a sketch of the favourite myth of 
 Diana wooing Endymion on the Latmian hill, and another 
 of Leda with three children seated in a nest. Several 
 skeletons were discovered in various parts of the build- 
 ing ; notably, one of a female, supposed to be the mis- 
 tress of the house, who, while endeavouring to escape 
 with a small casket of her most valued treasures, was 
 overtaken by the destructive vapour. 
 
 The xystus, or flower-garden, which embellished the 
 pillared peristyle, contained in its centre a small piscina, 
 or basin, between six and seven feet deep, and a marble 
 pedestal therein, for the supply of a jet (Teau. Another 
 fountain, on the further side of the garden, is of more 
 
 * Overbeck, " Pompcji," i. 269, sqq. 
 
210 ITS INTERIOR. 
 
 original design ; a boy, sculptured in pure white marble, 
 holds under' one arm a swan, and in the other a vase, 
 from which the water falls in a mimic cascade down a 
 small flight of steps. Holconius, I fancy, must have 
 possessed an ear for music and an eye for colour, since 
 bright melodious jets of water gushed from several of the 
 columns at a height of about four feet from the ground, and 
 fell into a broad channel carried round the flower-beds. 
 In the piscina-walls may be seen eight iron hooks, which 
 were probably designed to keep fruit and other articles 
 cool by suspending them in the fresh cold running water. 
 
 The walls of the peristyle are painted black, but re- 
 lieved by small decorated designs of game and other 
 articles of food, the lower border being appropriated to 
 aquatic plants and water-fowl ; and the general effect 
 being very gay and pleasing. A graffite was found 
 scrawled on one side to this effect : " July yth, lard 200 
 Ibs., garlic 250 bundles;" referring, I suppose, to the 
 quantity sold or purchased on that particular day. 
 
 One of the cubicula, or bed-chambers, is handsomely 
 decorated ; the walls', painted in red and yellow, are 
 covered with architectural designs, and with bold rough 
 sketches of sea-nymphs riding on the back of Tritons 
 and ocean-monsters. An exedra, or ante-room, paved 
 with black and white marble, contains a small central 
 itnpluvium, and several pictures of meritorious execution : 
 the Three Muses, Bacchus and his "merry crew" dis- 
 covering Ariadne, Silenus supporting a Hermaphrodite, 
 and Narcissus contemplating his handsome person in the 
 mirror of a fountain. 
 
 Dr. Dyer, in a recent work, has described the " Bacchus 
 
A POMPE1AN FRESCO. 
 
 BACCHUS ANU AKIADNF. : PRF.SCO DISCOVERED AT POMI'KII. 
 
 and Ariadne " very minutely,* and as the subject was a 
 favourite one with Pompeian artists, I borrow his de- 
 scription. 
 
 * Dr. Dyer, " Ruins of Pompeii," pp. So, 81. 
 
212 BACCHUS AND ARIADNE. 
 
 Bacchus, after his arrival at Naxos, finds Ariadne sunk 
 in a profound slumber. Her face is hid in the pillows ; 
 over her head stands Sleep, with outspread wings, as if to 
 take his departure, and bearing in his left hand a torch 
 reversed, a symbol common to him with his brother 
 Death. A young faun lifts the sheet, or veil, in which 
 Ariadne is enveloped, in an attitude expressive of sur- 
 prise at her beauty, and looks earnestly at the god, as if 
 to discover what impression it makes on him. Bacchus, 
 crowned with ivy and berries, clothed in a short tunic 
 and flowing pallium, having on his legs rich buskins, and 
 holding in his right hand the thyrsus bound with a fillet, 
 appears to be approaching slowly and cautiously, for 
 fear that he should awake the nymph. Meanwhile, a 
 Bacchante in the background raises her tambourine, and 
 seems to strike it strongly, as if summoning the Bacchic 
 troop to descend from the mountains. At the head of 
 these marches Silenus. also crowned with ivy, and support- 
 ing his footsteps with a long knotted staff. He is followed 
 by a Faun playing on the double flute, and by eight 
 Bacchantes. On a part of the mountain to the left, from 
 which springs a tree, another Bacchante and Faun are 
 looking on the scene below. 
 
 Such was the mode of treatment adopted by ancient 
 artists. 
 
 The next Pompeian mansion to which I shall intro- 
 duce the reader is entitled the 
 
 HOUSE OF PANSA, 
 
 from the words Pan saw. sD., painted in red near the 
 principal entrance. Mazois, however, very justly re- 
 
HOUSE OF PANS A. 215 
 
 marks, that as the name is in the accusative, it is evi- 
 dently one of those eulogistic inscriptions in honour of 
 an aedile, or some other high officer, so common in 
 Pompeii, and is not in itself any evidence that the house 
 in question belonged to Pansa. It will be convenient, 
 nevertheless, to preserve the common appellation. 
 
 This house occupies an entire tnsufa, or block ; in 
 other words, it is completely surrounded by streets. It 
 is situated in one of the best situations in the town, close 
 to the Thermae, and near the Forum. Including the 
 garden, which occupies a third of the whole length, its 
 area is about 300 feet by 100 ; part of this, however, ac- 
 cording to the Pompeian custom, is apportioned to shops 
 belonging to the owner, and rented by various tradesmen. 
 Three of these were occupied by bakers. 
 
 Internally, we find the mansion contains a vestibule ; 
 an atrium, with impluvium ; the usual alas, or wings ; 
 open tablinum ; peristyle ; apartments for visitors on 
 each side of the atrium ; cecus, or triclinium, for use in 
 winter ; a large triclinium ; open court ; cubicula ; a large 
 summer cecus, opening on the garden ; kitchen ; a ser- 
 vants' hall ; a cabinet ; and two-storied portico. In ar- 
 rangement and extent, it is the most noticeable house in 
 Pompeii.* 
 
 It would be tedious to describe in detail every apart- 
 ment, since the reader must now have a reasonably ac- 
 curate idea of the domestic arrangements of the ancients. 
 My remarks will therefore be limited to objects of special 
 interest. The peristyle was unusually spacious, measur- 
 ing about 65 feet by 50. An arcade ran around it, 16 
 
 Overbeck,"Pompcji,"i. 296, sqq. ; "Pompeii "(Lib. Enter. KnowL ), ii. 98, iqq. 
 
216 THE DOMESTIC LARES. 
 
 feet wide, formed by sixteen Ionic columns of about the 
 same height. In the kitchen was found a curious reli- 
 gious painting, illustrative of the worship offered to the 
 Lares domesiici, under whose protection the provisions, 
 and all the culinary utensils, were placed. In the centre 
 is a sacrifice in honour of these deities, who are repre- 
 sented in the usual form of two immense serpents brood- 
 ing over an altar. The female in the middle of the sacri- 
 ficial group holds a cornucopia, and each of the males 
 holds a small vase in one hand, and a horn in the other. 
 Their heads are surrounded with a species of nimbus. 
 Different kinds of food are represented on either side of 
 the picture ; fish, a group of small birds, a large boar, 
 an eel, a boar's head, a joint of pork, and a few cakes. 
 " The execution," says one authority, " is coarse and care- 
 less in the extreme, yet there is a spirit and freedom of 
 touch which has hit off the character of the objects re- 
 presented, and forbids us to impute the negligence dis- 
 played to incapacity." 
 
 The kitchen also contains a stove for stews, a species 
 of flat ladle pierced with holes, a knife, a strainer, and a 
 frying-pan with some spherical cavities, which seems to 
 have been employed in cooking eggs. 
 
 Several paintings were found in Pansa's house, of which 
 the most meritorious is said to have represented Jupiter 
 wooing Danae in a shower of gold. Skeletons were also 
 discovered, some of them recognized for females by their 
 gold ear-rings ; vessels of silver, a vase finely carved with 
 bas-reliefs, and vessels of bronze, glass, and terra-cotta. 
 The garden consisted, we are told, of a number of straight 
 parallel beds, divided by narrow paths which gave access 
 
HOUSE OF SALLUST. 217 
 
 to them for horticultural purposes, but with no walks 
 suitable for exercise, except the portico which adjoins 
 the house. 
 
 Inferior in size to the mansion named after Pansa, but 
 second to none in grace and beauty of decoration, is the 
 
 HOUSE OF SALLUST, 
 
 situated in the Street of Herculaneum and the Via Do- 
 mitiana. It was formerly called the House of Actceon, 
 from a fresco on the wall of the women's atrium; and 
 owes its present appellation to an inscription, C. SALLUST. 
 M. F., painted on the outer wall. It occupies an area 
 of about forty square yards, and is surrounded on three 
 sides by streets, the front of the ground floor being occu- 
 pied by shops. The entrance doorway is flanked by 
 pilasters with lava capitals, one of which represents 
 Silenus teaching a young Faun to play the pastoral pipe. 
 The atrium contains the usual impluvium, and, beyond 
 it, a small altar for the worship of the household gods. 
 In the centre of the basin formerly stood a bronze hind, 
 through whose m'outh flowed a stream of water. It bore 
 a figure of Hercules upon its back. The walls of the 
 atrium and tablinum are stuccoed in large raised panels 
 painted of different and strongly-contrasting colours. 
 The floor was of red cement, inlaid with pieces of white 
 marble. 
 
 Passing through the tablinum, we enter the portico of 
 the xystus, or garden, " a spot small in extent, but full 
 of ornament and beauty." The portico, says an exact 
 authority, is composed of columns, fluted and corded, 
 the lower portion of them painted blue, without pedes- 
 
2i8 A SUMMER GARDEN. 
 
 tals, yet approaching to the Roman rather than to the 
 Grecian Doric. From the portico we ascend by three 
 steps to the xystus. Its small extent, not exceeding, in 
 its greatest dimensions, 70 feet by 20, did not permit 
 trees, hardly even shrubs, to be planted in it. The 
 centre, therefore, was occupied by a pavement ; and on 
 each side boxes rilled with earth were ranged for flowers, 
 while, to make amends for the want of real verdure, the 
 whole wall opposite the portico is painted with trellises 
 and fountains, and birds drinking from them ; and above, 
 with leafy copses tenanted by numerous tribes of the 
 winged race. 
 
 In one corner is situated a summer triclinium, ele- 
 gantly decorated, and fitted up with couches and a circular 
 table of marble. Overhead was a trellised roof, which 
 was probably adorned with the vine and other climbing 
 plants. The walls are gaily painted in panel, after the 
 prevailing fashion, and with a whimsical frieze above, 
 which consisted of all kinds of table dainties, but has 
 almost entirely disappeared. In front is a small foun- 
 tain, or, rather, jet of water. On the whole, this retreat, 
 in the radiance of an Italian summer-noon, must have 
 been peculiarly grateful, and have conduced to " slum- 
 ber sweet, and sweeter dreams." 
 
 In the other corner of the garden is a small furnace, 
 either intended for a bath, or to keep water constantly 
 hot for the use of those who preferred their potations 
 warm. 
 
 On the right of the atrium is a venereum, carefully 
 secluded, and consisting of a small court, surrounded by 
 a portico of octagonal columns, a sacrarium dedicated 
 
HOUSE OF THE DIOSCURI. 219 
 
 to Diana, two cabinets with glazed windows, a tricli- 
 nium probably provided with curtains, a kitchen, a 
 water-closet, and a staircase leading to the terrace above 
 the portico. The whole is elegantly decorated with 
 gold-coloured ornament, brilliantly tinted columns, and 
 paintings of Mars, Venus, and Cupid, and of Actseon 
 devoured by his dogs for intruding upon the privacy 
 of Diana. In the adjoining lane four skeletons were 
 found, apparently a female attended by three slaves : 
 beside her lay a round plate of silver, together with 
 several golden rings set with engraved stones, two 
 ear-rings, five gold bracelets, and thirty-two pieces of 
 money. Probably she was the fair lady to whom this 
 portion of the house of Sallust was peculiarly appro- 
 priated. 
 
 The next mansion of special interest is the 
 
 HOUSE OF THE DIOSCURI, 
 
 also known as that of the Quaestor, which, from its ele- 
 gance and size, must unquestionably have belonged to 
 some person of wealth and rank. 
 
 It consists of three distinct divisions, or rather of two 
 houses connected by a peristyle. Externally as well as 
 internally it is characterized by the utmost minuteness 
 and finish of ornament. The walls are painted in red 
 panels, and relieved by cornices of stucco. At the en- 
 trance doorway is a bas-relief of Mercury running away 
 with a purse. Paintings of the Dioscuri Castor and 
 Pollux adorn the sides of the vestibule. The atrium, 
 which measures about 40 feet by 31, is paved with opus 
 signatuin of a reddish hue, derived from the pounded 
 
220 
 
 COURT AND COLONNADE. 
 
 tiles or pottery of which, added to fragments of marble, 
 it was composed.* Here the walls are coloured red and 
 yellow, and embellished with vivid paintings of ara- 
 besques, landscapes, and mythic subjects. An open 
 court, surrounded by a colonnade, which varies from 
 
 8 to 10 feet in 
 width, appears to 
 have contained a 
 flower-garden ; 
 and on the eastern 
 side a large and 
 deep piscina, or 
 pond, in whose 
 centre stood a co- 
 lumn, supporting 
 some kind of Tri- 
 ton or Nymph for 
 the supply of wa- 
 ter. The entire 
 area of the court 
 was about 80 palms 
 by 47 ; and as no 
 building on the 
 south or western 
 sides can ever 
 have existed to 
 shut out the 
 JUPITER AND HIS EAGLE. warmth and radi- 
 
 ance of the sun, the whole must have constantly worn a 
 bright, cheerful, and stimulating aspect, while the por- 
 
 * Sir VV. Cell, " Pompeiana," ii. 16. 
 
TRICLINIUM AND PERISTYLE. 221 
 
 tico afforded shade when shade was considered de- 
 sirable. 
 
 On the eastern side opened the great triclinium, or 
 principal banqueting-room, whose walls were enriched 
 with laminae of rare marbles. These were probably car- 
 ried off by the owner, some time after the eruption. The 
 principal paintings found here were, Perseus and An- 
 dromeda ; Bacchus and a Faun ; Medea contemplating 
 the murder of her two children, Mennerus and Pheres ; 
 a Dwarf leading an Ape ; Hymen with his torch ; and a 
 magnificent picture of Jupiter, the " father of gods and 
 men," enthroned in his curule chair, with the imperial 
 eagle at his side. 
 
 A third court, or peristyle, enriched by twelve Doric 
 columns, painted red and white, and supporting a rich 
 entablature, contained a compluvium and fountain, the 
 latter issuing from a species of flower in marble, on which 
 frogs and lizards are seen disporting. The walls of this 
 splendid apartment glowed with fanciful designs in the 
 most vivid colours. 
 
 In the ala, or wing, attached to this third peristyle, 
 were discovered two very large and richly ornamented 
 wooden chests, lined inside with brass, bound with iron, 
 and provided with handles and locks of bronze. It 
 would appear that the survivors of the fatal eruption had 
 endeavoured to carry off the treasure which these en- 
 closed, and probably succeeded, except where a few coins 
 slipped between the bottom bars. This, indeed, would 
 have been no protection to the coins, had not the exca- 
 vators fallen into a trifling error, and in working from 
 above, descended into a chamber behind the chests ; so 
 
 (190) 15 
 
 
 
222 PICTURES IN THE CUBICULA. 
 
 COUKT OK THE PISCINA OF THE HOUSE OK THE QU/KSTOK. 
 
 that it became necessary for them to exhaust the money 
 from these receptacles through a hole perforated in the 
 partition-wall. 
 
 The adjoining cubicula, or cedes domesticce their uses 
 are uncertain contain various pictures. In one is a 
 sketch of Cupid and a youth sitting by the edge of a 
 stream ; a Bacchante ; a dancing-girl carrying a garland ; 
 and Diana descending from the skies to woo Endy- 
 mion. 
 
 These are the principal curiosities discovered in the 
 House of the Quaestor. Adjoining it stands the 
 
THE RED LA TTICE. 223 
 
 HOUSE OF THE CENTAUR, 
 
 also called the House of Apollo, and the House of 
 Meleager and Atalanta, whose principal features are a 
 Corinthian atrium; a triclinium opening on a garden.; 
 the venereum ; some subterranean cellars ; and numerous 
 fine mosaics and paintings notably one of Meleager and 
 Atalanta which are now preserved in the Neapolitan 
 Museum. 
 
 I shall now glance very briefly, for my limits will not 
 admit of detailed description, at those other houses in 
 Pompeii which have been distinguished by particular 
 appellations, and which present some -point of interest. 
 For fuller information I may refer my readers to the 
 elaborate work of Overbeck. 
 
 In the STREET OF HERCULANEUM : 
 
 The Inn of Albimts, also, from an inscription on the 
 walls, named of Julius Polybius, should be noticed. 
 Here, on the door-posts, we see those time-honoured 
 chequers which figure on the sign of so many English inns. 
 From their colour red and their similarity to a lattice, 
 they were corruptly called the Red Lattice, a word fre- 
 quently used by early English writers to signify an ale- 
 house. Thus, the dramatist Marston says, " As well 
 known by my wit, as an ale-house by a red lattice ;" and 
 in an old ballad (1656) we read : 
 
 " The tap-house fits them for a jail, 
 The jail to the gibbet scuds them without fail ; 
 For those that through a lattice sang of late, 
 You oft find crying through an iron gralt." * 
 
 ' I Iran J, " Popular Antiquities, ' ii. 353. 
 
224 SUNDRY POMPEIAN HOUSES. 
 
 The chequers probably indicated that some game was 
 played in the tavern, or hostelry, resembling our modern 
 " draughts." 
 
 House of the Vestals.* This is a double house, with an 
 atrium, a triclinium, and other apartments, once richly 
 decorated with paintings and mosaics, but now very bare 
 and desolate. In a room called the lararium, with three 
 recesses, stands an altar, whereon the sacred fire is sup- 
 posed to have been cherished by the Vestal Virgins.t 
 
 House of the Chirurgeon. The forty surgical instru- 
 ments found here have been removed to the Museum at 
 Naples. 
 
 The Ponderarium, Custom, or Weighing-House. Nu- 
 merous balances and weights were discovered in this 
 building; one with the inscription, "C PON TAL" (100 
 talents) ; others lettered " Erne et Habetis " (Buy and 
 thou shalt have). 
 
 Soap Factory. This contained the usual materials and 
 implements for soap-making. 
 
 Tavern of Phoebus. Here were found the skeletons of 
 a man and two horses, with an inscription purporting 
 that " Phoebus and his customers request the patronage 
 of M. Holconius Priscus and C. Gaulus Rufus, the Du- 
 umvirs." 
 
 Public Bakehouse, with the usual adjuncts. 
 
 Blacksmiths Shop. 
 
 House of Julius Polybius, with three stories. 
 
 * So named by Sir W. Gell. 
 
 t " In this secret and sacred place the most solemn and memorable days ol 
 the family were spent in rejoicing; and here, on birth-days, sacrifices were 
 offered to Juno, or the Genius, as the protector of the new-born child." 
 Banned. 
 
DESCRIPTION CONTINUED. 225 
 
 STREET OF NARCISSUS : 
 
 This contains the House of the Dancing Girls; so named 
 from a picture of four Bacchanals. 
 
 House of Narcissus, or House of Apollo. Called the 
 former, from an elegant picture of Narcissus ; and the 
 latter, from a bronze statue of the god. Numerous sur- 
 gical instruments have been discovered here. 
 
 STREET OF MODESTUS : 
 
 House of the Painted Columns; House of Neptune ; House 
 of Fl&it'ers ; House of Modestus, so named from an in- 
 scription in red on the walls of the opposite house ; 
 House of Pansa (see p. 212). 
 
 STREET OF LA FULLONICA : 
 
 House of Apollo, excavated in 1838. Here were 
 found two fine mosaics, representing the quarrel between 
 Achilles and Agamemnon, and Achilles at the Court of 
 Lycomedes ; several admirably-executed bronzes ; ex- 
 quisitely-designed paintings of Apollo, Juno, and Venus ; 
 and other eloquent evidences of the wealth and taste of 
 the former owner. 
 
 H^use of Adonis, excavated in 1836; so named from 
 a fresco of Adonis, when wounded by the wild boar, 
 receiving the consolations of Venus. The " pictured 
 walls" also set forth the fable of Hermaphroditus and the 
 nymph Salmacis. 
 
 Houses of the Fountains, the Fullonica, House of the 
 Tragic Poet. Already described .(pp. 190-209). 
 
 STREET OF THE MERCURIES : 
 House of Inachus and lo. 
 
226 
 
 HOUSE OF THE NEREIDS. 
 
 ACHILLES AT THE COURT OF LYCOMBDES. 
 
 House of the Nereids, also called House ofMeleager. The 
 front is faced with a plain white stucco, resting on a 
 plinth coloured in imitation of gray marble. The walls 
 
ALLEGORICAL DESIGNS. 
 
 227 
 
 of the vestibule exhibit three broad bands of colour : the 
 lower, black ; the centre, red ; the upper, white. The 
 black is ornamented with caryatides, bearing javelins, 
 which suspend rich festoons of fruit and flowers ; the 
 red, with bright arabesques of an architectural character, 
 intermingled with Bacchantes ; and the white, with 
 other groups of caryatides, architectural ornament, and 
 priestesses. Very beautiful and fantastic is the general 
 appearance of the atrium, with its marble fountain, marble 
 baths, mosaic pave- 
 ment, and painted 
 walls. A dark-red 
 plinth surrounds the 
 room, and repre- 
 sents lively Nereids 
 disporting with grim 
 sea-lions and other 
 ocean - monsters ; 
 and the pictures 
 embody several of 
 those fables with 
 which Ovid has 
 made every school- 
 boy familiar: Vul- 
 can forging armour 
 for ^Eneas, Paris 
 and Helen, Daeda- 
 lus and Pasiprae.* 
 It is a chamber for a poet, where he might endlessly 
 " chew the cud" of pleasant fancies. 
 
 If the poet were content with the atrium, show me 
 
 " "Pompeii" (Library of Entertaining Knowledge), ii. 261, 262. 
 
 ALLEGORICAL FIGURE. 
 
228 A MINIATURE CASCADE. 
 
 the artist that would not be well pleased with the peri- 
 style, one of the most magnificent and most capacious 
 apartments in Pompeii. The portico consists of twenty- 
 four columns, whose upper portion is painted white, the 
 lower red. The impluvium, which once bloomed with 
 flowering plants and evergreens, is surrounded by a 
 channel of stone, to conduct the rain-water into the re- 
 servoir. A graceful reservoir, let me tell you ! For it is 
 edged with a marble coping, and its stucco lining is 
 painted of an intensely vivid azure. It was anciently fed 
 with a double supply : from a central column, and from 
 a fountain at the further end, which poured its waters in 
 a miniature cascade down a flight of eight little steps. A 
 square basin, communicating with the reservoir, probably 
 served for a fish-pond, where Lalage or Nicera might 
 feed her gold and silver fish. The walls are alive, so to 
 speak, with frolicsome Nereids surely the owner was 
 captain of some " stately argosy !" and of their numerous 
 paintings, seventeen still retain much of their original 
 freshness. 
 
 From the peristyle the stranger passes into another 
 large apartment a room without a name. It contains 
 two tiers of columns, one above the other ; the upper 
 surrounded by a gallery, something like the arcade and 
 clerestory of a Gothic church. The capitals of these 
 columns are heavily ornamented in a semi-Corinthian 
 style. Walls, columns, and pictures are all monochrome 
 that is, painted in one colour, the colour being yellow, 
 perhaps to imitate gold. The only subjects now dis- 
 cernible are, Theseus rescuing Ariadne from the Mino- 
 taur, and Tiresias metamorphosed into a woman. 
 
STREET OF THE FAUN. 229 
 
 Adjoining is another large chamber, which seems to 
 have been undergoing repair at the time of the eruption ; 
 and beyond this the great triclinium, a room of magni- 
 ficent dimensions and superb decorations. Over the 
 smaller apartments it is unnecessary to linger ; they are 
 not unworthy, however, of this most superb mansion. 
 
 House of the Centaur, House of the Dioscuri, already 
 described. There are also to be seen in this street the 
 House of the Five Skeletons, House of A my mo ne and Nep- 
 tune (or the Anchor), and House of Flora and Zephyrus. 
 
 STREET OF THE FAUN : 
 
 In this street there are but two houses worth notice : 
 the House of the Labyrinth, so named from a mosaic 
 pavement of admirable workmanship, which illustrates 
 the old fable of Theseus and the Minotaur ; and the 
 House of the Faun, which contains a beautiful bronze 
 statuette of a Dancing Faun, and a large mosaic of the 
 Battle of the Granicus. This latter mansion is remark- 
 able for its Egyptian mosaics, nearly all of them bearing 
 especial reference to the worship of Osiris. The furni- 
 ture and utensils found here were of unusual richness ; 
 and the gems, rings, bracelets, necklaces, were scarcely 
 less eloquent witnesses to the wealth and refinement of 
 their owners. 
 
 The six streets which we have thus rapidly traversed 
 all run in one direction namely, from north to south, or 
 from the City Walls to the Street of the Baths. 
 
 The Street of the Baths lies north-west and south-east, 
 
230 STREET OF THE BATHS. 
 
 cutting through the city in nearly a straight line, from the 
 junction of the Street of Herculaneum to the Gate of Isis, 
 on the Nola Road, and bisected about midway by the 
 Street of Stabiae. A portion of it is called the Street of 
 Fortune, but for the convenience of the reader we shall 
 adhere to one general appellation 
 
 THE STREET OF THE BATHS. 
 
 Here, at the junction of the street with a second Street 
 of Fortune (running towards the Forum), we find the re- 
 mains of a Triumphal Arch and Fountain. In this 
 vicinity are situated the Temple of Fortune and the older 
 Thermae (see pp. 97, 154). 
 
 Pursuing our route, we may notice the ruins of several 
 shops, one of an ironmonger, and another belonging to 
 a statuary ; the House of the Chase, so called from one of 
 its paintings ; the House of the Bronze Figures, where 
 several two-headed busts of Hermes, in bronze, were 
 discovered ; the House of the Black Walls, in one of 
 whose chambers a variety of graceful ornament is de- 
 picted on a black ground ; the House of the Figured Capi- 
 tals those of the pilasters at the entrance doorway being 
 sculptured with Fauns and Bacchantes; the House of the 
 Grand Duke of Tuscany (excavated in 1832), where the 
 visitor regards with admiration a fine representation of 
 the old fable of Amphion and Dirce ; and the House of 
 Ariadne, whose more interesting objects are its pictures 
 of Ariadne, Galatea, and the Love-Merchant the latter, 
 an old man with a cage of Cupids, one of whom he offers 
 for sale to two young maidens attracted by the novelty of 
 his wares. 
 
STREET OF STABILE. 231 
 
 In a street called the Vico Storto, which branches off 
 on the right, are situated several houses of minor in- 
 terest. 
 
 Continuing our route towards the Nola Gate, we pass 
 a series of shops and houses which have been but par- 
 tially excavated. 
 
 We shall now retrace our steps a few hundred yards, 
 and turn into the 
 
 STREET OF STABIJE. 
 
 Beginning at the Stabiae Gate, we see on our right the 
 Odeum, the Great Theatre, and the so-called Barracks ; 
 on our left, the House of Iphigenia, so named from a 
 painting discovered in it which represents Orestes and 
 Pylades brought as prisoners into the presence of Aga- 
 memnon's daughter. In this direction the excavations 
 of the buried city are, at present, being conducted. A 
 road leading towards the Amphitheatre passes the 
 
 Villa of Julia Felix, excavated in 1754-55, but covered 
 up again. An inscription was found here purporting 
 that the owner, Julia Felix, was willing to let for a term 
 of five years, a bath, a venereum, and ninety shops with 
 terraces and upper chambers. 
 
 In the Street of Stabise we find : 
 
 The House of Lucretius, or delle Sonatriei, excavated in 
 1867, a mansion remarkable for its dimensions and the 
 elegance of its decorations. Its name has been satis- 
 factorily ascertained from a painting, now in the Naples 
 Museum, which introduced a scroll or letter addressed to 
 "M. Lucretio Flam. Martis Decurioni Pompei (io)" 
 that is, to Marcus Lucretius, Priest of Mars, and Decu- 
 
232 A STATUARY'S WORKSHOP. 
 
 rion of Pompeii* as also a stylus and ink-bottle. The 
 atrium has a pavement of white mosaic. The walls are 
 painted, the lower part in imitation of vari-coloured 
 marbles ; the upper in blue, relieved with fanciful orna- 
 ment. A lararium, or shrine of the Lares, stands on the 
 right of the entrance. The tablinum, raised one step 
 above the level of the atrium, is also paved with white 
 marble mosaic, and in the centre with a slab of giallo 
 antico. The walls are decorated with architectural de- 
 signs ; the ceiling (of stucco) with panels in colours and 
 gilt rosettes. In the peristyle, which is six or seven 
 feet higher than the tablinum, a curious alcove-fountain 
 is enriched with mosaics, paintings, shell-work, and a 
 small marble image of Silenus. On his left the water 
 issues from a sort of leather bottle, and falls into a 
 square stone channel, which conducts it into a circular 
 basin in the middle of the court. This basin, about 
 seven feet in diameter and two feet in depth, has in its 
 centre a hollow pedestal, which gives room for ^jet-d^eau. 
 On each side stands a double figure : one representing a 
 Faun and a Bacchante, the other Ariadne and Bacchus. 
 Numerous sculptures are scattered around, and the basin 
 is ornamented with figures of ducks, cows, ibises, and the 
 like, so that the scene may not unjustly be compared to 
 a statuary's yard in the Marylebone Road ! But as the 
 house appears to have been undergoing repair at the time 
 of the eruption, it is possible the owner collected his 
 treasures in this particular apartment, as safest from acci- 
 dental injury. 
 
 The articles discovered here included vases, cande- 
 
 * Overbeck. " Pomptji ." 
 
HOUSE OF CORNELIUS RUFUS. 233 
 
 labra, surgical instruments, glass bottles shaped like 
 animals, bronze coins, theatrical pictures of a tragic and 
 comic character, bronze ornaments, culinary vessels in 
 bronze, and a four-wheeled waggon. 
 
 Near what are called the New Thermae stands a re- 
 cently-excavated house, that of Diadumenus, chiefly 
 remarkable for its portico, its elegant atrium, and hand- 
 some lararium. 
 
 Immediately in front of the Baths is the 
 
 House of C. Cornelius Rufus, discovered in 1861, con- 
 taining a spacious and finely decorated atrium, with a 
 central impluvium, and a table of marble supported by 
 lions ; a peristyle, surrounded by Doric columns ; cubi- 
 cula, and other apartments, embellished with frescoes of 
 unusual merit ; several bronzes, and a well-executed bust 
 of the owner of the house, inscribed with his name. 
 
 The recent excavations in this quarter have revealed 
 several interesting houses : one, which seems to have 
 been a species of tavern, is known, from a painting on 
 the outer wall, as the Elephant Inn j* a second, dis- 
 tinguished by its handsome triclinium, contains a noble 
 specimen of the ancient painters " Hercules, while 
 overcome by wine, is robbed of his arms by Cupids;" 
 the third, a baker's shop, possesses an oven in which 
 eighty -three loaves of bread were found half-baked ; 
 and the fourth, a handsome private mansion, is remark- 
 able for its marble fountain and its mythological paintings. 
 
 * A sign, or tablet, records that one Sitticio had recently restored the tavern, 
 and offers travellers a triclinium with three beds, and every comfort. 
 HOSPITVM . HIC . LOCATVR. 
 TRICLINIVM . CVM. TRIBVS . LECT1S 
 SIT . COMM . . . (BT COMMODA). 
 
234 FINAL NOTES ON POMPEIAN STREETS. 
 
 The only streets which now remain to be noticed are 
 those of the Augustals, of the Dii Consentes, and the 
 Street of Abundance. 
 
 In the former are situated the House of Venus and 
 Mars; the House of Ganymede; the House of the King of 
 Prussia, excavated in 1822; and the House of Queen 
 Adelaide, opened in the presence of the late Queen- 
 Dowager in 1838. 
 
 In the Street of the Dii Consentes the visitor's atten- 
 tion is directed to the House of Hero and Leander, the 
 House of Apollo and Coronis, and the House of Adonis, 
 the latter containing some remarkable pictures, especi- 
 ally a caricature sketch of a painter's studio. 
 
 Lastly, in the Street of Abundance, we meet with 
 several handsome shops, the remains of two fountains, 
 the House of the Wild Boar (so called from a mosaic in 
 the prothyrum), the House of the Physician (where seventy 
 surgical instruments and the apparatus for pill-making 
 and ointment-making were discovered), the House of the 
 Graces, and the House of the Emperor Francis II. None 
 of these require a detailed notice, as the articles of in- 
 terest which they formerly contained have been removed 
 to the Museum at Naples. 
 
IX. 
 
 Combs at Jjnmpctt. 
 
 1 There, while the fire lies smouldering on the ground, 
 My bones, the all of me, can then be found. 
 Arrayed in mourning robes, the sorrowing pair 
 Shall gather all around with pious care ; 
 With ruddy wine the relics sprinkle o'er, 
 And snowy milk on them collected pour. 
 Then with fair linen cloths the moisture dry, 
 Inurned in some cold marble tomb to lie. 
 With them inclose the spices, sweets, and gums, 
 And all that from the rich Arabia comes, 
 And what Assyria's wealthy confines send, 
 And tears, sad offering, to my memory lend." 
 
 TIBULLUS, Eleg. iii. 2-17. 
 
 HE interment of the dead was celebrated by 
 the Romans with peculiar pomp. It formed, 
 indeed, an important part of their religion, for 
 it was their belief that if the body remained 
 unburied, the soul wandered, forlorn and desolate, through 
 the sorrowful lapse of a hundred years, on the hither 
 side of the Styx, unable to obtain admission to its final 
 resting-place. The survivors, therefore, were necessarily 
 anxious that their deceased kinsmen or friends should 
 receive the homage of decent sepulture. So after the 
 corpse had been duly washed and dressed, and seven 
 days of watching and wailing had passed by, it was 
 borne in solemn procession, attended by a long array 
 
 (190) ] 6 
 
238 ROMAN INTERMENTS. 
 
 of mourners, musicians, and stage-mimes ; by numerous 
 vehicles containing waxen masks of its ancestors, by 
 the slaves whom the will of the departed had eman- 
 cipated, by a weeping train of the nearest relations, 
 to the appointed place of burial.* This, by the Roman 
 law, was almost invariably without the city, and generally 
 near a public highway. Here, if the family possessed a 
 patrimonial tomb, the dead was laid within it ; or else 
 within the sepulchre which, during his life, he would 
 have constructed for the purpose. The poor were 
 interred in public cemeteries, called puticuli, from the 
 trenches (puteis) ready excavated to receive bodies. In 
 most cases the corpse was burned for the practice of 
 incremation prevailed among the Romans from the first 
 century before Christ until the establishment of Chris- 
 tianity at the place of burial, which was then named 
 bustitm (as if from buro, uro, comburo, to burn). The 
 funeral pile (rogus) was built of rough wood, unpolished 
 by the axe. Pitch was used to stimulate the flames ; 
 and cypress, to overpower with its pungent odours the 
 exhalations from the burning body. As the combus- 
 tion proceeded, the bystanders cast various offerings 
 into the flames; the robes, arms, treasures, and favourite 
 animals of the deceased; and the precious oils and 
 unguents of the East. 
 
 When reduced to ashes, these were quenched with 
 wine, and carefully deposited in an urn of marble, bronze, 
 silver, or terra-cotta. The presiding priest then 
 sprinkled the mourning crowd three times with a branch 
 
 * See Rekker's " Callus," for a minute account of the funeral ceremonies of 
 the Romans ; also, article Ftinas in Dr. Smith's " Dictionary of Antiquities." 
 
FUNERAL RITES. 241 
 
 of olive or laurel dipped in water, as a sign of purifica- 
 tion, and gave the word, Ilicet (Ire licet], Depart ! And 
 the procession, uttering their last farewell with the cry of 
 Vale or Salve, returned to their several abodes. 
 
 The urn was committed to the tomb on the following 
 day. There were two sorts of tombs ; which may 
 roughly be designated family, and private tombs. To 
 the former the ashes of the freed slaves of the family 
 were frequently admitted. On the ninth day after death, 
 the funeral feasts (novemdialia) were celebrated ; and the 
 dead were also honoured at intervals with sacrifices 
 (inferice) offered to their manes. The inferice consisted 
 principally of libations of milk, wine, or blood, the smell 
 of which was supposed to be peculiarly acceptable to 
 their ghosts. The tomb was likewise crowned with gar- 
 lands of flowers of roses, lilies, myrtle, and the amar- 
 anth a custom which has descended to our own time. 
 
 " Full canisters of fragrant lilies bring, 
 Mixed with the purple roses of the spring ; 
 Let me with funeral flowers his body strew, 
 This gift, which parents to their children owe, 
 This unavailing gift, at least I may bestow." VIRGIL. 
 
 At Pompeii the tombs are situated on either side of 
 the road that leads from the Herculaneum Gate towards 
 the Torre dell' Annunziata, in the Pagus Augustus Felix, 
 an aristocratic suburb of the city. Commencing our 
 progress at what I may term the further end, the first 
 sepulchral monument we meet with is the 
 
 Cenotaph of Diomcdes, situated opposite the villa which 
 is supposed to have belonged to the same owner. It is 
 a solid building of rubble-work, faced with stucco, and 
 
242 TOMB OF DIOMEDES. 
 
 not unlike a small temple in appearance.* It is about 
 nine feet broad and twelve feet high, with a pilaster at 
 either side supporting a pediment. Under the pediment 
 you may read the following inscription : 
 
 M . ARR1VS . . L . DIOMEDES 
 
 SIBI . SVIS . MEMORL* 
 MAGISTER . PAG . AUG . FELIX . SVBVRB. 
 
 Which is Englished thus : 
 
 Marcus Arrius Diomedes, freedman of lulia (?), chief magistrate of the 
 suburb Augustus Felix, [erected this building] to the memory of himself 
 and family. 
 
 Beneath are sculptured the fasces, the emblems of 
 magisterial authority, but reversed, in conformity with the 
 usages of mourning. On the left is a wall which sepa- 
 rates the principal tomb from two funereal cippi with 
 hemispheres, the hinder part of each carved in imitation 
 of the human hair ; one erected to Arria, the daughter 
 of Diomedes, and the other to Arrius his son. An 
 inscription under the wall Arriae . M . F(ilie) . Dio- 
 medes . L . Sibi . Svis shows that they belonged to the 
 same family. Close to the platform, in a small semi- 
 circular niche, is the cippus of a child, Velasius Gratus, 
 setat. 12; and near it moulder in decay the tombs of 
 Salvius, a child of five years old, and of Servilia. 
 
 Tomb of Cenis and Labeo: an oblong building, the 
 sides ornamented with pilasters, which formerly supported 
 an entablature, crowned by statues. Of these only the 
 fragments remain. The front exhibits the ruins of two 
 bas-reliefs, which we may suppose to have contained 
 
 * Ovcrbixk, " i'uiajjeji," li. *j. 
 
TOMB OF THE LIBELL&. 243 
 
 portraits of the duumvirs, Caius Cenis and Lucius 
 Labeo, to whom the tomb was erected by their freedman 
 Menomachus. 
 
 Tomb of the Libella. This is a solid building of blocks 
 of travertin, in form resembling the pedestal of a column ; 
 base about twelve feet square, height sixteen feet. It has 
 a moulding and cornice, and the following inscription : 
 
 M . ALLEIO . LVCCIO . LIBELL^E . PATRI . A: DILI 
 II . VIR . PR^EFECTO . QVINQ . ET . M . ALLEIO . LIBELING . F . 
 DECVRIONI . V1XIT . ANNIS . XVII . LOCVS . MONVMENTI 
 PVBLICE . DATVS . EST . ALLEIA . M . F . DECIMILLA . SACERDOS . 
 PVBLICA . CERERIS . FACIENDVM . CVRAVIT.. VIRO . ET . FILIO. 
 
 [To M. Alleius Luccius Libella, the father, .flJdile, Duumvir,* Quinquen- 
 nial, and Prefect ; and M. Alleius Libella, his son, Decurion, who lived 
 seventeen years, was assigned the site of this monument at the public 
 expense. Alicia Decimilla, daughter of Marcus, Public Priestess of 
 Ceres, erected it to her husband and son.] 
 
 Cicero in one of his letters informs a friend who had 
 requested his interest in obtaining a decurionship at 
 Pompeii, that it was easier to become a Roman consul 
 than a Pompeian decurion. t The reply may have been 
 partly intended in jest, but yet we must infer that the post 
 of decurion in the gay Campanian city was one of great 
 honour, and hence that the Libellae, one of whom 
 was a duumvir, and the other a decurion in his seven- 
 teenth year, belonged to a wealthy and influential family. 
 
 Tomb with the Marble Door (Col la porta mar mo mi). 
 At the junction of the two roads stands a closed tomb, 
 
 * The offices of Duumvir and Decurion corresponded to those of the Roman 
 Consul and Senators. " Pompeii " (Lib. Ent. Knowl.}, ii. 26 
 Overbeck, " Pompeji," ii. 26. 
 
244 THE FUNERAL TRICLINIUM. 
 
 built of small pieces of tufa, laid sometimes horizontally 
 and sometimes diamond-wise (opus reticulatuni). Its 
 entrance, about four feet high, is closed by a marble 
 door, which turns upon bronze pivots let into sockets of 
 the same metal. The interior consists of a small chamber 
 lighted by a small window in the roof. Around it runs 
 a stone ledge, on which, as well as in certain vaulted 
 niches, were deposited the urns or vases containing the 
 ashes of the dead. There were also several bronze 
 lamps, used, I conjecture, to light up the dark and 
 silent sepulchre, when the kinsmen of the deceased 
 visited it to perform their sacrificial rites (inf cries). A 
 small square enclosure, just beyond this tomb, is sup- 
 posed to have been an iistrinum, or place for burning 
 dead bodies. 
 
 Crossing to the other side of the road, we perceive 
 the Funeral Triclinium (Triclinium fur die Ltichenmahle), 
 an enclosed area of irregular figure, about twenty feet 
 long, stuccoed, and unadorned except by a low pedi- 
 ment and cornice. Enter, the doorway is low, enter, 
 and you find yourself within an unroofed chamber, whose 
 walls are gaily embellished with paintings of birds and 
 flowers. Before you stands a stone triclinium, with a 
 massive pedestal in the centre for a table, and a round 
 pillar immediately in advance of it. Here was celebrated 
 the silicernium, or funeral feast, which completed the 
 honours paid to the dead by their survivors, and which 
 an ungrateful or disappointed heir occasionally withheld. 
 On the round column probably stood the urn or vase 
 which contained the ashes of the departed. As no other 
 
N&VOLEIA TYCHE. 245 
 
 triclinium has been discovered in Pompeii, it seems pro- 
 bable that this one was built for the general accommoda- 
 tion, and perhaps let out to hire.* 
 
 Tomb of Ncevoleia Tyche and Munatius Faiistus. A 
 family tomb, consisting of a square building surrounded 
 by a wall. Within the enclosure is a sepulchral chamber, 
 surmounted by a marble cippus, richly ornamented, and 
 raised on two steps. The front is occupied by a bas- 
 relief, and by the following inscription : 
 
 N^VOLEIA . I . LIB . TYCHE . SIBI . ET 
 
 C . MVNATIO . FAUSTO . AVG . ET . PAGANO 
 
 CVI . DECURIONES . CONSENSV . POPVLI 
 
 BISELLIVM . OB . MERITA . EIVS . DECREVERVNT . 
 
 HOC . MONIMENTVM . N/EVOLEIA . TYCHE . LIBERTIS . SVIS . 
 
 LIBERT ATVSQ . ET . C . MVNATI . FAUSTI . VIVA . FECIT . 
 
 [Nzvoleia Tyche, freedwoman of Julia Tyche, to herself and to Caius 
 Munatius Faustus, Augusta!, and chief magistrate of the suburb, to 
 whom the Decurions, with the consent of the people, have granted the 
 bisellium in acknowledgment of his merits. Nsevoleia Tyche erected 
 this monument in her lifetime for her frcedmcn and women, and for 
 those of C. Munatius Faustus.] 
 
 The bas-relief exhibits a portrait of Naevoleia, and in 
 the lower portion, a funeral group offering sacrifice, or 
 the dedication of the tomb. On one side are the munici- 
 pal magistrates, on the other the family of Naevoleia and 
 Faustus, each member carrying a vase or bowl ; in the 
 centre, a low altar, upon which a youth is depositing 
 some sacrificial cake, and by it a low semicircular cippus 
 representing the tomb. 
 
 * An inscription on the central pedestal, however, records the erection uf the 
 triclinium to Vibrius Saturniuu^ by his frctdman C'allistus. 
 
246 TOMB OF N^EVOLEIA. 
 
 Each side of the tomb is enriched with a bas-relief. 
 One of them represents the bisdlium, or seat of honour 
 in the theatre, appropriated to Munatius by decree of the 
 Decurions ; the other, a ship entering port in allusion 
 either to the pursuits of the said Munatius, or, allegori- 
 cally, to the safe arrival of the barque of the soul in the 
 tranquil haven of the grave. 
 
 The ship itself has a raised deck, a figure-head of 
 Minerva, and a swan's neck at the stern supporting a 
 Hag-staff ; another flag floats from the mast-head. The 
 mast has a long yard, which carries a square sail ; two 
 boys on the yard are furling the sail, while a third who 
 has been rendering assistance aloft descends by a rope, 
 a fourth is climbing the shrouds, and a man on deck 
 clews up the canvas. At the helm sits the master 
 probably Munatius himself and directs their move- 
 ments. 
 
 In the interior of the chamber, and on the stone bench 
 surrounding it, several cinerary urns were discovered, as 
 well as some lamps, and three urns of glass, which con- 
 tained burnt bones saturated in a mixture of water, wine, 
 and oil the last libation probably made by the survivors. 
 A small niche in the wall of the enclosure contains a 
 cippus,or funeral column, engraved with the name of Caius 
 Munatius Atimetus, who died at the age of fifty-seven. 
 
 I think we need not tarry at 
 
 The Tomb of the Istacidian Family a small plot of 
 ground, about fifteen feet square, containing no monu- 
 ments, but simply three cippi, inscribed to Istacidius 
 Ilelenus, Istacidius Januarius, and to Istacidia Scapidia 
 
A POMPEIAN CENOTAPH. 247 
 
 and Mesonia Satulla.* But the next erection commands 
 our notice by its architectural pretensions. 
 
 Cenotaph of C. Calvcntius Quietus. Within a court 
 about twenty-one feet square, rises a podium, or base- 
 ment, of three steps, on which a square marble altar- 
 monument is placed, adorned with small square pin- 
 nacles called acroteria. These acroteria are enriched 
 with bas-reliefs, now sadly dilapidated, of Fame and 
 Victory, of Theseus, of OEdipus solving the riddle of the 
 Sphinx, and of the Funeral Pile, on which the remains of 
 Quietus, were consumed. The cenotaph is further adorned 
 with richly-carved garlands of oak-leaves, bound with 
 fillets ; the cornice and mouldings merit praise both for 
 design and execution. From the sculpture of a bisellium, 
 or seat of honour, on the front, we know that the sepulchre 
 before us is that of an Augustal, and our inference is 
 confirmed by the inscription above it : 
 
 C . CALVENTIO . QVIETO 
 
 AVGVSTALI 
 
 HVIC . OB . MVNIFICENT . DECVRIONVM 
 
 DECRETO . ET . POPVLI . CONSENSV . BISELL1I . 
 
 HONOR DATVS . EST . 
 
 [To Caius Calvcntius Quietus, Augustal. To him, on account of his public 
 spirit, the honour of the Bisellium was decreed by the Decurions, with 
 the consent of the people.] 
 
 An empty space intervenes between this and the next 
 tomb the so-called Round Tomb; consisting of a short 
 circular tower on a square basis, and surrounded by a 
 wall, which is adorned with acroteria, and the acroteria 
 
 * Ovcrbctk, "Poinpeji. 
 
248 A STROLL AMONG THE TOMBS 
 
 with bas-reliefs. One of these represents a female with a 
 patera and garland in her hand in the act of offering some 
 fruits upon an altar ; another, a young mother in a flow- 
 ing Greek robe depositing a funereal fillet on her dead 
 child. As its skeleton seems to rest on a pile of stones, 
 Mazois conjectures that the child perished in the earth- 
 quake.* The sepulchral chamber contains three niches 
 with sepulchral vases, two of which were empty when 
 discovered ; and the walls and vaulted roof are enriched 
 with arabesques, swans, and peacocks. 
 
 Tomb of Patridus Scaurus: so called from an inscrip- 
 tion found in the vicinity, but which Overbeck does not 
 consider to have belonged to the tomb. This is a stately 
 monument a square cippus of brick resting on three 
 steps, which are raised upon a square basement serving 
 as a sepulchral chamber. The basement and the steps 
 were formerly ornamented with bas-reliets of gladatorial 
 subjects, which have been already described (see pp. 114, 
 "5). 
 
 Tomb of Tyche: a sepulchral enclosure with a cippus, 
 belonging, as an inscription records, to Tyche, Venerca 
 of Julia, daughter of Augustus. Beneath it is a colum- 
 barium, with fourteen niches. 
 
 Passing by the so-called Suburban Inn the Tomb of 
 the Glass Amphora (Tomba del Vasa di vctro blii), a 
 square basement-chamber, in which was found a singularly 
 graceful amphora of blue glass with white figures in 
 relief the Villa of Cicero, remarkable for its fine paint- 
 
 * Mazois, " Lcs Kuines <lc Pompeii," p. 46. 
 
OF AN ANCIENT CITY. 249 
 
 ings antl mosaics, now preserved in the Museum at Naples, 
 we come to 
 
 The Hemicycle, a species of semicircular vaulted 
 alcove, flanked with pilasters, surmounted by a pediment, 
 and painted in red panels with golden arabesques, which 
 seems to have been intended as a resting-place for the 
 weary wayfarer. Near this spot were discovered the 
 skeletons of a motKer and her three children, one of 
 them an infant, all interlaced in each other's arms. They 
 had attempted to escape ; their strength failed them, or 
 the horrors of the scene paralysed their energies ; and 
 they contentedly laid down to die, folded in one last 
 embrace of love stronger than death. From the gold 
 rings and rich ornaments found about them, they must 
 have belonged to a family of distinction. 
 i 
 
 Tomb of the Garlands, supported on a lofty basement, 
 with Corinthian pilasters, which sustain well-executed 
 wreaths of flowers ; and the 
 
 Cenotaph of Terenlius Fe/ix, demand no special notice. 
 
 We now arrive at two open Exedra or Hemicydes. The 
 first is raised on a high step ; it is about seventeen feet in 
 diameter, and bears the following inscription, occupying 
 the whole space above the stone seat, which is finished 
 off at each end by a lion's paw : 
 
 MAMI/B . P . F . SACERDOTI . PVBLIC^E . I.OCVS . 
 SEPVI.TVR . DATVS . DECVRIONVM . DECRETO . 
 [To Manila, daughter of Porcius, public priestess, a place of burial is assigned 
 by decree of the Dccurions. ) 
 
 At the foot of the hemicycle, an inscription on an 
 
250 
 
 A STROLL AMONG THE TOMBS 
 
 STREET AT POMPEII RECENTLY EXPLORED. 
 
 upright stone records that the decurions had granted to 
 M. Porcius a plot of ground twenty-five feet square 
 probably the burial-place above mentioned and close 
 adjoining stands the supposed Tomb of the Priestess 
 Mamia; a square pile of masonry covered with stucco, 
 and ornamented in front with four Corinthian columns. 
 In the interior, which was painted, and set round with 
 eleven niches, were found some indifferent marble 
 
OF AN ANCIENT CITY. 
 
 251 
 
 statues, and a pedestal for the support of the funeral 
 urn. 
 
 The second hemicycle belonged, as an inscription 
 recorded, to Aulus Veius, a duumvir of justice and a 
 military tribune, to whom the ground had been presented 
 by the decurions and citizens of Pompeii. 
 
 Here we complete our survey of the Strada delle 
 Tombe, or Street of Tombs ; an appropriate spot for 
 taking leave as we now must do of the 
 
 CITY OF THE DEAD, 
 
X. 
 
 Herrulmwum. 
 
 " The miner plods 
 
 With torch and mattock ; and, discoursing, shows 
 The hoarded fragments of Heraclea's woes." 
 
 BKATTIE. 
 
 | HE discovery of the actual site of Herculaneum 
 was made in 1709, when the Prince d'Elboeuf 
 of Lorraine was erecting a summer-palace at 
 Portici, which he desired to decorate with 
 antiques. Hearing that a peasant at Resina, while sink- 
 ing a well, had lighted upon some choice relics, he 
 purchased the right of making further excavations. In 
 these he was so far successful that he had obtained 
 numerous statues and some remains of ancient sculpture, 
 when Count Daun, the Austrian viceroy at Naples, inter- 
 fered, and reclaimed the right of exploration for the 
 Government. Very little, however, has been done under- 
 ground. The researches made have not led to such 
 interesting results as at Pompeii. The inhabitants, with 
 very few exceptions, appear to have effected their escape, 
 and to have carried with them almost all their movable 
 property. Nor is it an easy matter to conduct any 
 further investigations. Two towns are built upon the 
 strata which successive eruptions of Vesuvius have depo- 
 
DISCO VERIES A T HERCULA .\ 7. <! . J/. 253 
 
 sited over the buried city, and its buildings ar: filled with 
 a coarse kind of tufa, which offers almost insuperable 
 obstacles to the workman. As fast, therefore, as one 
 portion has been excavated, it has been filled up again 
 with the materials removed from another portion, and 
 which it was impossible to carry to the surface. And, 
 moreover, to provide for the security of the houses in the 
 two modern towns Resina and Portici it has been 
 found necessary to build up the ruins immediately they 
 have been despoiled of their treasures. 
 
 The principal discoveries made at Herculaneum may 
 be briefly enumerated. A temple ; a wide street, paved 
 with lava, and lined with porticoes, leading to a second 
 temple; a basilica, erected by Marcus Nonius, the pro- 
 consul, measuring 2 28 feet in length by 132 feet in breadth, 
 and enclosed within a portico of forty-two columns ; 
 several blocks of buildings ; a large and handsome villa, 
 embellished with fountains, termini, busts, and statues 
 (now in the Museo.Borbonico) ; some Roman tombs; a 
 suburban villa ; and the theatre. The latter is the only 
 object now visible underground, and it is so crowded with 
 pillars erected to support the rock above it, that no per- 
 fect coup doeil of its arrangements can be anywhere 
 obtained. It is computed to have possessed accommoda- 
 tion for 10,000 spectators. The area consists of nineteen 
 rows of seats, about a foot high by three and a-half feet 
 wide, laid out, like those of the Pompeian theatres, in 
 cunic or wedge-shaped compartments. The volcanic 
 matter at the back of the stage still exhibits the cast of 
 the mask of a human face, almost as distinct as if it had 
 been taken in plaster. 
 
 (190) 17 
 
254 THE THEATRE. 
 
 Two inscriptions were found over the architraves of 
 the side entrances to the orchestra. From one of these 
 it appears that the theatre was erected at the cost of 
 Lucius Annius Mammianus Rufus, Censor and Duumvir 
 of Justice ; from the other, that the architect was one 
 Numisius, the son of Publius. In a passage behind the 
 postscenium is the well opening, above ground, in the 
 Cortile S. Giacomo, in the main street of Resina which 
 was the original cause of the excavations that led to the 
 discovery of the city. 
 
 At the right end of the proscenium is a rectangular 
 basement for a statue, which bears the following inscrip- 
 tion : " Ap . Claudio . C . F . Pulchro . Cos . Imp . 
 Herculanenses . Post . Mort. " At the left end a similar 
 base is lettered : " M . Nonio Balbo Praet . et Pro- 
 cons." 
 
 The roof and upper story of the building were sup- 
 ported by large square pilasters of red brick, with marble 
 cornices, and the surface was decorated with marble 
 tablets and paintings, many of which have been removed 
 to the Naples Museum. Bronze statues were found here 
 of Drusus and Antonia, and the Muses. 
 
 Herculaneum, the reader will remember, was not 
 destroyed, like Pompeii, by showers of ashes, 'but by a 
 torrent of volcanic mud, which rolled over the city with 
 resistless force, and filling all its edifices nearly to the 
 roof, hardened as it dried into a coarse tufa. It has, 
 therefore, to be cut away by the axe, like solid stone. 
 And for this reason we need not hope that any important 
 discoveries will be made if the Italian Government should 
 resume the excavations. 
 
THE PAST AND THE PRESENT. 255 
 
 We bid farewell to the deserted city in the words of a 
 graceful writer, who acknowledges that it is difficult to 
 exaggerate the impression produced on the mind by the 
 ruins of Herculaneum, or the more extensive and inte- 
 resting remains of the once bright and luxurious Pompeii. 
 " Here," says Miss Kavanagh, " the Past is Present, and 
 rises before us in its meanest details, and therefore in its 
 greatest power. We cannot walk ten steps without feel- 
 ing, Is it true ? Are the people of this city really dead ? 
 Are the owners of these shops and houses really gone for 
 ever 1 Will the worshippers never come back to the 
 temple ? Will the citizens never again throng the forum ? 
 Is the garden really forsaken for ever 1 Will children, 
 girls, and slaves never again gather beneath the colon- 
 nade of the villa, or look from the terrace at the purple 
 mountains, with their green slopes and the smoke of dis- 
 tant waterfalls ? Which is the truest that Past which 
 surrounds us, and seems so near ; or that Present, which 
 fades away from thought, and seems so far when we enter 
 the charmed city 1 ?" 
 
 And thus, though it be, as Sir Walter Scott emphati- 
 cally termed it, a City of the Dead, yet shall it also and 
 ever remain for the cultivated mind, for the vivid imagina- 
 tion, a City of the Living. Recall the past ; people the 
 noisy theatre and the busy forum ; crowd the temple 
 with adoring worshippers ; place the beauty in her 
 boudoir and the artist in his studio, the judge on his 
 bench and the soldier at his post ; pour through the 
 streets the rushing, animated, restless life of antiquity ; 
 and then shall Pompeii and Herculaneum live again, if 
 only in a summer dream. 
 
XL 
 
 |kcmt gistobmes. 
 
 HE excavations still in vigorous prosecution at 
 Pompeii are constantly revealing new trea- 
 sures and fresh objects of interest. Among 
 these I may refer to a beautiful statuette in 
 bronze, supposed to represent " Narcissus listening to 
 Echo," which has not unjustly been described as the 
 most precious work of the class hitherto obtained from 
 the ruins, and " a masterpiece of ancient art." It was 
 dug out of what appears to have been a washing or 
 scouring establishment, judging from the numerous 
 leaden vats and deep basins of terra-cotta found on the 
 ground floor. You see in it a. graceful, rounded, volup- 
 tuous figure, naked except for the goat-skin flung loosely 
 over the left shoulder, and the hunter's cothurn or bus- 
 kins, laced round the ankle, and reaching to the calf of 
 the leg. The head is inclined over the left shoulder, in 
 the act of listening, and the face wears an intent and 
 peculiarly earnest expression. A branch of ivy and ivy- 
 berries is wound among the hair. The right hand is 
 lifted, and the first finger directed to the spot from 
 whence proceeds the voice of the amorous Echo. The 
 left hand rests daintily ou the hip. The sockets of the 
 
RECENT DISCOVERIES. 257 
 
 eyes, which had once been filled with silver or ivory, are 
 now empty. 
 
 This exquisite statuette would seem to be of Greek 
 workmanship, and the copy, in all probability, of some 
 famous statue. Its execution is admirable ; the chisel- 
 ing clear and vigorous. The forms are softly rounded, 
 and the principles of anatomy conscientiously studied. 
 The discovery of so precious a work of art is in itself an 
 almost sufficient reward for the labour bestowed upon the 
 Pompeian excavations. 
 
 An amber figure of Cupid disguising himself in a wig 
 was discovered about 1864. It seems to have been 
 considered an article of great value, for it had been 
 carried away, with a small collection of silver coins, by 
 some fugitive from the eruption, whose skeleton was 
 found hard by. A lamp of solid gold, weighing thirty-three 
 and a-half ounces, has also been dug up. 
 
 Early in 1867 the excavators came upon a hermeti- 
 cally-sealed bronze vessel, which, when opened, was 
 found to contain a considerable quantity of water. 
 Some adventurous bystanders drank of the liquid, and 
 agreed in pronouncing it fresh, clear, and of remarkable 
 softness. It had been preserved for nearly eighteen 
 hundred years. 
 
 The works of art and various objects of. interest 
 obtained at Pompeii and Herculaneum are preserved in 
 the Museum at Naples. The recent acquisition of the 
 Blagas collection by the British Museum will, however, 
 place within reach of the Londoner seven ancient relics 
 of great value. These are mural paintings, and their 
 beauty and importance are undeniable. From Pompeii 
 
258 THE B LAC AS COLLECTION. 
 
 come the following : A spirited group of three figures, 
 one of whom is playing the lyre ; a fine representation 
 of Ulysses escaping the blandishments of the Sirens 
 winged, bird-footed creatures these, with lutes and 
 double pipes, chanting melodiously their weird strains, 
 while sitting on skeleton-strewn rocks which hem in on 
 either side the strait through whose waters the subtle 
 Odysseus guides his barque ; and a temple, or some 
 other stately pillared building ; knowledge of perspec- 
 tive being clearly shown in the vanishing lines of the 
 architecture and in the water-surface. From Hercula- 
 ncum : Ariadne reclining on the shore, and as she 
 wakes from her slumber, raising her hand in entreaty 
 towards Theseus, who nevertheless urges his rowers to 
 bear his galley with increased speed from the despairing 
 maiden. From Stabia : Two poets, crowned, and 
 apparently reciting their verses ; a recumbent female 
 figure, holding a vase of flowers in her left hand ; and, 
 lastly, a bird, painted with wonderful truth and finish. 
 
 The processes of the excavation are described by a 
 periodical essayist with much liveliness ; and in our 
 brief account we shall freely borrow from his pages.* 
 
 We will suppose that the reader is desirous of witness- 
 ing a " scavo." Several chambers are generally kept in 
 readiness for this purpose. It has been ascertained from 
 experience that articles of importance are usually found 
 on the ground floor, in the lapillo or ashes. The " scavo" 
 is consequently prepared by removing all the volcanic 
 material which covers the building to within about four 
 or five feet of the floor. The entrances to the chamber 
 
 * "Quarterly Review," No. ccxxx , pp. 335-337. 
 
PROCEEDINGS AT A SCA VO. 259 
 
 are then carefully closed with stones, and no one is 
 allowed to go in until the final excavation takes place. 
 
 On the appointed day Signor Fiorelli, the director of 
 the works, accompanies the visitor to Pompeii. Twelve 
 or fourteen workmen, under a superintendent, who 
 watches them closely to prevent any petty pilfering, are 
 ready for the day's task. They usually include a couple 
 of skilful excavators, who have to remove, with peculiar 
 caution, the deposit of loose pumice-stones or indurated 
 mud which preserves the antiquities searched for. The 
 remainder of the party consists of women, girls, and boys, 
 who are employed in removing the rubbish. The mode 
 of procedure adopted is scarcely less rude and primitive 
 than that which Mr. Layard pursued at Nineveh. The 
 diggers loosen the earth, which, shovelled into baskets, 
 is carried away by the laughing, singing, jesting Neapoli- 
 tans to carts ready to receive it. The superintendent, 
 whose well-practised eye detects the smallest object, 
 occasionally picks up a coin or a fragment of metal. 
 Suddenly the excavators stop, and call the director's 
 attention to a discovery. " The colour of the ' lapillo' 
 tells us if an object in bronze or iron is about to be 
 uncovered. If of copper or bronze, the blue oxidation 
 peculiar to Pompeii tints the soil ; if of irorr, the secret is 
 betrayed by the reddish-brown hue which marks the 
 presence of that metal." An experienced workman, with 
 a kind of trowel, now removes the " lapillo," and by 
 dexterous manipulation contrives to uncover the object 
 of which he is in quest without injuring it ; an elegant 
 bronze vase, perhaps a glass amphora a cameo or 
 necklace a statuette or an iron utensil of extreme 
 
260 TREASURE TROVE. 
 
 rarity. If the thing discovered is of bronze, lead, or 
 glass, it is generally in excellent condition ; if of iron, so 
 much decomposed, as in most cases to fall in pieces on 
 exposure to the air. The object is carefully removed by 
 the superintendent, placed on a tray, and a note made 
 of the place and position in which it was found, and of 
 any peculiar circumstances attending its discovery. A 
 more detailed description is afterwards taken in the 
 receiving-room, and the article finally transferred to the 
 Royal Museum at Naples, or added to the small collec- 
 tion now being formed at Pompeii. 
 
 The diggers and carriers resume their labours, and at 
 length the chamber is entirely cleared. We then re- 
 cognize it to be the " tablinum" in the house of a wealthy 
 citizen. The walls are -elaborately painted in vivid 
 colours and with fantastic designs. If they are found to 
 be insecure they are immediately -strengthened by iron 
 brackets, by wooden props, or buttresses of masonry. 
 The 'frescoes of superior merit are carefully removed by 
 detaching the plaster from the wall, and over those which 
 are suffered to remain a varnish is spread to protect them 
 from the atmosphere. The pavement is either in simple 
 patterns of black and white tesserae or of graceful mosaic, 
 adorned with flowers, fruit, masks, or figures in bright 
 colours. " On removing from it the last layer of rubbish 
 we come upon a perfect skeleton. It is that of a woman, 
 probably the mistress of the house. She had attempted 
 to fly on that fatal night, and had thought to save her 
 jewel-case the ' mundus muliebrisj 'the woman's all' 
 inclosed in its wooden casket or pyxis. We find the 
 hinges, the lock, and the ornamental fittings, which, 
 
A "WOMAN'S ALL: 1 261 
 
 being of bronze and ivory, have been preserved, whilst 
 the wood-work has perished. Scattered around her are 
 its contents her golden ear-rings; bracelets; and a neck- 
 lace hung with curious amulets, such as objects in coral, 
 supposed to bring fecundity, a closed hand, with the two 
 fingers extended to ward off the evil eye, a bee in onyx 
 of exquisite workmanship, as an augury of good, and 
 little bells, whose sound drives away contagion ; her 
 jewelled rings ; a fragment of her ivory comb ; her 
 bronze looking-glass ; the ivory pins that gathered up 
 her tresses ; and a few small glass and alabaster vases 
 and bottles which held her ointments and perfumes. If 
 the lava-mud has penetrated into her chamber, the mould 
 of the casket itself may be preserved, so that a perfect 
 cast may be taken of it ; and even the impression of the 
 linen garments which formed part of her wardrobe may 
 be plainly seen. Near her lies a terra-cotta lamp, with 
 its elegant dolphin-shaped cover. It had fallen from 
 her hands when she sunk exhausted, after in vain groping 
 her way through the thick darkness." 
 
 The excavations at present are carried on in a part of 
 the town which seems to have been mainly occupied by 
 the lower classes, and consists of shops and houses of a 
 mean character. 
 
 One interesting discovery made here is that of a Pom- 
 peian Eating-House. On a white marble slab in the 
 front room stood an earthen pipkin, containing small fish, 
 which had apparently been cooked in oil with raisins and 
 onions, and were ready to be served up, when the sudden 
 doom fell upon the town. Into a kind of brick range 
 were let deep basins of earthenware and metal, and be- 
 
262 ANCIENT WINES. 
 
 neath them small open fire-places kept warm the 
 various messes. Upon the top were lying the ladles em- 
 ployed in distributing them. A rude tripod of iron upon 
 the earthen floor supported an iron caldron for boiling 
 water, and in the centre of the room was a portable iron 
 cooking stove, of exceedingly ingenious construction. 
 Against the walls were ranged a number of deep bronze 
 trays of various sizes, fitting into one another. A few 
 glass wine-jars were scattered about, and one or two 
 square panes of window-glass. 
 
 The inner shop or room contained several earthen 
 amphorae of various sizes, which had been used for 
 " bottling " select wines. One was lettered, " Frvt T. 
 Clavd. iiii. L. Vitellio. iii. Cos ;" from whence we in- 
 fer that the wine was bottled in the fourth year of the 
 consulate of Tiberius Claudius, and the third of Lucius 
 Vitellius, or A.D. 47. One wine, from the island of Cos, 
 is called " Covm. Granatvm." the epithet " granatvm " 
 describing, I suppose, some peculiar flavour. It was 
 bought from the cellar of Aierius Felix at Rome a 
 wine-merchant of repute, perhaps, for the quality of his 
 wares. Another jar is inscribed " Kor. Opt." i.e., the 
 very best Corcyra. We also meet with a wine called 
 " Old Luna," which appears to have been purchased by 
 a certain Cornelia of M. Valerius Abinnericus, and to 
 have been four years in bottle. 
 
 LVN. VET. g 
 
 A IIII R 
 X IIII S . J 
 M. VALERI. ABINNKRICI. 
 
 The letter R stands, it may be, for Rubrum, " red ;" and 
 
A BAKING OVEN. 363 
 
 x mi s may refer to the price paid, or the quantity pur- 
 chased. 
 
 At the bottom of this inner room was a baking-oven, 
 whose mouth was still closed with an iron plate, and within 
 which were found eighty-three loaves, black and charred, 
 but still retaining their shape, that of a modern double 
 loaf scored on the top. On the floor lay the iron shovel 
 which was used to remove the loaves from the oven. 
 Various vessels in metal, some bronze trays, and olives, 
 beans, nuts, and onions, were scattered about the room. 
 The workman had been surprised at his work, and just 
 as he left it the stranger gazes upon it, after the lapse of 
 nearly eighteen centuries. 
 
 The ruins of Pompeii are now entered at two points, 
 by the Street of the Tombs, and by the gate leading to 
 the Forum. Every visitor pays a fee of two francs, and, 
 in return, is furnished with a plan of the excavations and 
 a guide. It should be noted that the appellations of the 
 houses and streets are being changed. When possible, 
 the name of the owner is substituted, or else his occupa- 
 tion is designated, and the house numbered. In the pre- 
 ceding pages, however, I have thought it advisable to 
 preserve the old and better-known nomenclature. 
 
 A museum of Pompeian relics has been established, 
 and a library is in course of formation exclusively devoted 
 to works on Pompeii, or authorities on the arts and 
 sciences of antiquity. 
 
 During the winter a corps of five hundred men, women, 
 and children labour at the excavations ; in the summer, 
 on account of the unhealthiness of the site, only fifty are 
 employed. It is calculated that the whole city will have 
 
264 GENERAL ASPECT OF THE CITY. 
 
 been bared to the curiosity of the modern virtuoso in 
 another ten years. 
 
 As far as we can now judge, says a writer already re- 
 ferred to, Pompeii must have closely resembled in its 
 principal features a modern Eastern city. It is certain 
 that almost every house was provided with a mcenianum 
 that is, a projecting gallery or balcony, either open or 
 roofed, which overhung the street, was built of brick, 
 and supported by strong wooden beams or props. The 
 exterior of the houses, however, afforded but little pro- 
 mise of the beauty, grace, and richness within. The 
 sudden change from the naked brick walls facing the 
 narrow street to the spacious peristyle, embellished with 
 paintings, marbles, and coloured frescoes decorated 
 with flower-beds, made musical with murmuring fountains 
 and encircled by alcoves and colonnades, into which 
 the ardent rays of an Italian sun were denied entrance 
 by rich tapestries and embroidered hangings, will remind 
 the Oriental traveller of Damascus and Ispahan. Emi- 
 nently suggestive of an Eastern town, moreover, are the 
 overhanging galleries, with their small latticed windows ; 
 the low, small, and even squalid shops, where trade 
 seems to struggle for breathing-space ; the marble slabs 
 on tfhich the vendor exposed his wares, and received 
 their price ; and the awnings stretched across the street. 
 
 I close these references to recent excavations with a 
 striking incident which forcibly recalls to one's mind the 
 terrible " last scene " in the Pompeian drama. And I 
 give it as sketched by M. Marc Monnier with remarkable 
 fidelity and spirit* 
 
 Marc Monnier, " Pomp^i et les Pompe'iens" (" Tour du Monde," 1864), 415, 416. 
 
DISCO VER Y OF SKELE TONS. 265 
 
 In 1863, he says, under a mass of ruin, the excavators 
 discovered an empty space, at whose bottom some bones 
 were discernible. They .immediately summoned M. 
 Fiorelli to the spot, who conceived a felicitous idea. He 
 caused some plaster to be poured while liquid into the 
 hole, and the same operation was renewed at other points 
 where similar bones were thought to be visible. After- 
 wards the crust of pumice-stone and hard ashes which 
 enveloped, as in a shroud, these objects, having been 
 carefully removed, before the eye were revealed the skele- 
 tons of four human corpses. You may see them now 
 in the Museum at Naples. 
 
 One of these bodies is that of a woman, near whom 
 ninety-one pieces of money, two silver vases, some keys, 
 and jewels were discovered. She was making her escape 
 with these treasures when overtaken by death in the 
 narrow street. You may see her still, stretched upon 
 her left side ; you may distinguish her head-dress, the 
 texture of her clothes, two rings of silver which she wears 
 on her finger ; one of her hands is broken observe the 
 cellular structure of the bone ; the left arm is raised and 
 crooked, the delicate hand is clenched, so that the nails, 
 you can see, have entered the flesh ; all the body appears 
 swollen and contracted ; the legs alone, very slender, 
 remain extended ; you perceive that she struggled in a 
 prolonged agony ; her attitude is that of suffering, not of 
 death. 
 
 Behind her have fallen a woman and a young girl ; 
 the elder her mother, perhaps was of humble birth, to 
 judge from the size of her ears ; she wore on her finger 
 only a ring of iron ; her left leg raised and stretched, 
 
266 
 
 PICTURES OF THE DEAD. 
 
 nODIES DISCOVERED AMONG THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 shows that she too has suffered, though less than the 
 noble lady ; the poor lose less in dying ! Near her, as if 
 on the same bed, lies her young daughter ; one is at the 
 head, the other at the foot ; their legs cross. This young 
 girl, almost a child, produces a strange impression on 
 .the spectator ; you can clearly discern the texture, the 
 folds of her clothing the linen which covered her arm 
 down to the wrist some rents here and there exposing 
 the skin and the embroidery of the small shoes which 
 encased her feet ; above all, you see her last hour, her 
 supreme moment, as if one had been present at it, under 
 the wrath of Vesuvius she had raised her robe over her 
 head in her terror; she fell, while running, with her face 
 
A rOMTEIAN CORPSE. 
 
 67 
 
 BODY DISCOVKRED AMONG THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 against the ground, and being unable to rise, had sup- 
 ported on one arm her young and feeble head. One 
 hand is open, as if she had held something perhaps the 
 veil which covered her. The finger-bones pierce through 
 the plaster ; she did not endure any long pain, yet upon 
 her it is most pitiful to look ; she was not fifteen years 
 old. 
 
 The fourth body is that of a man of gigantic stature. 
 He has flung himself on his back to die bravely; his 
 arms and legs are straight, and immovable. His clothes 
 are very sharply defined, the tunic which once was new 
 and brilliant, the sandals (soleae) laced to the feet, with 
 the iron nails that fastened the wooden soles still plainly 
 discernible. On the bone of one finger he wears a ring of 
 iron ; his mouth is open, and some teeth are wanting ; his 
 
268 " LAST SCENE OF ALL." 
 
 nose and cheek-bones are boldly marked ; the eyes and 
 hair have disappeared, but the moustache remains. There 
 is a martial and resolute air in this fine corpse. 
 
 Such, then, are the scenes which occasionally meet 
 one's gaze in the excavations at Pompeii. 
 
XII. 
 
 Jtuseum at Uaples. 
 
 MUZEO NATIONALS TREASURES FROM POMPEII. 
 
 [|S I have already stated, the principal discoveries 
 made at Pompeii and Herculaneum are pre- 
 served in the National Museum of Naples 
 (formerly called the Muzeo Borbonico), and 
 my view of the treasures of antiquity which their excava- 
 tion has revealed can hardly be considered complete 
 without brief reference to them. It is true that a mere 
 enumeration of these choice and precious things can be 
 of no interest to the reader, while my space precludes 
 me from enlarging on their value as illustrations of ancient 
 art, manners, and customs. Yet am I unwilling to quit 
 the subject without affording some idea of their extent 
 and character. 
 
 First, as to the Frescoes. 
 
 Overbeck is of opinion that the Pompeians employed 
 three distinct kinds of mural painting.* Pure fresco; 
 fresco in which the colours are laid on thickly in the 
 centre, but diminish towards the edges ; and a kind of 
 
 Overbeck, " Pompeji," ii. 174-219. An elaborate examination of the fresco 
 work of the ancients will be found in the pages here referred to. 
 U0) 18 
 
e7o FRESCO-PAINTING. 
 
 tempera, or painting on dry stucco, in which the body of 
 colour is thin, but laid on evenly throughout. Pure fresco 
 paintings are rare, but the walls were almost invariably 
 prepared in this way as grounds for designs executed in 
 one of the other two methods. The general style of 
 execution is free, bold, and vigorous ; the artists were 
 evidently Greeks, or brought up in a Greek school ; and 
 their work is almost wholly of a decorative character. 
 It must therefore be judged from this point of view; not 
 as the compositions of a great master, carefully matured, 
 and designed for an independent existence, but as the 
 swift and spirited productions of a ready " brush," in- 
 tended to embellish the walls of an atrium or a tablinum. 
 The subjects are selected with a fine eye to effect ; the 
 colouring is always vivid and impressive ; the ornamenta- 
 tion shows an exhaustible wealth of fancy; and one can- 
 not help wishing that our English mansions were similarly 
 brightened and enriched by things of equal beauty. 
 
 Most noticeable in the Muzeo Nationale are the fol- 
 lowing frescoes, some of which have been described in 
 the preceding pages : 
 
 The Love- Merchant offering for sale a cage full of 
 Cupids. A handsome lady leans against a pillar, while 
 the merchant pulls from his cage a little Cupid by the 
 wing. Two more remain in it ; two have previously 
 been released ; while a fifth, who best succeeds in en- 
 gaging the lady's attention, flies towards her with two 
 garlands in his hands. 
 
 The Sacrifice of Iphigenia, supposed to be a copy of 
 the celebrated picture by Timanthes, which Pliny has 
 described (Hist. Nat., xxxv. 10, s. 36). 
 
SOME NOTABLE SPECIMENS. 
 
 27* 
 
 Ariadne deserted by Theseus. 
 
 Achilles instructed by Chiron to play upon the lyre. 
 The contrast of colours is particularly well managed and 
 striking. 
 
 ACHILLES INSTRUCTED BV CHIRON TO PLAV UPON THE LYRE. 
 
 Pylades and Orestts, chained, and led away to the 
 sacrifice. 
 
 Achilles delivering Briseis to the heralds of Aga- 
 memnon a chef-d 'ceuvre of ancient art 
 
 Theseus slaying the Minotaur. 
 
 Telephus nourished by the Hind, while Hercules, Pan, 
 and Fortune attend him this was removed from Her- 
 culaneum. 
 
 Antiope's revenge : Circe bound to the horns of the bull. 
 
272 MOSAICS FROM POMPEII. 
 
 Medea contemplating the death of her children, who, 
 meanwhile, are amusing themselves at play a nobly 
 conceived and admirably executed composition, imitated, 
 it is supposed, from the famous picture by Timomachus 
 of Byzantium, with which Julius Caesar enriched his 
 temple to Venus Genitrix. 
 
 The marriage of Bacchus and Ariadne full of " poeti- 
 cal intention." 
 
 Masinissa and Sophonisba an historical picture. 
 Sophonisba holds the " poisoned cup," which Masinissa, 
 while embracing her, prevails upon her to drink, that she 
 may escap'e the ignominy of figuring in Scipio's triumph. 
 
 The Seven Days of the Week, represented by the seven 
 planets. 
 
 The Danzatrice, or Dancing-Girls. 
 
 Mars and Venus. 
 
 We now pass to the Mosaics, which at Pompeii were em- 
 ployed not only for pavements but for mural decoration. 
 The " Battle of Issus " is the largest and finest ancient 
 mosaic now extant. It was found in the House of the 
 Faun ; as were Aerates riding on a tiger, or panther; and 
 a decorative design of masks and wreaths. 
 
 I have referred, in a preceding section, to the choragium, 
 or rehearsal, which exhibits the choragus instructing the 
 performers in their parts. Equally noteworthy are : 
 
 Lycurgus attacked by Bacchantes and a panther for 
 ordering the vines to be destroyed. 
 
 Theseus conquering the Minotaur. 
 
 The Three Graces. 
 
 A magpie stealing a mirror out of a basket. 
 
TREASURES OF ANCIENT ART. 273 
 
 Sculptures. The priestess Eumachia; the statue erected 
 in her honour by the guild of fullones, or dyers, at 
 Pompeii. 
 
 And from Herculaneum : Hercules and Omphale ; a 
 fine Roman bust of Alexander the Great, wearing the two 
 small horns, insignia of divinity, as son of Jupiter 
 Ammon ; a colossal figure of Claudius, seated ; a colossal 
 seated statue of Jupiter, with the head of Augustus ; the 
 fine statue known as Aristides, though by some critics 
 called ^Eschines a masterpiece of high intellectual ex- 
 pression, the embodiment in marble of the tranquil 
 dignity of Genius ; the Muses, found in the theatre at 
 Herculaneum ; busts of Bacchus, Demosthenes, and 
 Themistocles ; and statues of Cicero, Homer, and, 
 Sulla. 
 
 Bronze Statues. An admirable representation of the 
 Sleeping Faun, from Herculaneum ; two Discoboli, or 
 quoit-players, watching the result of a throw (Hercu- 
 laneum); the Dancing Faun, an exquisite conception, 
 found in the so-called House of the Faun at Pompeii ; 
 a beautiful group of Bacchus and Ampelus, from the 
 House of Pansa it was found, with some other objects 
 of importance, in a dyer's caldron, and had evidently 
 been wrapped up in a linen fabric, the owner hoping to 
 carry it with him in his flight from the city; colossal 
 statue of Augustus as Jupiter; a Drunken Faun, and a 
 life-size Mercury in repose very beautiful in idea, and 
 not less beautiful in execution both were discovered at 
 Herculaneum ; a small figure of Apollo (from Pompeii), 
 holding in one hand the lyre, in the other a plectrum 
 
374 
 
 ARTISTIC MEMORIALS. 
 
 the eyes are of silver ; Alexander the Great mounted on 
 his favourite horse, Bucephalus a vigorous composition 
 of high artistic excellence (from Herculaneum); Claudius 
 Onesus (from Herculaneum) ; and Fortune planted on a 
 globe (from Pompeii). 
 
 Among the smaller bronzes, chiefly excavated at 
 Pompeii, I may mention : 
 
 A candelabrum of exquisite design, three feet in height. 
 At the corner of a rectangular base stands a rich angular 
 pillar, surmounted by a capital, and adorned with a comic 
 mask on one side, and a bull's head, with the Greek 
 
 BKONZE CANDELABRA. 
 
 word Bv/cpaviov (bucranior, bovis cranium), on the other. 
 Four decorated branches project from the angles of the 
 abacus, and from these the lamps are suspended. The 
 plinth, or base, is inlaid with silver ornament, vine-leaves, 
 grapes, and fruit ; the leaves in silver, the stems and 
 fruit in a glittering brass. On one side is a naked 
 Bacchus, his plaited locks garlanded with ivy, riding on 
 a panther, and lifting a drinking cup in his right hand. 
 On the other, an altar, with a fire burning upon it. The 
 
DOMESTIC ARTICLES. 
 
 275 
 It 
 
 whole has a singularly graceful and charming effect, 
 was found in the House of Diomedes. 
 
 Ladies' toilette articles. These comprise ear-rings, some 
 with and some without pearl pendants ; square and round 
 mirrors of polished metal ; breast-pins ; rings with ser- 
 pents' heads ; necklaces; pots for rouge; combs, hair-pins, 
 and bodkins of ivory. 
 
 HOUSEHOLD TREASURES. 
 
 Kitchen utensils. Here you will see portable cooking- 
 stoves, jelly-moulds fashioned in imitation of birds and 
 animals, scales and weights, caldrons, saucepans, frying- 
 pans, lamps, lamp-stands, tripods, and such a variety of 
 pots as might gratify the cupidity of the most avaricious 
 English housewife. 
 
 There may also be found in this collection numerous 
 specimens of latches, locks, keys, door-hinges, bolts, 
 
276 GLASS AND TERRA-COTTA. 
 
 screws, stirrups, bridles, thimbles, distaffs, spindles, writ- 
 ing materials, bells, vases, military trophies, flesh-hooks, 
 braziers in a word, of almost every article that entered 
 into the economy of the daily life of antiquity. And it 
 may be asserted, as the conclusion to be drawn from 
 their examination, that they exhibit in a remarkable 
 manner the ancient love of elegance and grace, while 
 demonstrating how far inferior in fitness and ingenuity 
 the best of them are to modern contrivances. 
 
 Glass and Terra-cotta. I have already alluded to 
 the absurdity of the notion which long prevailed, that the 
 ancients were ignorant of glass. The Naples Collection 
 contains upwards of four thousand specimens, including 
 almost every article that could be fashioned in this 
 material, from a luminous semi-transparent vase (dis- 
 covered in the House of Diomedes), of artistic design 
 and graceful execution, to a common window-pane. In 
 terra-cotta the articles manufactured are of even greater 
 variety. Here is the amphora, in which " fine old crusty 
 wine " was preserved ; the money-box in which the 
 young Lucullus or the child Aglaia stored away their 
 savings ; the dishes which held at table the Ambracian 
 kid or the murcena from some celebrated fish-pond ; the 
 lamps which lit up the tablinum, the atrium, or the 
 cubicula ; the votive statuettes offered by the devout at 
 the shrines of their favourite deities ; and the sepulchral 
 urns which finally contained the ashes of the dead. You 
 may ascend from the cellar and the kitchen to the boudoir 
 and the banqueting-room, and find an abundant store 
 of articles suitable for each apartment. The ancient 
 
ANCIENT WRITING MATERIALS. 277 
 
 potters must surely have been men of substance, from the 
 extraordinary demand which prevailed for their wares. 
 
 To notice the Gold and Silver Ornaments, worn by 
 the dandies and beauties of Pompeii, or employed to 
 decorate the houses of the wealthy; to describe the vases 
 and the cameos, the tripods and the bas-reliefs, the 
 gems and intaglios, which have been found among its 
 ruins, would be simply impossible, even if I restricted 
 myself to the dull baldness of a catalogue. I can only 
 say that they throw an important light on the arts, 
 manners, and customs of antiquity, and brighten up many 
 allusions in the classic writers which otherwise would 
 baffle us by their obscurity. In conclusion, therefore, I 
 shall content myself with a reference to the Papyri, dis- 
 covered in 1752 in a suburban villa at Herculaneum. 
 These are formed of thin laminae, or layers, of the vege- 
 table tissue of the papyrus reed,* so cemented together 
 with a kind of glue as to form a long narrow sheet, vary- 
 ing from eight to sixteen inches in breadth, and polished 
 in such a manner as to provide a suitable surface for the 
 reception of the ink a black liquid applied by means of 
 a reed or calamus. The number of papyri exceeds 
 seventeen hundred and fifty, and of these nearly a third 
 have been unrolled and deciphered. Among them are 
 two books of a treatise " De Natura," by Epicurus, and es- 
 says or discourses on Music and Rhetoric by Philodomus. 
 Those hitherto deciphered have been published in a work 
 entitled " Herculanensium Voluminum quae supersunt."t 
 
 * A plant of the genus Cypfrta, indigenous to Egypt, 
 t " Edinburgh Rcviow," October 1862. 
 
273 "FINIS CORONA T OPUS." 
 
 Nearly all the MSS. have lost their first leaves, but the 
 titles are repeated at the end. They are written in 
 columns from three to four inches wide ; each column 
 containing from twenty to forty lines, and separated from 
 another by a space of about an inch. The sentences are 
 not distinguished by stops of any kind. 
 
 The above imperfect list includes the more notable 
 discoveries made in the buried cities of Campania, and is 
 sufficient, at all events, to convey to the reader's mind a 
 tolerably accurate idea of their intrinsic value and archae- 
 ological importance. 
 
 BREAD DISCOVERED AT POMPEII. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 ACTORS of Greece and Rome, 127, 128. 
 
 >Eola, Isle of, 12. 
 
 jErarium, the, uses of, 77. 
 
 Alcobierre, his excavations at Pompeii, 
 48. 
 
 Ainalfi, 12. 
 
 Amphitheatres, when first erected, 108 ; 
 history of, 109; description of, 109, 
 1 10 ; their interior arrangements, 1 1 1, 
 112; laws and institutions of, 112, 113; 
 at Pompeii, 122-125. 
 
 Amusements, Greek and Roman, cha- 
 racter of, 103. 
 
 Anclabatae, the, 105. 
 
 Appian, cited, 18. 
 
 Atrium, the, in a Roman house, de- 
 scribed, 93. 
 
 Auctorati, the, 104. 
 
 Augustales, the, described, 85. 
 
 Avernus, Lake of, 13, 24. 
 
 BASILICA, the, description of, 74-77 : 
 origin of, 74 ; dimensions, 77 ; con- 
 stitution of, 75 ; interior, 76. 
 
 Bas-reliefs at Pompeii, 113, 121. 
 
 Baths, the Roman, description of, 152, 
 et sey. ; vast extent of, 153-156; in- 
 auguration of, 155, 156 ; the apody- 
 ttrium, 157 ; decorations of the apart- 
 ments, 158 ; the frigidarivm, 159- 
 161 ; the tepidarium, 161-167; '" c 
 calidarium, 167-169 ; the Women's 
 Baths, 170, 171 ; the New Baths at 
 Pompeii, 171, 172; bathing processes 
 described, 173-175 ; oils and unguents, 
 176; perfumes and cosmetics, 176, 177; 
 minor arrangements, 177. 
 
 Beattie, Dr. W., quoted, 252. 
 
 Bckker, cited, 138, 162, 238. 
 
 Bellaria, the, 92. 
 
 Blacas collection, the, 258. 
 
 Brand, quoted. 224. 
 
 Burial rites amongst the Romans, 237, 
 238 ; ceremonies of interment de- 
 scribed, 238-241. 
 
 Byron, quoted, 152. 
 
 C*NA, a Roman, details of, 91, 92. 
 Camacula, the, described, 91. 
 Caligula, anecdote of, 125. 
 Campania, its volcanic activity, 24 ; 
 
 early legends of, 24. 
 Caricatures, Pompeian, specimens of, 20. 
 Cassius, Dion, cited, 107. 
 Catullus, quoted, 180. 
 Chalcidium, the, description and history 
 
 of, 77-81. 
 
 Chapman, the poet, quoted, 97. 
 Commodus, anecdote of, 125. 
 Cunuc, 13. 
 
 DIMACHERI, the, 105. 
 Dobell, Sydney, quoted, 152. 
 Domestic articles discovered at Pom- 
 peii, 274-276. 
 Donaldson, cited, 61. 
 Dyer, Dr., quoted, 21, 42, 211, 212. 
 
 EATING-HOUSE, a Pompeian, 2(51-263. 
 Elboeuf, Prince d', reference to, 43. 
 Ennemoser, quoted, 150. 
 Equites, the, 105. 
 Essedari, the, 105. 
 Eumachia, statue of, 79. 
 Eustace, quoted, 154. 
 Excavations at Pompeii, how conducted, 
 258-261. 
 
 FORUM, the Pompeian, 62 ; its fre- 
 quenters, 62-65, 72, 73 ; description 
 of, 65 ; its temples, 66-71. 
 
 Frescoes, mythological, description of, 
 151, 185, >ii, 270-272. 
 
 Fullonica, the, described, 206-209. 
 
280 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Funeral Triclinium, the, described, 244, 
 245. 
 
 GARUM, a pickle so called, 59. 
 
 Gates, the Pompeian, described, 49- 
 
 5 1 - 
 Cell, Sir William, quoted, 66, 68, 78, 84, 
 
 9. 97, 155, 159. ^o, 176. I9 8 *99, 
 
 220. 
 
 Gibbon, quoted, 109, no. 
 
 Gladiators, first exhibited, 104 ; whence 
 obtained, 104 ; various classes of, 
 104-106 ; shows of, described, 106, 
 108, ii i, 112 ; laws of gladiatorial com- 
 bats, 112, 113; sculptures represent- 
 ing, 113-121. 
 
 Graffiti, the, 56. 
 
 Granaries, the, 68. 
 
 Gustatio, the, 91. 
 
 HEMICYCLES, their nature and uses, 
 249, 250. 
 
 Herculaneum, its ancient splendour, 14 ; 
 its destruction, 15, 16, 22 ; its origin 
 and early history, 22, 23 ; excavations 
 in, 43 ; re-discovery of, 252 ; ruins at, 
 253 ; theatre of, 253, 254 ; its past and 
 present contrasted, 255. 
 
 Homer, quoted, 13, 24, 89, 196. 
 
 Hoplomachi, the, 105. 
 
 Horace, quoted, 86, 113, 135, 155, 184. 
 
 Houses at Pompeii, description of, 180- 
 187 ; general arrangements, 189, 190 ; 
 the atrium and tablinum, 181 ; ahe, 
 fauces, compluvium, 182 ; peristyle 
 and cubicula, 183 ; triclinium, 183- 
 187 ; oeci and exedra, 187 ; pinaco- 
 theca and bibliotheca, 188 ; balneum, 
 188. 
 
 Houses, of the Sculptor, 145, 146 ; the 
 Tragic Poet, 190-1202 ; of Ceres, 203, 
 204 ; the Fountains, 204-206 ; Hol- 
 conius, 209-212 ; Pansa, 212-217 ; Sal- 
 lust, 217-219; the Dioscuri, 219-222; 
 the Centaur, 223. 
 
 ISEON, the, description of, 146-150. 
 Isis, worship of, 150. 
 
 JUVENAL, quoted, 92, 112, 177. 
 KAVANAGH, Miss, quoted, 255.' 
 
 LAQUBATORES, the, 105. 
 
 Litemum, 13. 
 
 Lucan, quoted, no. 
 
 Lucretius, quoted, 103. 
 
 Ludi amphitheatrales, description of the, 
 
 103126. 
 Lytton, Lord, quoted, 51, 52, 73, 74. 
 
 MARSTON, quoted, 223. 
 Martial, quoted, 14, 176. 
 
 Mazois, cited, 184, 248. 
 Milton, quoted, 12. 
 Mirmillones, the, 105. 
 Misenum, 12. 
 
 Monnier, M. Marc, quoted, 69, 264. 
 Mosaic, illustrative of domestic arrange- 
 ments, 130. 
 Mosaics at Pompeii, 272. 
 
 NAPLES, Bay of, n ; beauty of, n ; com- 
 mercial advantages of, 16 ; ancient 
 prosperity of, 17 ; Oscan colonies of, 
 17- 
 
 ORNAMENTS discovered at Pompeii, 
 
 277. 
 Overbeck, quoted, 43, 47, 57, 58, 69, 
 
 76, 84, 87, 115, 118, 137, 139, 145, 162, 
 
 169, '73, 209, 215, 242, 243, 247, 
 
 269. 
 
 PJESTUM, 12. 
 
 Paintings discovered at Pompeii, 194- 
 200. 
 
 Papyri at Pompeii, 277, 278. 
 
 Persius, quoted, 174. 
 
 Pindar, cited, 17. 
 
 Pistor, shop of a, described, 59. 
 
 Pliny, his account of the eruption of 
 Vesuvius, 27-36 ; cited, 59. 
 
 Pompeii, ancient magnificence of, 14 ; 
 present desolation, 15; destruction of, 
 15, 16 ; its origin, 17 ; early history, 18; 
 captured by Sulla, 18 ; a Roman co- 
 lony, 18, 19 ; quarrel with Nuceria, 
 19, 20 ; its caricatures, 20 ; its wealth, 
 21 ; description of its ruin, 27-42 ; at- 
 tempted restoration by Nero, 42 ; 
 early excavations at, 42, 43 ; by the 
 Neapolitan government, 44, 45 ; royal 
 visits to the buried city, 45, 46 ; its 
 geographical position, 47, 48 ; its en- 
 virons, 48 ; its walls, 48, 49 ; its gates, 
 49-51; its streets, 51-53; its street- 
 literature, 54-58 ; its shops, 58-61 ; 
 the Forum, 62-96; its amphitheatre 
 and public games, 103-126; its thea- 
 tres, 127-143 ; its barracks, 143-145 ; 
 its public buildings, 145-151 ; its 
 Thermae, or Baths, 152-178; its 
 houses, 179-223 ; its streets, 223-234 ; 
 its tombs, 237-251 ; recent discoveries 
 at, 256-268. 
 
 RETIARH, the, 106. 
 Rimmel, quoted, 176. 
 Rogers, quoted, n, 12, 62. 
 
 SCULPTURES at Pompeii, 273. 
 Secutores, the, 106. 
 Senaculum, the, described, 83, 84. 
 Shakspeare, quoted, 127. 
 Shelley, quoted, 47. 
 
LIST OF ILLVSTRA TIONS. 
 
 281 
 
 Skeletons at Pompeii, discovery of, 
 
 265-268. 
 Soldiers' Barracks, the, described, 143, 
 
 '44- 
 
 Sorrento, 12. 
 
 Spartianus, quoted, 175. 
 
 Stabix, position of, 23 ; early history 
 of, 23 ; under the Romans, 23. 
 
 Statues in bronze at Pompeii, 273, 274. 
 
 Strabo, references to, 17, 24. 
 
 Ftreets of Pompeii, described and par- 
 ticularized, 51-53, 223, etseq. ; Street 
 of Domitian, 52 ; of Abundance, 52 ; 
 of Fortune, 52 : of Nola, 52 ; of For- 
 tune, 101 : of Herculaneum, 223, 224; 
 of Narcissus, 225 ; of Modestus, 225 ; 
 of the Fullonica, 225 ; of the Mer- 
 curies, 225-229 ; of the Faun, 229 ; 
 of the Baths, 230, 231 ; of Stabise, 
 231-233. 
 
 Suetonius, cited, 19. 
 
 Sulla, capture of Pompeii by, 18. 
 
 TASSO, Torquato, reference to, 12. 
 Temples of Pompeii, account of, 66, et 
 
 in mult is locis ', of Jupiter, 66, 67 ; 
 
 of Venus, 69-71; of Quirinus, 81-83; 
 
 of Fortune, 97-102 ; of Hercules, 134- 
 
 136 ; of JEsculapius, 145 ; of I sis, 
 
 146-150. 
 
 Tennyson, quoted, 21. 
 Theatre, a Roman, described, 128, 129; 
 
 scena and proscenium, 129, 130; pul- 
 
 pitum and orchestra, 131 ; scenery 
 
 of, 131, 132 ; dramas represented in, 
 '3 2 i J 33 : historical sketch of, 133, 
 '34- 
 
 Theatres of Pompeii, described, 134, 
 135 ; the Great Theatre, 137 ; intenor 
 of do., 138-140; the Little Theatre, 
 or Odeum) 141 ; internal arrange- 
 ments of, 141-143. 
 
 Thermopolium, a, described, 60. 
 
 Tholos, a, described, 93. 
 
 Tibullus, quoted, 237. 
 
 Tombs of Pompeii, account of, 237 ; of 
 Diomedes, 241, 242 ; of Cents and 
 Labeo, 242 ; of the Libellae, 243 ; Tomb 
 with the Marble Door, 243 ; of Na:- 
 vpleia Tyche, 245, 246; of the Ista- 
 cidian family, 246 ; of Calventius 
 Quietus, 247, 248 ; of Patricius Scau- 
 rus, 248 ; of Tyche, 248 ; of the Glass 
 Amphora, 248 ; of the Garlands, 249 ; 
 of Terentius Felix, 249 ; of the Priest- 
 ess Mamia, 250. 
 
 Tribunal, the, 150. 
 
 Typhon, legend of, 24. 
 
 VKNATIONES, the, history and account 
 
 of, 106-108. 
 Vesuvius, the mountain, grandeur of, 
 
 13; various eruptions of, 15, 24, 27; 
 
 legends connected with, 24 ; annals 
 
 of, 27 ; great eruption of, described by 
 
 Pliny, 27-36. 
 
 Virgil, quoted, 12, 32, 129, 182, 241. 
 Vitruvius, quoted, 189. 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 'The Italics indicate whole-page EMfra-i 
 
 Page 
 
 i Fran t is piece View of Vesuvius 
 from tlte Site of Pompeii. 
 
 2. A Pompeian Caricature 20 
 
 3. Mount Vesuvius previous to the 
 
 Eruption of A.D. 63 25 
 
 4. Mount Vesuvius af fertile Erup- 
 
 tion 38 
 
 5. Street of Sallust (Strada di Sal- 
 
 lustio) 53 
 
 6. Graffite, or Wall Caricature 56 
 
 7. A Baker's Shop 59 
 
 8. Thermopolium. 60 
 
 9. Section of do 61 
 
 10. Forum of Pompeii. 63 
 
 1 1. Temple of Venus 69 
 
 12. Fresco found at Pompeii 72 
 
 13. Statues of Li via and Drusu> 88 
 
 14.. Temple of Fortune restored 98 
 
 15. Specimen of Marbles found at 
 
 Pompeii 101 
 
 16. Combat between a Veles and a 
 
 Samnite 117 
 
 17. Combat between a Thracian and 
 
 a Mirmillo 118 
 
 18. Combat between a Mirmillo and 
 
 a Samnite 120 
 
 19. Combat between a Light-armed 
 
 Gladiator and a Samnite 120 
 
 20. Arming for the Combat taa 
 
 21. Curricle or Chariot Bar for two 
 
 Horses 125 
 
 22. Mosaic : Actors instructed by 
 
 the Choragus 130 
 
 23. Masks, Dwarf, and Monkey. ...133 
 Comic Scene 1 40 
 
 25. Fresco : A Landscape 1 
 
282 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRA TIONS. 
 
 6. Mythological Frescoes 151 
 
 27. The Frigidarium 160 
 
 28. View of the Tepidarium 163 
 
 29. Ceiling of the Tepidarium 166 
 
 30. Ornaments of the Tepidarium. .167 
 
 31. Calidarium 168 
 
 32. A Wine-cart 178 
 
 33. Female Centaur and Bacchante 185 
 
 34. Male Centaur and Bacchante... 185 
 
 35. An Ancient Galley 188 
 
 36. House of the Tragic Poet 191 
 
 37. Cave Canem ! 193 
 
 38. Achilles delivers Briseis to the 
 
 Heralds of Ajax 195 
 
 39. Head of Achilles 196 
 
 40. Sacrifice of Iphigenia 201 
 
 41. Fullers at Work 207 
 
 42. Ancient Fullers 208 
 
 43. Bacchus and Ariadne 211 
 
 44. Atrium of the House of Pansa 213 
 
 Page 
 
 45. Jupiter and his Eagle 220 
 
 46. Court in the House of the Quaes- 
 
 tor 222 
 
 47. Achilles at the Court of Lyco- 
 
 medes 226 
 
 48. Allegorical Figure 227 
 
 49. View of the Villa of Diomedes 235 
 
 50. Street of Tombs 239 
 
 51. Street at Pompeii recently ex- 
 
 plored 250 
 
 52. Bodies discovered among the 
 
 Ruins of Pompeii 266 
 
 53. Body discovered among the 
 
 Ruins of Pompeii 267 
 
 54. Achilles instructed by Chiron to 
 
 Play upon the Lyre 271 
 
 55. Bronze Candelabra 274 
 
 56. Household Treasures 275 
 
 57. Bread discovered at Pompeii . . . 278 
 Plan of Pompeii 13