Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 2 of 2)

“Pompeii,” writes Mr. Taylor to M. Ch. Nodier, “has passed near twenty centuries in the bowels of the earth; nations have trodden above its site, while its monuments still remained standing, and all their ornaments untouched. A cotemporary of Augustus, could he return hither, might say, ‘I greet thee, O my country! my dwelling is the only spot upon the earth which has preserved its form; an immunity extending even to the smallest objects of my affection. Here is my couch; there are my favourite authors. My paintings, also, are still fresh, as when the ingenious artist spread them over my walls. Come, let us traverse the town; let us visit the theatre; I recognise the spot where I joined, for the first time, in the plaudits given to the fine scenes of Terence and Euripides. Rome is but one vast museum; – Pompeii is a living antiquity.’”

The houses of Pompeii are upon a small scale; generally of one, sometimes of two stories. The principal apartments are always behind, inclosing a court, with a portico round it, and a marble cistern in the middle. The pavements are all mosaic, and the walls are stained with agreeable colours; the decorations are basso-relievos in stucco, and paintings in medallion. Marble seems to have been common.

On both sides of the street[124 - Brewster.] the houses stand quite in contact with each other, as in modern times. They are nearly of the same height and dimensions, being similarly paved and painted. The houses, as we have before stated, are on a small scale. The principal apartments are always behind, surrounding a court, with a small piazza about it, and having a cistern of marble in its centre.

An edifice, supposed to be Sallust’s house, has an unusually showy appearance. The rooms are painted with the figures of gods and goddesses, and the floors decorated with marbles and mosaic pavements.

The gates of the city, now visible, are five in number. These are known by the names of Herculaneum or Naples, Vesuvius, Nola, Sarno, and Stabiæ[125 - Chambers.]. The city was surrounded with walls, the greater portion of which have also been traced. Its greatest length is little more than half a mile, and its circuit nearly two miles. It occupied an area of about one hundred and sixty-one acres. The general figure of the city is something like that of an egg. There have been excavated about eighty houses, an immense number of small shops, the public baths, two theatres, two basilicæ, eight temples, the prison, the amphitheatre, with other public buildings of less note; and also fountains and tombs. The streets are paved with large irregular pieces of lava, neatly dovetailed into each other. This pavement is rutted with the chariot wheels, sometimes to the depth of one inch and a half. In general, the streets are so narrow, that they may be crossed at one stride; where they are of greater breadth, a stepping-stone was placed in the middle for the convenience of foot passengers. On each side of the street there is a footpath, the sides of which are provided with curbs, varying from one foot to eighteen inches high, to prevent the encroachments of the chariots.

It is well known[126 - Anon.], that amongst the Romans bathing formed part of every day’s occupation. In the year 1824, the baths of Pompeii were excavated. They are admirably arranged, spacious, highly decorated, and superior to any thing of the kind in modern cities. They are, fortunately, in good preservation, and throw considerable light on what the ancients have written upon the subject. Various circumstances prove, that the completion of the baths only a short while preceded the destruction of the city.

They occupy a considerable space, and are divided into three separate apartments. One of these was set apart for the fire-places and the accommodation of the servants, and the other two were each occupied by a set of baths, one of which was appropriated to the men, and the other to the women. The apartments and passages are paved with white marble in mosaic, or alternate white and black squares. The chambers are ornamented with various devices, and highly finished. Above one thousand lamps were discovered during the excavation.

There have been two theatres excavated, a large and a small one; both of which display the remains of considerable magnificence. They are constructed after the usual plan of a Roman theatre. The theatre is formed upon the side of a hill, the corridor being the highest part, so that the audience, on entering, descended at once to their seats. There is space to contain about five thousand persons. This theatre appears to have been entirely covered with marble, although only a few fragments remain.

The smaller theatre nearly resembles the larger one in plan and disposition of parts; but there is this remarkable difference; – it appears from an inscription to have been permanently roofed. It has been computed that it accommodated one thousand five hundred persons.

The amphitheatre of Pompeii does not differ in any particular from other Roman buildings of the same kind. Its form is oval; its length is four hundred and thirty feet; and its greatest breadth three hundred and thirty-five feet. There were paintings in fresco – one, representing a tigress fighting with a wild boar; another, a stag chased by a lioness; another, a battle between a bull and a bear. There were other representations besides these; but the whole disappeared upon exposure to the atmosphere[127 - Chambers.].

Adjoining to the theatre[128 - Chambers.], a building has been excavated, called, from the style of its architecture, the Greek temple; otherwise, the temple of Hercules. The date of its erection some have supposed to be as far back as eight hundred years before the Christian era. It is in a very dilapidated state. Before the steps in front there is an inclosure, supposed to have been a pen to contain victims for the sacrifice; and by its side there are two altars.

The temple of Isis[129 - Anon.] is one of the most perfect examples, now existing, of the parts and disposition of an ancient temple. The skeleton of a priest was found in one of the rooms. Near his remains lay an axe, from which it would appear, that he had delayed his departure till the door was closed up, and so attempted to break through the walls with his axe. He had already forced his way through two; but before he could pass the third, was suffocated by the vapour. Within the sacred precincts, doubtless, lay a number of skeletons; probably those of the priests, who, reposing a vain confidence in their deity, would not desert her temple, until escape was hopeless. Several paintings of the priests of Isis, and the ceremonies of their worship, were found, together with a statue of the deity herself.

One of the buildings, surrounding the forum, has received the appellation of the Pantheon, from there having been found in the centre of its area an altar encircled with twelve pedestals; on which, it has been supposed, stood the statues of the mythological deities. The area is one hundred and twenty feet in length, by ninety in breadth. Numerous cells, attached to this building, have been found; these, in all probability, were for the accommodation of priests. Near to this place were discovered statues of Nero and Messalina, and ninety-three brass coins.

Adjoining to the Pantheon[130 - Chambers.] is a building, supposed to have been a place for the meeting of the senate or town-council. In the centre is an altar, and on each side of this, in two large recesses, stand two pedestals, which most likely supported effigies of the gods to whom the place was sacred. Near this is a small temple, elevated on a basement. On the altar there is an unfinished bas-relief, representing a sacrifice. In the cells attached to the building were found a number of vessels in which wine was kept.

Adjoining to this is a large building, which, from various inscriptions, appears to have been erected at the expense of a lady named Eumachia, for the benefit of the public. Amongst other relics found, was a statue of this lady, five feet four inches high.

The forum of Pompeii[131 - Ibid.] is situated at the northeast corner of the city, and is entered by a flight of steps, leading downwards through an arch in a brick wall, still partly covered with stucco. Upon entering, the spectator finds himself in a large area, surrounded by columns, the ruins of temples, triumphal arches, and other public erections. There are, also, a number of pedestals for the support of statues.

There is a subterranean wine-vault[132 - Philip.] near the city gates, which has been examined with great attention. It is very extensive, and contains the earthen vessels and bottles wherein the wine had been kept. They were arranged in the same precise order as previous to the awful eruption which desolated the city. The interior of this place much resembles cloisters, the roof being arched with strong stones. It was in these vaults where the unhappy inhabitants sought refuge from the sudden and overwhelming shower of fire and ashes.

After such an amazing lapse of time[133 - Brewster.], liquids have been found approaching to a fluid state – an instance of which cannot be sufficiently admired, in a phial of oil, conceived to be that of olives. It is white, greasy to the touch, and emits the smell of rancid oil. An earthen vase was found, in the cellars, containing wine, which now resembles a lump of porous dark violet-coloured glass. Eggs, also, have been found, whole and empty.

On the north side[134 - Anon.] of the Pantheon, there runs a street, named the Street of Dried Fruits, from the quantity of fruits of various kinds, preserved in glass vases, which have been found. Scales, money, moulds for pastry and bread, were discovered in the shops, and a bronze statue of Fame, small and well executed; having bright bracelets of gold upon the arms. In the entrance which conducts from this street to the Pantheon a box was found, containing a gold ring with an engraved stone in it; also, forty-one silver, and one thousand and thirty-six brass, coins.

On the walls are representations of Cupid making bread. The mill stands in the centre of the picture, with an ass on each side; from which it has been inferred, that these animals were employed in grinding corn. Besides these, there are in this building a great number of very beautiful paintings.

Three bakers’ shops[135 - Parker.] at least have been found, all in a tolerable state of preservation. The mills, the oven, the kneading-troughs, the vessels for containing water, flour, and leaven, have all been discovered, and seem to leave nothing wanting to our knowledge. In some vessels the very flour remained, still capable of being identified, though reduced almost to a cinder. One of these shops was attached to the house of Sallust; the other to that of Pansa. The third seems to have belonged to a sort of capitalist: for instead of renting a mere dependency in another man’s house, he lived in a tolerably good house of his own, of which the bakery forms a part.

Beneath the oven is an ash-pit. To the right is a large room, which is conjectured to be a stable. The jaw of an ass, and some other fragments of a skeleton, were found in it. There is a reservoir for water at the farther end, which passes through the wall, and is common both to this room and the next, so that it could be filled without going into the stable.

In another place[136 - Chambers.] there is an oil-mill; in a third, supposed to have been a prison, stocks were found; and in a fourth were pieces of armour, whence it has been called the Guard-room. In this quarter of the city a bronze helmet was found, enriched with bas-reliefs, relating to the principal events of the capture of Troy. Another helmet found represents the Triumph of Rome; greaves of bronze, highly ornamented, also were found.

Contiguous to the little theatre, the house of a sculptor has been cleared. There were found statues; some half finished; others just begun: with blocks of marble, and all the tools required by the sculptor.

The walls, in the interior of the buildings, are generally adorned with fresco paintings, the colours of which are in a state of perfect preservation, and have all the freshness of recent finishing. The shells, also, which decorate some of the public fountains, have sustained no injury from the lapse of ages, or the volcanic products in which they were buried.

During the progress of excavation,[137 - Knight.] at Pompeii, a painting was found in the Casa Carolina, which scarcely held together to be copied, and fell to pieces upon the first rain. It was of grotesque character, and represented a pigmy painter, whose only covering was a tunic. He is at work upon the portrait of another pigmy, clothed in a manner to indicate a person of distinction. The artist is sitting opposite to his sitter, at an awful distance from the picture, which is placed under an easel, similar in construction to ours. By the side of the artist stands his palette, which is a little table with four feet, and by it is a pot to wash his pencils in. He therefore was working with gum, or some sort of water-colours: but he did not confine himself to this branch of the arts; for to the right we see his colour-grinder, who prepares, in a vessel placed over some hot coals, colours mixed with wax and oil. Two amateurs enter the studio, and appear to be conversing with respect to the picture. On the noise occasioned by their entrance, a scholar, seated in the distance, turns round to look at them. It is difficult to explain the presence of the bird in the painting-room. The picture is not complete: a second bird, and, at the opposite side, a child playing with a dog, had perished before Mazois (an artist who has preserved some of the most valuable remains at Pompeii) copied it. This picture is very curious, since it shows how few things, in the mechanical practice of painting, have changed during two thousand years.

There is another picture[138 - Knight.] preserved at Pompeii, representing a female, employed in making a copy of a bearded Bacchus. She is dressed in a light green tunic, without sleeves, over which she wears a dark red mantle. Beside her is a box, such, as we are told by Varro, as painters used, divided into compartments, into which she dips her brush.

Among the recent discoveries at Pompeii[139 - Brewster.], may also be enumerated a bronze vase, encrusted with silver, the size and form of which have been much admired, and a bronze statue of Apollo, of admirable workmanship. The deity is represented as sacrificing, with his avenging arm, the family of Niobe; and the beauty of its form, and the life of the figure, are so fine, that it is said to be the finest statue in the Bourbon Museum. “As to the furniture,” says Mr. Mathews, “they illustrate Solomon’s apophthegm, that there is nothing new under the sun; for there is much, that, with a little scouring, would scarcely appear old-fashioned at the present day.”

“It was a source of great amusement,” says Mr. Blunt, “to observe the doors of café-keepers, barbers, tailors, tradesmen, in short, of every description, surmounted by very tolerable pictures, indicating their respective occupations. Thus, at a surgeon and apothecary’s, for instance, I have seen a series of paintings displaying a variety of cases, to which the doctor is applying his healing hand. In one he is extracting a tooth; in another applying an emetic; in a third bandaging an arm or a leg.” In 1819, several surgical instruments were discovered in the ruins of a house near the gate adjoining to the burial-ground[140 - Brewster.].

In a street, which conducts to the Forum, called the Street of Fortune, an immense number of utensils have been found. Amongst other articles, were vases, basins with handles, bells, elastic springs, hinges, buckles for harness, a lock, an inkstand, gold ear-rings, a silver spoon, an oval caldron, a saucepan, a mould for pastry, and a weight of alabaster used in spinning, with its ivory axis remaining; a number of lamps, three boxes, in one of which were found several coins of Titus, Vespasian, Domitian, &c. Among the most curious things found, were seven glazed plates, packed in straw; a pair of scales and steelyard were also discovered.

Fishing-nets[141 - Chambers.], some of them quite entire, have been found in great numbers in Herculaneum as well as in Pompeii. Linen, also, with the texture well defined. In the shop of a baker a loaf was found, still retaining its form, with the baker’s name stamped upon it, and which, to satisfy the curiosity of modern professors of the art, we shall give: it was “Eleris J. Crani Riser.” On the counter of an apothecary’s shop was a box of pills; and by the side of it, a small cylindrical roll, evidently ready for cutting up.

Along the south-side of another building runs a broad street, which, from various articles of jewellery being found there, is called the Street of the Silversmiths. On the walls of the shops several inscriptions appear, one of which has been thus translated: “The Scribe Issus beseeches Marcus Cerrinius Vatia, the Ædile, to patronise him; he is deserving.”

Near to the small theatre, a large angular inclosure has been excavated, which has been called the Provision Market by some, by others the Soldiers’ Quarters. It contains a number of small chambers, supposed to have been occupied by butchers, and vendors of meats, liquors, &c. In one of these was discovered utensils for the manufacture of soap.

If we again fancy for a moment the furniture[142 - Blunt.], implements, and utensils, which would be brought to light in our own houses and shops, supposing them to be overwhelmed, and thus laid open some centuries hence, we might conjecture that many of the same description must have belonged to those of a nation so civilised as the Romans; but still it is pleasing to ascertain, from a testimony that cannot deceive us, the evidence of the relics themselves, that they had scales very little different from our own; silver spoons, knives (but no forks), gridirons, spits, frying-pans, scissars, needles, instruments of surgery, syringes, saws, and many more, all made of fine brass; that they had hammers, and picks, and compasses, and iron crows, all of which were met with in a statuary’s shop; and that they had stamps which they used, as well for other purposes, as for impressing the name of its owner on bread before it was sent to the oven. Thus on a loaf, still preserved, is legible: Siligo C. Glanii: – This is Caius Glanius’ loaf.

Many of their seals were preserved in this manner; consisting of an oblong piece of metal, stamped with letters of the motto; instruments very similar to those used in England for marking linen. Thus possessed of types and of ink, how little were the Romans removed from the discovery of the art and advantages of printing!

At the end of one of the streets[143 - Gell.], was discovered a skeleton of a Pompeian, who, apparently for the sake of sixty coins, a small plate, and a saucepan of silver, had remained in the house till the street was already half filled with volcanic matter. From the situation in which he was found, he had apparently been arrested in the act of escaping from the window. Two others were also found in the same street.

Only sixty skeletons[144 - Parker.] have been discovered in all; it is, therefore, clear, that the greater part of the inhabitants had found time to escape. There were found in the vault of a house in the suburbs, the skeletons of seventeen individuals, who appear to have sought refuge there from the showers of ashes which poured from the sky. There was also preserved, in the same place[145 - Chambers.], a sketch of a woman, supposed to have been the mistress of the house, with an infant locked in her arms. Her form was imprinted upon the work, which formed her sepulchre; but only the bones remained. To these a chain of gold was suspended; and rings, with jewels, were upon her fingers. The remains of a soldier, also, were found in a niche, where, in all probability, he was performing the office of sentinel. His hand still grasped a lance, and the usual military accoutrements were also found there.

In one of the baths[146 - Taylor.], as we have before stated, was found the skeleton of a female, whose arms and neck were covered with jewels. In addition to gold bracelets, was a necklace; the workmanship of which is marvellous. Our most skilful jewellers could make nothing more elegant, or of a better taste. It has all the beautiful finish of the Moorish jewels of Granada, and of the same designs which are to be found in the dresses of the Moorish women, and of the Jewesses of Tetuan, on the coast of Africa.

It is generally supposed, that the destruction of this city was sudden and unexpected; and it is even recorded, that the people were surprised and overwhelmed at once by the volcanic storm, while in the theatre. (Dionys. of Hal.) But to this opinion many objections may be raised, amongst which this; that the number of skeletons in Pompeii does not amount to sixty; and ten times this number would be inconsiderable, when compared with the extent and population of the city.

The most perfect and most curious object, however, that has yet been discovered, is a villa at a little distance from the town. It consists of three courts; in the third and largest is a pond, and in the centre a small temple. There are numerous apartments of every description, paved in mosaic, coloured and adorned with various paintings on the walls; all in a very beautiful style. This villa is supposed to have belonged to Cicero.

“The ruins of Pompeii,” says Mr. Eustace, “possess a secret power, that captivates and melts the soul! In other times, and in other places, one single edifice, a temple, a theatre, a tomb, that had escaped the wreck of ages, would have enchanted us; nay, an arch, the remnant of a wall, even one solitary column, was beheld with veneration; but to discover a single ancient house, the abode of a Roman in his privacy, the scene of his domestic hours, was an object of fond, but hopeless longing. Here, not a temple, nor a theatre, nor a house, but a whole city rises before us, untouched, unaltered – the very same as it was eighteen hundred years ago, when inhabited by Romans. We range through the same streets; tread the very same pavement; behold the same walls; enter the same doors; and repose in the same apartments. We are surrounded by the same objects; and out of the same windows we contemplate the same scenery. In the midst of all this, not a voice is heard – not even the sound of a foot – to disturb the loneliness of the place, or to interrupt his reflections. All around is silence; not the silence of solitude and repose, but of death and devastation: – the silence of a great city without one single inhabitant:

‘Horror ubique animos, simul ipsa silentia terrent.’

“Perhaps the whole world does not exhibit so awful a spectacle as Pompeii; and when it was first discovered, when skeletons were found heaped together in the streets and houses, when all the utensils, and even the very bread, of the poor suffocated inhabitants, were discernible, what a speculation must this ill-fated city have furnished to a thinking mind! To visit it even now, is absolutely to live with the ancient Romans; and when we see houses, shops, furniture, fountains, streets, carriages, and implements of husbandry, exactly similar to those of the present day, we are apt to conclude, that customs and manners have undergone but little alteration for the last two thousand years.”

“In walking through this city of the dead,” says Chateaubriand, “one idea has pursued me. As the labourers clear the different edifices, they remove whatever they discover, – household utensils, implements of divers trades, pieces of furniture, statues, MSS., &c., all of which are promiscuously carried to the Portici Museum. In my opinion, people might have employed their time better. Why not have left these things as they found them, and where they found them? Instead of their removal, they should have preserved them on the spot; – roofs, ceilings, floors, and windows, should have been carefully restored, in order to prevent the destruction of the walls and paintings. The ancient inclosure of the town should be rebuilt, the gates repaired, and a guard of soldiers stationed there, together with some individuals well versed in the arts. Would not this have been the most interesting museum in the world? A Roman town preserved quite entire, as if its inhabitants had issued forth but a quarter of an hour before!”

“I am filled with astonishment,” says Dupaty, “in walking from house to house, from temple to temple, from street to street, in a city built two thousand years ago, inhabited by the Romans, dug out by a king of Naples, and in perfect preservation. I speak of Pompeii.

“The inhabitants of this city were asleep, when suddenly an impetuous wind arose, and, detaching a portion of the cinders which covered the summit of Vesuvius, hurried them in whirlwinds through the air over Pompeii, and within a quarter of an hour entirely overwhelmed it, together with Herculaneum, Sorento, a multitude of towns and villages, thousands of men and women, and the elder Pliny. What a dreadful awakening for the inhabitants? Imprudent men! Why did you build Pompeii at the foot of Vesuvius, on its lava, and on its ashes? In fact, mankind resemble ants, which, after an accident has destroyed one of their hillocks, set about repairing it the next moment. Pompeii was covered with ashes. The descendants of those very men, who perished under those ashes, planted vineyards, mulberry, fig, and poplar trees on them; the roofs of this city were become fields and orchards. One day, while some peasants were digging, the spade penetrated a little deeper than usual; something was found to resist. It was a city. It was Pompeii. I entered several of the rooms, and found in one of them a mill, with which the soldiers ground their corn for bread; in another an oil-mill, in which they crushed the olives. The first resembles our coffee-mills; the second is formed of two mill-stones, which were moved by the hand, in a vast mortar, round an iron centre. In another of these rooms I saw chains still fastened to the leg of a criminal; in a second, heaps of human bones; and in a third, a golden necklace.

“What is become of all the inhabitants? We see nobody in the shops! not a creature in the streets! all the houses are open! Let us begin by visiting the houses on the right. This is not a private house; that prodigious number of chirurgical instruments prove this edifice must have had some relation to the art in which they are used. This was surely a school for surgery. These houses are very small; they are exceedingly ill contrived; all the apartments are detached; but then what neatness! what elegance! In each of them is an inner portico, a mosaic pavement, a square colonnade, and in the middle a cistern, to collect the water falling from the roof. In each of them are hot-baths, and stoves, and everywhere paintings in fresco, in the best taste, and on the most pleasing grounds. Has Raffaele been here to copy his arabesques?

“Let us pass over to the other side of the street. These houses are three stories high; their foundation is on the lava, which has formed here a sort of hill, on the declivity of which they are built. From above, in the third story, the windows look into the street; and from the first story, into a garden.

“But what do I perceive in that chamber. They are ten death’s-heads. The unfortunate wretches saved themselves here, where they could not be saved. This is the head of a little child: its father and mother then are there! Let us go up stairs again; the heart feels not at ease here. Suppose we take a step into this temple for a moment, since it is left open. What deity do I perceive in the bottom of that niche? It is the god of Silence, who makes a sign with his finger, to command silence, and points to the goddess Isis, in the further recess of the sacrarium.

“In the front of the porch there are three altars. Here the victims were slaughtered, and the blood, flowing along this gutter into the middle of that basin, fell from thence upon the head of the priests. This little chamber, near the altar, was undoubtedly the sacristy. The priests purified themselves in this bathing-place.