Marc Monnier - The Wonders of Pompeii
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Marc Monnier >> The Wonders of Pompeii
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12 [Illustration: Recent Excavations made at Pompeii under the Direction of
Inspector Fiorelli, in 1860.]
THE WONDERS OF POMPEII.
BY
MARC MONNIER.
TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL FRENCH.
NEW YORK:
CHARLES SCRIBNER & CO.,
654 BROADWAY.
1871.
=Illustrated Library of Wonders.=
PUBLISHED BY
Messrs. Charles Scribner & Co.,
654 BROADWAY, NEW YORK.
Each one volume 12mo, Price per volume $1.50
* * * * *
Titles of books. No. of Illustrations
THUNDER AND LIGHTNING, 89
WONDERS OF OPTICS, 70
WONDERS OF HEAT, 90
INTELLIGENCE OF ANIMALS, 54
GREAT HUNTS, 22
EGYPT 3,300 YEARS AGO, 40
WONDERS OF POMPEII, 22
THE SUN, BY A. GUILLEMIN, 58
SUBLIME IN NATURE, 50
WONDERS OF GLASS-MAKING, 63
WONDERS OF ITALIAN ART, 28
WONDERS OF THE HUMAN BODY, 45
WONDERS OF ARCHITECTURE, 50
LIGHTHOUSES AND LIGHTSHIPS, 60
BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN, 68
WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL, 70
WONDERFUL BALLON ASCENTS, 80
ACOUSTICS, 114
WONDERS OF THE HEAVENS, 48
* THE MOON, BY A. GUILLEMIN, 60
* WONDERS OF SCULPTURE, 61
WONDERS OF ENGRAVING, 32
* WONDERS OF VEGETATION, 45
* WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD, 97
* CELEBRATED ESCAPES, 26
* WATER, 77
* HYDRAULICS, 40
* ELECTRICITY, 71
* SUBTERRANEAN WORLDS, 27
* In Press for early publication
_The above works sent to any address, post paid, upon receipt of the
price by the publishers._
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Facing page
Recent Excavations Made at Pompeii in 1860, under
the Direction of the Inspector, Signor Fiorelli 25
The Rubbish Trucks Going up Empty 30
Clearing out a Narrow Street in Pompeii 33
Plan of Vesuvius 39
The Forum 42
Discovery of Loaves Baked 1800 Years Ago, in the
oven of a Baker 84
Closed House, with a Balcony, Recently Discovered 87
The Nola Gate at Pompeii 96
The Herculaneum Gate Restored 99
The Tepidarium, at the Thermae 126
The Atrium of the House of Pansa Restored 138
Candelabra, Trinkets, and Kitchen Utensils Found at
Pompeii 148
Kitchen Utensils found at Pompeii 150
Earthenware and Bronze Lamps Found at Pompeii 154
Collar, Ring, Bracelet, and Ear-rings Found at Pompeii 158
Peristyle of the House of Quaestor, at Pompeii 167
The House of Lucretius 169
The Exaedra of the House of the Poet 185
The Exaedra of the House of the Poet--Second View 189
The Smaller Theatre at Pompeii 206
The Amphitheatre at Pompeii 220
Bodies of Pompeians Cast in the Ashes of the Eruption 239
CONTENTS.
I.
THE EXHUMED CITY.
Page
The Antique Landscape.--The History of Pompeii Before
and After its Destruction.--How it was Buried and
Exhumed.--Winkelmann as a Prophet.--The Excavations
in the Reign of Charles III., of Murat, and of
Ferdinand.--The Excavations as they now are.--Signor
Fiorelli.--Appearance of the Ruins.--What is and What
is not found there. 13
II.
THE FORUM.
Diomed's Inn.--The Niche of Minerva.--The Appearance
and The Monuments of the Forum.--The Antique
Temple.--The Pagan ex-Voto Offerings.--The Merchants'
City Exchange and the Petty Exchange.--The Pantheon,
or was it a Temple, a Slaughter-house, or a
Tavern?--The Style of Cooking, and the Form of
Religion.--The Temple of Venus.--The Basilica.--The
Inscriptions of Passers-by upon the Walls.--The Forum
Rebuilt. 37
III.
THE STREET.
The Plan of Pompeii.--The Princely Names of the
Houses.--Appearance of the Streets, Pavements, Sidewalks,
etc.--The Shops and the Signs.--The Perfumer, the Surgeon,
etc.--An Ancient Manufactory.--Bathing
Establishments.--Wine-shops, Disreputable Resorts.--Hanging
Balconies, Fountains.--Public Placards: Let us
Nominate Battur! Commit no Nuisance!--Religion on
the Street. 67
IV.
THE SUBURBS.
The Custom House.--The Fortifications and the Gates,--The
Roman Highways.--The Cemetery of Pompeii.--Funerals:
the Procession, the funeral Pyre, the Day of
the Dead.--The Tombs and their Inscriptions.--Perpetual
Leases.--Burial of the Rich, of Animals, and of
the Poor.--The Villas of Diomed and Cicero. 93
V.
THE THERMAE.
The Hot Baths at Rome.--The Thermae of Stabiae.--A
Tilt at Sun Dials.--A Complete Bath, as the Ancients
Considered It: the Apartments, the Slaves, the Unguents,
the Strigillae.--A Saying of the Emperor Hadrian.--The
Baths for Women.--The Reading Room.--The
Roman Newspaper.--The Heating-Apparatus. 120
VI.
THE DWELLINGS.
Paratus and Pansa.--The Atrium and the Peristyle.--The
Dwelling Refurnished and Repeopled.--The Slaves, the
Kitchen, and the Table.--The Morning Occupations of
a Pompeian.--The Toilet of a Pompeian Lady.--A Citizen
Supper: the Courses, the Guests.--The Homes of
the Poor, and the Palaces of Rome. 135
VII.
ART IN POMPEII.
The Homes of the Wealthy.--The Triangular Forum and
the Temples.--Pompeian Architecture: Its Merits and
its Defects.--The Artists of the Little City.--The
Paintings here.--Landscapes, Figures, Rope-dancers,
Dancing-girls, Centaurs, Gods, Heroes, the Iliad
Illustrated.--Mosaics.--Statues and
Statuettes.--Jewelry.--Carved Glass.--Art and Life. 167
VIII.
THE THEATRES.
The Arrangement of the Places of Amusement.--Entrance
Tickets.--The Velarium, the Orchestra, the Stage.--The
Odeon.--The Holconii.--The Side Scenes, the Masks.--The
Atellan Farces.--The Mimes.--Jugglers, etc.--A
Remark of Cicero on the Melodramas.--The Barrack
of the Gladiators.--Scratched Inscriptions, Instruments
of Torture.--The Pompeian Gladiators.--The Amphitheatre:
Hunts, Combats, Butcheries, etc. 199
IX.
THE ERUPTION.
The Deluge of Ashes.--The Deluge of Fire.--The Flight
of the Pompeians.--The Preoccupations of the Pompeian
Women.--The Victims: the Family of Diomed; the
Sentinel; the Woman Walled up in a Tomb; the Priest
of Isis; the Lovers clinging together, etc.--The
Skeletons.--The Dead Bodies moulded by Vesuvius. 232
DIALOGUE.
(IN A BOOKSTORE AT NAPLES.)
A TRAVELLER (_entering_).--Have you any work on Pompeii?
THE SALESMAN.--Yes; we have several. Here, for instance, is
Bulwer's "Last Days of Pompeii."
TRAVELLER.--Too thoroughly romantic.
SALESMAN.--Well, here are the folios of Mazois.
TRAVELLER.--Too heavy.
SALESMAN.--Here's Dumas's "Corricolo."
TRAVELLER.--Too light.
SALESMAN.--How would Nicolini's magnificent work suit you?
TRAVELLER.--Oh! that's too dear.
SALESMAN.--Here's Commander Aloe's "Guide."
TRAVELLER.--That's too dry.
SALESMAN.--Neither dry, nor romantic, nor light, nor heavy!
What, then, would you have, sir?
TRAVELLER.--A small, portable work; accurate, conscientious,
and within everybody's reach.
SALESMAN.--Ah, sir, we have nothing of that kind; besides, it
is impossible to get up such a work.
THE AUTHOR (_aside_).--Who knows?
THE
WONDERS OF POMPEII.
I.
THE EXHUMED CITY.
THE ANTIQUE LANDSCAPE--THE HISTORY OF POMPEII BEFORE AND AFTER
ITS DESTRUCTION.--HOW IT WAS BURIED AND EXHUMED.--WINKELMANN AS A
PROPHET.--THE EXCAVATIONS IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES III., OF MURAT,
AND OF FERDINAND.--THE EXCAVATIONS AS THEY NOW ARE.--SIGNOR
FIORELLI.--APPEARANCE OF THE RUINS.--WHAT IS AND WHAT IS NOT FOUND
THERE.
A railroad runs from Naples to Pompeii. Are you alone? The trip occupies
one hour, and you have just time enough to read what follows, pausing
once in a while to glance at Vesuvius and the sea; the clear, bright
waters hemmed in by the gentle curve of the promontories; a bluish coast
that approaches and becomes green; a green coast that withdraws into the
distance and becomes blue; Castellamare looming up, and Naples receding.
All these lines and colors existed too at the time when Pompeii was
destroyed: the island of Prochyta, the cities of Baiae, of Bauli, of
Neapolis, and of Surrentum bore the names that they retain. Portici was
called Herculaneum; Torre dell'Annunziata was called Oplontes;
Castellamare, Stabiae; Misenum and Minerva designated the two extremities
of the gulf. However, Vesuvius was not what it has become; fertile and
wooded almost to the summit, covered with orchards and vines, it must
have resembled the picturesque heights of Monte San Angelo, toward which
we are rolling. The summit alone, honeycombed with caverns and covered
with black stones, betrayed to the learned a volcano "long extinct." It
was to blaze out again, however, in a terrible eruption; and, since
then, it has constantly flamed and smoked, menacing the ruins it has
made and the new cities that brave it, calmly reposing at its feet.
What do you expect to find at Pompeii? At a distance, its antiquity
seems enormous, and the word "ruins" awakens colossal conceptions in the
excited fancy of the traveller. But, be not self-deceived; that is the
first rule in knocking about over the world. Pompeii was a small city of
only thirty thousand souls; something like what Geneva was thirty years
ago. Like Geneva, too, it was marvellously situated--in the depth of a
picturesque valley between mountains shutting in the horizon on one
side, at a few steps from the sea and from a streamlet, once a river,
which plunges into it--and by its charming site attracted personages of
distinction, although it was peopled chiefly with merchants and others
in easy circumstances; shrewd, prudent folk, and probably honest and
clever enough, as well. The etymologists, after having exhausted, in
their lexicons, all the words that chime in sound with Pompeii, have, at
length, agreed in deriving the name from a Greek verb which signifies
_to send, to transport_, and hence they conclude that many of the
Pompeians were engaged in exportation, or perhaps, were emigrants sent
from a distance to form a colony. Yet these opinions are but
conjectures, and it is useless to dwell on them.
All that can be positively stated is that the city was the entrepot of
the trade of Nola, Nocera, and Atella. Its port was large enough to
receive a naval armament, for it sheltered the fleet of P. Cornelius.
This port, mentioned by certain authors, has led many to believe that
the sea washed the walls of Pompeii, and some guides have even thought
they could discover the rings that once held the cables of the galleys.
Unfortunately for this idea, at the place which the imagination of some
of our contemporaries covered with salt water, there were one day
discovered the vestiges of old structures, and it is now conceded that
Pompeii, like many other seaside places, had its harbor at a distance.
Our little city made no great noise in history. Tacitus and Seneca speak
of it as celebrated, but the Italians of all periods have been fond of
superlatives. You will find some very old buildings in it, proclaiming
an ancient origin, and Oscan inscriptions recalling the antique language
of the country. When the Samnites invaded the whole of Campania, as
though to deliver it over more easily to Rome, they probably occupied
Pompeii, which figured in the second Samnite war, B.C. 310, and which,
revolting along with the entire valley of the Sarno from Nocera to
Stabiae, repulsed an incursion of the Romans and drove them back to their
vessels. The third Samnite war was, as is well known, a bloody vengeance
for this, and Pompeii became Roman. Although the yoke of the conquerors
was not very heavy--the _municipii_, retaining their Senate, their
magistrates, their _comitiae_ or councils, and paying a tribute of men
only in case of war--the Samnite populations, clinging frantically to
the idea of a separate and independent existence, rose twice again in
revolt; once just after the battle of Cannae, when they threw themselves
into the arms of Hannibal, and then against Sylla, one hundred and
twenty-four years later--facts that prove the tenacity of their
resistance. On both occasions Pompeii was retaken, and the second time
partly dismantled and occupied by a detachment of soldiers, who did not
long remain there. And thus we have the whole history of this little
city. The Romans were fond of living there, and Cicero had a residence
in the place, to which he frequently refers in his letters. Augustus
sent thither a colony which founded the suburb of Augustus Felix,
administered by a mayor. The Emperor Claudius also had a villa at
Pompeii, and there lost one of his children, who perished by a singular
mishap. The imperial lad was amusing himself, as the Neapolitan boys do
to this day, by throwing pears up into the air and catching them in his
mouth as they fell. One of the fruits choked him by descending too far
into his throat. But the Neapolitan youngsters perform the feat with
figs, which render it infinitely less dangerous.
We are, then, going to visit a small city subordinate to Rome, much less
than Marseilles is to Paris, and a little more so than Geneva is to
Berne. Pompeii had almost nothing to do with the Senate or the Emperor.
The old tongue--the Oscan--had ceased to be official, and the
authorities issued their orders in Latin. The residents of the place
were Roman citizens, Rome being recognized as the capital and
fatherland. The local legislation was made secondary to Roman
legislation. But, excepting these reservations, Pompeii formed a little
world, apart, independent, and complete in itself. She had a miniature
Senate, composed of decurions; an aristocracy in epitome, represented by
the _Augustales_, answering to knights; and then came her _plebs_ or
common people. She chose her own pontiffs, convoked the comitiae,
promulged municipal laws, regulated military levies, collected taxes; in
fine selected her own immediate rulers--her consuls (the duumvirs
dispensing justice), her ediles, her quaestors, etc. Hence, it is not a
provincial city that we are to survey, but a petty State which had
preserved its autonomy within the unity of the Empire, and was, as has
been cleverly said, a miniature of Rome.
Another circumstance imparts a peculiar interest to Pompeii. That city,
which seemed to have no good luck, had been violently shaken by
earthquake in the year B.C. 63. Several temples had toppled down along
with the colonnade of the Forum, the great Basilica, and the theatres,
without counting the tombs and houses. Nearly every family fled from the
place, taking with them their furniture and their statuary; and the
Senate hesitated a long time before they allowed the city to be rebuilt
and the deserted district to be re-peopled. The Pompeians at last
returned; but the decurions wished to make the restoration of the place
a complete rejuvenation. The columns of the Forum speedily reappeared,
but with capitals in the fashion of the day; the Corinthian-Roman order,
adopted almost everywhere, changed the style of the monuments; the old
shafts covered with stucco were patched up for the new topwork they were
to receive, and the Oscan inscriptions disappeared. From all this there
sprang great blunders in an artistic point of view, but a uniformity
and consistency that please those who are fond of monuments and cities
of one continuous derivation. Taste loses, but harmony gains thereby,
and you pass in review a collective totality of edifices that bear their
age upon their fronts, and give a very exact and vivid idea of what a
_municeps_ a Roman colony must have been in the time of Vespasian.
They went to work, then, to rebuild the city, and the undertaking was
pushed on quite vigorously, thanks to the contributions of the
Pompeians, especially of the functionaries. The temples of Jupiter and
of Venus--we adopt the consecrated names--and those of Isis and of
Fortune, were already up; the theatres were rising again; the handsome
columns of the Forum were ranging themselves under their porticoes; the
residences were gay with brilliant paintings; work and pleasure had both
resumed their activity; life hurried to and fro through the streets, and
crowds thronged the amphitheatre, when, all at once, burst forth the
terrible eruption of 79. I will describe it further on; but here simply
recall the fact that it buried Pompeii under a deluge of stones and
ashes. This re-awakening of the volcano destroyed three cities, without
counting the villages, and depopulated the country in the twinkling of
an eye.
After the catastrophe, however, the inhabitants returned, and made the
first excavations in order to recover their valuables; and robbers,
too--we shall surprise them in the very act--crept into the subterranean
city. It is a fact that the Emperor Titus for a moment entertained the
idea of clearing and restoring it, and with that view sent two Senators
to the spot, intrusted with the mission of making the first study of the
ground; but it would appear that the magnitude of the work appalled
those dignitaries, and that the restoration in question never got beyond
the condition of a mere project. Rome soon had more serious cares to
occupy her than the fate of a petty city that ere long disappeared
beneath vineyards, orchards, and gardens, and under a thick growth of
woodland--remark this latter circumstance--until, at length, centuries
accumulated, and with them the forgetfulness that buries all things.
Pompeii was then, so to speak, lost, and the few learned men who knew it
by name could not point out its site. When, at the close of the
sixteenth century, the architect Fontana was constructing a subterranean
canal to convey the waters of the Sarno to Torre dell' Annunziata, the
conduit passed through Pompeii, from one end to the other, piercing the
walls, following the old streets, and coming upon sub structures and
inscriptions; but no one bethought him that they had discovered the
place of the buried city. However, the amphitheatre, which, roofed in by
a layer of the soil, formed a regular excavation, indicated an ancient
edifice, and the neighboring peasantry, with better information than the
learned, designated by the half-Latin name of _Civita_, which dim
tradition had handed down, the soil and debris that had accumulated
above Pompeii.
It was only in 1748, under the reign of Charles III, when the discovery
of Herculaneum had attracted the attention of the world to the
antiquities thus buried, that, some vine-dressers having struck upon
some old walls with their picks and spades, and in so doing unearthed
statues, a colonel of engineers named Don Rocco Alcubierra asked
permission of the king to make excavations in the vicinity. The king
consented and placed a dozen of galley-slaves at the colonel's
disposition. Thus it was that by a lucky chance a military engineer
discovered the city that we are about to visit. Still, eight years more
had to roll away before any one suspected that it was Pompeii which they
were thus exhuming. Learned folks thought they were dealing with Stabiae.
Shall I relate the history of these underground researches, "badly
conducted, frequently abandoned, and resumed in obedience to the same
capriciousness that had led to their suspension," as they were? Such are
the words of the opinion Barthelemy expressed when writing, in 1755, to
the Count de Caylus. Winkelmann, who was present at these excavations a
few years later, sharply criticised the tardiness of the galley-slaves
to whom the work had been confided. "At this rate," he wrote, "our
descendants of the fourth generation will still have digging to do among
these ruins." The illustrious German hardly suspected that he was making
so accurate a prediction as it has turned out to be. The descendants of
the fourth generation are our contemporaries, and the third part of
Pompeii is not yet unearthed.
The Emperor Joseph II. visited the excavations on the 6th of April,
1796, and complained bitterly to King Ferdinand IV. of the slight degree
of zeal and the small amount of money employed. The king promised to do
better, but did not keep his word. He had neither intelligence nor
activity in prosecuting this immense task, excepting while the French
occupation lasted. At that time, however, the government carried out the
idea of Francesco La Vega, a man of sense and capacity, and purchased
all the ground that covered Pompeii. Queen Caroline, the sister of
Bonaparte and wife of Murat, took a fancy to these excavations and
pushed them vigorously, often going all the way from Naples through six
leagues of dust to visit them. In 1813 there were exactly four hundred
and seventy-six laborers employed at Pompeii. The Bourbons returned and
commenced by re-selling the ground that had been purchased under Murat;
then, little by little, the work continued, at first with some activity,
then fell off and slackened more and more until, from being neglected,
they were altogether abandoned, and were resumed only once in a while in
the presence of crowned heads. On these occasions they were got up like
New Year's surprise games: everything that happened to be at hand was
scattered about on layers of ashes and of pumice-stone and carefully
covered over. Then, upon the arrival of such-and-such a majesty, or this
or that highness, the magic wand of the superintendent or inspector of
the works, caused all these treasures to spring out of the ground. I
could name, one after the other, the august personages who were deceived
in this manner, beginning with the Kings of the Two Sicilies and of
Jerusalem.
But that is not all. Not only was nothing more discovered at Pompeii,
but even the monuments that had been found were not preserved. King
Ferdinand soon discovered that the 25,000 francs applied to the
excavations were badly employed; he reduced the sum to 10,000, and that
amount was worn down on the way by passing through so many hands.
Pompeii fell back, gradually presenting nothing but ruins upon ruins.
Happily, the Italian Government established by the revolution of 1860,
came into power to set all these acts of negligence and roguery to
rights. Signor Fiorelli, who is all intelligence and activity, not to
mention his erudition, which numerous writings prove, was appointed
inspector of the excavations. Under his administration, the works which
had been vigorously resumed were pushed on by as many as seven hundred
laborers at a time, and they dug out in the lapse of three years more
treasures than had been brought to light in the thirty that preceded
them. Everything has been reformed, nay, _moralised_, as it were, in the
dead city; the visitor pays two francs at the gate and no longer has to
contend with the horde of guides, doorkeepers, rapscallions, and beggars
who formerly plundered him. A small museum, recently established,
furnishes the active inquirer the opportunity of examining upon the spot
the curiosities that have already been discovered; a library containing
the fine works of Mazois, of Raoul Rochette, of Gell, of Zahn, of
Overbeck, of Breton, etc., on Pompeii, enables the student to consult
them in Pompeii itself; workshops lately opened are continually busy in
restoring cracked walls, marbles, and bronzes, and one may there
surprise the artist Bramante, the most ingenious hand at repairing
antiquities in the world, as likewise my friend, Padiglione, who, with
admirable patience and minute fidelity, is cutting a small model in cork
of the ruins that have been cleared, which is scrupulously exact. In
fine--and this is the main point--the excavations are no longer carried
on occasionally only, and in the presence of a few privileged persons,
but before the first comer and every day, unless funds have run short.
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