414 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



raneous passage two hundred paces 

 in length, exceeds all bounds, when 

 it is considered that it was worked 

 upon the place where it remains. 

 What difficulties must have been 

 surmounted, in order to transport a 

 weight of many hundred milliers, 

 across the almost impracticable roads 

 of the mountain ? 



Human sacrifices are continually 

 represented. 



Excavation of the subterraneous 

 City of Pompeii ; from Mariana 

 Starke's Letters jfrom Italy. 



POMPEII was buried under 

 ashes and pumice-stones thrown 

 out from Vesuvius, A. D. 79i and 

 accidently discovered by some 

 peasants, A. D. 1750, as lliey were 

 digging in a vineyard near the river 

 Sarno. The excavation of this in- 

 teresting city was attended with less 

 trouble and expense than that of 

 Herculaneum, it being buried only 

 twelve or fifteen feet under ashes 

 and pumice-stone. 



On quitting your carriage you go 

 down a small descent to the soldiers' 

 barracks, nearly an oblong-square, 

 with a portico round it, supported 

 by brick pillars stuccoed and paint- 

 ed, with several figures in armour 

 engraved upon them, supposed to 

 have been done by the Roman sol- 

 diers. The rooms within the portico 

 are of various dimensions, some of 

 the largest being about fifteen feet 

 square; and in one of these (proba- 

 bly a prison) iron stocks were found, 

 with skeletons standing in them. — 

 This part of the city contains frag- 

 ments of an ancient doric temple, 

 evidently of an anterior date, and 

 in its appearance, far more simply 

 majestic than the rest of the yet 



excavated buildings : within this 

 temple is an altar, and without-side, 

 near the entrance, another. The 

 building in general seems to have 

 been composed of a sort of tufo 

 formed by depositions from water, 

 and the same with that of which the 

 temples at Psstum are built. — 

 Nearly adjoining to the doric tem- 

 ple, is an open theatre originally 

 lined throughout with beautiful 

 white marble : that part which held 

 the spectators is of a semi-circular 

 form, and on either side, near 

 the stage, is a consular-seat : the 

 orchestra is enclosed with two 

 straight walls, and divides the stage 

 from the spectators : the stage is 

 very wide, but so shallow, that lit- 

 tle or no scenery could have been 

 used; it had three entrances all in 

 front, and behind were the green- 

 room, &c. That part where the 

 spectators sat, is built on the side of 

 a hill, according to the custom of 

 the Greeks, and on the top of this 

 hill were covered colonades for the 

 spectators to retire into when it 

 rained — these colonades probably 

 served at other times for a public 

 walk, as they commanded a fine 

 view of Capri, Stabia, &c. TJie 

 different classes of people ascended 

 this theatre by different stair-cases 

 and lobbies, all of which seem to 

 have been very convenient. Nearly 

 adjoining to the just-described thea- 

 tre is another, not quite so large, 

 though in most respects similar, ex- 

 cept that it is said to have been cover- 

 ed, but whether with an awning ora 

 roof, does not appear. The temple 

 of Isis IS in higher preservation than 

 many other of the ruins, and espe- 

 cially worth notice; for, to con- 

 template those altars from whence 

 so many oracles have issued, to trace 

 the very hiding-place into which the 



