POMPEII 



305 



Ltiuii XV. ( voL ii. 1860) ; Beau joint's Secret Memoiri of 

 La Marquise de Pompadour ( 1885 ) ; but especially her 

 Corretpondance, with her father and brother, edited by 

 Malassis (1878), and with the Comte de Clennont, edited 

 by Bonhoinme (1880). 



Pompeii, a seaport at the mouth of the Sarnus, 

 on tlie Neapolitan Riviera, founded about 600 B.C. 

 by the Oscans, and, after them, occupied by the 

 Tyrrheno-Pelasgians, and by the Samnites, till 

 these, about 80 B.C., were dispossessed by the 

 Romans. From that time down to its destruction, 

 79 A.D., it became (with Herculaneum) a sort of 

 Rome-super- Mare, frequented by the aristocracy, 

 if not by Caligula and Nero, in whose honour it 

 erected triumphal arches. Fed from the capital 

 with every luxury and distinction, it included 

 temples in which the inhabitants were encouraged 

 to make costly sacrifices with all their adjuncts of 

 festivity and banqueting; indeed, its public monu- 

 ments, out of all proportion to its size, were in 

 number and magnificence such as we can now but 

 dimly estimate. On February 5, 63 A. p., by an 

 earthquake in the vicinity, these buildings were 

 all but levelled with the ground, and some years 

 elapsed ere the fugitive citizens recovered con- 

 fidence enough to re- 

 occupy and rebuild 

 what was once Pompeii. 

 Reconstruction was 

 carried out with a haate 

 and disregard of archi- 

 tectural law contrasting 

 utrongly with the ear- 

 lier work the Forum 

 specially exhibiting 

 the inferiority of its 

 Roman to its Greek 

 builders. Tawdriness 

 replaced simplicity of 

 decoration the 

 columns, capitals, and 

 tornices being orna- 

 mented witli reliefs in 

 stucco picked out with 

 parti-coloured designs, 

 while private houses, 

 fantastically restored 

 and adorned, infringed 

 every artistic or ses- 

 thetic canon to favour 

 the grotesque style of 

 the Decadence. Revo- 



Pompeii remained a heap of hardened mud and 

 ashes, gradually overgrown with grass the wall 

 of the great theatre and the outline of the amphi- 

 theatre alone marking its site till 1592, when the 

 architect Fontana, in cutting an aqueduct, came 

 on some ancient buildings. These were long 

 believed to mark the old Stabise ; and only in 

 1748, under the Bourbon Charles III., were they 

 recognised as part of Pompeii. Unsystematic, 

 unscientific excavations proceeded fitfully till 1860, 

 when the Italian kingdom took in hand the un- 

 earthing of the city. This was carried out with 

 admirable ingenuity, care, and success all treasure- 

 trove being vigilantly preserved, and an archaeo- 

 logical record kept by the official excavators 

 Fiorelli and Ruggiero, till now Pompeii possesses 

 a distinction unknown to it in the zenith of its 

 imperial favour, and attracts the pilgrim from 

 every clime for the object-lessons it is unique 

 in affording as to the public and private life of 

 antiquity. 



We cannot give more than the merest indication 

 of the outline and distribution of Pompeii as now ex- 

 posed. In form an irregular ellipse, extending from 

 east to west, in circumference about 2843 yards, 



House of the Small Fountain, Pompeii. 



lutionised as it was for the worse, the city, how- 

 ever, retained a good deal of Greek character and 

 colouring, and had relapsed into more than its 

 former gaiety and licentiousness, when on the 23d 

 August (or, more probably, on the 23d November) 

 79, with a return of the shocks of earthquake, 

 Vesuvius was seen to throw up a column of black 

 smoke expanding like some umbrella-pine of the 

 neighbourhood, till it assumed the proportions of a 

 great swarthy cloud, dense with ashes, pumice, and 

 red-hot stones, settling down on the doomed cities 

 with a force increased by the rain-torrents that 

 intermittently fell. Amid the impenetrable gloom 

 that veiled land and sea, the panic of the citizens 

 was aggravated by repeated shocks of earthquake, 

 and for three days the flight continued till Pompeii 

 was abandoned by all who could effect their escape. 

 By the fourth day the sun had partially reappeared, 

 as if shining through a fog, and the more courage- 

 ous of the citizens began to return for such of tln:ir 

 property as they could disinter. Much was doubt- 

 Jess recovered or possibly stolen ; but the desola- 

 tion and distress were such that the reigning emperor 

 Titus organised relief on an imperial scale, and 

 even undertook the clearing and rebuilding of the 

 city. This attempt was soon abandoned, and 

 384 



it had eight gates to which archaeology has given 

 names mostly conjectural. It had outgrown its 

 walls, however, particularly towards the sea, and 

 developed considerable suburbs. Its most important 

 part not quite one-half, including Forum, adjacent 

 temples and public buildings, two theatres with 

 colonnades, amphitheatre, and many private houses 

 has already been exhumed, and five main streets 

 made out and (provisionally) named. It has been 

 divided, by official arrangement, into nine reaiones 

 (quarters), seven of them wholly or partially ex- 

 cavated, and each is subdivided into insula: (blocks), 

 bounded by four streets and provided each with a 

 number, as are also the streets of each quarter. 

 A trottoir borders the streets, which are straight 

 and narrow the broader 24 feet wide, the narrower 

 14 feet only and admirably paved with polygonal 

 blocks of lava. High stepping-stones, placed mostly 

 at the corners, lead across . from one trottoir to 

 another, and these retain the impressions of horses' 

 hoofs, while in the causeway between the wagons 

 have left deep ruts. The street corners are pro- 

 vided with fountains, ornamented usually with the 

 head of a god or a mask. Notices painted in red 

 letters, and referring to municipal elections for 

 which some particular candidate is recommended, 



