Transcriber's Note:

Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation in the original document have been preserved.

On page [431], 1854 should possibly be 1845.

On page [533], the page number referenced is missing on the first Chapter XXXV citation.

On page [544], the pages listed as pp 226-223 are possibly a typo.

On page [487], \B and \F represent VB and VF ligatures.

POMPEII
ITS LIFE AND ART

PLATE I.—VIEW OF THE FORUM, LOOKING TOWARD VESUVIUS

POMPEII
ITS LIFE AND ART

BY
AUGUST MAU
GERMAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE IN ROME

Translated into English
BY FRANCIS W. KELSEY
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS FROM ORIGINAL
DRAWINGS AND PHOTOGRAPHS

NEW EDITION, REVISED AND CORRECTED

New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd.
1902

All rights reserved

Copyright, 1899, 1902,
By FRANCIS W. KELSEY.

First Edition, October, 1899.
New Revised Edition, with additions, November, 1902.

Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing & Co.—Berwick & Smith
Norwood Mass. U.S.A.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

For twenty-five years Professor Mau has devoted himself to the study of Pompeii, spending his summers among the ruins and his winters in Rome, working up the new material. He holds a unique place among the scholars who have given attention to Pompeian antiquities, and his contributions to the literature of the subject have been numerous in both German and Italian. The present volume, however, is not a translation of one previously issued, but a new work first published in English, the liberality of the publishers having made it possible to secure assistance for the preparation of certain restorations and other drawings which Professor Mau desired to have made as illustrating his interpretation of the ruins.

In one respect there is an essential difference between the remains of Pompeii and those of the large and famous cities of antiquity, as Rome or Athens, which have associated with them the familiar names of historical characters. Mars' Hill is clothed with human interest, if for no other reason, because of its relation to the work of the Apostle Paul; while the Roman Forum and the Palatine, barren as they seem to-day, teem with life as there rise before the mind's eye the scenes presented in the pages of classical writers. But the Campanian city played an unimportant part in contemporary history; the name of not a single great Pompeian is recorded. The ruins, deprived of the interest arising from historical associations, must be interpreted with little help from literary sources, and repeopled with aggregate rather than individual life.

A few Pompeians, whose features have survived in herms or statues and whose names are known from the inscriptions, seem near to us,—such are Caecilius Jucundus and the generous priestess Eumachia; but the characters most commonly associated with the city are those of fiction. Here, in a greater degree than in most places, the work of reconstruction involves the handling of countless bits of evidence, which, when viewed by themselves, often seem too minute to be of importance; the blending of these into a complete and faithful picture is a task of infinite painstaking, the difficulty of which will best be appreciated by one who has worked in this field.

It was at first proposed to place at the end of the book a series of bibliographical notes on the different chapters, giving references to the more important treatises and articles dealing with the matters presented. But on fuller consideration it seemed unnecessary thus to add to the bulk of the volume; those who are interested in the study of a particular building or aspect of Pompeian culture will naturally turn to the Pompeianarum antiquitatum historia, the reports in the Notizie degli Scavi, the reports and articles by Professor Mau in the Roman Mittheilungen of the German Archaeological Institute, the Overbeck-Mau Pompeji, the Studies by Mau and by Nissen, the commemorative volume issued in 1879 under the title Pompei e la regione sotterrata dal Vesuvio, the catalogues of the paintings by Helbig and Sogliano, together with Mau's Geschichte der decorativen Wandmalerei in Pompeji, H. von Rohden's Terracotten von Pompeji, and the older illustrated works, as well as the beautiful volume, Pompeji vor der Zerstoerung, published in 1897 by Weichardt.

The titles of more than five hundred books and pamphlets relating to Pompeii are given in Furchheim's Bibliografia di Pompei (second edition, Naples, 1891). To this list should be added an elaborate work on the temple of Isis, Aedis Isidis Pompeiana, which is soon to appear. The copperplates for the engravings were prepared at the expense of the old Accademia ercolanese, but only the first section of the work was published; the plates, fortunately, have been preserved without injury, and the publication has at last been undertaken by Professor Sogliano.

Professor Mau wishes to make grateful acknowledgment of obligation to Messrs. C. Bazzani, R. Koldewey, G. Randanini, and G. Tognetti for kind assistance in making ready for the engraver the drawings presenting restorations of buildings; to the authorities of the German Archaeological Institute for freely granting the use of a number of drawings in its collection; and to the photographer, Giacomo Brogi of Florence, for placing his collection of photographs at the author's disposal and making special prints for the use of the engraver. In addition to the photographs obtained from Brogi, a small number were furnished for the volume by the translator, and a few were derived from other sources.

The restorations are not fanciful. They were made with the help of careful measurements and of computations based upon the existing remains; occasionally also evidence derived from reliefs and wall paintings was utilized. Uncertain details are generally omitted.

It is due to Professor Mau to say that in preparing his manuscript for English readers I have, with his permission, made some changes. The order of presentation has occasionally been altered. In several chapters the German manuscript has been abridged, while in others, containing points in regard to which English readers might desire a somewhat fuller statement, I have made slight additions. The preparation of the English form of the volume, undertaken for reasons of friendship, has been less a task than a pleasure.

FRANCIS W. KELSEY.

Ann Arbor, Michigan,
October 25, 1899.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

The author and the translator unite in expressing their deep appreciation of the kind reception accorded to the first edition of this book.

The second edition has been revised on the spot. Besides minor additions, it has been enlarged by a chapter on the recently discovered temple of Venus Pompeiana, and a Bibliographical Appendix; prepared in response to requests from various quarters. Among the new illustrations in the text are a restoration of the temple of Vespasian and a reproduction of the bronze youth found in 1900, besides the Alexandria patera and one of the skeleton cups from the Boscoreale treasure; in [Plate VIII] are presented two additional paintings from the house of the Vettii.

The translator is alone responsible for [Chapter LIX], which was prepared for the first edition at Professor Mau's request, at a time when he was pressed with other work; for the paragraphs in regard to the treasure of Boscoreale, and for one-half of the references in the Bibliographical Appendix.

AUGUST MAU
FRANCIS W. KELSEY

Albergo del Sole, Pompei
August 2, 1901

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I
THE SITUATION OF POMPEII

From Gaeta, where the south end of the Volscian range borders abruptly upon the sea, to the peninsula of Sorrento, a broad gulf stretched in remote ages, cutting its way far into the land. Its waves dashed upon the base of the mountains which now, rising with steep slope, mark the eastern boundary of the Campanian Plain—Mt. Tifata above Capua, Mt. Taburno back of Nola, and lying across the southeast corner, the huge mass of Monte Sant' Angelo, whose sharply defined line of elevation is continued in the heights of Sorrento.

This gulf was transformed by volcanic agencies into a fertile plain. Here two fissures in the earth's crust cross each other, each marked by a series of extinct or active volcanoes. One fissure runs in the direction of the Italian Peninsula; along it lie Monti Berici near Vicenza, Mt. Amiata below Chiusi, the lakes of Bolsena and Bracciano filling extinct craters, the Alban Mountains, and finally Stromboli and Aetna. The other runs from east to west; its direction is indicated by Mt. Vulture near Venosa, Mt. Epomeo on the island of Ischia, and the Ponza Islands.

At three places in the old sea basin the subterranean fires burst forth. Near the north shore rose the great volcano of Rocca Monfina, which added itself to the Volscian Mountains, and heaping the products of its eruptions upon Mons Massicus,—once an island,—formed with this the northern boundary of the plain. Toward the middle the numerous small vents of the Phlegraean Fields threw up the low heights, to which the north shore of the Bay of Naples—Posilipo, Baiae, Misenum—is indebted for its incomparable beauty of landscape. Finally, near the south shore, at the intersection of the fissures, the massive cone of Vesuvius rose, in complete isolation—the only volcano on the continent of Europe still remaining active. Its base on the southwest is washed by the sea, while on the other sides a stretch of level country separates it from the mountains that hem in the plain. On the side opposite from the sea, however, Vesuvius comes so near to the mountains that we may well say that it divides the Campanian plain into two parts, of which the larger, on the northwest side, is drained by the Volturno; the small southeast section is the plain of the Sarno.

Fig. 1.—Map of Ancient Campania.
[View larger image]

The Sarno, like the Umbrian Clitumnus, has no upper course. At the foot of Mt. Taburno, bounding the plain on the northeast, are five copious springs that soon unite to form a stream. Since 1843 the river has been drawn off for purposes of irrigation into three channels, which are graded at different levels; the distribution of water thus assured makes this part of Campania one of the most fertile districts in Italy. In antiquity the Sarno must have been confined to a single channel; according to Strabo it was navigable for ships.

In Roman times three cities shared in the possession of the Sarno plain. Furthest inland, facing the pass in the mountains that opens toward the Gulf of Salerno, lay Nuceria, now Nocera. On the seashore, where the coast road to Sorrento branches off toward the southwest, was Stabiae, now Castellammare. North of Stabiae, at the foot of Vesuvius, Pompeii stood, on an elevation overlooking the Sarno, formed by the end of a stream of lava that in some past age had flowed from Vesuvius down toward the sea. Pompeii thus united the advantages of an easily fortified hill town with those of a maritime city. "It lies," says Strabo, "on the Sarnus, which accommodates a traffic in both imports and exports; it is the seaport of Nola, Nuceria, and Acerrae."

Fig. 2.—Vesuvius as seen from Naples.

A glance at the map will show how conveniently situated Pompeii was to serve as a seaport for Nola and Nuceria; but it seems hardly credible that the inhabitants of Acerrae, which lay much nearer Naples, should have preferred for their marine traffic the circuitous route around Vesuvius to the Sarno. However that may have been, Pompeii was beyond doubt the most important town in the Sarno plain.

Pompeii formerly lay nearer the sea and nearer the river than at present. In the course of the centuries alluvial deposits have pushed the shore line further and further away. It is now about a mile and a quarter from the nearest point of the city to the sea; in antiquity it was less than a third of a mile. The line of the ancient coast can still be traced by means of a clearly marked depression, beyond which the stratification of the volcanic deposits thrown out in 79 does not reach. The Sarno, too, now flows nearly two thirds of a mile from Pompeii; in antiquity, according to all indications, it was not more than half so far away.

In point of climate and outlook, a fairer site for a city could scarcely have been chosen. The Pompeian, living in clear air, could look down upon the fogs which in the wet season frequently rose from the river and spread over the plain. And while in winter Stabiae, lying on the northwest side of Monte Sant' Angelo, enjoyed the sun for only a few hours, the elevation on which Pompeii stood, sloping gently toward the east and south, more sharply toward the west, was bathed in sunlight during the entire day.

Winter at Pompeii is mild and short; spring and autumn are long. The heat of summer, moreover, is not extreme. In the early morning, it is true, the heat is at times oppressive. No breath of air stirs; and we look longingly off upon the expanse of sea where, far away on the horizon, in the direction of Capri, a dark line of rippling waves becomes visible. Nearer it comes, and nearer. About ten o'clock it reaches the shore. The leaves begin to rustle, and in a few moments the sea breeze sweeps over the city, strong, cool, and invigorating. The wind blows till just before sunset. The early hours of the evening are still; the pavements and the walls of the houses give out the heat which they have absorbed during the day. But soon—perhaps by nine o'clock—the tree tops again begin to murmur, and all night long, from the mountains of the interior, a gentle, refreshing stream of air flows down through the gardens, the roomy atriums and colonnades of the houses, the silent streets, and the buildings about the Forum, with an effect indescribably soothing.

Fig. 3.—View from Pompeii, looking south.

How shall I undertake to convey to the reader who has not visited Pompeii, an impression of the beauty of its situation? Words are weak when confronted with the reality. Sea, mountains, and plain,—strong and pleasing background,—great masses and brilliant yet harmonious colors, splendid foreground effects and hazy vistas, undisturbed nature and the handiwork of man, all are blended into a landscape of the grand style, the like of which I should not know where else to look for.

If we turn toward the south, we have at our feet the level plain of the Sarno, in antiquity as now—we may suppose—not checkered with villages but dotted here and there with groups of farm buildings, surrounded with stately trees. Beyond the plain rises the lofty barrier of Monte Sant' Angelo, thickly wooded in places, its summit standing out against the sky in a long, beautiful profile, which, toward the right, breaks up into bold, rugged notches; the side of the mountain below is richly diversified with deep valleys, projecting ridges, and terraces that in the distance seem like steps, where among vineyards and olive orchards stand two villages fair to look on, Gragnano and Lettere, so near that individual houses can be clearly distinguished. Further west the plain before us opens out upon the sea, while the mountains are continued in the precipitous coast of the peninsula of Sorrento. Height crowds upon height, with villages wreathed in olive orchards lying between. Here the hills descend in terraces to the sea, covered with vegetation to the water's edge; there the covering of soil has been cast off from the steep slopes, exposing the naked rock, which shines in the afternoon sun with a reddish hue that wonderfully accords with the dark shades of the foliage and the brilliant blue of the sea. Further on the tints become duller, and the sight is blurred; only with effort can we distinguish Sorrento, resting on cliffs that rise almost perpendicularly from the line of the shore. Further still the outline of the peninsula sinks into the sea and gives place to Capri, island of fantastic shape, whose crags rising sheer from the water stand out sharply in the bright sunlight.

But we look toward the north, and the splendid variety of form and color vanishes; there stands only the vast, sombre mass of the great destroyer, Vesuvius, towering above the city and the plain. The sun as it nears the horizon veils the bare ashen cone with a mantle of deep violet, while the cloud of smoke that rises from the summit shines with a golden glow. Far above the base the sides are covered with vineyards, among which small groups of white houses can here and there be seen. West of us the outline of the mountain descends in a strong, simple curve to the sea. Just before it blends with the shore there rise behind it distant heights wrapped in blue haze, the first of moderate elevation, then others more prominent and further to the left. They are the heights along the north shore of the Bay of Naples—Gaurus crowned with the monastery of Camaldoli, famous for its magnificent view; the cliffs of Baiae, the promontory of Misenum, and the lofty cone of Epomeo on the island of Ischia. So the eye traverses the whole expanse of the Bay; Naples itself, hidden from our view, lies between those distant heights and the base of Vesuvius.

But meanwhile the sun has set behind Misenum; its last rays are lighting up the cloud of smoke above Vesuvius and the summit of Monte Sant' Angelo. The brilliancy of coloring has faded; the weary eye finds rest in the soft afterglow. We also may take leave of these beautiful surroundings, and inquire into the beginnings of the city which was founded here.

CHAPTER II
BEFORE 79

When Pompeii was founded we do not know. It is more than likely that a site so well adapted for a city was occupied at an early date. The oldest building, the Doric temple in the Forum Triangulare, is of the style of the sixth century B.C.; we are safe in assuming that the city was then already in existence.[2] The founders were Oscans. They belonged to a widely scattered branch of the Italic stock, whose language, closely related with the Latin, has been imperfectly recovered from a considerable number of inscriptions, so imperfectly that in each of the longer inscriptions there still remain words the meaning of which is obscure or doubtful. From this language the name of the city came; for pompe in Oscan meant 'five.' The word does not, however, appear in its simple form; we have only the adjective derived from it, pompaiians, 'Pompeian.' If we are right in assuming that the name appeared in Oscan, as it does in Latin, in the plural form, it was probably applied first to a gens, or clan, and thence to the city; the Latin equivalent of Pompeii would be Quintii. Pompeii was thus the city of the clan of the Pompeys, as Tarquinii was the city of the Tarquins, and Veii the city of the Veian clan. The name Pompeius was common in Pompeii down to the destruction of the city, and in other Campanian towns, notably Puteoli, to much later times.

In order to follow the course of events at Pompeii, it will be necessary to pass briefly in review the main points in the history of Campania. The Campanian Oscans, sprung from a rude and hardy race, became civilized from contact with the Greeks, who at an early period had settled in Cumae, in Dicaearchia, afterward Puteoli, and in Parthenope, later Naples; and the coast climate had an enervating effect upon them. When toward the end of the fifth century B.C. the Samnites, kinsmen of the Oscans, left their rugged mountain homes in the interior and pressed down toward the coast, the Oscans were unable to cope with them. In 424 B.C. the Samnites stormed and took Capua, in 420, Cumae; and Pompeii likewise fell into their hands. But they were no more successful than the Oscans had been in resisting the influence of Greek culture. How strong this influence was may be seen in the remains at Pompeii. The architecture of the period was Greek; Greek divinities were honored, as Apollo and Zeus Milichius; and the standard measures of the mensa ponderaria were inscribed with Greek names.

In less than a hundred years new strifes arose between the more cultured Samnites of the plain and their rough and warlike kinsmen in the mountains. But Rome took a part in the struggle, and in the Samnite Wars (343-290 B.C.) brought both the men of the mountains and the men of the plain under her dominion. Although the sovereignty of Rome took the form of a perpetual alliance, the cities in reality lost their independence. The complete subjugation and Romanizing of Campania, however, did not come till the time of the Social War (90-88 B.C.) and the supremacy of Sulla; the Samnites staked all on the success of the popular party, and lost.

In the narrative of these events Pompeii is not often mentioned. At the time of the Second Samnite War, in the year 310 B.C., we read that a Roman fleet under Publius Cornelius landed at the mouth of the Sarno, and that a pillaging expedition followed the course of the river as far as Nuceria; but the country folk fell on the marauders as they were returning, and forced them to give up their booty. We have no definite information regarding the attitude of the Pompeians after the battle of Cannae (216 B.C.); probably they joined the side of Hannibal, who, however, was defeated by Marcus Marcellus near Nola in the following year, and was obliged to leave Campania to the Romans.

In the Social War, when, in the summer of 90 B.C., the Samnite army marched into Campania, Pompeii allied itself with the insurgents; as a consequence, in 89, it was besieged by Sulla, but without success. Two years later, Sulla went to Asia to conduct the war against Mithridates. Returning victorious in the spring of 83 B.C., he led his army into Campania, where he spent the winter of 83-82; his soldiers, grown brutal in the Asiatic war and accustomed to every kind of license, may have proved unwelcome guests for the Pompeians.

The sequel came in the year 80, when a colony of Roman veterans was settled in Pompeii under the leadership of Publius Sulla, a nephew of the Dictator. Cicero later made a speech in behalf of this Sulla, defending him against the charge that he had taken part in the conspiracy of Catiline and had tried to induce the old residents of Pompeii to join in the plot. From this speech we learn that Sulla's reorganization of the city was accomplished with so great regard for the interests of the Pompeians, that they ever after held him in grateful remembrance. We learn, also, that soon after the founding of the colony disputes arose between the old residents and the colonists, about the public walks (ambulationes) and matters connected with the voting; the arrangements for voting had probably been so made as to throw the decision always into the hands of the colonists. The controversy was referred to the patrons of the colony, and settled by them. From this time on, the life of Pompeii seems not to have differed from that of the other small cities of Italy.

As the harbor of Pompeii was on the Sarno, which flowed at some distance from the city, there must have been a small settlement at the landing place. To this probably belonged a group of buildings, partly excavated in 1880-81, lying just across the Sarno canal (canale del Bottaro), about a third of a mile from the Stabian Gate. Here were found many skeletons, and with them a quantity of gold jewellery, which was afterward placed in the Museum at Naples. The most reasonable explanation of the discovery is, that the harbor was here, and that these persons, gathering up their valuables, fled from Pompeii at the time of the eruption either in order to escape by sea or to take refuge in Stabiae. Flight in either case was cut off. If ships were in the harbor, they must soon have been filled with the volcanic deposits; if there was a bridge across the river it was probably thrown down by the earthquake.

A second suburb sprang up near the sea, in connection with the salt works (salinae) of the city. Our knowledge of the inhabitants, the Salinenses, is derived from several inscriptions painted upon walls, in which they recommend candidates for the municipal offices, and from an inscription scratched upon the plaster of a column in which a fuller by the name of Crescens sends them a greeting: Cresce[n]s fullo Saline[n]sibus salute[m]. From another inscription we learn that they had an assembly, conventus, possibly judicial in its functions; for in connection with a date, it speaks of a fine of twenty sesterces, which would amount to about 3½ shillings, or 85 cents: VII K. dec. Salinis in conventu multa HS XX, 'Fine of twenty sesterces; assembly at Salinae, November 25.' Still another inscription speaks of attending such a meeting on November 19: XIII K. dec. in conventu veni.

The suburb most frequently mentioned was at first called Pagus Felix Suburbanus, but after the time of Augustus, Pagus Augustus Felix Suburbanus. Its location is unknown. As it evidently took the name of Felix from the Dictator Sulla, who used this epithet as a surname, we may assume that its origin dates from the establishment of the Roman colony; it may have been founded to provide a place for those inhabitants of Pompeii who had been forced to leave their homes in order to make room for the colonists. The existence of a fourth suburb is inferred from two painted inscriptions in which candidates for office are recommended by the Campanienses; this name would naturally be applied to the inhabitants of a Pagus Campanus, who, perhaps, had originally come from Capua.

Of the government of Pompeii in the earliest times, before the Samnite conquest, nothing is known. The names of various magistrates in the Samnite period, however, particularly the period of alliance with Rome (290-90 B.C.), are learned from inscriptions. Mention is made of a chief administrative officer (mediss, mediss tovtiks); of quaestors, who, probably, like the quaestors in Rome, were charged with the financial administration and let the contracts for public buildings; and of aediles, to whom, no doubt, was intrusted the care of streets and buildings, together with the policing of the markets. The Latin names of the last two officials suggest that their offices were introduced after 290. There was also an assembly called kombenniom, with which we may compare the Latin conventus; but whether it was an assembly of the people or a city council cannot now be determined.

Fig. 4.—Venus Pompeiana.
From a wall painting.

After the establishment of the Roman colony, Pompeii was named Colonia Cornelia Veneria Pompeianorum, from the gentile name of the Dictator Sulla (Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix) and from the goddess to whom he paid special honor, who now, as Venus Pompeiana, became the tutelary divinity of the city. This goddess is represented in wall paintings. In that from which our illustration is taken ([Fig. 4]), she appears in a blue mantle studded with golden stars, and wears a crown set with green stones. Her left hand, which holds a sceptre, rests upon a rudder; in her right is a twig of olive. A Cupid stands upon a pedestal beside her, holding up a mirror.

From this time the highest official body, as in Roman colonies everywhere, was the city council, composed of decurions. The administration was placed in the hands of two pairs of officials, the duumvirs with judiciary authority, duumviri iuri dicundo, and two aediles, who were responsible for the care of buildings and streets and the oversight of the markets. When the duumvirs and the aediles joined in official acts they were known as the Board of Four, quattuorviri. Down to the time of the Empire it appears that the aediles were not designated officially by that name, but by a title known to us only in an abbreviated form, duumviri v. a. sacr. p. proc. This probably stands for duumviri viis, aedibus, sacris publicis procurandis, 'duumvirs in charge of the streets, the temples, and the public religious festivals.' The title of aedile seems to have been avoided because it had been in use in the days of autonomy, and the authorities thought it prudent to suppress everything that would suggest the former state of independence. Nevertheless, the word retained its place in ordinary speech, as is shown by its use in the inscriptions painted on walls recommending candidates for office; thence it finally forced its way back into the official language. The duumvirs of every fifth year were called quinquennial duumvirs, duumviri quinquennales, and assumed functions corresponding with those of the censors at Rome; they gave attention to matters of finance, and revised the lists of decurions and of citizens.

All these officials were elected annually by popular vote. The candidates offered themselves beforehand. If none came forward, or there were too few,—for the city officials not only received no salary, but were under obligation to make generous contributions for public purposes, as theatrical representations, games, and buildings,—the magistrate who presided at the election named candidates for the vacancies; but each candidate so named had the right to nominate a second for the same vacancy, the second in turn a third. The voting was by ballot; each voter threw his voting tablet into the urn of his precinct. No information has come down to us regarding the precincts (curiae) into which the city must have been divided for electoral purposes.

The election of a candidate was valid only in case he received the vote of an absolute majority of the precincts. If the result was indecisive for all or a part of the offices, the city council chose an extraordinary official who bore the title of prefect with judiciary authority, praefectus iuri dicundo. This prefect took the place of the duumvirs, not only when an election was indecisive, but also when vacancies arose in some other way, or when peculiar conditions seemed to make it desirable to have an officer of unusual powers, a kind of dictator; or finally, when the emperor had received the vote; in the last two cases, the prefect was undoubtedly appointed by the emperor. Thus, in the years 34 and 40 A.D., the Emperor Caligula was duumvir of Pompeii; but the duties of the office were discharged by a prefect. A law passed in Rome toward the end of the Republic on the motion of a certain Petronius contained provisions regarding the appointment of prefects; one chosen in accordance with them was called praefectus ex lege Petronia, 'prefect according to the law of Petronius.'

There were also in Pompeii priests supported by the city, but only a few of them are mentioned in the inscriptions. References are found to augurs and pontifices, to a priest of Mars, and to priests (flamen, sacerdos) of Augustus while he was still living; Nero had a priest even before he ascended the throne. Mention is made of priestesses, too, a priestess of Ceres and Venus, priestesses of Ceres, and others, the divinities of whom are not named.

The suburbs could scarcely have had a separate administration; they remained within the jurisdiction of the magistrates of the city. In the case of the Pagus Augustus Felix mention is made of a magister, 'director,' ministri, 'attendants,' and pagani, 'pagus officials'; but apparently these were all appointed for religious functions only, in connection with the worship of the emperor. The magister and the pagani, in part at least, were freedmen; the four ministri, first appointed in 7 B.C., were slaves.

Apart from commerce, an important source of income for the Pompeians lay in the fertility of the soil. In antiquity, as now, grapes were cultivated extensively on the ridge projecting from the foot of Vesuvius toward the south. The evidence afforded by the great number of wine jars, amphorae ([Fig. 5]), that have been brought to light would warrant this conclusion; and lately wine presses also have been discovered near Boscoreale, above Pompeii. Pliny makes mention of the Pompeian wine, but remarks that indulgence in it brings a headache that will last till noon of the following day. The olive too was cultivated, but only to a limited extent; this we infer from the small capacity of the press and other appliances for making oil found in the same villa in which the wine presses were discovered. At the present time the making of oil is not carried on about Pompeii. In the plain below the city vegetables were raised, as at the present day; the cabbage and onions of Pompeii were highly prized.

The working up of the products of the fisheries formed an important industry. The fish sauces which so tickled the palate of ancient epicures, garum, liquamen, and muria, were produced here of the finest quality. The making of them seems to have been practically a monopoly in the hands of a certain Umbricius Scaurus; a great number of earthen jars have been found with the mark of his ownership [(p. 506]).

Fig. 5.—An amphora from Boscoreale.

The Pompeians turned to account, also, the volcanic products of Vesuvius. Pumice stone was an article of export. From the lava millstones were made for both grain mills and oil mills, which were apparently already in extensive use in the time of Cato the Elder; he twice mentions the oil mills of Pompeii. In Pompeii itself the millstones of the oldest period are of lava from Vesuvius; later it was found that the lava of Rocca Monfina was better adapted for the purpose, and millstones of that material were preferred. Small hand-mills of the lava from Vesuvius were in use at Pompeii down to 79; but the larger millstones of this material found in the bakeries had been put one side. In shape and finish the mills of local make were superior to the more carelessly worked stones from Rocca Monfina; the preference for the latter was due to the fact that they contained numerous crystals of leucite, which broke off as the mill wore away, and so kept the grinding surfaces always rough. Millstones from Rocca Monfina may be seen at different places in Rome, as in the Museum of the Baths of Diocletian.

To the sources of revenue which contributed to the prosperity of Pompeii we may add the presence of wealthy Romans, who, attracted by the delightful climate, built country seats in the vicinity. Among them was Cicero, who often speaks of his Pompeian villa (Pompeianum). That the imperial family also had a villa here is inferred from a curious accident. We read that Drusus, the young son of the Emperor Claudius, a few days after his betrothal to the daughter of Sejanus, was choked to death at Pompeii by a pear which he had thrown up into the air and caught in his mouth. These country seats, no doubt, lay on the high ground back of Pompeii, toward Vesuvius; they probably faced the sea. But the identification of a villa excavated in the last century, and then filled up again, as the villa of Cicero, is wholly without foundation.

Salve lucrum, 'Welcome, Gain!' Such is the inscription which a Pompeian placed in the mosaic floor of his house. Lucrum gaudium, 'Gain is pure joy,' we read on the threshold of another house. A thrifty Pompeian certainly did not lack opportunity to acquire wealth.

How large a population Pompeii possessed at the time of the destruction of the city it is impossible to determine. A painstaking examination of all the houses excavated would afford data for an approximate estimate; but the results thus far obtained by those who have given attention to the subject are unsatisfactory. Fiorelli assigned to Pompeii twelve thousand inhabitants, Nissen twenty thousand. Undoubtedly the second estimate is nearer the truth than the first; according to all indication the population may very likely have exceeded twenty thousand.

This population was by no means homogeneous. The original Oscan stock had not yet lost its identity; inscriptions in the Oscan dialect are found scratched on the plaster of walls decorated in the style prevalent after the earthquake of the year 63. From the time when the Roman colony was founded no doubt additions continued to be made to the population from various parts of Italy. The Greek element was particularly strong. This is proved by the number of Greek names in the accounts of Caecilius Jucundus, for example, and by the Greek inscriptions that have been found on walls and on amphorae. The Greeks may have come from the neighboring towns; most of them were probably freedmen. In a seaport we should expect to find also Greeks from trans-marine cities; and, in fact, an Alexandrian appears in one of the receipts of Jucundus. There were Orientals, too, as we shall see when we come to the temple of Isis.

Thus far there has come to hand no trustworthy evidence for the presence of Christians at Pompeii; but traces of Jewish influence are not lacking. The words Sodoma, Gomora, are scratched in large letters on the wall of a house in Region IX (IX. i. 26). They must have been written by a Jew, or possibly a Christian; they seem like a prophecy of the fate of the city.

Fig. 6.—The Judgment of Solomon. Wall painting.

Another interesting bit of evidence is a wall painting, which appears to have as its subject the Judgment of Solomon ([Fig. 6]). On a tribunal at the right sits the king with two advisers; the pavilion is well guarded with soldiers. In front of the tribunal a soldier is about to cut a child in two with a cleaver. Two women are represented, one of whom stands at the block and is already taking hold of the half of the child assigned to her, while the other casts herself on her knees as a suppliant before the judges. It is not certain that the reference here is to Solomon; such tales pass from one country to another, and a somewhat similar story is told of the Egyptian king Bocchoris. The balance of probability is in favor of the view that we have here the Jewish version of the story, because this is consistent with other facts that point to the existence of a Jewish colony at Pompeii.

The names Maria and Martha appear in wall inscriptions. The assertion that Maria here is not the Hebrew name, but the feminine form of the Roman name Marius, is far astray. It appears in a list of female slaves who were working in a weaver's establishment, Vitalis, Florentina, Amaryllis, Januaria, Heracla, Maria, Lalage, Damalis, Doris. The Marian family was represented at Pompeii, but the Roman name Maria could not have been given to a slave. That we have here a Jewish name seems certain since the discovery of the name Martha.

In inscriptions upon wine jars we find mention of a certain M. Valerius Abinnerichus, a name which is certainly Jewish or Syrian; but whether Abinnerich was a dealer, or the owner of the estate on which the wine was produced, cannot be determined. In this connection it is worth while to note that vessels have been found with the inscribed labels, gar[um] cast[um] or cast[imoniale], and mur[ia] cast[a]. As we learn from Pliny (N. H. XXXI. viii. 95), these fish sauces, prepared for fast days, were used especially by the Jews.

Some have thought that the word Christianos can be read in an inscription written with charcoal, and have fancied that they found a reference to the persecution of the Christians under Nero. But charcoal inscriptions, which will last for centuries when covered with earth, soon become illegible if exposed to the air; such an inscription, traced on a wall at the time of the persecutions under Nero, must have disappeared long before the destruction of the city. The inscription in question was indistinct when discovered, and has since entirely faded; the reading is quite uncertain. If it were proved that the word "Christians" appeared in it, we should be warranted only in the inference that Christians were known at Pompeii, not that they lived and worshipped there. According to Tertullian (Apol. 40) there were no Christians in Campania before 79.

CHAPTER III
THE CITY OVERWHELMED

Previous to the terrible eruption of 79, Vesuvius was considered an extinct volcano. "Above these places," says Strabo, writing in the time of Augustus, "lies Vesuvius, the sides of which are well cultivated, even to the summit. This is level, but quite unproductive. It has a cindery appearance; for the rock is porous and of a sooty color, the appearance suggesting that the whole summit may once have been on fire and have contained craters, the fires of which died out when there was no longer anything left to burn."

Earthquakes, however, were of common occurrence in Campania. An especially violent shock on the fifth of February, 63 A.D., gave warning of the reawakening of Vesuvius. Great damage was done throughout the region lying between Naples and Nuceria, but the shock was most severe at Pompeii, a large part of the buildings of the city being thrown down. The prosperous and enterprising inhabitants at once set about rebuilding. When the final catastrophe came, on the twenty-fourth of August, 79 A.D., most of the houses were in a good state of repair, and the rebuilding of at least two temples, those of Apollo and of Isis, had been completed. This renewing of the city, caused by the earthquake, may be looked upon as a fortunate circumstance for our studies.

Our chief source of information for the events of August 24-26, 79, is a couple of letters of the Younger Pliny to Tacitus, who purposed to make use of them in writing his history. Pliny was staying at Misenum with his uncle, the Elder Pliny, who was in command of the Roman fleet. In the first letter he tells of his uncle's fate. On the afternoon of the twenty-fourth, the admiral Pliny set out with ships to rescue from impending danger the people at the foot of Vesuvius, particularly in the vicinity of Herculaneum. He came too late; it was no longer possible to effect a landing. So he directed his course to Stabiae, where he spent the night; and there on the following morning he died, suffocated by the fumes that were exhaled from the earth. The second letter gives an account of the writer's own experiences at Misenum.

To this testimony little is added by the narrative of Dion Cassius, which was written a century and a half later and is known to us only in abstract; Dion dwells at greater length on the powerful impression which the terrible convulsion of nature left upon those who were living at that time. With the help of the letters of Pliny, in connection with the facts established by the excavations, it is possible to picture to ourselves the progress of the eruption with a fair degree of clearness.

The subterranean fires of Vesuvius pressed upward to find an outlet. The accumulations of volcanic dust and pumice stone that had been heaped up on the mountain by former eruptions were again hurled to a great height, and came down upon the surrounding country. On the west side of Vesuvius they mingled with torrents of rain, and flowed as a vast stream of mud down over Herculaneum. On the south side, driven by a northwest wind as they descended from the upper air, they spread out into a thick cloud, which covered Pompeii and the plain of the Sarno. Out of this cloud first broken fragments of pumice stone—the average size not larger than a walnut—rained down to the depth of eight to ten feet; then followed volcanic dust, wet as it fell by a downpour of water, to the depth of six or seven feet. With the storm of dust came successive shocks of earthquake.

Such was, in outline, the course of the eruption. It must have begun early in the morning of the twenty-fourth, and the stream of mud must have commenced immediately to move in the direction of Herculaneum; for shortly after one o'clock on that day the admiral Pliny at Misenum received letters from the region threatened, saying that the danger was imminent, and that escape was possible only by sea. Even then the Younger Pliny saw, high above Vesuvius, the cloud, shaped like an umbrella pine, which was to rain down destruction on Pompeii. Toward evening, the ships off Herculaneum ran into the hail of pumice stone, which, during the night, reached Stabiae and so increased in violence that the admiral Pliny was obliged to leave his sleeping room from fear that the door would be blocked up by the falling masses.

Early in the morning of the twenty-fifth there was a severe shock of earthquake, which was felt as far as Misenum. Then the dust began to fall, and a cloud of fearful blackness, pierced through and through with flashes of lightning, settled down over land and sea. At Misenum, even, it became dark; "not," says Pliny, "as on a cloudy night when there is no moon, but as in a room which has been completely closed."

How long the fall of dust lasted we can only infer from this, that when it ceased the sun had not yet set. In Misenum, which the shower of pumice stone had not reached, everything was covered with a thick layer of dust. Although the earthquake shocks continued, the inhabitants went back into their houses. But Pompeii and Stabiae had been covered so deep that only the roofs of the houses, where these had not fallen in, projected above the surface; and Herculaneum had wholly disappeared.

All the plain of the Sarno was buried, as were also the slopes of the mountains on the south. Stabiae, as we have seen, lay at the foot of the mountains, on the coast. It had been destroyed by Sulla in the Social War; its inhabitants, forced to scatter, settled in the surrounding country. In the years 1749-82 numerous buildings were excavated in the vicinity, in part luxurious country seats, in part plain farm buildings; but the excavations were afterward filled up again. The covering of Stabiae was like that of Pompeii, only not so deep.

Herculaneum was covered with the same materials; they were not, however, deposited in regular strata, but were mixed together, and being drenched with water, hardened into a kind of tufa which in places reaches a depth of sixty-five feet. Excavating at Herculaneum is in consequence extremely difficult; and the difficulty is further increased by the fact that a modern city, Resina, extends over the greater part of the ancient site. The excavations thus far attempted have in most cases been conducted by means of underground passageways. The statement that Herculaneum was overflowed by a stream of lava, though frequently repeated, is erroneous.

Fig. 7.—Cast of a man.

The woodwork of buildings in Pompeii has in many cases been preserved, but in a completely charred condition. Frequently where walls were painted with yellow ochre it has turned red, especially when brought immediately into contact with the stratum of dust—a change which this color undergoes when it is exposed to heat. Nevertheless, the inference would be unwarranted that the products of the eruption fell upon the city red-hot and caused a general conflagration. The fragments of pumice stone could scarcely have retained a great degree of heat after having been so long in the air; it is evident from Pliny's narrative that they were not hot.

With the dust a copious rain must have fallen; for the bodies of those who perished in the storm of dust left perfect moulds, into a number of which soft plaster of Paris has been poured, making those casts of human figures which lend a melancholy interest to the collections in the little Museum at Pompeii ([Fig. 7]). The extraordinary freshness of these figures, without any suggestion of the wasting away after death, is explicable only on the supposition that the enveloping dust was damp, and so commenced immediately to harden into a permanent shape. If the dust had been dry and had packed down and hardened afterwards, we should be able to trace at least the beginnings of decay.

Neither the pumice stone nor the dust, then, could have set wood on fire. The woodwork must have become charred gradually from the effect of moisture, as in the case of coal, and the change in the color of the yellow ochre must be due to some other cause than the presence of heat. This is all the more evident from the fact that vestiges of local conflagrations, confined within narrow limits, can here and there be traced, kindled by the masses of glowing slag which fell at the same time with the pumice stone, or by the fires left burning in the houses.

From the number of skeletons discovered in the past few decades, since an accurate record has been kept, it has been estimated that in Pompeii itself, about two thousand persons perished. As the city contained a population of twenty thousand or more, it is evident that the majority of the inhabitants fled; since the eruption commenced in the morning, while the hail of pumice stone did not begin till afternoon, those who appreciated the greatness of the danger had time to escape. It is, however, impossible to say how many fled when it was already too late, and lost their lives outside the city. Mention has already been made of some who perished at the harbor; others who went out earlier to the Sarno may have made good their escape. Of those who remained in the city part were buried in the houses—so with twenty persons whose skeletons were found in the cellar of the villa of Diomedes; others, as the hail of pumice stone ceased, ventured out into the streets, where they soon succumbed to the shower of dust that immediately followed. As the bodies wasted away little except the bones was left in the hollows formed by the dust that hardened around them, and the casts already referred to, which have been made from time to time since 1863, give in some cases a remarkably clear and sharp representation of the victims.

The Emperor Titus sent a commission of senators into Campania to report in what way help could best be rendered. A plan was formed to rebuild the cities that had been destroyed, and the property of those who died without heirs was set aside for this purpose. Nothing came of it, however, so far as our knowledge goes. Pompeii is indeed mentioned in the Peutinger Table, a map for travellers made in the third century, but the name was apparently given to a post station in memory of the former city. Conclusive evidence against the existence of a new city is the absence of any inscriptions referring to it.

CHAPTER IV
THE UNEARTHING OF THE CITY

The first excavations at Pompeii were undertaken by the survivors shortly after the destruction of the city. As the upper parts of the houses that had not fallen in projected above the surface, it was possible to locate the places under which objects of value were buried. Men dug down from the surface at certain points and tunnelled from room to room underneath, breaking through the intervening walls. This work was facilitated by the stratification of the volcanic deposit; the loose bits of pumice stone in the lower stratum were easily removed, while the stratum of dust above was compact enough to furnish a fairly safe roof for narrow passageways. Only infrequently is a house discovered that was left undisturbed; from this we understand why comparatively little household furniture of value has been found. Not only were rich house furnishings in demand,—the excavators carried away valuable building materials as well. So eagerly were these sought after that large buildings, as those about the Forum, were almost completely stripped of their marble.

In the Middle Ages Pompeii was quite forgotten. Possibly some remains of the ancient buildings were yet to be seen; at any rate it seems to have been believed that a city once existed there, for the site was called La Civita.

In the years 1594-1600 Domenico Fontana was bringing water from one of the springs of the Sarno to Torre Annunziata, and in the course of the work cut an underground channel through the site of Pompeii and discovered two inscriptions; but no further investigations were made. The indifference of Fontana may be explained by the fact that the water channel was not dug out from above, like a railway cutting, and then covered over, but was carried as a tunnel through the hill on which the city stood, so that the workmen came to the ancient surface at only a few points. In the part now excavated, the original level was disturbed in but one place, near the temple of Zeus Milichius; here the inscriptions were probably found.

The excavation of the buried Campanian towns began, not at Pompeii, but at Herculaneum, where in 1709 the workmen of the Austrian general, Count Elbeuf, sunk a shaft, reaching the ancient level at the rear of the stage of the theatre. The current statement that Elbeuf discovered the site of Herculaneum by accident, his workmen being engaged in digging a well, is erroneous. The location of the city was already known, and Elbeuf was searching for antiquities. The error probably originated in a misunderstanding of the Italian word pozzo, which has a double meaning, "shaft," and "well."

At first little was accomplished, but after 1738 excavations were carried on by King Charles III in a more systematic manner. The director of these excavations, Rocco Gioacchino de Alcubierre, in March, 1748, had occasion to inspect the water channel mentioned above, and learned that at the place called La Civita—which he thought was Stabiae—objects of antiquity were often found. He came to the conclusion that this site was more promising than that of Herculaneum, where the excavations just then were yielding little of value; the result of his recommendation was that on the thirtieth of the same month excavations were commenced at Pompeii, with twelve workmen.

The first digging was done north of Nola Street, near the Casa del Torello; then the men were set at work on the Street of Tombs, near the Herculaneum Gate; and a part of the Amphitheatre also was cleared. In 1750 the work was stopped, because the results were thought to be unimportant.

Attention was again directed to Pompeii in 1754, when workmen engaged in constructing the highway that runs just south of the city discovered a number of tombs. About the same time, west of the Amphitheatre, the extensive establishment of Julia Felix, arranged like a villa, and some buildings lying north of it, were excavated; but they were all covered up again, as was also the so-called villa of Cicero, which was uncovered in 1763.

The parts excavated were not left clear until after 1763, when the discovery of the inscription of Suedius Clemens, on the Street of Tombs, had established the fact that the site was that of Pompeii. Important discoveries were made soon after. In the years immediately following 1764 the theatres, with the adjacent buildings, and the Street of Tombs, together with the villa of Diomedes, were laid bare. The excavations were conducted slowly and without system, yet with scientific interest fostered by the Herculaneum Academy (Accademia ercolanese), which had been founded in 1755.

Under Joseph Bonaparte and Murat, 1806-15, the work received larger appropriations, and was prosecuted with greater energy, particularly in the quarter lying between the Herculaneum Gate and the Forum. In the same period the Forum was approached from the south side also. In 1799, at the time of the Parthenopean Republic, the French general Championnet had excavated, south of the Basilica, the two houses which are still called by his name. From these, in 1813, the excavators made their way into the Basilica, whence, in November of the same year, they pushed forward into the Forum. However, the excavation of the Forum itself with the surrounding buildings, prosecuted less vigorously and with limited means in the period of the Restoration, was not completed till 1825; by this time the temple of Fortuna and the Baths north of the Forum had also been uncovered. The following years, to 1832, brought to light the beautiful houses on the north side of Nola Street—the houses of Pansa, of the Tragic Poet, and of the Faun—and those on Mercury Street; later came excavations south of Nola Street and in various parts of the city.

The disturbances of the period of Revolution caused a cessation of work for two years, from July 3, 1848, to September 27, 1850. During the next nine years effort was expended chiefly in clearing Stabian Street and the Stabian Baths.

The fall of the Bourbon dynasty and the passing over of Naples to the Kingdom of Italy caused another interruption, which lasted a year, from December 5, 1859, to December 20, 1860. On the last date the excavations were resumed under the direction of Giuseppe Fiorelli, a man of marked individuality, who left a permanent impress upon every part of the work. To him is due the present admirable system, excellent alike from the technical and from the administrative point of view. We owe it to him, that better provision is made now than formerly for the preservation and care of excavated buildings and objects discovered; the earlier efforts in this direction naturally left room for improvement, and the painstaking of the present administration is especially worthy of commendation.

Fig. 8.—An excavation. Atrium of the house of the Silver Wedding, cleared in the autumn of 1892.

Fiorelli put an end to haphazard digging, to excavating here and there wherever the site seemed most promising. He first set about clearing the undisturbed places lying between the excavated portions; and when in this way the west part of the city had been laid bare, he commenced to work systematically from the excavated part toward the east. Since 1860 only one public building has been excavated—the baths at the corner of Stabian and Nola streets; but many private houses have been uncovered, some of which are of much interest. Fiorelli remained in charge of the excavations until 1875, when he was called to Rome to become General Director of Museums and Excavations; he died in 1896, at the age of seventy-two. His successors, first Michele Ruggiero, then Giulio de Petra, have worked according to his plans, and in full sympathy with his ideals.

Up to the present time about three-fifths of Pompeii have been excavated. In 1872 Fiorelli made the calculation that if the excavations should continue at the rate then followed the whole city would be laid bare in 74 years. Since that time the work has progressed more slowly, partly in consequence of the greater care taken for the preservation of the remains. At the present rate of progress we may believe that the twentieth century will hardly witness the completion of the excavations.

Articles of furniture and objects of art that can easily be moved, as the statuettes often found in the gardens, are ordinarily taken to the Museum in Naples; a few things have been placed in the little Museum at Pompeii. Now and then small sculptures have been left in a house exactly as they were found; but the necessity of keeping such houses locked and of guarding them with especial care prevents the general adoption of this method of preservation.

In respect to the preservation of paintings the practice has varied at different periods. Generally, however, the best pictures have been cut from the walls and transferred to the Museum, while the decorative framework has been left undisturbed. It is keenly to be regretted that in this way the effect of the decorative system as a whole has been destroyed, for the picture forms the centre of a carefully elaborated scheme of decoration which needs to be viewed as an artistic whole in order to be fully appreciated; and the removal of a painting can hardly be accomplished without some damage to the parts of the wall immediately in contact with it. A far better method would be to leave intact all walls containing paintings or decorative work of interest, providing such means of protection against the weather as may be necessary. A good beginning in this respect has been made in the case of the house of the Vettii, the beautiful and well preserved paintings of which have been left on the walls and are preserved with the greatest care.

The treatment of a mosaic floor is an altogether different problem. While the floor as a whole, with its ornamental designs, is left in place, fine mosaics representing paintings, which are delicate and easily destroyed, are wisely taken up and placed in the Museum.

NOTES TO PLAN I

The Regions are given as they were laid out by Fiorelli ([p. 34]), the boundaries being marked by broken lines. The Insulae are designated by Arabic numerals.

Stabian Street, between Stabian and Vesuvius gates, separating Regions VIII, VII, and VI, from I, IX, and V, is often called Cardo, from analogy with the cardo maximus (the north and south line) of a Roman camp. Nola Street, leading from the Nola Gate, with its continuations (Strada della Fortuna, south of Insulae 10, 12, 13, and 14 of Region VI, and Strada della Terme, south of VI, 4, 6, 8), was for similar reasons designated as the Greater Decuman, Decumanus Maior; while the street running from the Water Gate to the Sarno Gate (Via Marina, Abbondanza Street, Strada dei Diadumeni) is called the Lesser Decuman, Decumanus Minor.

The only Regions wholly excavated are VII and VIII; but only a small portion of Region VI remains covered.

The towers of the city wall are designated by numbers, as they are supposed to have been at the time of the siege of Sulla, in 89 B.C. [(p. 240]).

PLAN I.—OUTLINE PLAN OF POMPEII.
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CHAPTER V
A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW

The outline of Pompeii, with its network of streets, may be traced on the accompanying plan.

The city took its shape from the end of the old lava stream on which it lay, which ran southeast from Vesuvius. It formed an irregular oval a little less than four fifths of a mile (1200 metres) long and a little more than two fifths of a mile (720 metres) wide in its greatest dimensions. On three sides, west, south, and east, the wall of the city ran along the edge of the hill; on the northwest side, between the Herculaneum and Capua gates, it passed directly across the ridge formed by the lava.

The eight gates are known by the modern names given on our plan. Two of them, the Herculaneum and Capua gates, lie at the points where the wall comes to the edge of the lava bed on either side; the streets that led from them descended to the plain. At the Herculaneum Gate the much travelled highway from Naples, passing through Herculaneum, entered the city; the Capua Gate does not seem to have been built to accommodate a large traffic. Between these two lay the Vesuvius Gate, through which the Pompeians passed out upon the ridge toward Vesuvius.

From the Herculaneum Gate nearly to the Stabian Gate, on the south side, ran a bluff, with a sharp descent. Nevertheless, as a gate was needed on the side nearest the sea, the Water Gate, Porta Marina, was placed here; through it a steep road led to the Forum, so steep that it could not have been much used by vehicles; but that may have mattered little to the fishermen bringing their catches to the market.

The Stabian Gate lay in a depression at the end of the lava bed and afforded a more convenient means of access to the city; thence a road ran to the harbor on the Sarno, and to Stabiae. At the left another road apparently branched off from this in the direction of Nuceria, which could be reached also from the conveniently located Nocera Gate further east; here also the slope of the hill was less pronounced. Two gates, finally, gave access to the city on the somewhat steeper east and northeast sides, the Sarno Gate, which takes its name, not from the river, but from the modern town of Sarno, and the Nola Gate; it is at least probable that the road passing through the latter led to Nola.

A glance at the plan will make it plain that the streets of Pompeii must have been laid out according to a definite system; an arrangement on the whole so regular and symmetrical would scarcely be found in a city that had developed gradually from a small beginning, in which the location of streets had been the result of accident.

Two wide streets that cross the city very nearly at right angles give the direction for the other streets running approximately north and south and east and west, Mercury Street with its continuations, and Nola Street. The former probably served as a base line in laying out the city; this we infer from the fact that while it is exceptionally broad, and the Forum lies on it, there is no gate at either end, and it could have been little used for traffic. Nola Street has a gate only at the east end; the west end opens into the Strada Consolare, which follows the line of the city wall and leads to the Herculaneum Gate at the northwest corner. That the other streets must have taken their direction from these two is clearly seen in the case of those in the northwest part of the city; on close examination it will be found that the arrangement of the rest also is in accordance with the same system, a fact which would perhaps be still more obvious if the unexcavated eastern portion of the city were laid bare.

In two instances, however, there is a deviation from this system. One is in the quarter near the Forum. For reasons which have not been satisfactorily explained, the Porta Marina was not placed on the prolongation of the street coming from the Sarno Gate, but further north. In order to reach this gate the street, as shown on the plan, makes a bend to the north which is reproduced in the other east and west streets lying south of Nola Street; west of the Forum, again, the streets converge in order to give access to this gate.

The other deviation, which affects Stabian Street, can be explained on grounds of convenience. This street, which runs from the Stabian to the Vesuvius Gate, abandoned the line of the north and south streets west of it in order to take advantage of a natural depression in the hill, by following which an easy grade could be established to the higher parts of the city; that the blocks along this important thoroughfare might not be too irregular in shape, the nearest parallel streets on the east were laid out in such a way as to follow the direction of Stabian Street. The street running south from the Capua Gate resumes, with slight variation, the north and south line of Mercury Street.

The public buildings of the city form two extensive groups. One group lies about the Forum ([Plan II]); with this we may reckon the Baths in the first block north, and the temples of Fortuna Augusta and Venus Pompeiana. The nucleus of the other is formed by the two theatres and the large quadrangular colonnade which, designed originally to afford protection for theatre-goers against the rain, was later turned into barracks for the gladiators ([Plan III]). There are in addition only four public buildings that need to be mentioned. Two are bathing establishments, the Stabian Baths, and those at the corner of Stabian and Nola streets. The third is a small building near the Herculaneum Gate, consisting of a hall opening on the street, with a base for a statue near the rear wall; this on insufficient grounds has been called a custom-house. The fourth, the Amphitheatre, lies in the southern corner of the city.

As the public buildings were thus located in clearly defined groups, it is not probable that many yet remain in the portion of the city which has not been excavated. We may expect to find only bathing establishments, and perhaps one or two temples. There were priestesses of Ceres and of Venus, but the sanctuary of Ceres has not been discovered. Mention is made also of a priest of Mars; but the temple of Mars, according to the precept of Vitruvius (I. vii. 1) would be outside the city.

A word should be added regarding the modern division of Pompeii into Regions, or wards, and Insulae. By an Insula is meant—in accordance with ancient usage—a block of houses surrounded on all sides by streets. The division into Regions was introduced by Fiorelli, and rests upon a misconception which has been corrected by more recent excavations. Fiorelli thought that the Capua Gate and the Nocera Gate were connected by a street, and that the city was thus divided by four streets (the assumed street, Stabian Street, Nola Street, and Abbondanza Street with its continuations) into nine Regions, marked on our plan with the numerals I-IX.

In each Region every block, or Insula, has its number, and in the Insula a separate number is given to every door opening on a street. This arrangement is convenient because each house can be accurately designated by means of three numbers.

On the plans the Insulae are designated by Arabic numerals, but in the text small Roman numerals are used for the sake of clearness; thus, Ins. IX. i. 26, means the first Insula of Region IX, No. 26.

The names of several of the more important streets, as of the better known houses, are given in the text in the English form.

[CHAPTER VI]
BUILDING MATERIALS, CONSTRUCTION, AND ARCHITECTURAL PERIODS

Six centuries lie between the dates of the earliest and the latest buildings at Pompeii; and in order to understand any structure rightly we must first of all ascertain to what period it belongs. It is indeed rarely possible to fix dates with exactness for the earlier time; but certain periods are so clearly differentiated from one another, that in most cases there is no room for doubt to which of them a building is to be assigned. Before undertaking to characterize these periods, however, it will be necessary briefly to notice what building materials were used, and how they were turned to account in construction.

Exclusive of wood, which was more freely used in Pompeii than in Campanian towns to-day, the principal building materials were Sarno limestone, two kinds of tufa (gray and yellow), lava, a whitish limestone often called travertine wrongly, marble, and brick.

The Sarno limestone (pietra di Sarno) is a deposit from the water of the Sarno, and is found in beds along the course of the river. It contains many impressions of the leaves and stems of plants, and varies greatly in compactness; it closely resembles the Roman travertine, except that it has a more decided yellowish tint.

Gray tufa is a volcanic dust which has been hardened by the presence of water into rock. It has a fine grain, and is easily worked; it was quarried in the vicinity of Nocera. The volcanic dust which formed the yellow tufa was thrown out in an earlier period, when the Sarno plain was still a part of the sea, and so hardened in salt water; it is more friable than the gray tufa, and not so durable.

The lava, which came originally from Vesuvius, was quarried at Pompeii. Three varieties may be distinguished, differing in density according as they were taken from the lower or the upper strata: solid lava, or basalt, which, being heavy and extremely hard, was extensively used for pavements and thresholds; slag, like the scoriae found on the sides of Vesuvius to-day; and cruma, the foam of the lava stream, which is light and porous, but on account of its hardness has good resisting qualities.

The whitish limestone has a fine texture, without impressions of leaves, and is of an even color; it was to some extent employed as a substitute for marble. It was not quarried at Pompeii, and was not extensively used; the most important example of its use is in the later colonnade about the Forum. The white Carrara marble (marmor lunense) was preferred for columns, pilasters, and architraves; but colored marbles of many varieties, cut into thin slabs and blocks, were used as a veneering for walls and in the mosaic floors.

Bricks were used only for the corners of buildings, for doorposts, and in a few instances, as in the Basilica and the house of the Labyrinth, for columns; brick walls are not found in Pompeii. The bricks seen in corners and doorposts ([Figs. 11], [95]) are simply a facing for rubble work. They are ordinarily less than an inch thick; they have the shape of a right-angled triangle, and are so laid that the side representing the hypothenuse—about six inches long—appears in the surface of the wall. Sometimes fragments of roof tiles, more or less irregular in shape, were used instead. The bricks of the earlier time contain sea sand and have a granular surface, with a less uniform color; the later bricks are smooth and even in appearance.

The flat oblong roof tiles (tegulae), measuring ordinarily 24 by 19 or 20 inches, had flanges at the sides; over the joints where the flanges came together, joint tiles in the form of a half-cylinder (imbrices) were laid, like those in use at the present day ([Figs. 114], [117]).

The styles of masonry are characteristic and interesting. We may distinguish them as masonry with limestone framework, rubble work, reticulate work, quasi-reticulate work, ashlar work, and, in the case of columns and entablatures, massive construction.

The masonry with limestone framework dates from the earliest period. The walls were built without mortar, clay being used instead. Since this served only as a filling, without strength as a binding material, it was necessary to arrange the stones themselves in such a way that the wall would stand firm. This result was accomplished by using large, oblong blocks, not only for corners and doorposts, but also for a framework in the body of the wall; as shown in our illustration, alternate vertical and horizontal blocks were built up into pillars which would hold in place the courses of smaller stones that filled the intervening spaces. The material of the larger, hewn blocks, as well as of the smaller fragments, was Sarno limestone, with occasional pieces of cruma or slag.

Fig. 9.—Wall with limestone framework.

The rubble work, opus incertum, consists of fragments irregular in shape, of the size of the fist and larger, laid in mortar. The material used in the earlier times was ordinarily lava; later, Sarno limestone. Corners and doorposts at first were built of hewn blocks; afterwards bricks and blocks of stone cut in the form of bricks were used for this purpose, and in the latest period frequently brick and stone combined, opus mixtum or opus compositum—a course of stone alternating with every two or three courses of brick. An example of the opus mixtum is seen in the entrances of the Herculaneum Gate ([Fig. 113]). Rubble work is the prevailing masonry at Pompeii; in comparison the other kinds described may be considered exceptional.

The reticulate work, opus reticulatum, formed the outer surface of a wall, the inner part of which was built up with rubble. It was composed of small four-sided pyramidal blocks, of which only the base, cut square and smooth, showed on the surface; the tapering part served as a key to bind the block into the wall. These blocks, which measured from three to four inches square at the base, were laid on their corners, so that the edges ran diagonally to the horizontal and vertical lines of the wall; the pattern thus formed had the appearance of a net, hence the name. The material was in most cases gray, occasionally yellow, tufa. The corners and doorposts were at first made of the same kind of stone cut in the shape of bricks; later of bricks. This style of masonry was in vogue at Rome, and apparently also at Pompeii, in the time of Augustus ([Fig. 12]; see also the pedestal in the foreground of [Plate I]).

The quasi-reticulate work belongs to the early years of the Roman colony. In appearance it lies between rubble and reticulate work, differing from the latter in that the small blocks are less carefully finished and are laid with less regularity. The material is generally lava, but tufa and limestone are also found. The corners and doorposts are of brick, or of brick-shaped blocks of tufa or limestone ([Fig. 11]).

Ashlar work, of carefully hewn oblong blocks laid in courses, is found in the older portions of the city wall ([Fig. 109]) and in the walls of the Greek temple in the Forum Triangulare; it was used otherwise only for the fronts of houses ([Fig. 10]). The material in the earliest times was Sarno limestone, later gray tufa. With the coming of the Roman colony ashlar work went out of use, even for the corners of houses and doorposts.

In the construction of columns and many architraves large blocks were used. Previous to the time of the Roman colony these were of gray tufa, or, in rare instances, of limestone; a coating of white stucco was laid on the surface. From the advent of the colony to the time of the Early Empire, the whitish limestone was used; after that, Carrara marble.

Bearing in mind the styles of construction just described, we may now turn to the architectural history of Pompeii, which, as we shall see, falls naturally into six periods.

The first period is that to which the Doric temple in the Forum Triangulare and the city walls belong. From the style of the temple, we may safely conclude that it was built in the sixth century B.C.; the evidence is too scanty to enable us definitely to fix the date of the walls. The building materials used were the Sarno limestone and gray tufa.

The second period may be designated as the Period of the Limestone Atriums, so characterized from the peculiar construction of a number of houses found in different parts of the city. On the side facing the street these houses have walls of ashlar work of Sarno limestone ([Fig. 10]), but the inner walls are of limestone framework ([Fig. 9]).

Fig. 10.—Façade of Sarno limestone, house of the Surgeon.

Almost no ornamental forms belonging to this period have come down to us; so far only a single column has been found, built into the wall of a house. It is of the Doric style, and once formed part of a portico that ran along the west side of the small open space at the northwest corner of Stabian and Nola streets; it is thus the sole remnant of a public building. In the only complete house that has survived from this period, the house of the Surgeon, there was a portico in front of the garden, but the roof was supported by square pillars, not by columns. There is no trace of wall painting.

Characteristic as the construction of the limestone atriums is, it is difficult to determine to what age they belong. The beginning of the period cannot be determined even approximately. The end, however, is fixed by the earlier limit of the next period, the Second Punic War. We may, therefore, assign the houses with the limestone atriums to a period just preceding this war; reckoning in round numbers, they were built before 200 B.C.

In the third, or Tufa Period, came the climax of the development of Pompeian architecture prior to the Roman domination. The favorite building material was the gray tufa.

With the exception of the Greek temple mentioned above, all the public buildings of Pompeii that do not belong to the time of the Roman colony have a homogeneous character; a list of them would include the colonnade about the Forum, the Basilica, the temples of Apollo and of Jupiter, the Large Theatre with the colonnades of the Forum Triangulare and the Barracks of the Gladiators, the Stabian Baths, the Palaestra, and the outer part of the Porta Marina with the inner parts of the other gates. Closely associated with these public edifices is a large number of private houses; as a specially characteristic example, we may mention the house of the Faun.

All these buildings are similar in style and construction; they evidently date from a period of great building activity. It must also have been a period of peace and prosperity; for the whole city, from the artistic and monumental point of view, underwent a transformation. Certain Oscan inscriptions, an early Latin monumental inscription, and a few words, dating from 78 B.C., scratched upon the plaster of the Basilica, oblige us to place the Tufa Period before the time of the Roman colony; yet not long before, for the next oldest buildings date from the first years of the colony. The time of peace that furnished the background for the period can only have been that between the Second Punic War and the Social War, about 200 to 90 B.C.; the Tufa Period was approximately the second century before Christ.

In marked contrast with the Period of the Limestone Atriums, the Tufa Period has a pronounced artistic character. It is preëminently a period of monumental construction. Buildings and public places are adorned with colonnades of the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders. The simple and beautiful forms of the Greek architecture are used, sparingly indeed, but without petty detail and with evident fear of excessive ornamentation. Columns and architraves are white, with only slight suggestion of the earlier Greek polychrome decoration. A variety of color, however, is laid on the walls, and with this period the history of Pompeian wall decoration begins.

The Tufa Period coincides throughout with the time of the first style of decoration. This, known as the Incrustation Style, aimed to imitate in stucco the appearance of a wall veneered with colored marbles. Wall paintings are wholly lacking, but pictures, often of rare beauty, are found in the mosaics of the floors. In this period, we may truly say that Pompeian architecture was at its best. With it the pure Greek tradition dies out; all the buildings of later times bear the Roman stamp.

The buildings of the Tufa Period are easily recognized by the unobtrusiveness of the materials used in their construction. The rubble work is mostly of lava; but gray tufa was used exclusively, not only for ashlar work in façades, but also for columns and entablatures. The surface of the tufa was coated with a layer of fine white stucco, which gave it the appearance of marble. The use of marble for building purposes, however, is foreign to this period; and it speaks well for the culture of the Oscan Pompeians that they had pleasure in beauty of form above richness of material.

The fourth period covers the earlier decades of the Roman colony, from 80 B.C. to near the end of the Republic. According to inscriptions which are still extant, soon after the year 80 a wealthy colonist, Gaius Quinctius Valgus, when duumvir with Marcus Porcius as colleague, built the Small Theatre, and afterwards, when quinquennial duumvir with the same colleague, the Amphitheatre also. Both structures have the quasi-reticulate facing ([Fig. 11]); and several other buildings in which the same style of masonry is found without doubt belong to the same period—the Baths near the Forum, the temple of Zeus Milichius, a building just inside the Porta Marina, and apparently the hall at the southeast corner of the Forum, which we shall identify as the Comitium; with these should be included also the original temple of Isis, which was destroyed by the earthquake of 63 A.D. Few houses dating from this period have been discovered; the provision made by the preceding period in this respect had been so generous that new houses were not needed.

Fig. 11.—Quasi-reticulate facing, with brick corner, at the entrance of the Small Theatre.

From the aesthetic point of view the fourth period falls far below that just preceding; the exhaustion of resources and the decline of taste due to the long and terrible war are unmistakable. Theatre, Amphitheatre, and Baths were alike built for immediate use, with crude and scanty ornamentation; and where richer ornament was applied, as in the case of the temple of Isis, it could not for a moment be compared with that of the Tufa Period in beauty and finish.

The wall decoration of the fourth period is of the second Pompeian style, which came into vogue just after the founding of the colony, and which we shall call the Architectural Style; for in part, as the first style, it imitated a veneering of marble, not however with the help of slabs or panels modelled in stucco, but by the use of color only, laid on walls finished to a plane surface; in part it made use of architectural designs which were painted either correctly or with at least some regard for proper proportions.

The fifth period extends from the last decades of the Republic to the earthquake of the year 63 A.D. In the entire period, covering more than a century, we are unable to distinguish a series of buildings which may be classed together in style and construction as constituting a homogeneous, representative group. Here and there we can point out a piece of masonry which, from its similarity to that of the fourth period, may be assigned to the end of the Republic; again, walls with reticulate facing of tufa and corners of brick-shaped blocks of the same stone belong to the time of Augustus ([Fig. 12]), while reticulate work with corners of brick ([Fig. 95]) is of later date; but there is a total lack of those distinguishing characteristics which would serve to set off by themselves all the buildings belonging to a particular time. Consequently in the case of each structure it is necessary to take into account all the circumstances, and then to form an independent judgment regarding its style and date.

Fig. 12.—Reticulate facing, with corners of brick-shaped stone. The filled arch is probably to bear the weight of the wall over a sewer.

The difficulty is further enhanced by the fact that three styles of wall decoration fall within the limits of the same period. The Architectural Style, already mentioned, remained in vogue to the time of Augustus; it then gave place to the third or Ornate Style, which is characterized by a freer use of ornament and the introduction of designs and scenes suggestive of an Egyptian origin. The fourth or Intricate Style came in about the year 50 A.D., and represents, with its involved and fantastic designs, the last stage in the development of Pompeian wall decoration. In the fifth period marble began to be employed as a building material; the earliest dated example of its use is the temple of Fortuna Augusta, erected about 3 B.C.

The sixteen years between the earthquake of 63 A.D. and the destruction of the city form the sixth period in the architectural history of Pompeii. The buildings belonging to it can be easily recognized, not only from their similarity in style and ornament, but also from certain external characteristics, as newness of appearance, unfinished condition, and the joining of new to broken walls. The only important building wholly new is the large bathing establishment, the Central Baths, at the corner of Stabian and Nola streets. For the rest, effort seems to have been directed toward restoring the ruined buildings as nearly as possible to their original condition. The wall decoration throughout is of the Intricate Style.

The measurements of buildings in the Roman Period conform to the scale of the Roman foot, while the dimensions of structures antedating the Roman colony in most cases reduce to the scale of the Oscan or old Italic foot. The Roman foot (296 mm.) may be roughly reckoned at 0.97 of the English foot (304.8 mm.); the Oscan foot (275 mm.) is considerably shorter. As the Roman standard is of Greek origin, we may perhaps find a structure conforming to it that was designed by a Greek architect before the Roman Period.

KEY TO PLAN II

• A. The Forum.
  • 1. Pedestal of the statue of Augustus.
  • 2. Pedestal of the statue of Claudius.
  • 3. Pedestal of the statue of Agrippina.
  • 4. Pedestal of the statue of Nero.
  • 5. Pedestal of the statue of Caligula.
  • 6. Pedestals of equestrian statues.
  • 7. Pedestals of standing figures.
  • 8. Pedestal for three equestrian statues.
  • 9. Speaker's platform ([p. 48]).
  • 10. Table of standard measures ([p. 92]).
  • 11. Room of the supervisor of measures.
• B. The Basilica.
  • a. Entrance court.
  • 1. Corridor.
  • 2. Main room.
  • 3. Tribunal.
  • 4-4. Rooms at the ends of the tribunal.
• C. The Temple of Apollo.
  • 1. Colonnade.
  • 2. Podium.
  • 3. Cella.
  • 4. Altar.
  • 5. Sundial.
  • 6. Sacristan's room.
  • 7-7. Rooms made from earlier colonnade.
• D. D'. Market Buildings.
• E. Latrina.
• F. F. City Treasury.
• G. Commemorative Arch.
• H. Temple of Jupiter.
• I. Arch of Tiberius.
• K. The Provision Market—Macellum.
  • 1. Portico.
  • 2. Colonnade.
  • 3-3. Market stalls.
  • 4. Market for meat and fish.
  • 5. Chapel of the imperial family.
  • 6. Banquet room.
  • 7. Round structure with water basin—Tholus.
  • 8. Pen.
• L. Sanctuary of the City Lares.
  • 1. Main room, unroofed, with an altar in the centre.
  • 2. Apse, with shrine.
  • 3. Recesses with pedestals.
  • 4. Niche opening on the Forum.
• M. Temple of Vespasian.
  • 1. Colonnade.
  • 2. Altar.
  • 3. Cella.
  • 4. Portico.
• N. The Building of Eumachia.
  • See [plan on p. 110].
• O. The Voting Place—Comitium.
  • 1. Recess opening on the main room.
  • 2. Recess opening on the Forum.
• P-R. Municipal Buildings.
  • P. Office of the duumvirs.
  • Q. Hall of the city council.
  • R. Office of the aediles.
• S. Fountain.

PLAN II.—THE FORUM WITH THE ADJOINING BUILDINGS.
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PART I
PUBLIC PLACES AND BUILDINGS

CHAPTER VII
THE FORUM

The Forum is usually approached from the west side by the short, steep street leading from the Porta Marina. Entering, we find ourselves near the lower end of an oblong open space ([Plate I]), at the upper end of which, toward Vesuvius, stands a high platform of masonry with the ruins of a temple—the temple of Jupiter; the remains of a colonnade are seen on each of the other three sides. Including the colonnade the Forum measures approximately 497 feet in length by 156 in breadth; without it the dimensions are 467 and 126 feet. The north side, at the left of the temple, is enclosed by a wall in which there are two openings, one at the end of the colonnade, the other between this and the temple; at the right the wall bounding the open space has been replaced by a stately commemorative arch, while the end of the colonnade is closed by a wall with a passageway. Another arch, of much simpler construction, stands at the left of the temple, in line with the façade; it cuts off the area between the temple and the colonnade from the rest of the Forum. A third arch once stood in a corresponding position at the right.

The colonnade is nowhere intersected by a street passable for vehicles. Even the entrances on the north side form no exception. At the left you descend to the area by several steps, at the right by one only; yet here the exclusion of carts and wagons was made doubly sure by placing three upright stones in the passageway. Only pedestrians could enter the Forum, and they, too, could easily be shut out by means of gates in the entrances; the places where the gates swung can still be seen in the pavement, and one of them is shown in a painting ([Fig. 16]). No private houses opened on this area; it was wholly given up to the public life of the city and was surrounded by temples, markets, and buildings devoted to the civic administration.

The colonnade was not uniform in character upon all the three sides. As will be seen from our plan ([Plan II]), on the south side, and on the adjoining portion of the east side as far as Abbondanza Street, it was constructed with two rows of columns and had a double depth. On the east side, north of this street, the porticos in front of four successive buildings (K, L, M, N) took its place. For the greater part of its extent the colonnade was built in two stories, the lower of the Doric, the upper of the Ionic order. The upper gallery was made accessible by three stairways, at the southeast and southwest corners of the Forum and at the middle of the west side; on the east side it did not extend beyond Abbondanza Street.

The portico in front of the first of the four buildings referred to, that of Eumachia, contained a double series of columns, one above the other, corresponding in style and dimensions with those of the colonnade; but there was no upper floor running back from the intervening entablature. The arrangement in front of the fourth building, the Macellum, was similar; as the remains of the porticos in front of the two intervening buildings have wholly disappeared, it is impossible to determine their character.

The area of the Forum was paved with rectangular flags of whitish limestone. In front of the colonnade, the pavement of which was about twenty inches above that of the open space, a broad step or ledge projected, covering a gutter for rain water; the water found its way into the gutter through semicircular openings in the outer edge of the step.

Of the many statues that once adorned the Forum not one has been found. As may be seen from the pedestals still in place, they were of three kinds, and varied greatly in size.

First, statues of citizens who had rendered distinguished services were placed in front of the colonnade on the ledge over the gutter. Four pedestals that once supported statues of this sort may be seen on the west side.

Then equestrian statues of life size were set up in front of the ledge, these also in honor of dignitaries of the city ([Fig. 17]). On one of the pedestals the veneering of colored marble is still preserved, with an inscription showing that the person represented was Quintus Sallustius, "Duumvir, Quinquennial Duumvir, Patron of the Colony."

Finally, on the south side, the life size equestrian statues, which seem at the outset to have been arranged symmetrically, were almost all removed in order to make room for four much larger statues, the pedestals of which still remain ([Fig. 53], p. 122). These must have represented emperors, or members of the imperial families. The pedestal in the middle, which is in the form of an arch almost square at the base, is much the oldest. Upon it was probably placed a colossal statue of Augustus. It is incredible that during the long and successful reign of the first emperor no statue in his honor should have been erected in Pompeii; and this is the most suitable place. The other three pedestals are similar in construction, and clearly belong together. The one at the right (2 on the plan) supported a colossal equestrian statue; that at the left (3) a colossal standing figure; on the third, further forward (4), was a smaller equestrian statue. Here stood, then, emperor, empress, and crown prince—Claudius, Agrippina, Nero.

A fifth pedestal, for an equestrian statue of the same size as that of Nero, is seen further to the north, in front of the temple of Jupiter (5). While unquestionably later than the time of Augustus, it must on the other hand be older than the pedestals of members of the Claudian family; for aside from himself, no one belonging to Nero's time can be taken into consideration, and after his death the Forum lay in ruins in consequence of the earthquake of the year 63. Who stood here, however, can scarcely be even conjectured. Not necessarily an emperor; the younger Drusus, for instance, Tiberius's son, or Germanicus might have been thus honored if they had in any way come into relation with the Pompeians. But if an emperor, it must have been Caligula; another place was provided for the statue of Tiberius.

In the south side of the arch at the northeast corner of the Forum are two niches. It is highly probable that statues of the two oldest sons of Germanicus, Nero and Drusus, were placed in them; a fragment of an inscription referring to the former was found near by. These became presumptive heirs to the throne after the death of Tiberius's son Drusus, in 23 A.D.; but both afterwards fell victims to the morbid suspicions of the emperor and the plots of Sejanus, Nero in 29 A.D., Drusus four years later.

On the top of the arch an equestrian statue of Tiberius probably stood. That such a statue was placed here seems clear from analogy. North of this arch was another, almost in line with it, at the end of Mercury Street where it opens into Nola Street; and here the excavators found fragments of a bronze equestrian statue which were put together and set up in the Naples Museum. Whether this statue represented Caligula or Nero has been a matter of dispute, but the former is really excluded from consideration by the short, heavy figure, which is better suited to Nero. There is no decided resemblance to Nero either; but it is quite possible that, although as crown prince he had been honored with a statue in the Forum, the Pompeians thought it best to erect for him as emperor a more imposing monument.

Before leaving the area we may raise the question whether it contained a speakers' platform, like the Rostra in the Roman Forum. If we have reference to a special structure, probably not; no trace of a separate tribunal has been discovered. The orator who wished to address the people, however, could mount the broad platform in front of the temple of Jupiter, on which once an altar stood; before him the audience could gather in the open, on the only side of the Forum free from the colonnade. This place well suited the convenience of both speaker and hearers. It is possible that we should also identify as a tribune the platform in a recess at the southeast corner [(p. 120]).

On even a cursory inspection the Forum is seen to lack unity in the details of its plan and in its architecture; the fact soon becomes apparent that it reached its final form only as the result of a long period of development. It will be worth while briefly to trace this development, and to note at least the more important changes which followed one another in the course of the centuries.

In the earliest times the Forum was merely an open square bounded by four streets.

Fig. 13.—North end of the Forum, with the Temple of Jupiter, restored.

The proof that this was the original form is in part based upon the orientation of the temple of Apollo. The sides of this temple have the same direction as the north and south streets in the northern part of the city, and must have been laid out parallel with a street that once ran between it and the Forum. The temple is, therefore, older than the colonnade of the Forum, which shows a marked deviation from the line of its axis; the divergence, as may be seen on our plan, was in part concealed by making a difference in the thickness of the pillars between the court of the temple and the Forum. It is obvious that the colonnade on the west side takes the place of an older street; the south side was probably defined by the prolongation of Abbondanza Street toward the southwest.

Near the southeast corner an inscription was found: V[ibius] Popidius Ep[idii] f[ilius] q[uaestor] porticus faciendas coeravit, 'Vibius Popidius, the son of Epidius, when quaestor caused this colonnade to be erected.' No clew to the date is given, but it must have been before the coming of the Roman colony, for after that time there was no office of quaestor in Pompeii. It must also have been before the Social War; in those years of tumult an extensive colonnade would not have been built, and when the national spirit was so vehemently asserting itself, we should expect to find inscriptions upon public works in the Oscan language, certainly not in Latin. But the use of Latin may very well date from the latter part of the period of alliance with Rome; we may then with much probability assign the inscription to the second half of the second century B.C.

Remains of the colonnade of Popidius are still to be seen on the south side, and on the adjoining part of the east side, extending just across Abbondanza Street; traces of it are found also on the west side, where it was afterward replaced by a new structure. On the east side north of Abbondanza Street no traces remain; the appearance of this part of the Forum was entirely changed when the four buildings (K, L, M, N) with their porticos were erected, but we can hardly doubt that the original colonnade extended here also. Our illustration ([Fig. 14]) shows the arrangement of the Doric columns in the lower story; of the Ionic columns above only scanty fragments have been recovered. The appearance of the whole may be suggested by our restoration ([Fig. 13]).

In style and construction this colonnade belongs to the Tufa Period ([p. 40]). While the forms are not those of the classical period, they nevertheless manifest Greek feeling. The low ratio in the proportions of the Doric columns, of which the height is equal to five diameters, well accords with their use as a support for an upper gallery; elsewhere in pre-Roman Pompeii more slender proportions are preferred, even for the Doric style. The shaft is well shaped, with a moderate swelling (entasis). Only the upper part is fluted; as the sharp edges of the flutings near the bottom might easily be marred, the divisions of the surface on the lower third of the shaft were left flat.

The architrave is relatively low, the result of an interesting peculiarity in the method of construction. Blocks of tufa long enough to span the intercolumniations were too weak to sustain the weight of the rest of the entablature. To meet this difficulty a line of thick planks was placed in old Italic fashion above the capitals of the columns, and on these were laid short tufa blocks. Thus in our illustration ([Fig. 14]), while the upper of the two bands of the architrave is seen to be of stone, the lower shows the modern timber supplied in the place of the ancient. That the planks were in reality no thicker than has been assumed in the reconstruction is proved beyond question by the later colonnade on the west side, which, although entirely of stone, corresponds throughout in its proportions with the older one; the architrave is equally narrow, and is likewise divided into two parts.

Fig. 14.—Remnant of the colonnade of Popidius, at the south end of the Forum.

This explanation is curiously confirmed by an architectural painting on the garden wall of one of the finest houses of the Tufa Period, the house of the Faun. Here we find pilasters and entablature, except the architrave, painted white; but the architrave is painted in two bands, of which the lower is yellow, as if to represent wood. Nothing would have been easier than to leave the architrave, moulded in stucco, of one color as if it were all of one material; but special effort was made apparently to indicate the appearance of a lower division of timber. From this we may infer that in actual construction no pains was taken to conceal the lack of uniformity in structural materials by laying a coat of white or colored stucco over wood and stone alike; on the contrary, the difference was not only recognized in the decoration, but even accentuated, as the timber, whether retaining its original color or painted with a suitable tint, presented a marked contrast with the stone the surface of which was covered with white stucco. If the strip of timber in the architrave had been perceptibly thicker than that of stone above it, the effect would not have been good; as the earlier Greek polychrome decoration was now no longer in vogue, the stripe of color above the capitals made a pleasing variation from the prevailing whiteness of the structure.

The Basilica at the southwest corner and the temple of Jupiter both conform to the same variation from the direction of the early north and south street that we have noticed in the case of the colonnade of Popidius; they belong, therefore, to the same remodelling of the Forum. It is quite possible that the erection of the temple, by limiting the area of the Forum on the north side, caused its extension toward the south beyond the earlier boundary. Originally the temple was isolated, the north end of the Forum on either side being left open; later, but still in the time of the Republic, a high boundary wall with passageways was built on both sides of it. Later still the two arches were erected in a line with its façade; afterwards, in the time of Tiberius, the wall at the right of the temple was replaced by the commemorative arch (I), and the smaller arch near the façade at the right was removed in order that there might be an unimpeded view of the great arch from the area.

The colonnade of Popidius may have stood for more than a century; the necessity of making thoroughgoing repairs no doubt became urgent. In the meantime, however, the taste of the Pompeians had undergone a change, and instead of repairing the old colonnade they began to replace it by a new one, a part of which is shown in [Fig. 15]. Better material, the whitish limestone, was used, and the construction was more substantial; the blocks of the entablature were fitted together so as to form a flat arch. Though the new colonnade followed closely the proportions of the old, effective details, such as the fluting of the columns, and the triglyphs with the guttae underneath, were omitted. The refined sense of form characteristic of the earlier time was no longer manifest; all is coarse and inartistic, the swelling on the shafts of the columns, for example, being carried too high.

Fig. 15.—Part of the new colonnade, near the southwest corner of the Forum.

The new colonnade had a second story of the Ionic order, of the columns of which (though not of the entablature) considerable fragments have been found. The stylobate on which the columns rested was renewed in limestone, and about the same time the Forum was paved and the ledge over the gutter was laid with flags of the same material.

This second remodelling of the Forum commenced in the early years of the Empire, the pavement having been laid before the pedestal of the monument to Augustus was built. It was never carried to completion. On the west side the new colonnade was almost finished when the earthquake of the year 63 threw it nearly all down. At the time of the eruption only the columns at the south end of this side, which had safely passed through the earthquake, were still standing with their entablature; they are shown in [Fig. 15]. The area was then strewn with blocks, which the stonecutters were engaged in making ready for the rebuilding.

The Forum of Pompeii, as of other ancient cities, was first of all a market place. Early in the morning the country folk gathered here with the products of the farm; here all day long tradespeople of every sort exhibited their wares. In later times the pressure of business led to the erection of separate buildings around the Forum to relieve the congestion; such were the Macellum, used as a provision market; the Eumachia building, erected to accommodate the clothing trade; the Basilica and the market house west of the temple of Jupiter, devoted to other branches of trade. Yet in a literal sense the Forum always remained the business centre of the city.

It served, too, as the favorite promenade and lounging place, where men met to discuss matters of mutual interest, or to indulge in gossip. Here idlers loitered and plied busier men with questions regarding public affairs, makers and dealers came together to talk over and settle points of difference, and young people pursued their romantic adventures. He can best form an idea of this bustling, ceaseless, varied activity who knows what the piazza means in the life of a modern Italian city, and stops to consider how much has been taken from the life of the piazza by the cafés and similar places of resort; modern squares, moreover, are usually not provided, as were the ancient, with inviting colonnades, affording protection against both sun and rain.

The life of the Forum seemed so interesting to one of the citizens of Pompeii that he devoted to the portrayal of it a series of paintings on the walls of a room. The pictures are light and sketchy, but they give a vivid representation of ancient life in a small city. First, in front of the equestrian statues near the colonnade we see dealers of every kind and description. There sits a seller of copper vessels and iron utensils ([Fig. 16]), so lost in thought that a friend is calling his attention to a possible purchaser who is just coming up. Next come two shoemakers, one waiting on women, another on men; then two cloth dealers. Further on a man is selling portions of warm food from a kettle; then we see a woman with fruit and vegetables, and a man selling bread. Another dealer in utensils is engaged in eager bargaining, while his son, squatting on the ground, mends a pot.

Fig. 16.—Scene in the Forum.
In the foreground, at the left, dealer in utensils; at the right, shoemaker waiting on four ladies. Wall painting.

The scenes now change. A man sitting with a writing tablet and stylus listens closely to the words of another who stands near by; he reminds us of the scribes who, under the portico of the theatre of San Carlo, at Naples, write letters for those that have been denied the privilege of an education.

Then come men wearing tunics, engaged in some transaction, in the course of which they seem to pass judgment on the contents of bottles which they hold in their hands; their business perhaps involves the testing of wine. Beyond these, some men are taking a walk; a woman is giving alms to a beggar; and two children play hide and seek around a column. The following scene is not easy to understand, but apparently has reference to some legal process; a woman leads a little girl with a small tablet before her breast into the presence of two seated men who wear the toga.

Fig. 17.—Scene in the Forum.
Citizens reading a public notice. Wall painting.

In the next scene ([Fig. 17]) four men are reading a notice posted on a long board, which is fastened to the pedestals of three equestrian statues. The sketchy character of the painting is especially obvious in the representations of the horses, which are nevertheless lifelike. It is also interesting to note that the heads of the men in these scenes are uncovered; in stormy weather pointed hoods (shown in a tavern scene, [Fig. 234]) were sometimes worn. The festoons suggest a trimming of the colonnade for some festal occasion.

The last scene is from school life. A pupil is to receive a flogging. He is mounted on the back of one of his schoolmates, while another holds him by the legs; a slave is about to lay on the lash, and the teacher stands near by with an air of composure. It would not be safe to infer from this, however, that there was a school in the Forum; the columns in this scene are different from those in the others and are further apart. Possibly a part of the small portico north of the court of the temple of Apollo was at one time let to a schoolmaster.

The most important religious festivals were celebrated in the Forum. Here naturally festal honors were paid to the highest of the gods—the whole area enclosed by the colonnade was the court of his temple; but we learn from an inscription, mentioned below, that celebrations were held here in honor of Apollo also, whose temple adjoined the Forum, and was at first even more closely connected with it than in later times.

Vitruvius informs us that in Greek towns the market place, agora, was laid out in the form of a square (a statement which is not confirmed by modern excavations), but that in the cities of Italy, on account of the gladiatorial combats, the Forum should have an oblong shape, the breadth being two thirds of the length. The purpose in giving a lengthened form to the Forum, as also to the Amphitheatre, was no doubt to secure, at the middle of the sides, a greater number of good seats, from which a spectacle could be witnessed. In the Pompeian Forum, as may be seen from the dimensions given at the beginning of this chapter, the breadth is less than one third of the length. However, there can be little doubt that gladiatorial exhibitions were frequently held there before the building of the Amphitheatre, which dates from the earlier years of the Roman colony. After this time the Forum was still used for games and contests of a less dangerous character. The epitaph of a certain A. Clodius Flaccus, which is now lost, but was copied by a scholar in the seventeenth century, tells us at length how in his first, and again in his second, duumvirate (he was duumvir for the third time in 3 B.C.), in connection with the festival of Apollo, he not only gave gladiatorial exhibitions in the Amphitheatre, but also provided bullfights and other spectacles, as well as musical entertainments and pantomimes, in the Forum.

Speaking of the Forum as a place for gladiatorial combats, Vitruvius adds that the spaces between the columns should be wide,—that the view of spectators might be as little as possible impeded,—and that the upper story of the colonnade should be arranged with reference to the collection of an admission fee. The latter suggestion is of special interest. As we know from other sources, at public games certain places were reserved for the officials and for the friends of him who gave the spectacle; others were free to the public, while for still others an admission fee was charged. If the exhibition was held in a market place, with lower and upper colonnades, the former would be open to the people; the latter in part reserved, in part accessible on payment of the price of admission.

It would be interesting to know whether on such occasions at Pompeii the gates of the Forum itself were shut, so that admission even to the free space could be regulated; perhaps they were in earlier times when, as at Rome, slaves were forbidden to witness the games. However, Cicero speaks of this time-honored regulation as in his day already a thing of the past; and so in Roman Pompeii the gates of the Forum may have remained open even on the days of the games. Their most important use was probably in connection with the voting.

The Forum had a part also in spectacles which were not presented there. We are safe in assuming that, at least in the earlier times, whenever a gladiatorial combat was given in the Amphitheatre, or a play in the Theatre, the city officials, including especially the official providing the entertainment, formed in procession with their retinue and proceeded in festal attire to the place of amusement. These processions could scarcely have formed anywhere else than in the Forum, and thence they must have started out.

The fact that the Forum was not accessible for vehicles suggests a significant point of difference between the festal processions of the colony and those of the capital. In the latter, vehicles had a prominent place. Thus at Rome the official who gave the games in the Circus entered the edifice with his retinue in chariots in the imposing circus parade, pompa circensis, and a similar usage prevailed in the case of other processions; priests, too, and priestesses were on many occasions allowed to ride. But even in Rome carriages were always considered a matter of luxury; and the municipal regulations promulgated by Caesar prohibited the use of vehicles, except those required for religious and civic processions, on the streets of the city from sunrise till the tenth hour, that is, till four o'clock in the afternoon.

In Pompeii, and without doubt also in other cities of Italy and the provinces, the closing of the Forum to vehicles made it necessary that religious and other processions should proceed on foot. We have no evidence of any exception to this rule. We ought perhaps to recognize in it one of those devices by means of which Rome maintained a position of dignified superiority over the provincial towns; to her processions was allowed an element of display which to theirs was denied. It was not permitted to name the two chief executive officers of a municipality consuls, though their functions, within limits, corresponded with those of the consuls at Rome; nor could the city council be called a senate, though the Roman writers did not hesitate to apply this term to corresponding bodies in states and cities outside of Rome's jurisdiction. For like reasons, it would seem that on public occasions officials and priests of a provincial town were not permitted, as were those in Rome, to ride. Was this humiliating restriction laid upon the Pompeians when the Roman colony came, or previously when the city was in name the ally of Rome, but in reality already subject? The evidence is almost conclusive for the latter alternative; for the colonnade of Popidius, which as we have seen was erected in the period of autonomy, left no entrance for vehicles, though in other ways it added greatly to the attractiveness and convenience of the Forum as a place for civic and religious celebrations.

No record of events has survived to help us form a picture of the Forum as the seat of deliberative and judicial functions, the centre of the city's political life; yet stirring scenes present themselves to the imagination as we recall the critical periods in the history of the city.

In the Forum, about 400 B.C., the valiant Samnite mountaineers, having taken the city by storm, assembled and established their civic organization; here, in later times, without doubt amid conflicts similar to those at Rome, the polity was put to the test and underwent transformation. Fierce enough the strifes may have been during the Samnite wars, and again in the time of Hannibal,—after the battle of Cannae,—when the aristocrats who favored Rome contended with the national party for the mastery. Here, on the platform in front of the temple of Jupiter, the leaders of the national party stood in 90 B.C., and with flaming words roused the people to revolt, to join the movement which, starting in Asculum, had spread like wildfire over Southern Italy.

Then ten years of bloody war,—siege, campaigns, surrender,—and again the scene changes. Roman soldiers stand thick in serried ranks upon the area. They are the veterans of Sulla. An officer bearing a civil commission, the nephew of the Dictator, appears before them. Standing in front of the temple of Jupiter, he makes a proclamation regarding the founding and administration of the colony. The citizens crowd back timidly into the colonnade. Many of the best of the Pompeians have fallen in battle; of the rest, a part at least will be dispossessed of house and home to make room for the intruders, whose arrogance they will be compelled submissively to endure.

This is the last tragic act in the Pompeian Forum. After this time, there will be disputes regarding the rights of the old residents and the colonists, public questions of many kinds will call for settlement; the elections will come each year, and the ardent southern temperament may assert itself in violent scenes. Yet all these disturbances will be only as the ripples on the surface; the depths will remain undisturbed. The life of Pompeii has become an integral part of the life of the Roman world.

CHAPTER VIII
GENERAL VIEW OF THE BUILDINGS ABOUT THE FORUM—THE TEMPLE OF JUPITER

The Forum was to the ancient city what the atrium was to the early Italic house; it was used for every purpose for which a special place was not provided elsewhere. And as sleeping rooms, dining rooms, and storerooms were grouped about the atrium and opened into it, so around the Forum lay the edifices which served the requirements of the public life,—the most important temples, the municipal buildings, and market houses or exchanges for different branches of business.

Three temples adjoined the Forum at Pompeii. In addition, there was a sanctuary of the City Lares; and the temples of Venus Pompeiana and Fortuna Augusta were but a short distance away. These religious edifices are representative of the different periods in the history of the city.

In very early times the Oscans of Pompeii received from the Greeks who had settled on the coast the cult of Apollo, and built for the Hellenic god a large, fine temple (C, in [Plan II]) adjoining the Forum on the west side.

Several centuries later, the divinities of the Capitol—Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva—were enthroned in the temple that on the north side towered above the area (H).

On the east or right side followed, in Roman times, the edifices erected for the worship of the emperors. The oldest is the unroofed building, with a broad, open front, dedicated to the Lares of the City and to the Genius of Augustus (L). Further north, in the first block at the right beyond the Forum, is the temple of Fortuna Augusta, the goddess who guarded the fortunes of Augustus, erected in 3 B.C. A chapel for the worship of Claudius and his family was placed in the Macellum (K, 5); this seems to have sufficed also for the worship of Nero. After Nero's death and after the brief Civil War, a temple (M) was built close to the shrine of the Lares in honor of Vespasian, the restorer of peace, the new Augustus. This was the last temple erected in Pompeii; it was not entirely finished at the time of the eruption.

Three buildings at the south end of the Forum were used for city offices (P-R). They were much alike, each containing a single large hall. They were seemingly built in the early years of the Empire, and repaired after the earthquake of the year 63. There is also a structure at the southeast corner, south of Abbondanza Street, which we may identify as the voting place, the Comitium (O). At the northwest corner was apparently the city treasury, built in the latest years of Pompeii, perhaps on the site of an earlier structure of the same kind (F).

At a comparatively early period the area was found to be too small for the increasing volume of business; and the demand for roofed space made itself felt. In the second century B.C. the large and splendid Basilica (B), serving the double purpose of a court and an exchange, was built at the southwest corner.

Diagonally opposite, near the temple of Jupiter, a provision market, the Macellum (K), was constructed; this also at an early date. It was entirely rebuilt in the time of the Empire, perhaps in the reign of Claudius. Previous to this rebuilding, the priestess Eumachia had erected an exchange for the fullers on the same side of the Forum, further south (N).

On the west side, from pre-Roman times, stood a small colonnade in two stories, with its rear against the rear of the colonnade on the north side of the court of the temple of Apollo; only the first story, of the Doric order, has been preserved. Probably this structure and the small open space in front were at first used as a market; later, in the imperial period, shops (D') were built upon the open space, and the colonnade was made over into closed rooms, the purpose of which, except in the case of one, is unknown (6, 7, 7). In the last years of the city, a large market building (D) was erected between this small place and the Forum. It was connected both with the city treasury and with a latrina.

Fig. 18.—Plan of the temple of Jupiter.
[View larger image]

• 1. Speaker's platform.
• 2. Portico.
• 3. Cella.