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THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
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 HOUSE OF CORNELIUS RUFUS. 
 
POMPEII PHOTOGRAPHED. 
 
 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 A SERIES OF EIGHTEEN PHOTOGRAPHIC VIEWS. 
 
 WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE DESTRUCTION OF THE CITY, AND A 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE MOST INTERESTING REMAINS. 
 
 BY THOMAS H. DYER, LL.D. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 BELL AND DALDY, 186, FLEET STREET, 
 A. W. BENNETT, BISHOPSGATE STREET. 
 
 1867. 
 
 The right of Translation and reproduction is reserved. 
 
WIJ. PAlUCStmaNTER 
 LIBRARY 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 N works like the present the usual practice is 
 reversed — the letter-press is made subservient to 
 the illustrations ; and these, especially when they 
 consist of photographs, must be left to the selection 
 of artists. Hence, views may sometimes be chosen for their pictorial 
 effect rather than their fitness to illustrate the subject in hand. 
 Nevertheless, from the necessary truthfulness of photographic pic- 
 tures, it is hoped that the present volume may, with the aid of 
 some engravings, convey a good general idea of Pompeii. 
 
 The substance of much of the letter-press is taken from the 
 well-known work on Pompeii, originally published by the Society 
 for the Diffusion of Entertaininsf Knowledo;e, of which the writer 
 of these pages has recently been engaged in preparing a new 
 edition. The aid derived from other sources is acknowledaed in 
 the proper places. 
 
LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS. 
 
 RECENT Excavations . 
 
 Recent Excavations 
 
 Fountain in House of the Balcony 
 Street of the Tombs 
 MlUs and Oven 
 View near the Old Baths 
 View in the Forum 
 The Basihca 
 The Triangular Forum 
 House of Cornelius Eufus 
 House of Holconius 
 Fresco of Bacchus and Ariadne 
 Fresco in House of Siricus 
 House of Lucretius 
 Mosaic Fountain 
 Fresco of Bacchus and Faun 
 Fresco of Mars and Venus 
 Fresco of Judgment of Paris 
 
 to face page 
 
 1 
 12 
 24 
 27 
 38 
 42 
 54 
 63 
 68 
 74 
 78 
 SO 
 82 
 84 
 86 
 100 
 106 
 109 
 
S/^am^ 
 
 RECENT EXCAVATIONS. 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 HE Photograph which we have mserted by way of frontis- 
 piece to this vohime, although embracmg some of the more 
 recent excavations, does not offer any very striking or 
 remarkable object; but it will convey a good idea of the 
 general appearance of Pompeii. One of its chief cha- 
 racteristics is the numerous isolated pillars, arranged in quadrangular form, 
 which once supported the roof of an atrium or a peristyle that has now 
 vanished, though its side walls are still erect. These walls are sometimes 
 entii'ely bare of stucco, and display, like those in the foregroimd of the pho- 
 tograph, the rude materials of which they are constructed ; while others, like 
 those in the middle distance, not only retain their coating of stucco, but also 
 the designs and ornaments with which it was painted. When these are more 
 valuable than usual they are protected from the weather by a sort of eaves, 
 or short projecting roof, being buUt over them. The distance, with the 
 modern farm-house and stone-pines, shows parts that have not yet been 
 excavated ; for those ruins that now appear so cleanly emptied were once 
 filled with a cineritious soil, and above them were fields, and crops, and 
 trees, and habitations. The natm'e of the material with which . they were 
 filled has not only served to preserve them, but has also rendered the 
 excavation of them a comparatively easy task. It is an interesting sight to 
 watch the clearing of one of these houses. As the pickaxe and shovel 
 loosen with facility the light dry pumice from the surface of the walls, the 
 pictures with which they are adorned reveal themselves to vis m colours 
 almost as brilliant as when they were first laid on. As the floor is 
 approached the interest of the process mcreases; for it is m the last few 
 
 B 
 
2 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 feet of the deposit that objects of curiosity or vakie are discovered, such as 
 ftu-niture, jewellery, human remains, coins, and other objects of the like 
 kmd — the last earthly spoils of a generation that existed eighteen cen- 
 turies ago. 
 
 A brief accomit of the Ijuried city may possibly mcrease the reader's 
 interest m its fate. Places, as well as persons, attract us by their vicissi- 
 tudes, and the attraction increases in proportion to our knowledge of their 
 history. 
 
 Campania was, and still is, one of the loveliest and most fertile dis- 
 tricts of Italy. The authors of antiquity, Greek as well as Roman, prose 
 writers as well as poets, are loud m theu- praises of its mild and luxurious 
 climate, its prolific soil, its hospitable sea and excellent harbom-s. Rome 
 filled her granaries from the plains aroimd Capua; the oil produced at 
 Venafrum, the wuies grown on Mount I\Iassicus and in the Falernian vme- 
 yards were of a quality so superior that they coiUd be found only on the 
 tables or m the cellars of the rich and great. 
 
 Of this delightful region all the charms and attractions seemed to be 
 concentrated, and as it were epitomized, on the shores of the Ceater, as, 
 from its cup-like shape, the ancients called the Bay of Xaples. The beaut}' 
 and fertility of the spot had mduced the Greeks to settle there at a very 
 early period. Cumte, one of the earliest colonies of that people m Italy, 
 had been built near the northern extremity of the bay, long, prol:)aljly, before 
 the fovmdation of Rome. The shores of the bay now gradually- became 
 studded with Greek towns, such as Xeapolis, Herculaneum, Pompeii, and 
 others, either mdependent settlements or colonies of Cumce. After falling 
 successively under the dommation of the Etruscans and the Samnites, Cam- 
 pania was finally reduced b}' Rome. The wealthy and luxm'ious Romans 
 of the later republic and the empire fully appreciated the charms of the 
 Bay of Naples; its shores formed one of their favourite places of retire- 
 ment and recreation, and soon became dotted with then- magnificent villas. 
 
 But all underneath this charming region lay the elements of destruction. 
 Westward of Naples this fact was indeed patent enough, and obvious to the 
 most careless observer. Traces of volcanic action had obtamed for the 
 covmtry romid Cmna3 the name of Campi Phlegra'i, or the burning fields; 
 while the Solfatam, near Puteoli, called by Strabo the " Forum of 
 Vulcan," seems to have been m much the same state of activity in the reign 
 of Augustus as it is at the present time. In the same neighbom-hood were 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 3 
 
 evident traces of extinct volcanoes. More careful inquirers had even 
 remarked about Vesuvius the evidence of eruptions which must have 
 occurred at a period long antecedent to any historical traditions ; and these 
 a2:ipearances have been recorded both by Strabo and b}' Diodorus Siculus. 
 Pompeii was indeed actually built on the lava thrown out by one of these 
 ancient eruptions. But that Vesuvius was a volcanic mountain must have 
 been utterly ignored by the paople in genei'al, and even by persons of 
 education ; smce we find the yoimger Plinj' tellmg us that those who surveyed 
 from a distance the great eruption of the j'ear 79 could not determine from 
 what mountain it proceeded. So small was their apprehension of havmg so 
 dangerous a neighbour ! 
 
 The country in which Pompeii stands appears to have been originally 
 occupied by the Oscans, whose language probably, after a lew generations, 
 agam prevailed over that of the Greek colonists. As most of the ancient 
 Italian cities claimed some Greek or Trojan hero as their founder, so Pompeii 
 2)retended to have been built liy Hercules, but without even the etymological 
 pretext which gave some colouring to a like pretension on the part of 
 Herculaneum. All that can be inferred from such claims is that both cities 
 were prol)ably of Greek origin. Respecting some attempts to explam the 
 name of Pompeii we shall be silent, and descend at once ft'om the realms of 
 fiction to those of history. 
 
 After the great victory won bj' the consul Manlius at the foot of ]\Iount 
 Vesuvius in b. c. 340, the Campanians had become more or less subject to 
 or allied with Rome, though alwa}s mclined to throw off the yoke. The 
 name of Pompeii itself, however, does not appear in history till b. c. 310, 
 although it must have been m existence some centuries before. At the date 
 just mentioned Pompeii was attacked by P. Cornelius, the commander of a 
 Roman fleet, who, however, was ultimately repulsed. We hear nothmg of 
 Pompeii when, after the fatal defeat of the Romans by Hannibal at CanuEe 
 (B.C. 216), the Campanians revolted against Rome; but in the Social, or 
 Marsic, war m b. c. 91, Pompeii played a conspicuous part. This revolt 
 termmated ua the final and complete sulijection of Campania, and the severe 
 punishment of several of its principal cities. Durmg this war Pompeii was 
 besieged by L. Cornelius Sulla, and it Avas probably on this occasion that its 
 ancient walls jvere damaged and partly overthrown. It appears, however, 
 for what reason we know not, to have escaped the hard fate of several of its 
 sister-cities, and eveii to have been admitted to the Roman franchise. But 
 
4 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 Sulla established there a military colony, which, from him and from the 
 patron-goddess of the city, obtained the name of Colonia Veneria Cornelia. 
 
 Henceforth Pompeii sank into the condition of a second or third rate 
 mimicipal town. It was durmg this period, probably, that many of those 
 temples and public buildings were erected, especially m the Forum and its 
 neighbourhood, which are in the Roman rather than in the Greek style of 
 architecture. The only remains of the latter style that can be confidently 
 pointed to are those of the temple in the Triangular Forum, which must be 
 referred to a time long antecedent to the Roman occupation. The theatres 
 also in its immediate neighbourhood may perhaps have been originally of 
 Greek design, though afterwards altered to suit the Roman fashion. After 
 the reduction of Pompeii, it became, like other towns in that attractive 
 neighbourhood, a favourite resort of wealthy and distinguished Romans ; 
 among whom was Cicero, who had a villa there, which he frequently men- 
 tions in his letters. The Emperor Augustus despatched thither a colony, 
 which appears to have been settled outside the Herculanean Gate, m the dis- 
 trict of the Street of the Tombs, and to have borne the name of Pagus 
 Augustus Felix. In the year 59, in the reign of the Emperor Xero, an 
 aifray took place between the Pompeians and some of the inhabitants of the 
 neighbouruig town of Xuceria, who had come to see the gladiatorial combats 
 in the amphitheatre of Pompeii. The Xucerians having been worsted and 
 maltreated, preferred a complaint to the Emperor, who, as we learn from 
 Tacitus, punished the Pompeians by prohibiting all theatrical entertainments 
 in their city for a period of ten years. The truth of history, Ln this cer- 
 tainlv not very important affair, has been confirmed b}' the discoverv of a 
 rude etching on the plaster wall of a house in the Street of i\Iercm*y, which, 
 from the inscription scratched in the corner of it, appears to represent the 
 affrav in question. 
 
 The term of pimishment had not half expired when, in a. d. 63, Pompeii 
 and its neighbourhood were visited with a severe earthquake, which inflicted 
 considerable damage on the town. In the following year, another shock 
 occurred at Xaples while Xero was displaying his musical talent by singing 
 in the theatre. He had hardly time to leave it before the building fell, and 
 he was thiis preserved a few years longer for fresh crimes and a worse 
 fate. These earthquakes were doubtless occasioned by the pent-up fires 
 of Vesuvius, which in a few years were to find a vent at the expense of a 
 still more terrible destruction. The effects of them are still visible at 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 5 
 
 Pompeii. The mosaic floors of the houses are frequently found to be broken 
 and thrown out of their level; and the extensive repaii-s which were evi- 
 dently going on at the time of the final catastrophe can be referred to no 
 other cause. 
 
 At length, m A. D. 79, the great eruption broke out to which we have 
 already alluded. The yoiuiger Plmy, who was an eye-witness of this catas- 
 trophe, has so graphically described it, as well as the death of his uncle, in 
 two letters to the historian Tacitus, that any account of Pompeii in which 
 his description was omitted might be deemed incomplete. It runs as follows 
 in the translation of Melmoth : — 
 
 " Your request that I would send you an accomit of my uncle's death, 
 in order to transmit a more exact relation of it to posterity, deserves my 
 acknowledgments ; for, if this accident shall be celebrated by your pen, the 
 glor}' of it, I am well assured, will be rendered for ever illustrious. And 
 notwithstanding he perished by a misfortmie, which, as it mvolved at the 
 same time a most beautiful country m ruins, and destroyed so many popu- 
 lous cities, seems to promise him an everlasting remembrance, notwithstand- 
 ing he has himself composed many and lasting works ; yet I am persuaded 
 the mentioning of him in your immortal works will greatly contribute to 
 eternize his name. Happy I esteem those to be whom Providence has 
 distmguished with the abilities either of doing such actions as are worthy 
 of being related, or of relating them in ti manner worthy of being read ; but 
 doubly happy are they who are blessed with both these uncommon talents — 
 in the number of which my uncle, as his own writings and your history 
 will evidently prove, may justly be ranked. It is with extreme willingness, 
 therefore, I execute your commands; and should indeed have claimed the 
 task if you had not enjoined it. He was at that time with the fleet mider 
 his command at Misenum. On the 24th of August, about one in the after- 
 noon, my mother desired him to observe a cloud which appeared of a very 
 unusual size and shape. He had just returned from taking the benefit of the 
 sun, and after bathing himself in cold water, and taking a slight repast, was 
 retired to his study. He immediately arose and went out upon an emi- 
 nence, from whence he might more distmctly view this very uncommon 
 appearance. It was not at that distance discernible from what mountain 
 this cloud issued, but it was foimd afterwards to ascend from Moimt Vesu- 
 vius. I camiot give a more exact description of its figure than by re- 
 semblmg it to that of a pine-tree, for it shot up a great height in the form 
 
6 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 of a trunk, which extended itself at the top into a sort of branches, occa- 
 sioned, I imagine, either by a sudden gust of air that impelled it, the force 
 of which decreased as it advanced upwards, or the cloud itself, being pressed 
 back agam by its own weight, expanded in this manner : it appeared some- 
 times bright and sometimes dark and spotted, as it was more or less impreg- 
 nated with earth and cinders. This extraordmary phenomenon excited my 
 uncle's philosophical curiosity to take a nearer view of it. He ordered a 
 light vessel to be got ready, and gave me the liberty, if I thought proper, 
 to attend him. I rather chose to continue my studies ; for, as it happened, 
 he had given me an employment of that kmd. As he was coming out of the 
 house, he received a note from Rectina, the wife of Bassus, who was m the 
 utmost alarm at the immment danger which threatened her; for her villa 
 being situated at the foot of Momit Vesuvius, there was no way to escape 
 but by sea: she earnestly entreated him, therefore, to come to her assist- 
 ance. He accordingly changed his first design, and what he began with a 
 philosophical he pursued with an heroical turn of mind. He ordered 
 the galleys to put to sea, and went himself on board, with an intention of 
 assisting not only Rectina, but several others, for the villas stand extremely 
 thick upon that beautiful coast. When hastenmg to the i)lace from Avhich 
 others fled with the utmost terror, he steered his course direct to the point 
 of danger, and with so much calmness and presence of mind, as to be able to 
 make and dictate his observations upon the motion and figure of that dread- 
 ful scene. He was now so nigh the mountain, that the cinders, which grew 
 thicker and hotter the nearer he approached, fell mto the ships, together 
 with pumice-stones and black pieces of burnuig rock. The}- were likewise 
 in danger, not only of being aground by the sudden retreat of the sea, but 
 also from the vast fragments which rolled down from the mountain and 
 obstructed all the shore. Here he stopped to consider whether he should 
 return back agam ; to which the pilot advising him, ' Fortmie,' said he, ' be- 
 friends the brave; carry me to Pomponianus.' Pomponianus was then at 
 StabiaB, separated by a gulf, which the sea, after several msensible windings, 
 forms upon the shore. He had already sent his baggage on board; for 
 though he Avas not at that time in actual danger, yet bemg within the view 
 of it, and, indeed, extremely near, if it should in the least mcrease, he was 
 determmed to put to sea as soon as the wind should change. It was favour- 
 able, however, for carrying my uncle to Pomponianus, whom he found in the 
 greatest consternation. He embraced him with tenderness, encouraging and 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 7 
 
 exhorting him to keep up his spirits, and the more to dissipate his fears, he 
 ordered, with an air of unconcern, the baths to be got ready; when, after 
 having bathed, he sat down to supper with great cheerfulness, or at least 
 (what is equally heroic) with all the appearance of it. In the meanwhile, 
 the eruption from Moiuit Vesuvius flamed out ixi several places with much 
 violence, which the darkness of the night contributed to render still more 
 visible and dreadful. But my uncle, in order to soothe the apprehensions 
 of his friend, assured him it was only the l)uriimg of the villages, which the 
 country people had abandoned to the flames. After this he retired to rest, 
 and it is most certain he was so little discomposed as to fall mto a deep 
 sleep ; for being pretty fat, and breathing hard, those who attended without 
 actually heard him snore. The court which led to his apartment being now 
 almost filled with stones and ashes, if he had continued there anv time 
 longer, it would have l^een impossible for him to have made his way out ; 
 it was thought proper, therefore, to awaken him. He got up, and went to 
 Pomponianus and the rest of his company, who were not unconcerned 
 enough to thuik of gomg to bed. They consulted together whether it 
 would be most prudent to trust to the houses, which now shook from side 
 to side with frequent and violent concussions; or fly to the open fields, 
 where the calcined stones and cinders, though light indeed, yet fell in large 
 showers, and threatened destruction. In this distress they resolved for the 
 fields, as the less dangerous situation of the two ; a resolution which, while 
 the rest of the company were hurried into it by their fears, my uncle 
 embraced upon cool and deliberate consideration. They went out then, 
 having pillows tied upon their heads with napkins ; and this was then- whole 
 defence against the storm of stones that fell around them. It was now dav 
 everywhere else, but there a deeper darkness prevailed than m the most 
 obscure night; which, however, was in some degree dissipated by torches 
 and other lights of various kinds. They thought pro2)er to go down further 
 upon the shore, to observe if they might safely put out to sea ; but they foimd 
 the waves still run extremely high and boisterous. There my uncle, having 
 drunk a draught or two of cold water, threw himself down upon a cloth 
 which was spread for him, when immediately the flames, and a strong smell 
 of sulphur, which was the forerunner of them, dispersed the rest of the 
 company, and obliged him to rise. He raised himself up with the assistance 
 of two of his servants, and instantly feU down dead ; suftbcated, as I con- 
 jecture, by some gross and noxious vapour, having always had -weak lungs. 
 
8 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 and being frequently subject to a difficulty of breathing. As soon as it was 
 light again, which was not till the third day after this melancholy accident, 
 his body was found entire, and without any marks of violence upon it, 
 exactly m the same posture that he fell, and looking more like a man asleep 
 than dead. During all thi.s time, my mother and I, who were at Misenum 
 — but as this has no connection with your history, so your mquiry went no 
 farther than concerning my uncle's death; with that, therefore, I will put 
 an end to my letter. Suffer me only to add, that I have faithfully related 
 to you what I was either an eye-witness of myself, or heard immediately 
 after the accident happened, and before there was time to vary the truth. 
 You will choose put of this narrative such circumstances as shall be most 
 suitable to your purpose; for there is a great difference between what is 
 projjer for a letter and a history — between writing to a friend, and writing 
 for the public. Farewell!" 
 
 Tacitus having pressed Pliny to send him further particiilars, the latter 
 addressed to him a second letter, as follows : — 
 
 " The letter which, in compliance with your request, I wrote to you 
 concernmg the death of my micle, has raised, it seems, your curiosity to 
 know what terrors and dangers attended me while I continued at Misenum ; 
 for there, I thmk, the account m my former broke, off. 
 
 ' Though my shocked soul recoils, my tongue shall tell.' 
 
 " My imcle having left us, I pursued the studies which prevented my 
 going with him, till it was time to bathe. After which I went to supper, 
 and from thence to bed, where my sleep was greatly broken and disturbed. 
 There had been, for many days before, some shocks of an earthquake, which 
 the less surprised us as they are extremely frequent in Campania; but they 
 were so particularly violent that night, that they not only shook everything 
 about us, but seemed indeed to tlu'eaten total destruction. My mother flew 
 to my chamlier, where she found me rising, in order to awaken her. We 
 went out into a small court belonging to the house, which separated the sea 
 from the buildmgs. As I was at that time but eighteen years of age, I 
 know not whether I should call my behaviour, in this dangerous juncture, 
 courage or rashness ; but I took up Livy, and amused myself with turning 
 over that author, and even making extracts from him, as if all about me had 
 been in full security. While we were in this posture, a friend of my uncle, 
 who was just come from Spam to pay him a visit, joined us ; and observmg 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 9 
 
 me sitting by my mother with a book ia my hand, gx'eatly condemned her 
 calmness, at the same time that he reproved me for my careless security. 
 Nevertheless, I still went on with my author. Though it was now morning, 
 the light was exceedingly faint and languid; the buildings all around us 
 tottered, and though we stood upon open groimd, yet, as the place was 
 narrow and confined, there was no remaining there without certain and 
 great danger: we therefore resolved to quit the town. The people followed 
 us in the utmost consternation; and, as to a mind distracted with terror, 
 every suggestion seems more prudent than its own, pressed in great crowds 
 about us in our way out. Being got at a convenient distance from the 
 houses, we stood still, in the midst of a most dangerous and dreadful scene. 
 The chariots which we had ordered to be drawn out,, were so agitated back- 
 wards and forwards, though upon the most level ground, that we could not 
 keep them steady, even by supporting them with large stones. The sea. 
 seemed to roll back upon itself, and to be driven from its banks by the 
 convulsive motion of the earth; it is certain at least the shore was con- 
 siderably enlarged, and several sea animals were left upon it. On the other 
 side a black and dreadful cloud, bursting with an igneous serpentine vapour, 
 darted out a long train of fire, resembling flashes of lightning, but much 
 larger. Upon this oui* Spanish friend, whom I mentioned above, addressing 
 himself to my mother and me with great warmth and earnestness : ' If your 
 brother and j'our imcle,' said he, ' is safe, he certainly wishes you may be so 
 too; but if he perish, it was his desire, no doubt, that you might both 
 survive him: why, therefore, do you delay your escape a moment?' We 
 could never think of our own safety, we said, while we were uncertain of his. 
 Hereupon our friend left us, and withdrew from the danger with the utmost 
 precipitation. Soon afterwards the cloud seemed to descend, and cover the 
 whole ocean; as indeed it entu'ely hid the island of Caprese and the pro- 
 montory of Misenum. My mother strongly conjured me to make my escape 
 at any rate, which, as I was yomig, I might easily do : as for herself, she 
 said, her age and corpulency rendered all attempts of that sort impossible. 
 However she would willingly meet death, if she could have the satisfaction 
 of seeing that she was not the occasion of mine. But I absolutely refused 
 to leave her, and taking her by the hand I led hir on : she complied with 
 great reluctance, and not without many reproaches to herself for retarding 
 my flight. The ashes now began to fall upon us, though in no great 
 quantity. I turned my head, and observed behind us a thick smoke, which 
 
 c 
 
10 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 came rolling after us like a torrent. I proposed, while we had yet any light, 
 
 to turn out of the high road, lest she should be pressed to death in the dark 
 
 by the crowd that followed us. We had scarce stepped out of the path, 
 
 when darkness overspread us, not like that of a cloudy night, or when there 
 
 is no moon, but of a room when it is shut up and all the lights extinct. 
 
 Nothing then was to be heard but the shrieks of women, the screams of 
 
 children, and the cries of men; some calling for theu- children, others for 
 
 then" parents, others for their husbands, and only distinguishing each other 
 
 by their voices; one lamenting his own fate, another that of his family; 
 
 some wishing to die from the very fear of dying; some lifting their hands 
 
 to the gods ; but the greater part imagining that the last and eternal night 
 
 was come, which was to destroy the gods and the world together. Among 
 
 these were some who augmented the real terrors by imaginary ones, and 
 
 made the frighted multitude falsely believe that Misenum was actually in 
 
 flames. At length a glimmering light appeared, which we imagined to be 
 
 rather the forerumier of an approaching bm-st of flames, as in truth it was, 
 
 than the return of day. However, the fire fell at a distance from us. Then 
 
 again we were immersed in thick darkness, and a heavy shower of ashes 
 
 rained upon us, which we were obliged every now and then to shake off, 
 
 otherwise we should have been crushed and buried in the heap. I might 
 
 boast that, diu-ing all this scene of horror, not a sigh or expression of fear 
 
 escaped from me, had not my support been founded in that miserable, 
 
 though strong, consolation — that all mankind were involved in the same 
 
 calamity, and that I imagined I was perishing with the world itself! At 
 
 last this dreadful darkness was dissipated by degrees, like a cloud of smoke ; 
 
 the real day returned, and even the sun appeared, though very faintly, and 
 
 as when an eclipse is coming on. Every object that presented itself to our 
 
 eyes (which were extremely weakened) seemed changed, being covered over 
 
 with white ashes, as with a deep snow. We returned to Misenum, where 
 
 we refreshed ourselves as well as we could, and passed an anxious night 
 
 between hope and fear — though indeed with a much larger share of the 
 
 latter — for the earthquake still continued, while several enthusiastic people 
 
 ran vip and down, heightening their own and their friends' calamities by 
 
 terrible predictions. However, my mother and I, notwithstanding the 
 
 danger we had passed, and that which still threatened us, had no thoughts 
 
 of leaving the place till we should receive some account from my micle. 
 
 " And now you will read this narrative without any view of inserting 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 11 
 
 it in your history, of which it is by no means worthy ; and indeed you must 
 impute it to your own request if it shall deserve the trouble of a letter. 
 Farewell"* 
 
 It will be perceived that Pliny in this description likens the appearance 
 of the eruption to that of a stone-pine, which first shoots up into the air 
 with a lofty column, and then spreads itself out into an expanding head. 
 The ejection of that tall straight column shows the violence and the sudden- 
 ness of the eruption, while the spreading of the head proves that the ejected 
 matter must have been composed of light materials — lapillo^ or pumice 
 stone, so calcined as to be capable of being supported in some degree by the 
 atmosphere. It was this substance that descended on the doomed towns of 
 Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Stabiae. It does not appear to have been 
 accompanied with lava. Had the eruption consisted of lava, Pompeii at 
 least would have escaped destruction, as its elevated situation would have 
 preserved it from the fiery stream. The lava that may be seen at Hercula- 
 neum is the produce of subsequent eruptions. The ashes ejected formed a 
 covering over Pompeii upwards of twenty feet in depth. Subsequent erup- 
 tions have added to the deposit a crust of a few feet in depth ; but this may 
 be distinguished from the lapillo by its colom' ; for while the original 
 deposit is of a greyish white, the superincumbent layer approaches to black. 
 Rocks and stones were probably also ejected, and after a time streams of wet 
 sand or mud. This seems to have proved as fatal, or even more so, than the 
 lapillo ; since it is evident that many persons who were escaping on the 
 surface of the lapillo., or had taken refuge where it could not penetrate, were 
 overtaken and buried by the mud. Earthquake was another agent in this 
 work of destruction, as is evident from the description of some of the bodies 
 discovered. In one instance a man had been crushed by the falling of a 
 pillar in the Forum, near the temple of Jupiter; and in another several 
 skeletons were discovered of persons overwhelmed by the falling of a wall. 
 However, it is not probable that many were kdled in this manner. The 
 deformity pro.duced by the eruption in the external face of nature may well 
 be imagined. Tacitus, in the fom'th book of his Annals, and Martial, in one 
 of his epigrams, are vouchers for it. For miles around Vesuvius, that 
 smiling landscape was tm'ned into an arid desert, without a trace of cultiva- 
 tion. Many years must have passed over before it began again to assume 
 
 * Pliny's Letters, vi. 20 ; Melmoth's translation. 
 
12 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 even a surface of verdm-e; many centuries before the soil recovered any 
 portion of its ancient fertility. 
 
 Scarcely anything more horrible can be imagined than the fate of the 
 inhabitants of these devoted cities. Of those who escaped destruction, 
 most must have lost their whole means of subsistence, many probably their 
 reason also ; whilst the death of those who perished must have l)een of the 
 most appalling description. They died for ovu* benefit! the hard-hearted 
 antiquarian may exclaim; they must have died sooner or later, but in no 
 other way could their death have benefited posterity. They were, as it 
 were, embalmed for om* instruction, sent down to us in the very last acts 
 of their lives ; the sacrifice which they were preparing left incomplete ; the 
 bread which they were baking for their daily food still in the oven ; the 
 drugs which were to correct the high living of their luxurious lives in the 
 act of being made into pills ; the money that was to pay for all these things 
 still in their purses! Asmodeus, in Le Sage's romance of the "Diable 
 Boiteux," merely by waving his right arm unroofs aU the houses of Madrid, 
 so that Don Cleofas could look into them as into a pie whose crust has been 
 removed, and survey all the actions of their inhabitants. Vesuvius has done 
 us a similar favour-, and enabled us to see what the Pompeians were about 
 eighteen centuries ago ! But a city of the dead. True ; yet so well pre- 
 served that if its inhabitants could be recalled to life they might still 
 recognize their accustomed haunts, turn mechanically into then- familiar 
 chambers, again use and admire their furnitm-e and their pictures. Thus 
 a calamity so horrible in its nature has had the singular efiect of adding 
 another charm to the environs of Xaples, by embalming the remains of two 
 ancient cities for the inspection of modern travellers. The general aspect of 
 the 'ruins may be gathered from the frontispiece, and will be stUl fiu-ther 
 illustrated by another photograph which we annex, also taken from the more 
 recent excavations. 
 
 It is this that renders a visit to Pompeii so pre-eminently interesting. 
 Rome, indeed, possesses far more striking and celebrated monuments than 
 can be found here, and leaves on the spectator a deeper sense of imperial 
 grandeur. None but a people-king, the sovereign of the greater part of the 
 known world, could have reared the Colosseum, or have lined the Appian 
 Way for a space of two mUes with magnificent tombs, or have conceived and 
 executed the vastness of Caracalla's baths, or covered the Palatine Hill with 
 those splendid palaces which, through the liberality of the French' emperor. 
 
RECENT EXCAVATIONS, 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 13 
 
 are now revealina; their enormous substructions to the o-aze of a fiftieth 
 generation. These remains are unequalled, and will probably continue to be 
 so tin the end of time. They cannot fail to strike even the most phlegmatic 
 spectator with astonishment and admiration ; but beyond these feelings they 
 awaken no thoughts on which the mind much loves to dwell. They speak 
 of military rule and despotic power, of oppression abroad and tyranny at 
 home. They are the tombs and may be regarded as the monuments of 
 centuries of Roman liberty and prowess, and nothing less could have achieved 
 or deserved them. But of the commonwealth itself, the true parent of these 
 remains, the actual monuments are mean and few, and of the private life of 
 the Romans there is not a trace. 
 
 An excursion to Pompeii, besides being the most interesting, is perhaps 
 also one of the pleasantest that can be made from Naples. There is no 
 burrowing under ground, no groping by torchlight as at Herculaneum, 
 amidst damp and mouldy ruins some eightj' or a hundred feet below the 
 siu-face of the soil. On the contrary, Pompeii, as we have intimated, lies on 
 a hill, exposed to the full influence of that brilliant Italian sxin, and the 
 genial breezes wafted over the bay of Naples. At whichever gate you enter 
 you must ascend considerably to reach the Porum, nearly the highest point 
 of the city. The streets, if narrow, are regular and clean, forming in this 
 respect an agreeable contrast to those of Najjles. The traveller Avho visits 
 it from that city — one of the noisiest in Europe, not so much from the 
 sound of carriage-wheels as of human limgs — will also be struck by the 
 quiet that pervades Pompeii, as might natm*ally be expected in a cit}- of the 
 dead. The silence that reigns tkroughout, except when occasionally broken 
 by a noisy party, is in excellent keeping with the scene, and allows free 
 scope for those thoughts which camiot but enter the minds of the most 
 unreflecting on visiting such a place. 
 
 However dreadful the eruption, it does not appear to have been so 
 sudden in its effects but that most of the inhabitants of Pompeii might have 
 made theii' escape had they possessed the reqviisite energy and resolution, or 
 had been duly aware of the certainty of the fate that must overtake those 
 who lingered behind. This is a legitimate inference from the fact that, 
 although the amphitheatre was filled with spectators at the time of the 
 catastrophe, only two or three skeletons have been found in it, and these 
 probably belonged to gladiators who had been already killed or wounded. 
 The greater part of the inhabitants must have taken to the sea or the road. 
 
14 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 and probably succeeded in escaping the fiery shower ; at all events, it is 
 certain that, regard being had to the size and importance of the place, 
 comparatively few bodies have been discovered. But in a populous city like 
 Pompeii there must of course have been many lingerers; and though no 
 accurate computation has been made of the number of bodies foimd, it may 
 be safely reckoned at six hxmdred. About forty skeletons have been disco- 
 vered in the last four years, of course in a comparatively small part of the 
 excavated area; and, as not much more than a third part of the city has 
 been uncovered, an estimate in the same ratio would give a total loss of 
 about eighteen hundred lives. As the population of Pompeii, on the lowest 
 calculation, consisted of twenty thousand souls, and may perhaps have 
 reached double that number, the percentage is a probable one ; and though 
 in this view the catastrophe is terrible enough, yet it is hardly greater than 
 the circumstances might have led us to expect. The victims doubtless con- 
 sisted of the timid and irresolute, who were afraid, and of the sick, the aged 
 and infirm, who were unable to fly. Some may have lingered behind from 
 motives of avarice and a wish to save their property; a few perhaps from 
 feelings of affection, and an unwUlmgness to abandon those whom they loved. 
 It might not perhaps be difficult to find illustrations of most of these causes 
 in the circumstances under which several of the bodies were discovered. 
 
 The sudden and appalling natiu-e of the volcanic storm which bm-st over 
 the doomed city might have shaken the strongest nerves ; whUe on those not 
 very firmly braced the effect must have been almost paralyzing. Among the 
 weak and timid a first and natm*al impulse would have been to take shelter 
 in a lower room or cellar where the fiery shower could not penetrate, and 
 there abide till it had expended its fury. This calculation, however, was 
 defeated by the duration of the eruption and by a change in its nature ; the 
 lapillo being followed by showers of mud, which peneti'ated into craimies 
 where the ashes had not been able to enter. And even without this muddy 
 deluge those who had betaken themselves to the lower apartments would in 
 most cases have eventually perished either from suffocation occasioned by 
 the mephitic vapours or from starvation, owing to theii* inabilit}' to force 
 their way out of the accumulated mass which had overwhelmed their place 
 of refuge. A striking instance of such a case is recorded in the journals of 
 the superintendents of the excavations (Aug. 30th, 1787). In the corridor 
 of a basement story were found the skeletons of a man and a dog. The 
 human bones, however, did not hang together, but were strewed about the 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 15 
 
 place, and appeared to have been gnawed at the joints, while the skeleton of 
 the dog was perfect. Only one inference can be drawn from this state of 
 things. The man had evidently died first of hunger, while the dog had 
 sustained life a little longer by feedmg on his body. 
 
 The fatal effects of the showers of mud are strikmgly illustrated by the 
 well-known story connected with Diomed's suburban villa. Eighteen per- 
 sons, mostly women, had taken shelter in the spacious quadrangular cellar 
 which surroimds the garden, and were there overwhelmed by the entry of 
 this liquid matter. Being of a slimy and tenacious nature, and hardening 
 into a solid concrete, like plaster of Paris, the mud formed perfect moidds 
 of the unfortunate persons whom it enveloped. The journals give so parti- 
 cular a description of this discovery that we shall here subjoin a translation. 
 (Dec. 12th, 1772). 
 
 -' It is plain that these eighteen persons, and perhaps others who may be 
 discovered in the progress of the excavation, were surprised in this part of 
 the house, where they had taken refuge, as best calculated to save them from 
 destruction. But it availed not to protect them from a shower of ashes 
 which fell after the lapiUo, and was evidently accompanied with water, 
 which served to introduce it into places where the first shower could not 
 penetrate. This deluge of fluid matter, which after a time became a very 
 tenacious earth, surrounded and enclosed all the substances which it met, 
 and has preserved the impress and mould of them; as, for instance, of a 
 wooden chest, and of a pile of small logs of wood. The same thing 
 happened to the unfortunate human beings who have been discovered; of 
 their flesh nothing has remained but the impress and mould of it in the 
 earth, and within are the bones in their regular order. Even the hair on 
 the skulls is partly preserved, and in some cases is seen to have been curled. 
 Of the dresses nothing but the mere ashes have been found ; bvit these ashes 
 preserved traces of the quality of the materials, so that it could be easily 
 seen whether the texture was coarse or fine. By way of proof of what is 
 here said to have been observed, I caused as many as sixteen of these moulds 
 of bodies to be cut open, in one of which is seen the bust of a female covered 
 with a vest ; while in all of these are remains of garments, and sometimes of 
 two or three, one over the other. I also caused a head with hau* on it to be 
 carefully removed, and sent all these objects to the museum. From the 
 little that I could distmguish of the vestments, it appeared that several of 
 the persons had upon their heads cloths which descended to the shoulders ; 
 
16 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 that two or tkree dresses were worn over one another; that the stockings 
 were of cloth and linen cut like long drawers ; and that some had no shoes 
 at all. The shoes observed seemed to belong to low servants or slaves. 
 That one woman was superior to the rest coidd be perceived by the orna- 
 ments which she wore, by the fine texture of her dress, and by the coins 
 which were found near her." 
 
 It is much to be regretted that the idea did not occur to this superin- 
 tendent of taking a mould of these bodies, thus rendering their very forms 
 in the last agonies of their death-struggle, as the Commendatore Fiorelli has 
 done with such signal success with bodies found near a century afterwards. 
 So slow a birth of time is sometimes even so simple an idea ! The casts of 
 the four bodies now exhibited in the street of Herculaneum are among the 
 most impressive sights at Pompeii. There manhood in its full strength, and 
 womanhood in its maturity and its early bloom, may be seen sinking alike 
 under that fatal \isitation. Nor has the spectacle anything of that repulsive 
 kind which j^erhaps might strike us if we saw the bodies themselves. We 
 gaze upon them as if they were so many pieces of statuary cast in Nature's own 
 mould, much as we do upon the Dymg Gladiator in the Capitol, and pro- 
 nounce it one of the finest statues in the world. 
 
 If the members of Diomed's family discovered in the cellar perished 
 from not adopting a sufficiently resolute course, Diomed himself, it has been 
 thought, died from another of the causes which we have assigned — that of 
 avarice. Instead of staying by his family he had preferred to fly ; but, intent 
 upon collectmg his treasures, had apparently delayed his flight too long. 
 His skeleton was found close to the garden gate, the key of which he held in 
 his hand. On his finger was a serpent ring. The skeleton of a slave lay 
 near him, who was carrying oft' a great number of various coins in a cloth. 
 These men were probably killed by the mephitic vapours. " The riding 
 passion strong in death " is further illustrated at Pompeii by the many 
 skeletons found of persons flymg with what property they hoped to save. 
 Many female skeletons especially have been discovered with all their 
 " womans' world," their mundus muliebris, as the Latins called it, about them, 
 their jewels, trinkets, and amulets. 
 
 They who perished from mere inability to fly cannot of course be recog- 
 nized by any particular mark or circumstance, unless it be such as were 
 evidently incarcerated. Nor can we distmguish those who lingered from 
 aft'ection, though there is one instance which might evidently bear such an 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 17 
 
 interpretation. In a shop under the Old Baths were found the skeletons of a 
 young man and a young woman locked together in a close embrace. Their 
 age was shown by theu' fine and well-preserved teeth. 
 
 Besides swallowing up several important towns, the eruption of 79 
 disfigured the face of nature for miles around, rendered barren those fertile 
 fields, and converted that smiliag landscape into a mass of hideous ruins. 
 
 Here verdant vines o'erspread Vesuvius' sides, 
 
 The generous grape here pour'd her purple tides. 
 
 This Bacchus loved heyond his native scene, 
 Here dancing satyrs joy'd to trip the green. 
 Far more than Sparta this in Venus' grace ; 
 And great Alcides once renowu'd the place : 
 Now flaming embers spread dire waste around. 
 And gods regret that gods can thus confound. 
 
 Maetial, Epig. iv. 44. 
 
 The Emperor Titus formed the project of rebuilding Pompeii; but it 
 came to nothing, either through his death, which ensued a year or two after- 
 wards, or because it was discovered that the expense would exceed any 
 probable returns, and that it was better to abandon a territory which, for 
 many ages to come, seemed devoted to sterility. From the marks of having 
 been opened and rifled, which may be observed in several of the houses, as 
 well as from the fact that no very considerable sums of money have been 
 fotuid, it is plain that some of the inhabitants must have rettu-ned, and by 
 means of excavations, recovered some of their most valuable property. Even 
 down to the reign of Alexander Severus the place seems to have served as a 
 sort of quarry ; for that emperor is said to have procm-ed from the buried 
 city a great quantity of marble, columns and statues, for the purpose of 
 embellishing the works which he erected at Rome. This circumstance may 
 serve to accomit for the dilapidated appearance of many of the monuments ; 
 for it can hardly be supposed that they were reduced to that condition solely 
 by the earthquake of the year 63. 
 
 In process of time Pompeii and its sisters in misfortune became entu-ely 
 forgotten, and through a long night of ages seemed to sleep the sleep of death. 
 The site on which it stood, and even its very name, sank into oblivion; 
 although here and there the summit of some of its buildings cropped up 
 above the soil, and the name of civita, or the city, which stUl lingered in the 
 mouths of the peasants, might have served to indicate its position. After 
 the revival of learnin2, indeed, the names of the buried cities sometimes 
 
 D 
 
18 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 a^jpear in Italian authors. Nicolo Perotto mentions Pompeii, Herculaneum, 
 and Stabife in his " Cornucopia," published in 1488 ; the " Herculaneum 
 Oppidum" is indicated in the map of Ambrogio Leone, 1513, as the site 
 occupied by Portici ; Leandro Alberti, in his " Descrizione di tutta I'ltalia" 
 (1561), recalls the burying of Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Stabiaj by the 
 eruption of Vesuvius, and indicates the spots where they were then believed 
 to have existed. A chapter in the " Historia Neapolitana" of Giulio Cesare 
 Capaccio, published in 1607, is devoted to the antiquities of Herculaneum. 
 Camillo Peregrino, in speaking of the same city in his " Apparato alle anti- 
 chita di Capua" (1651), thmks that it occupied the site of the present Torre 
 del Greco ; and the same idea is adopted by Francesco Baldauo in his work 
 entitled " L'antico Ercolano ovvero la Torre del Greco tolta dall' oblio," 
 published in 1688.* Nay, the celebrated architect, Dominico Fontana, being 
 employed in the year 1592 m constructing the subterranean canal, which 
 still exists, for conveying the waters of the Sarno to Torre del Greco, 
 actually conducted it imder the site of Pompeii, and often found his work 
 obstructed by the fomidations of the buildmgs ; yet no curiosity was excited 
 to explore the vast remams which evidently existed there. 
 
 It is singular enough that, while so many palpable indications existed of 
 the remains of Pompeii, Herculaneum, a city buried to a depth of eighty or 
 a hundred feet, mider a hard mass of lava and other accumulations of 
 volcanic matter, the deposits of many eruptions of Vesuvius, should have 
 been the first to be discovered, and that by a mere accident. 
 
 In 1684, a baker residmg at Portici sunk a well on his premises, which, 
 after penetrating through some ancient ruins, terminated, at a depth of nmety 
 feet, near the stage of the theatre of Herculaneum. A few years after, 
 Prmce Emmanuel d'Elboeuf, of the house of Lorraine, having been sent to 
 Naples at the head of an imperial army, espoused there a daughter of the 
 Prince of Salsa, and purchased the ground containing the well, in order to 
 erect a palace. About the year 1713, having occasion to enlarge the well, 
 he found some marbles, with which he adorned his stair-cases and terraces, 
 as well as some female statues ; the latter, however, were claimed by the 
 imperial government, and the prince was compelled to send them to Vienna. 
 They are now in the palace of the King of Saxony, at Dresden. In the 
 process of further excavations, the duke is said to have discovered a round 
 temple having forty-eight alabaster columns. But for some reason or another 
 
 * Soo Breton, " Pompoia," p. 20. 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 19 
 
 the excavations -^vere susjoended till 1736, when they were resumed by order 
 of King Charles III. A new entry was now effected at Resma, when the 
 theatre, a basilica, and some private houses were discovered ; but it was some 
 years before it was ascertamed, by means of coins and inscriptions, that these 
 remains belonged to the ancient city of Herculaneum. 
 
 These discoveries had the effect of stimulating research, and led to the 
 disinterment of Pompeii. Don Rocco Alcubierre, a Spanish colonel of 
 engineers, who had been employed by Charles III. in the excavations at 
 Herculaneum, was engaged m 1748 in examining Fontana's subterranean 
 aqueduct or canal, which, as we have before said, passes underneath Pompeii, 
 when he was informed by some inhabitants of Torre Annunziata, that certain 
 ancient statues and other objects, as well as the ruins of a house, had been 
 discovered about two miles from that place. The discoveries at Herculaneum 
 led him to conclude that some ancient city lay bm'ied there, and having 
 obtained permission to search the place, he commenced his excavations at the 
 spot now called the Street of Fortune. His labours were speedily rewarded 
 by the discovery of a large fresco pamting, and soon afterwards the skeleton 
 of a man, with several pieces of coin lying near him, was found on the surface 
 of the lapillo or ashes, covered with the hardened mud. The researches 
 were now pushed on with some vigour, and before the end of 1748 the 
 amphitheatre was excavated. A regular journal of the discoveries began 
 now to be kept, at first in the Spanish language, and after 1764 in Italian. 
 It is remai'kable that in this journal the amphitheatre is styled the amphi- 
 theatre of Stabiae. To that town, which is now known to have occupied the 
 site of Castellamare, the remauas discovered were for several years attributed, 
 and it is not till 1756 that we find the name of Pompeii mentioned in the 
 joui-nals. It does not appear what caused this name to be inserted; but any 
 doubts that might have been entertained respecting the identity of the city 
 must have been satisfactorily removed by the discovery, in 1763, of an 
 inscription in the Street of the Tombs, recording that the Emperor Vespasian 
 had restored to the municipality of Pompeii all public gromid diverted by 
 private persons to their own use. 
 
 Such were the causes which accidentally led to the disinterment of 
 Pompeii, and conferred upon it a celebrity much greater than that which it 
 had enjoyed in antiquity. There are some cities, as well as some men, that 
 owe their renown to their misfortunes ; and, but for some signal and over- 
 whelming calamity, would never have been heard of by posterity. Such 
 
20 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 was the case with Pompeii and its neighbour cities. Thu'd rate towns, 
 without a history of their own, cast entirety into the shade by the brilliant 
 fortunes of the capital, and lost, like mere specks, in the vast extent of the 
 Roman empire, even their names would scarcely have survived in the 
 wreck of ages, had not the sudden eruption of an unsuspected volcano 
 embalmed them for immortality. Thi'own open for our inspection almost 
 in the very manner in which they existed in antiquity, they have enabled 
 us to realize an idea of ancient Roman life which it would have been impos- 
 sible to acquire from the descriptions of books; and, apart from considera- 
 tions of art, present to the educated and inquiring traveller more numerous 
 and more striking objects of interest than can be found even in the Roman 
 capital itself. 
 
 After the first impulse, the excavations at Pompeii proceeded but slowly, 
 and were conducted in anything but a proper spirit. Instead of being 
 prosecuted out of love for classical antiquity, and a desire to extend the 
 knowledge of it, the main purposes of the directors of them seemed to be to 
 discover articles of marketable value, or such objects of art as might serve 
 to adorn the royal collections. Winkelmann, in his letters describing the 
 discoveries at Hercidaneum, records an anecdote which illustrates the spirit 
 to which we have alluded. On the summit of the theatre at that place was 
 a quadriga, with a figure in the car of the size of life ; the whole was of gilt 
 bronze, placed on a basis of white marble, which may still be seen. Some 
 persons indeed say that instead of one car with four horses, there were three 
 cars having two horses each ; a variation which only serves to show the utter 
 carelessness and want of intelligence of those who conducted the excavations. 
 These sculptm'es, as may be readily imagined, had been overthrown and 
 mutilated by the eruption; nevertheless, at the time of their discovery aU 
 the fragments were in existence. Now, how were these invaluable remains 
 treated? They were thrown peU-mell into a cart, carried to Naples, dis- 
 charged in a court of the castle, and thrown in a heap into a corner ! Here 
 they remained a long while, being looked upon as no better than old ii*on ; 
 tUl, at last, it having been perceived that several of the pieces had been 
 purloined, it was resolved to apply the remainder to some honourable use. 
 And what might we suppose this to be? A great part of the metal was 
 melted to form two large busts of the King and Queen ! Out of the frag- 
 ments that remained, however, by dint of patience and talent, one of the 
 horses was reconstructed. It now forms one of the most admii'able objects 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 21 
 
 in the museum at Naples ; but at the same time awakens melancholy reflec- 
 tions on this act of royal vandalism. 
 
 The same plan was followed at Pompeii. The chief objects of search 
 were statues, paintings, jewelleiy, and articles in gold and silver, which were 
 destined to enrich the royal collections. No care was taken to preserve the 
 houses ill which they were found ; on the contrary, these were often again 
 filled up with the rubbish of an adjoinmg excavation; nor were any plans 
 made of the streets and houses that had been uncovered. The works were 
 conducted in secrecy and mystery, and it was with the greatest difficulty 
 that any stranger could obtam admission to them. The visitors were chiefly 
 royal, noble, or otherwise distinguished persons, who had iiiterest enough 
 to obtain the entree ; and from these some of the houses have derived their 
 names, from having been excavated in their presence. We should rather 
 say, however, the final excavation, technically called a scaiw ; when the last 
 few feet of ashes, amongst which articles of value or curiosity are commonly 
 found, were removed. It may be readily imagined that great personages 
 were not mvited on these occasions imless some interesting discoveries were 
 likely to be made ; and it has even been suspected that means were some- 
 times taken to prevent such visits from ending in disappointment. 
 
 Among these royal visits, the journals of the excavations record one 
 made by the eccentric and energetic Emperor Joseph 11, on the 7th of April, 
 1769, in company with his empress, his minister Count Kaunitz, the King 
 and Queen of Naples, Sir W. Hamilton, the English ambassador, and some 
 distinguished antiquaries. The find on this occasion was particularly good. 
 So many were the articles turned up that Joseph hmted his suspicions to 
 Signor La Vega, the superintendent, that they had been purposely placed 
 there " to flatter his good fortune :" but the suijerintendent assured him that 
 such was not the case, and m support of his assertion pomted to the situa- 
 tion of the articles, and the nature of the soil. A subsequent observation 
 of La Vega's to his royal master, " that such a pleasure had been reserved 
 for him alone among all sovereigns," renders, however, his good faith on this 
 occasion somewhat doubtful. La Vega having informed the Emperor that 
 only thirty persons were employed on the works, he asked the King of 
 Naples how he could suff'er so great a work to proceed so languidly ? The 
 king replied, in true Italian stjde, that by degrees — a poco a poco — all 
 would be accomplished; when Joseph rejoined that so great a work required 
 three thousand men, that there was nothing like it in Europe, Asia, Africa, 
 
22 TEE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 or America, and that it was an especial honour to the kingdom of Naples. 
 If, after the lapse of near a century, Joseph could return to life and pay 
 another visit to Pompeii, he would stUl find the excavations proceeding with 
 not much greater rapidity, though perhaps he might be surprised to find 
 how many fine thmgs the a poco a poco system of his Neapolitan majesty 
 had succeeded in brmging to light. At the present rate of proceeding, the 
 whole city may, perhaps, be uncovered m two more centuries; that is, it" 
 Vesuvius can be persuaded to forbear from again swallowing it up. A com- 
 pany formed for its disinterment, by way of a commercial speculation, might 
 perform the whole task in less than ten years. As it is, we must console 
 ourselves with the reflection that the present mode of proceedmg will excite 
 and gratify the cm-iosity of our childi-en's children to the fifth or sixth 
 generation. 
 
 The house visited by Joseph II. on this occasion, situated at the side 
 of the Triangular Forum, was named after him. It was a fine house ; but 
 little or nothing can be seen there now, as, according to the barbarous 
 system formerly followed, it was again filled up. Other houses have also 
 derived their names from the visits of royal and distmguished personages, 
 as those of Francis II, of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, of the Emperor of 
 Russia, of the King of Prussia, of the Russian Princes, of the Queen 
 of England — Adelaide, who visited Pompeii in 1838. Perhaps the best 
 deserved of these titles in honorern is that of the houses of Championnet, 
 near the Forum, since they were excavated imder the directions of the French 
 general of that name, at the end of the last century. Other houses have 
 been called after pictures, statues, mosaics, or other objects foimd in them, or 
 from the presumed profession of theii* owners : as the House of the Anchor, 
 of the Faun, of the Hunt, of the great and little Fountains, of the 
 Figured Capitals, of the Black Walls, of the Surgeon, of the Tragic Poet, 
 &c. In a few cases they have been named after the presumed owners, as 
 the House of Diomed, of Cicero, of Pansa, of Sallust, &c. But the only 
 houses of which the owners' names have been discovered with any certainty, 
 are those of M. Lucretius and Cornelius Rufus. In the former, m a small 
 cabmet or study, was a painting representing a waxed tablet, a style, and 
 other writmg materials, together with a folded letter, on which was the 
 address, " To M. Luci*etius, Flamen of Mars, and Decurion of Pompeii." 
 The proprietor of the other house, Cornelius Rufus, has succeeded in trans- 
 mitting not only his name, but also his portrait, to posterity, by setting up 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 23 
 
 in one corner of his hall, or atrium, a Avell-executed marble bust of himself, 
 of the size of life, with his name inscribed underneath. It will be seen in the 
 photograph of the House of Rufus given further on. These two Pompeian 
 magnates probably little dreamed that they should secure for themselves 
 so lastmg a remembrance by these contrivances. 
 
 During the reign of the Bourbon dynasty at Naples, the excavations 
 at Pompeii went on much in the fashion just described. The period of the 
 French occupation of Naples (1806-1815), was marked by a more Adgorous 
 prosecution of the researches ; and it was during this period that the Forum, 
 the greater part of the Street of the Tombs, and the line of the walls were 
 laid open. Murat's wife. Queen Caroline, took great interest in the exca- 
 vations, and it was imder her patronage that Mazois commenced his magni- 
 iicent work on Pompeii. After the restoration of the Bourbons, the works 
 agam proceeded slowh' ; though, even at this snail's pace, much of course was 
 done in the period of nearly half a centur}-, during which they occupied the 
 throne. The most important excavations conducted during this period were 
 those of several temples round the Forum, of the public Baths, and of many 
 large and interesting houses, as those of the Tragic Poet, of the Faun, of the 
 Fountain, the Fullonica, and others. The revolution, which drove the Bour- 
 bons from the throne, had ultimately the effect of also revolutionizing the 
 proceedings at Pompeii ; though not so mvich in increasing the speed of the 
 operations, as in causing them to be more carefully conducted. Garibaldi, 
 who became dictator at Naples in 1859, made indeed a lamentable choice in 
 appointing the romance writer, M. Alexandre Dumas, to the du'ectorship 
 of the excavations. That gentleman, however brilliant his talents, seems 
 to have been totally unfit for the post, and is said scarcely to have visited 
 Pompeii. His tenure of ofiice, however, was fortunately short. When the 
 authority of Victor Emmanuel, as King of Italy, became established m the 
 Neapolitan dommions, the superintendence of the excavations was mtrusted 
 to the Commendatore Fiorelli, who still contmues to hold it. This gentle- 
 man had long been known as a scholar and antiquary, and as m every respect 
 excellently qualified for the ofiice ; his liberal political opinions had, however, 
 not only excluded him from it, but even drawn down upon him the persecu- 
 tion of the government. The peculiar excellence of Signor Fiorelli's system 
 consists in the skilfid mode in which the excavations are conducted, the 
 religious care with which every fragment is retained in or restored to its 
 original position, and the pains taken to preserve the frescoes and other 
 
24 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 ornaments from being damaged by the atmosphere. To this system we owe 
 the restoration, the only instance of it, of the second story of one of the 
 houses, together with its projecting ma'nia7mm, or balcony. The house in 
 question, which, from the characteristic feature just mentioned, has been 
 called the Casa del Balcone Pensile., or House of the Hanging Balcony, a name 
 which it has also given to the lane in which it stands, is small and ulean, 
 and jjossesses little else to attract attention, except perhaps a pretty fomitam 
 in its court — for it cannot be called an atrium. We have annexed a photo- 
 graph of it. 
 
 We are also indebted to Signer Fiorelli's ingenuity for the plaster casts 
 of the bodies to which we have already alluded. 
 
 Such, then, is the history, in brief, of the origin of Pompeii, of its ancient 
 existence, of the terrible calamity by which it was overwhelmed, of its redis- 
 covery, and of the process of its disinterment. We shall now proceed to 
 give some account of its general appearance, of its public and private build- 
 ings, and generally of those objects which are most likely to attract the 
 attention of the visitor. 
 
 Pompeii, as we have said, is situated on a hill, or plateau, of an oval or 
 egg-like form, and of moderate elevation ; so that on whatever side we enter, 
 there is a gentle ascent to the highest point of the city, which lies about the 
 Forum. The greatest diameter is but little more than three quarters of a 
 mile, while the breadth is under half a mile, and the whole circuit of the 
 walls not quite two miles. Of the space thus enclosed, considerably more 
 than a third has been excavated on the western side of the town. The walls 
 run round the whole town, except on the western side, where the declivity 
 is so steep, forming almost a cliiF, as to render needless any artificial defence. 
 Some writers have supposed that in ancient times this side of the town was 
 washed by the sea, and that the tract of land, about a mile in extent, which 
 now intervenes between the town and the shore, was formed by the deposits 
 of the great eruption. But this, for many reasons, does not seem probable ; 
 and Overbeck, one of the most recent inquirers into this subject, informs us, 
 in his work on Pompeii, that he has discovered traces of ancient buildings 
 and other remains on the gromid said to have been formerly covered by 
 the sea. 
 
 The walls consist, in their lower parts, of large blocks of hewn, but not 
 squared, stone, fitted together without mortar ; the joinmgs of them present- 
 ing to the eye a vast variety of angles. The upjjer part of the Avail is of a 
 

 WiM 
 
 FOUNTAIN IN HOUSE OF THE BALCONY 
 
TEE RUINS OF POMPEII. 25 
 
 more regular and improved construction, and therefore probably of a later 
 date; the stones being more regularly cut, and approaching that style of 
 masonry which the Greeks call isodomon ; that is, constructed of stones of the 
 same form and size. Some parts, however, are even more recent than this, 
 consisting of what is called opus incertum ; or of small pieces of stone or 
 lava, cemented together with mortar, and coated over with stucco, in imita- 
 tion of the ancient parts. These portions are supposed to have been repairs 
 to make good the damage inflicted by Sulla. 
 
 The wall was in fact a double one, the two being bonded together by 
 cross walls between them, and the interstices filled up with earth, so as to 
 form a broad agger, or moimd, about twenty feet thick. Both the external 
 and the mternal wall were capped with battlements to defend the soldiers 
 who guarded them, and were provided with embrasures through which they 
 might hurl theii- missiles. The external wall, which inclines slightly in- 
 wards, was about twenty-five feet in height, and was unprotected by a ditch. 
 The inner wall, which was a few feet higher, could have been of no ser\T.ce 
 against an external enemy, and seems to have been designed only to give 
 a more imposing appearance to the defences. At intervals, square towers 
 rose from the walls, which in some parts, as near the Gate of Herculaneum, 
 are at the distance of about eighty paces from one another ; while in other 
 places they are two or three hundred, and sometimes nearly five himdred 
 paces apart. They consist of several stories. Each had a sally port and an 
 archway, through which the troops might pass along the wall. About ten 
 of these towers may still be counted. They are e%adently of more recent 
 date than the walls, though in a very ruinous state. It is hardly probable 
 that their condition is the effect of the earthquakes which preceded and 
 accompanied the eruption of the year 79 ; and it has, therefore, been some- 
 times not improbably conjectured that their dilapidated state, which is 
 chiefly observable on their outer face, was the effect of Sulla's siege at the 
 end of the Social War. 
 
 Pompeii appears to have had eight gates. The principal one, the Gate 
 of Hercvdaneum, so called from its spanning the Via Domitiana, a branch of 
 the Appian Waj^ which led from Herculaneum, and consequently from Rome 
 and northern Italy, stood at the north-western extremity of the town. We 
 shall have occasion to describe this gate further on. Hence, proceeding 
 round the walls in an easterly direction, the other gates occur in the following 
 order: the Gate of Vesuvius, the Gate of Capua, the Gate of Nola, the 
 
 E 
 
26 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 Gate of the Sarnus, the Gate of Stabise, the Gate of the Theatres, and the 
 Sea Gate, or Porta clella Marma. The gate which we have here called the 
 Gate of StabijE has been sometimes named the Gate of Nocera, and the 
 former name given to the Gate of the Theatres; an arrangement which is 
 more in accordance with the name of Strada Stabiana, given to the street 
 which issues out at the gate next the theatres. Between the Gate of the 
 Theatres, or of Stabite, and the Gate of Herculaneum, a space that includes 
 half the southern and all the western side of the city, the walls can no 
 longer be traced, but in this portion of the circumference there was probably 
 one or two more gates. The Porta della Marina, the only one now between 
 the two, is a long vaulted passage of steep ascent ; and, from its being near 
 the railway station, forms the most frequented entrance to Pompeii. The 
 ground between this gate and that of Herculaneum is, as we have before 
 said, abrupt and cliiF-like, and was probably never defended by a wall ; at all 
 events, its place is now occui^ied by tall houses of several stories, the upper 
 parts of which may be entered from the street leading from the Gate of 
 Herculaneum. 
 
 Of the gates just enumerated only that of Nola and that of the Theatres 
 are interesting from their antiquity, being evidently much older than the 
 Roman occupation. The construction of the Gate of Xola is particularly 
 remarkable. It does not, like the other gates, begin at the outer line of the 
 wall, but like the Gate of the Lions at IMycenat?, at the end of a passage 
 formed of strong masonry, and not much broader than the gateway, which 
 penetrates mto the city beyond the inner wall. This mode of construction 
 afforded an advantage to the garrison by enabling them to ply assailants with 
 darts, arrows, stones, and other missiles as they thronged up the narrow 
 passage. When viewed from within, the gate appears to have been partly 
 built of blocks of hewn stone and partly of brick, the latter portion being 
 doubtless of a later date. On the keystone of the arch is sculptured a head 
 in high relief, as was customary among the Etruscans — an object which like- 
 wise serves to show the high antiquity of this gate. There is at the side of it 
 an inscription in the Oscan tongue, the wrong interpretation of which caused 
 this gate to be called for a long time the " Gate of Isis ;" but scholars have 
 now discovered that the inscription has no reference to that goddess, the 
 words only meaning that Vibius Popidius, the Medixtuticus, or chief magis- 
 trate of Pompeii, had caused the gate to be erected, and had approved of it 
 when completed. 
 
STREET OF THE TOMBS. 
 
TEE RUINS OF POMPEII. 27 
 
 The Gate of Stabise, or that near the theatres, first discovered m 1851, 
 appears also to be very ancient. The walls near it are of a very antique 
 style of masonry, consisting of huge blocks of stone put together without 
 mortar. The holes for bolts show that this gate was not closed like that of 
 Herculaneum, with a portcullis, but with strong double doors. An Oscan 
 inscription was also found in this gateway mentioning the names of some 
 streets and other objects in Pompeii. 
 
 Of all these gates only three are now used for the purpose of entering 
 the city — namely, the Sea Gate, the Herculaneum Gate, and the Gate of 
 Stabiaj. The last, however, bemg on the south side of the citj% and conse- 
 quently out of the way of visitors from Naples, is seldom used. Whether 
 the visitor should enter by the Sea Gate, or that of Herculaneum, is a matter 
 that must be referred entu-ely to taste and convenience. The Sea Gate is 
 more handy for those who travel by the railroad, and leads more directly to 
 the Forum and the princijjal parts of the city. The Herculaneum gate is 
 equally, or perhaps more convenient for visitors in carriages, and conveys a 
 better idea of the approach to an ancient Roman town. The road which leads 
 to it, called Stracla delle Tomhe^ is lined on both sides with tombs, as shown m 
 the annexed photograph. These tombs, from then- comparative magnificence, 
 may be supposed to have belonged to the leading families of Pompeii ; and in 
 this way, to compare small things with great, the traveller may be remmded 
 of the approach to Rome by the Appian Way. As at the capital, the other 
 entrances to Pompeii present but few tombs. The remains of a burial-place 
 outside the Gate of Nola are supposed to have belonged to Alexandrians, 
 who formed part of the population. It is well known that the burying or 
 burning of a dead body within the precincts of a city was forbidden by the 
 decemviral laws — a piece of civilization which, in spite of our superior refine- 
 ment, we have only just begun to imitate. Driven thus beyond the walls, 
 the rich and great seem to have preferred the most travelled roads for the 
 last resting-place of their ashes ; and as the Via Appia was the queen of ways, 
 so also the Via Domitiana, wliich was a branch of it, formed the principal 
 approach to Pompeii. 
 
 Before entering the town we will linger awhile among the objects pre- 
 sented in the view. 
 
 The first building on the right, ha^g an open doorway, entered by 
 three steps from the street, and having a gable over it, is the Triclinium 
 Fimebre, or dining room, in wliich, after the last honours had been rendered 
 
28 
 
 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 to the dead, a feast called silicernium was given by the relatives. This was 
 a usual tribute of respect, but it was not an indispensable ceremony, and a 
 disappointed heir would sometimes avenge himself by defrauding the deceased 
 of this part of his funeral honoiu's. An inscription in the gable informs us 
 that it was erected in honour of Cn. Vibrius Satiu'ninus, by his libertus, or 
 freedman, Callistus. On entering, the visitor finds himself in a small quad- 
 rangular space surrounded with walls, but without a roof. At the top are 
 the three stone benches forming the triclinium, with a squai'e table between ; 
 before which stands the roimd basis of an altar for offerings. Originally the 
 walls were richly painted, being divided into square panels or compartments 
 by borders ; each panel having in its centre a representation of some bird or 
 animal : but these paintings have now almost entirely disappeared. 
 
 Next to the Tricli- 
 nium is seen the tomb of 
 Nasvoleia Tyche, svir- 
 roimded with a wall, en- 
 tered by a door from 
 the street. It is among 
 the handsomest at Pom- 
 peii. Within the enclo- 
 sure is a sepulchral 
 chamber, surmounted by 
 a marble monument in 
 the form of an altar, 
 placed on a basis or po- 
 dium, with two steps. 
 On the front of this altar is a po'rtrait of the foundress ia bas-relief, 
 with an inscription purporting that NtBvoleia Tyche, the freedwoman of 
 Lucius Naevoleius, had erected this mausoleum during her lifetime for herself 
 and for L. Munatius Faustus, Augustal, and Paganus (or member of the 
 suburban Council of the Pagus, Augustus Felix); to whom the Decurions, 
 with the consent of the people, had granted the honom- of the BiseHium (a 
 chair of state) for his deserts; also for her and his fi'eedmen and women. 
 Under the inscription is another bas-relief -^vith many figures, supposed to 
 represent an offermg to the dead, or the dedication of the toml). The whole 
 is surrounded with a rich and elegant arabesque border. There were foimd 
 in the sepulchre several funeral urns for the ashes of the dead, mostly of 
 
 m 
 
 
 
 VIEW OP THE FUNERAL TRICLINIUM. 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 29 
 
 terra cotta; but three were of glass, preserved in leaden cases of the same 
 shape. One of them was of a large size. They are said to have contained 
 
 BAS-RELIEF ON THE MONUMENT OF NJEVOLEIA TYCIIE. 
 
 burnt bones, swimming in a liquid composed of water, wine, and oil, — the last 
 libations probably of friends. 
 
 On the side of the monument next the Triclinium is a ship sculptured in 
 bas-relief, as may be seen in our photographic \dew. The prow is sui'mounted 
 by a bust of Minerva ; the poop terminates in a swan's neck, over which floats 
 a flag; while another fl.ag is to be seen at the mast head. The crew mostly 
 consists of children, who are climbing 
 the ropes and furling the sail. A man 
 sitting at the rudder is supposed to re- 
 present Munatius, and the whole design 
 to uidicate that he was a sailor by pro- 
 fession ; while others have imagined that 
 it is allegorical, and symbolizes arrival in 
 the haven of eternity after the stormy 
 voyage of life. 
 
 On the side opposite to the ship is 
 sculptured the bisellium mentioned in 
 the inscription. The seat, as its name 
 implies, is capacious enough to hold 
 two persons ; but a smgle square footstool placed beneath the middle of it 
 indicates that it is reserved for one. 
 
 The next place of burial, which is merely a square enclosure without any 
 
 BAS-RELIEF ON THE TOMB OF N^VOLEIA TYCHE. 
 
30 TEE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 monument, belonged, as we learn from an inscription on the wall, to the 
 family of Istacidius, and that it was fifteen feet long by fifteen deep. This last 
 piece of mtelligence has been used to determine the relative length of the 
 Roman foot. The area contains two or three funereal cippi, low square 
 columns, sui-mounted by a hemisphere said to be peculiar to Pompeii. These 
 were sometimes adorned at the back with long tresses carved in resemblance 
 of human hair, which awaken unclassical reminiscences of a barber's block. 
 
 Next is the cenotaph of the Augusta!, C. Calveutius Quietus, a monument 
 Avhich for purity of taste may rank among the best in the street. In a court 
 of about twenty-one feet square rises a square massive basement of masonry 
 five and a-half feet high, originally covered with stucco, on which is placed a 
 square altar-shaped monument of marble, somewhat resembling that of 
 Najvoleia Tyche, and approached from the base by three steps. On the 
 front face, which is suiTomided with a rich border, is an inscription re- 
 cording that by a decree of the Decurions (the senate or court of aldermen of 
 Pompeii), and with the consent of the people, the honour of the bisellium 
 had been granted to Calventius Quietus, as a reward for his munificence. On 
 the sides of the monument are garlands of oak-leaves bound with fillets. 
 There is no door of entry to this tomb, for being a mere cenotaph it would 
 not have to be opened to receive bodies; but the wall towards the street, 
 being hardly four feet high, allows the passengers to inspect the monument. 
 The side walls are much higher, while that at the back rises into a j^ediment. 
 At the corners of the wall are square pinnacles, called acroteria, the sides of 
 which were adorned with reliefs and stucco, now almost obliterated. One of 
 these represented Theseus m the Labyrmth reposmg after his labours; 
 another, CTldipus and the Sphinx. The Theban hero, by putting his fiuger 
 to his forehead, shows that he has in his head the solution of the riddle. One 
 of these sculptures represented a young woman with a torch in her hand, and, 
 accordmg to Overbeck, another on her shoulder. She is supposed to be 
 performing the funeral ceremony of kindling the pUe, which was done, with 
 averted face, by the nearest relative. 
 
 Adjoinmg the cenotaph is an empty walled area, on which it is conjec- 
 tured a tomb was intended to be erected. This is followed by a large family 
 sepulchre ; but, as there is no inscription on it, the name of the owner is 
 unknown. It consists of a short round tower on a quadrangvdar basis. The 
 sepulchral chamber had a sort of bell-shaped vaultmg, which often occurs m 
 Turkish architectiu'e, but of which, according to Overbeck, there is no other 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 31 
 
 ancient instance. The walls "which surroimd the tower and enclose the 
 burying-place are surmounted at intervals with square pinnacles or acroteria, 
 resembling those in the sepulchre of Calventius Quietus. These were in 
 like manner ornamented with bas-reliefs in stucco. One of the most strikinsf 
 of these represents a young woman in the act of depositing a funereal fillet 
 on the skeleton of a chUd, which reposes on a heap of stones. 
 
 Next in order is the monument commonly called the Tomb of Scaurus ; 
 a name, however, which, according to MUlin, Mommsen, and Overbeck, rests 
 on no certain foundation. It consists of a square chamber serving as a 
 basement, and surmounted l^y three steps, on which is a massive square 
 cippus of brick. The front face of this cippus has a marble slab with a muti- 
 lated inscription. The chief interest of this monument, which is not remark- 
 able for beauty or taste, consists in the bas-reliefs with which the upper part 
 of the sepulchral chamber and the steps of the cippus are covered, but which 
 at present can only be partially made out. They represented gladiatorial 
 combats and venationes., or fights with wild beasts ; and, as they were fortu- 
 nately copied when in a good state of preservation, they have been of much 
 service in illustrating those bloody sports. 
 
 Some way further on, just under one of the cypress-trees in the view, is 
 the tomb of an unknown owner, a good deal resembling those of Noevoleia 
 Tyche and Calventius Quietus, as it consists of a square altar-shaped monu- 
 ment or cippus^ with two steps, and rests on a quadrangular basis of squared 
 stone. It is commonly said, though without much apparent reason, that this 
 sepulchre was only in process of construction at the time of the eruption. It 
 possesses nothing of interest to detam us. 
 
 Beyond this the succession of the tombs on this side of the way is inter- 
 rupted for a considerable space, and after passing an enclosed area adjoining 
 the peristyle of the so-called Vnia of Cicero, we come to a row of shops 
 which may possibly have been the property of the owner of the villa. The 
 openings of these shops are seen in the photographic view. Beyond them 
 the perspective becomes too distant to discern objects clearly, except the 
 Gate of Herculaneum, which stands at the top of the street. We shall here, 
 however, briefly describe the objects which intervene between the shops and 
 the gate. Beyond the shops a narrow lane turns up to the right, just before 
 arriving at which is the entrance to Cicero's Axilla. On the other side of the 
 lane are three funereal monuments consisting of a tomb, now in ruins, between 
 two large semicii'cular exedras, or seats, made of stone, and imcovered. The 
 
32 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 first of these seats is about seventeen feet in diameter. On the wall 
 above the bench is an inscription in large letters purporting that this burial- 
 place was assigned by a decree of the Decurions to Mamia, a public priestess. 
 The further seat very much resembles that already described. An inscrip- 
 tion identifies it as belonging to Aulus Veins, a duumvir of justice and 
 military tribune, to whom the ground had been presented by the Decurions 
 and the people. It has been sometimes doubted whether the tomb between 
 the two seats is that of Mamia, or another and handsomer one, which stands 
 immediately behmd the first seat. The latter, however, from inscriptions 
 ui it relating to various persons, seems not to have been a private place of 
 burial, but a sepulchre common to many, and designed apparently to receive 
 the ashes of priests. This tomb, which resembles a small temple, is of 
 masonry covered with stucco, and ornamented with engaged columns, appa- 
 rently Corinthian ; but, as their capitals are gone, this is uncertain. At a 
 spot behind this tomb many half-burnt bones of animals have been found ; 
 and as a richly ornamented altar was dug up here, we may perhaps conclude 
 that it was used for sacrifices to the dead. Near here were also found graves 
 covered with flat tiles and contaming entire human skeletons, which must 
 therefore have been interred without having been burnt. 
 
 The only other object to be noticed on this side of the street is a small 
 square recess with a vaulted roof, which stands between the last semichcular 
 seat and the gate of the town. From its position here it was long taken to be, 
 and stUl is by some, a sentry-box ; and a wonderful story has obtained great 
 credit and circulation how the skeleton of a soldier was foimd in it, who, 
 rather than desert his post, died at it, the victim of Roman discipline. But 
 the truth is no such discovery was made, as may be seen by referring to the 
 journals of the excavations, under date August 13th, 1763. The same entry 
 records an inscription found in it, pm'porting that the place was given by 
 the Decurions to the Augustal M. Cerrinius Restitutus ; and it may therefore 
 be regarded as his sepulchre. 
 
 We are now arrived at the Gate of Herculaneum, but we have not yet 
 inspected the tombs on the other side of the way, and we must therefore 
 retrace our steps before entering the town. The objects on the left-hand 
 side of the street, however, are hardly so important as those on the right; 
 and as, owing to the perspective, they are not seen so clearly in the view, we 
 shall be brief in our description of them. 
 
 Close to the city gate, and nearly opposite to the supposed sentry-box, 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 33 
 
 stands a pedestal for a colossal statue. Next to this, in descending the street, 
 but divided from it by a narrow lane, stands the cenotaph of the sedile Titus 
 Terentius Felix. This is followed by three or four unimportant tombs, 
 which we need not stop to describe. We need only mention that in the 
 smallest of them was found a vase of dark blue glass, now in the national 
 museum, considered to be, after the celebrated Portland vase, the finest 
 ancient specimen of this sort of art. From this discovery the tomb has 
 obtained the name of Toinba del Vaso di vetro hlu. The glass, which is 
 transparent, is encu'cled with a white opaque rehef representing cupids or 
 geniuses gathering grapes and preparing the \antage amid rich foliage, while 
 others are playing on the pipes or the lyre. At the lower part of the design 
 are on either side of the vase two masks, one male, the other female, while a 
 narrow border encircles the bottom of it, on which are represented animals 
 feeding or reposing. A coloured plate of this vase will be found m Zahn's 
 " Ornamente aller classischen Kunst-epochen," Haft xi. 
 
 Next to this tomb is a small semicircular niche with a stone bench run- 
 ning roimd it, similar to the ea-edra on the other side of the way alreadj^ 
 described; only this is covered in with a vaidted roof, with a pediment 
 above, and has rich, though somewhat bizarre, architectural ornaments. 
 Beyond this seat is a row of shops somewhat similar to those on the other 
 side of the way. Before them projects an archway that spans the footpath, 
 as will be seen in the view. Towards the end of this row of buUdmus, the 
 road divides into two, leaving between the branches a sort of angular tongue, 
 where the tombs begin again. One which stands in the middle of the road, 
 just at the pomt were it diverges, buUt for the most part in opus reticulatum, 
 is called the Tomb with the Marble Door, as no inscription acquaints us 
 with the name of its owner. The marble door is about four feet high ; it 
 turned on brass pivots, and was fastened with a lock. It is kept closed, but 
 the key may be obtained by application in the proper quarter. The ulterior 
 consists of a vaulted chamber, lighted by a small wmdow m the roof. A 
 stone bench or lodge rims aroimd it, on which, as well as m the vaulted 
 niches under it, and in the side walls, were deposited lU'ns or vases. This 
 arrangement gives it the appearance of a small columbarium. There were also 
 several bronze lamps, which may have served to Ulummate the tomb at the 
 festival of the Feralia, and other times when the Romans visited the ashes 
 of their deceased parents and relatives, to make offerings to then* manes, 
 called parentalia and inferice. Opposite the entrance, in a square niche 
 
34 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 with a gable, was a large alabaster vase coutaining ashes, supposed to be 
 those of the proj^rietor of the tomb. In the road, iDimediately before this 
 tomb, is a small enclosed space, which is thought to have been a private 
 ustrhmm, or place for bm-ning dead bodies. 
 
 On the tongue of ground between the two roads several tombs lie close 
 together. The first from that of the Marble Door is an unfinished sepulchre. 
 Next to this, close to the trottou-, and nearly facing the burying ground of 
 Nistacidius, which we have already described as lying between the tombs 
 of Na?voleia Tyche and Calventius Quietus, stands the sepulchre of Libella. 
 It is a solid structure, comjjosed of blocks of travertine, and rises in the 
 shape of an altar, or of the pedestal of a column,, to a height of sixteen feet, 
 the base being about twelve feet square. It has a mouldmg and cornice, 
 which may be seen in the view. Beneath is an uascription purporting that 
 the site of the monument was presented by the public to two of the Libella 
 family ; namely, to the father, M. Alleius Luccius Libella, who was an aidile, 
 duumvu' of justice, prefect, and quinquennial; and to his son, a decurion, 
 who died at the age of seventeen : and that AUeia Decimdla, public priestess 
 of Ceres, had erected on it the monument to her husband and son. Cicero, 
 in one of his letters, replies to a friend who had solicited his interest in 
 obtaining the jjost of decurion at Pompeii, that it was an easier thing to 
 become a senator at Rome. We may, therefore, infer from the fact of the 
 younger Libella havmg obtained that office at so early an age, that the 
 family was one of considerable distinction. There is no sepulchral chamber 
 withm the monument, and it must therefore be regarded as a cenotaph, 
 although it is not so characterized m the inscription; unless, indeed, there 
 be a grave underneath. 
 
 Behmd this tomb is a small quadrangular walled space, thought to have 
 been a burial place for poorer citizens, or a private ustriuum. Further on 
 is a group of four or five more tombs. These have nothmg to arrest our 
 attention ; except the one which closes the Ime of tombs on this side, and 
 appears from an inscription to have been the family vault of M. Arrius 
 Diomedcs. It stands just opposite to the entrance of the suburban villa; to 
 which indeed it has given a name, though there is nothmg, except its prox- 
 imity, to connect it with the owner of the vUla. It consists of a platform, 
 or basis, of opus incertuvi, on which are several monuments. It is bounded 
 on the left by a wall, near which stand two funereal cip2)i with hemispheres, 
 (if the kind already described; erected apparently m memor}' of a son and 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 35 
 
 daughter of Ai-rius. These are divided by a low wall from the prmcipal 
 monument ; but an inscription precisely under this wall shows that the 
 whole group belonged to the same famil)^ . The chief tomb is a temple-like 
 buildmg, about nine feet broad and twelve high, with two pilasters at the 
 sides supporting a pediment. A double door, with the fasces and hatchets 
 sculptured on each, but reversed, as on occasions of mourning, indicate the 
 magisterial dignity of the foimder ; which is further confirmed by an inscrip- 
 tion over them, stating that the freedman, M. Arrius Diomedes, chief magis- 
 trate {magister) of the suburb of AugTistus Felix had erected the monument 
 m memory of himself and famil3^ 
 
 From the last resting-place of Diomedes we will step over the street, and 
 take a brief view of the reputed dwelling of his family. This subm-ban villa 
 was discovered at a very early period of the excavations, but is still the most 
 extensive of the private buildmgs at Pompeii. It is the only house in the 
 place provided with a portico, which will be seen m the annexed cut. The 
 house is approached by a flight of 
 lofty steps, for it was built at the 
 side of a hill or ridge, and the 
 ground falling away at the back, 
 aflforded opportunity to construct 
 a spacious suite of rooms under 
 the peristyle. We camiot, how- 
 ever, Imger on the details of the 
 buildmg, which could not be \m- 
 derstood without a groimd-plan, 
 and must content ourselves with 
 describing its principal features. 
 After passing through a small tri- 
 angular vestibule, if it deserve 
 that name, the visitor finds him- 
 self in a handsome peristyle, which m country houses, according to the pre- 
 cept of Vitruvius, occupied the place of the atrium. At the time of the dis- 
 covery, the columns, capitals, and entablatures, which were of an elegant 
 order, were in a good state of preservation, as well as the pamtuigs on the 
 walls. The lower part of the columns, to the height of one thu-d, are 
 unfluted and painted red, while the upper part is white and fluted. The 
 pavement is of opus Signinum, a composition of pounded tile and mortar. 
 
 I'OIMICO OF Tilt HOISE OF DIOMFDES, WITH .\ VIEW OF TIIF 
 ATRIU31 BEVOXD. 
 
36 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 which derived its name from the town of Signia, the place probably where it 
 was invented. In the middle of the peristyle was an impluvium surrounded 
 with fourteen columns. The water received in the piscina fed a cistern 
 below. The peristyle was surrounded with bed-rooms and other offices in 
 the usual fashion. On the side of it next the street, to the left of the entrance, 
 was a private bath on a large scale, with a small portico, and the usual suite 
 of apartments and other appurtenances found m the public baths, such as an 
 apodyterium, frigidarium, tepidarium, &c. On the opposite, or further 
 side of the peristyle, in the place usually occupied by the tablinum in 
 Roman houses, was a sort of large haU, with other adjoining apartments; 
 behind which ran a long gallery with windows looking over two terraces 
 towards the garden. Between these terraces was a large hall, or cecus, with 
 a window reaching almost to the ground, and affording a splendid prospect 
 over the Bay of Naples from Castellamare to Torre Aniiunziata, including 
 in the distance the islands of Capri, Procida, and Iscliia. The decorations 
 of the apartments were elegant and in good taste ; but no remarkable pic- 
 tures or mosaics were discovered in them, though many articles of value were 
 found. At the back of the villa was a garden upwards of one hundred feet 
 square, surroimded with a crypto-porticus at a considerably lower level than 
 the peristyle and gallery. Under the peristyle, as we have before said, were 
 various apartments, destined ajjparently for servants and household purposes, 
 Ijut in so ruinous a state that it is impossible to guess at their destination. 
 In them was found the skeleton of a man, and near it that of a goat, with a 
 bell round its neck. In the middle of the garden was a large quadrangular 
 basin with a jet-d'eau, and behind an enclosed space covered with a trellis. 
 At each corner of the extremity of the garden were two small apartments, 
 one perhaps an oratory. A cellar ran underneath three sides of the portico 
 surrounding the garden, the floor of which was raised four steps above the 
 level of the garden, in order to give the cellar the requisite height. A great 
 many amphorce showed that it was used as a wine cellar. It was near the 
 entrance of it that the eighteen skeletons were found, which we have already 
 described, besides the bodies at the garden gate, supposed to be those of the 
 master and his slave. Altogether the remains of thirty-tlu-ee persons were 
 discovered in this house. 
 
 We must now retrace our steps up the Street of the Tombs, in order to 
 enter Pompeii by the Gate of Herculanevim. In size and arrangement it 
 bears some resemblance to Temple Bar, consisting of a central entrance for 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 37 
 
 carriages, about fourteen feet and a-half wide, and two small side entrances 
 for foot passengers, vaulted over; but tbe top has now fallen in, and the 
 arch is imperfect. It was a double gate ; the outer defence being a port- 
 cullis, whilst the inner one towards the town consisted of folding doors. 
 There ajjpears to have been a large aperture in the vaulting of the carriage 
 entrance, by means of which assailants who had broken through the port- 
 cullis might be attacked with missiles while preparing to batter down the 
 second doors. The gate is evidently one of the more recent ones, and a 
 Eoman work. Close to it, on the left in the inside, is a flight of high and 
 narrow steps, by which the wall may be ascended. The alternate layers 
 of brick and lava with which the gate is constructed were plastered over 
 with a fine white stucco, which, at the time when it was excavated, was 
 covered on the outside with a number of inscriptions; unfortunately, how- 
 ever, for the most part illegible. These inscriptions had been traced over 
 previous ones which had been effaced by a fresh coating of white. 
 
 The Gate of Herculaneum must, from its situation, have formed, as we 
 have already observed, the principal entrance to Pompeii. Yet the street 
 in which we find, ourselves after passing it, called the Strada Consolare, or 
 Consular Street, is by no means one of the best in the town. It is narrow 
 and somewhat crooked, and must have been sm'passed in apj^earance by 
 several others in the place, as the Street of Fortune, the Street of Mercury, 
 the Street of the Forum, the Street of Abundance, &c. Yet there are some 
 notable houses in passing up it; as, on the left hand side, the House of the 
 Vestals — very inappropriately so called, to judge from some pictures found 
 in it — the House of the Surgeon, deriving its name from some surgical 
 instruments in it, which very much resemble those now in use, and show 
 that there is little new under the sun; and a building that has been called 
 the Dor/ana, or custom house, principally on the strength of some scales and 
 a great many weights having been found in it. It was perhaps more pro- 
 bably the warehouse of a scale-maker. These weights were made of marble, 
 basalt, or lead, and were for the most part round ; but they had often the 
 shape of the articles sold in the shop, as may be seen in some specimens in 
 the museum at Naples. The weight was inscribed upon them. Some of 
 the leaden ones were square, and had engraved upon them the words, eme 
 ET HABEBis: " buy and you shall have." On the right hand side of the 
 street, or that towards the sea, are some houses of the kind we have already 
 described, having the higher story on a level with the street, with two more 
 
38 
 
 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 stories below. Here also is the house called the Casa delle Dajizatrici, or 
 the house of the female dancers, from some pictures which it contained. 
 
 After passing these objects, we arrive at a point where another little 
 street, or rather lane, called the Vicolo di Narcisso, diverges from the Strada 
 Consolare^i and running more directly north, forms an acute angle with it. 
 At the point of jimction, called by the Romans hivium., is a fountain, and 
 behind it a low square vaulted erection, which is sometimes supposed to 
 have been a public cistern for supplying it. The annexed cut will convey 
 
 an idea of it. The cu*- 
 cumstance of there be- 
 ing a door in one of the 
 sides of the building mili- 
 tates against the notion 
 of its having been a re- 
 servoii" ; but to what 
 other purpose it may 
 have been applied it is 
 impossible to say. The 
 figures painted on this 
 buildmg, now entu'ely 
 eftaced, represented a 
 sacrifice to the Lares Conipitales, or deities" Avho presided over the high- 
 ways ; to whom also was dedicated a small altar that stands beneath. 
 
 Resuming our walk along the Strada Consolare^ we come to a bakehouse 
 on the left, adjoining the house of Sallust. As may natiu'ally be supposed, 
 shops of this sort are of frequent recurrence at Pompeii, though some of the 
 larger houses are provided with private bakeries. All of them very much 
 resemble one another, diflFering only in size. One or two of them show, by 
 the comfortable air of the attached dwelling, that the proprietor must have 
 been a well-to-do man. The annexed photograph represents that which we 
 have just mentioned. In the backgromid is the oven with the fm'nace 
 underneath, and at the side of the wall two mills for grinding the corn ; for 
 there seems to have been no separate trade of a miller at Pomjieii. The 
 mills here depicted may serve to explain the whole process. In the one in 
 front, the lower millstone only is seen, in the shape of a cone. The upper 
 millstone, a large fragment of which may be seen on the further mill, was 
 fitted exactly on this, b}- means of a strong iron pivot on the top of the 
 
 FOUNTAIN IN TltlVIIS NEAR THE GATE OF HEBCULANEUM. 
 
MILLS AND OVEN. 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 39 
 
 cone. This upper stone was somewhat in the shape of an hour-glass, having 
 both its ends hollow ; one for the purpose of covering the cone, the other to 
 serve as a hopper for recei\nng the corn. At the point of junction of these 
 two parts was an iron socket, intended to revolve on the pivot of the cone ; 
 while round the outside of this narrowest part ran a strong iron band, with 
 two square holes, mto which were inserted bars of wood for turning the 
 mUl, either by manual labour, or, when the mill was large, by that of 
 animals. The annexed cut is from an antique bas-relief in terra-cotta, 
 representing a mule attached to a mUl. The corn 
 inserted in the upper cone, or hopper, gradually 
 worked its way to the bottom, and came out on the 
 cylindrical base in the shape of flour. The work 
 was laborious and degrading, and was therefore com- 
 monly performed by slaves, as we see from frequent 
 allusions in the ancient comic writers; and some- 
 times, like the tread-mill, by way of punishment. 
 Frequently, however, and especially in Greece, this 
 work seems to have been assigned to women. This 
 primitive fashion is still kept up at Naples, where 
 numerous shops of dealers in flour may be seen 
 having a large hand-mill, though of a different construction from the ancient 
 one. Such shops have invariably a picture of the Madonna, intended per- 
 haps as a security for the good faith of the dealer; though this practice 
 sometimes obtains m other shops. Many loaves have been discovered in 
 the ovens of Pompeii, of course 
 in a carbonised state, yet other- 
 wise so perfect that on some of 
 them stamped inscriptions may 
 stUl be read, iiidicating the sort 
 of corn of which the loaf was 
 made. They are of a cake-like 
 appearance, flat, and about eight 
 inches in diameter. They appear 
 very often to have been leaked 
 in moulds, of which several have 
 
 by. T BREAD DISCOVERED IN POMPEII. 
 
 een found. 
 
 The excavations have also taught us the ancient method of conducting 
 
 ANTIQUE BAS-RELIEF IN TERRA-COTTA, 
 
 REPRESENTING A MULE ATTACHED 
 
 TO A MILL. 
 
40 
 
 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 the trade of a fuller. Just opposite the eastern side of Pansa's house is a 
 fuller's workshop, called the Fullo7iica, on the walls of which were paintings 
 representing the operations of the trade. The first operation was that of 
 washing. This was done in vats, in which the cloths were trodden and well 
 
 FULLER AT WORK, FROM A PAINTING IN THE FULLONICA. 
 
 worked by the feet of the scourers, as represented in the annexed cut, taken 
 from the walls of the FuUonica. Their dress, which consisted of two timics, 
 
 the upper one green, the under 
 one yellow, is tucked up so as to 
 leave the legs bare. Three of 
 the figiores seem to have finished 
 their work, and to be wringing 
 the articles on which they have 
 been employed; the fourth, rest- 
 ing his arms on a low wall, ap- 
 pears to be jumping and work- 
 ing about the contents of his vat 
 with his feet. When dry, the 
 cloth was brushed and carded to 
 raise the nap ; after which it 
 was fumigated with sulphur, and 
 bleached in the sun. The second 
 cut represents a man brushing 
 
 CARDING 4 TUNIC, FROM A PAINTING IN TIIE FULLONICA. 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 41 
 
 or carding a tunic suspended from a rope 
 and pot, meant probably for fumiga- 
 tion and bleaching; the cloths be- 
 ing spread upon the frame, and the 
 pot containing live coals and sul- 
 phur, placed under it. This man 
 is thought to have an olive garland 
 on his head, whUe the owl upon the 
 frame is the bird sacred to Minerva, 
 the tutelar goddess of manual labovu-. 
 At the left hand corner, a female, 
 apparently, from her dress, a person 
 of condition, or it may be the mis- 
 tress of the establishment, is ex- 
 amining a piece of cloth presented 
 to her by a girl. The third cut 
 represents a clothpress, which is 
 also depicted on the walls. 
 
 Another man carries a frame 
 
 CLOTHPRESS, FROM A PAINTING IN THE FULLONICA. 
 
 There are indications at Pompeii of various other trades, though Ave 
 cannot, as in the two preceding instances, trace the methods of conducting 
 them. Thus in the Street of the Tombs, on the left hand side, is a potter's ; 
 in the Strada Consolare, not far from the second fountain, is a cartwright's, and 
 at no great distance a soap manufactory ; in the Street of Fortmie, nearly 
 opposite to the House of the Faun, dwelt a maker of plaster casts ; at the 
 corner of the Street of the Augustales and that of the Lupanari was the shop 
 of a shoemaker, identified by the tools which it contained ; a painted sign on 
 the house at the corner of the Street of Mercury and the Vicoletto of the 
 same name has led to the idea that it belonged to an incense dealer and per- 
 fumer. Besides these have been discovered a dyer's, a chemical laboratory, 
 two or three apothecary's shops, a barber's, a colour shop, a sculptor's, an 
 oil-dealer's, a goldsmith's, a stonemason's, &c. In fact, most of the modern 
 trades are represented in this ancient Roman town. 
 
 We will now resume oui- progress up the Strada Consolare. Next to the 
 bakery before described is the house called, though for no very satisfactory 
 reason, the House of Sallust. It is not one of the largest class of houses, 
 yet in point of decoration it may rank among the most elegant in Pompeii. 
 Beyond this we pass another and a larger bakery, one of the most extensive 
 
 G 
 
42 
 
 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 in Pompeii, and next to it what is called the Casa delta Academia di Musica, 
 or house of the Academy of Music. On the right hand side of the way, 
 opposite to this, is the house of Julius Polybius, also one of the noticeable 
 ones in Pompeii. 
 
 We are now arrived at a pouit where the street forks mto two branches. 
 That on the right, called Vieo del Farmacista, is an unimportant bye street, 
 whilst the other, the continuation of the main line, vergiug a little to the 
 left, conducts into the Strada delle Terme, or Street of the Baths, and so 
 towards the Forum. Arrived at the corner of the Strada delle Teniie we 
 will turn round for a moment and survey the prospect before us, as depicted 
 in the accompanying photograph, taken, though of course at a considerable 
 elevation, from a spot near this point. 
 
 The street on the left hand side of the picture is that which we have 
 j ust ascended ; that Avhich forms a sharp angle with it, and recedes before us 
 into the distance, is the lane called Vicolo di Modesto, after a house of the 
 same name that stands in it. The rounded corner at the nearest end of this 
 
 shows where the main street, or 
 Strada Consolare, runs into the 
 Street of the Baths. At the anffle 
 of the two first-named streets 
 stands another fountain, but with- 
 out any castellum, or reservoir, be- 
 hind it. So abundant were these 
 public fountams that most of the 
 streets were pro\dded Avith one. 
 Towards the right of the picture, 
 in the middle distance, may be 
 seen the columns belonging to the 
 peristyle of the house of Pansa; 
 while still further to the right, and 
 nearer to the spectator, may be 
 seen the entrance to the house, 
 marked by two square pilasters, 
 that on the right still perfect and 
 having a capital somewhat resem- 
 bline: the Corinthian order. The 
 annexed cut, made many years 
 
 VIEW OF THE ENTRANCJi TO THE HOUSE OF PANSA. 
 
SS^WfSyl* 
 
 VIEW NEAR THE OLD BATHS. 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 43 
 
 ago, will show their appearance when more perfect. Over the buildings is 
 seen the distant landscape, closed by the noble forms of Vesuvius. 
 
 The house of Pansa was one of the largest and haiidsomest in Pompeii. 
 It occupied the whole of what the Romans called an insula — that is, a space 
 surrounded on every side by streets, as an island is by water. It was of an 
 oblong form, in length about three hmidred feet, including the garden, whilst 
 the breadth of its frontage towards the Street of the Baths was about one hun- 
 dred feet. It was on the usual plan of a Roman house, being entered from the 
 street by a vestibule followed by a narrow pvthi/ru7n, or passage, ha\dng on the 
 floor the inscription salve in mosaic. This led into the atrium — a quadran- 
 gular space having a large square opening in the roof, called the comphwium^ 
 through which the rain water, carried down by the slanting of the roof, fell 
 into a basin below, generally of marble. At the sides of the atrium were 
 small rooms, probably intended for guests. Beyond these are open recesses 
 on each side called alee, or wings, forming part of the area of the atrium. 
 Opposite the entrance is the apartment called tablinum, which seems to have 
 been designed for a sort of office or place of business. It was an open 
 room, allowing a passage through it into the peristyle beyond, though capable 
 of being closed by means of a curtain or of wooden paneling. This apart- 
 ment was often handsomely decorated with paintings, a mosaic floor, &c. 
 By the side of it was a narrow passage called the fauces, or jaws, the usual 
 way for passing from the atrium into the peristyle, and indeed the only one 
 when the tablinum was closed. Two apartments contiguous to the tablinum, 
 and like it standing between the atrium and peristyle, may have been used 
 as libraries or studies. The view given further on of the house of Cornelius 
 Rufus will enable the reader to realize the arrangement we have described. 
 In this ^dew the foreground shows part of the atrium with the impluvium. 
 The open apartment in the middle, to the right of the bust, is the tablinum, 
 while beyond are seen the columns of the peristyle. This last was a large 
 court not unlike the atrium in appearance and arrangement, but larger and 
 more handsomely decorated. The large oblong basin in the middle of that 
 of the house of Pansa was surrounded with sixteen columns, forming the 
 roofed portico which encompassed the peristyle. The basin, or piscina, was 
 usually adorned with a handsome fountain, of which we shall have to speak 
 fiu'ther on, and had at its sides one or two wells. But sometimes the place 
 of the basin was filled with a small garden, or rather flower-bed, called 
 xystus. (Jn the left of the peristyle were bedchambers for the family ; on 
 
44 
 
 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 the right was a large triclinium or dining-room. At the further extremity 
 of the peristyle, and facing the tablinum., was a spacious and handsomely 
 decorated apartment, the finest in the house, which probably served as a 
 drawmg-room or reception-room. Such a room was called cecus., a house, 
 probably from its size. At the sides of this were several smaller apartments, 
 into the destination of which we need not here enter, while beyond, extend- 
 ing across the whole breadth of the building, was a portico of two stories, 
 which led into a large sc^uare garden. On the left hand side of the cecus was 
 a large room with an opening to the street, which has been sometimes called an 
 ergastulmn., or work-room for the slaves, and sometimes a stable. Ad- 
 joining this is the kitchen. It had a stove stUl containing charcoal for 
 
 stews, &c, represented in the annexed 
 woodcut. Before it lie a knife, a strainer, 
 and an instrument meant perhaps for a 
 frying-pan or for cookmg eggs. In the 
 kitchen was a curious painting represent- 
 ing a sacrifice to the Lares, or household 
 deities. Below are the holy serpents, fre- 
 quently depicted in honour of them, lick- 
 ing the offering from the altar. At the sides 
 are represented various eatables, as a group of small bu-ds, a strmg of fish, a 
 hare or rabbit, a pig with a girt round its body, a few loaves or cakes, re- 
 sembling in form those which we 
 have already described as having 
 been found in Pompeii, an eel 
 spitted on a wii-e, a ham, or a leg 
 of mutton, a boar's head, and 
 what appears to be a loin of pork, 
 or of some other meat. 
 
 We have now described the 
 more striking features of the 
 house of Pansa ; to enter into mi- 
 nute details, which would be un- 
 intelligible without a ground-plan, 
 would be out of place in a work like the present. The arrangements 
 of the house of Pansa serve to convey a good general idea of a first-class 
 private house at Pompeii, though there are of course often divergencies in 
 
 STOVE IN THE KITCHEN OF THE HOUSE OF PANSA. 
 
 RELIGIOUS PAINTING IN THE KITCHEN OF THE HOUSE OF PANSA. 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 45 
 
 the details. Further down, in the same Ime of street, is a sister-house, that 
 of the Faiui, so called from an admirable little statuette of a dancing Faun, 
 one of the bijoux of Pompeian sculpture, which graced its fountain. This 
 house, like that of Pansa, fills an entire insula of about the same dimensions, 
 and appears to have been entirely m the occupation of the owner, while part 
 of Pansa's house seems to have been let out for shops and lodgings. The 
 house of the Faun, besides other minor differences, has two distmct atria, 
 and the peristyle has its longer side across the breadth instead of the depth 
 of the house. The garden, too, is completely sm-romided by a portico, which 
 still contains upwards of a hundred amphorw, or wine-jars; whence it has 
 been conjectured that the owner was a wine merchant. It was a common 
 practice enough for the owners of these large mansions to let out parts of them 
 that adjoined the street. A considerable portion of the right hand side of that 
 of Pansa, forming three distinct small houses with several rooms, as well as two 
 shops, one on each side of the entrance, were evidently occupied by persons 
 unconnected with the family, as there is no communication between these 
 portions and the house. In other shops having such a communication the 
 proprietor probably carried on a trade that was superintended by his slaves. 
 The house of the Faun had also one shop of this description, where perhaps 
 the owner sold his wine. 
 
 Before we quit the house of Pansa we may remark that ]\Iazois, many 
 years ago, thought that he had discovered at one of the side entrances a 
 Christian emblem in the sign of a cross, worked in bas-relief on a ^^anel of 
 white stucco. The bas-relief has now disappeared, but the inference of 
 Mazois seems untenable for several reasons. First, because the Christians do 
 not appear to have adopted the cross as an emblem till a much later period ; 
 secondly, because, even if they had then adopted it, they would hardly have 
 dared to display it so publicly in those days of persecution, and still less 
 would they have done so m combination with the Pagan emblems which are 
 said to have accompanied this cross. That there were Christians in Pompeii 
 may be easUy believed, but not that they should have ventured openly to 
 proclaim their creed. It is more credible that inscriptions may have been 
 found in which they are taunted and abused. It is said that an imjjerfect 
 one of this sort has been found, written with coal or charcoal on the walls of 
 a house in the Vico dei Lupanari. The onl}^ letters visible were .... ni 
 gaude .... hristiane, which has been supplemented igni gaude, Christiane : 
 "enjoy your fire. Christian;" in allusion to the burning of the Christians 
 under Nero. 
 
46 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 These and other like inscriptions — we are not speaking of those cut in 
 stone — afford iis a peep both into the political and the domestic life of the 
 Pompeians. Advertisements of a political character are commonly painted 
 on the exterior walls in large letters in red and black paint; poetical effu- 
 sions and pasquinades are often in chalk or coal (Martial, Epp.., xii. 61, 9); 
 whUe notices of a domestic kind are more usually foimd in the interior of 
 the houses, scratched with a sharp point, such as a naU or knife on the stucco 
 of the walls or pillars, and are hence called graffiti; and sometimes, as in 
 the instance just mentioned, written with charcoal. The many political in- 
 scriptions bear testimony to the activity of public life in Pompeii. Numerous 
 advertisements respecting the election of gediles and other magistrates seem 
 to show that the Pompeians, at the time when their city was destroyed, were 
 in all the excitement of the comiiia, which were approaching for the creation 
 of such magistrates. We shall here select a few of the more interesting 
 inscriptions of both kinds from those collected by Overbeck in the second 
 volume of his valuable work on Pompeii (chap. \'i). 
 
 It seems to have been the practice to paint over old advertisements with 
 a coating of white in order to obtain a fresh siu^face for new ones ; just as a 
 bill-sticker in London pastes his bill over that of some predecessor. In many 
 instances the new coat has been detached or fallen off, thus revealing an 
 older notice belonging sometimes to a period antecedent to the Social ^A'ar. 
 Such inscriptions are only foimd on the solid stone pillars of the more ancient 
 buildings, and not on the stucco with which, at a later period, almost every- 
 thing was plastered. Their antiquity is further revealed by the circumstance 
 that some of them are in the Oscan dialect ; while those in Latin are distin- 
 guished from more recent ones in the same language by the forms of the 
 letters, by the names which appear in them, and by archaisms in orthography 
 and grammar. Inscriptions in the Greek tongue are few, though letters of 
 the Greek alphabet scratched on walls at a little height from the ground, 
 and thus evidently the work of schoolboys, show that Greek must have been 
 extensively taught at Pompeii. 
 
 The normal form of the electioneering advertisements contains the name 
 of the person recommended, the office for which he is a candidate, and the 
 name of the person or persons who recommend him; the latter generally 
 accompanied with the formida ovf. From examples written in full, recently 
 discovered, it appears that these letters mean orat (or orant) vos faciatis, 
 "beseech you to create" (cedile and so forth.) The letters in question were. 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 47 
 
 before this discovery, very often thought to stand for ovat ut faveat., " begs 
 him to favour;" and thus the meaning of the inscription was entirely re- 
 versed, the person recommending being converted into the person recom- 
 mended. For instance, in the following example : J/. Ilolconium Priscum 
 duumviruin jiori dicendo 0. V. F. Pldlippus : the meaning will be, according 
 to the older interpretation, " Philippus beseeches M. Holconius Priscus, 
 Duumvir Justice, to favour (or patronize) him;" whereas the true sense is, 
 " Philippus beseeches you to create M. Holconius Priscus a Duumvir of 
 Justice." From this mismterpretation names have often been wrongly given 
 to houses. Thus the house of Pansa has been so named from the foUowingr 
 inscription in red letters, which might formerly be read on one of the pilasters 
 of his doorway : " Pansam : a^d : Paratus, rogat ;" meaning " Paratus solicits 
 you to make Pansa sedile;" the words rogat^ or jyetit., "asks" or "requests" 
 being sometimes substituted for orat; the inscription in this case being in 
 a very abbre\dated form, yet, from the well-known tenour of such adver- 
 tisements, quite intelligible to a Pompeian. Such bemg the meaning, and 
 not that Paratus solicits the favour of Pansa — and indeed it would have 
 been a bad way to gain it by disfiguring his walls in so ini[)ertinent a 
 manner — it seems probable that the house belonged to Paratus the recom- 
 mender rather than Pansa the recommendee, and that he posted on his own 
 walls a request to passers-by to make his friend Pansa a^dile. Had it been 
 the house of Pansa, when a candidate for the tfidileship, and if it was the 
 custom for such canditates to post recommendatory notices on their doors, it 
 may be supposed that Pansa's would have exhibited more than this single 
 one from a solitary friend. We do not mean to deny that adulatory inscrip- 
 tions were sometunes written on the houses or doors of powerfiU or popular 
 men or pretty women. That such was the custom we learn from a verse of 
 Plautus (impleantur mea; foreis elogiorum carbonibus, llercator, act ii. sc. 3 : 
 " My doors would be filled with praises in charcoal"). But first, the inscrip- 
 tion on the house in question was evidently not one of the adulatory, but 
 recommendatory, kind ; and secondly, those of the former description, as we 
 also learn from this passage, seem to have been written bj' a passmg admirer 
 with some material ready to the baud, as a piece of charcoal, and not painted 
 on the walls with care, and time, and expense — a mode of proceediug which 
 we can hardly thmk that the owner of the house, if he was a man of sense 
 and modesty, would have tolerated. 
 
 Recommendations of candidates were often accompanied with a word or 
 
48 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 two ill their praise, as dignus, or dignissimus est, prohissivms, juvenis integer, 
 om7ii bono meritus, &c, that is, he is worthy, or very worthy, a most excel- 
 lent man, a young man of integrity, in every way deserving, &c. These re- 
 commendations are sometimes subscribed by guilds or corporations, and show 
 that there were a great many of these trade imions at Pompeii. Thus we 
 find mentioned the offectores, or dyers, the pistores (bakers), aiirifices (gold- 
 smiths), pomarii (fruiterers), cceparii (greengrocers), lignarii (wood xnQV- 
 chsiixi^), plostrarii {c?iVi\xiiikQ,rs,), piscicapi (fishermen), agricolcB (husbandmen), 
 midio7ies (mideteers), cidinarii (cooks), fidlones (fullers), &c. Advertisements 
 of this sort seem to have been laid hold of as a vehicle for street wit, just as 
 electioneering squibs are perpetrated among ourselves. Thus we find men- 
 tioned, as among the companies, the pilicrepi (ball-players), the seribihi (late- 
 drinkers), the dormientes universi (all the worshipful company of sleepers) ; 
 and, as a climax, Pompeiani universi (every man of the Pompeians votes for 
 so and so). One of these recommendations, piu-porting to emanate from a 
 "teacher," or " professor," runs, Valentius, cum discentes siios (Valentius with 
 his disciples); the bad grammar beiag probably intended as a gibe upon one 
 of the poor man's weak points. 
 
 The graffiti, and occasionally the painted inscriptions, contain sometimes 
 well-known verses from poets still extant. Some of these exhibit variations 
 from the modern text ; but, being written by not very highly educated per- 
 sons, they seldom or never present any various readings that it would be 
 desii'able to adoj^t, and indeed contain now and then prosodiacal errors. 
 Other verses, and some by no means contemptible, are either taken from 
 pieces that are now lost, or are the invention of the writer himself. Many 
 of these inscriptions are of course of an amatory character ; some convey in- 
 telligence of not much importance to any but the writer; as that he is 
 troubled with a cold, or that he considers somebody who does not invite him 
 to supper as no better than a brute and barbarian, or invokes blessings on 
 the man that does. Some are capped by another hand with a biting sarcasm 
 on the first writer ; and many, as might be expected, are scurrilous and inde- 
 cent. Now and then the graffiti on the interior walls and pillars of houses 
 are memorandums of domestic affairs ; as how many pounds of lard have been 
 bought ; how many tunics sent to be washed ; when a child, or a donkey, was 
 born, and the like. One of this description, found scratched on the wall of 
 the peristyle of the corner house in the Strada delta Fortuna and Vicolo dei 
 Scienziati, is an accoimt of the spimiing-tasks allotted to the female slaves, 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 49 
 
 and is interesting as furnishing us with the names of several of them, viz : 
 Vitalis, Florentiaa, Amarullis, Januaria, Heracla, Maria (Maria, feminine 
 of Mai'ius, not Maria), Lalagia (reminding us of Horace's Lalage), Damalit;, 
 and Doris. 
 
 Besides the graffiti in letters, there are also caricatures and rude draw- 
 ings, with the names affixed, or an explanation of the meaning of the picture, 
 which in some cases is very necessary. Figures of gladiators are one of the 
 favourite subjects of these wall artists. But 
 to describe all these inscriptions would al- 
 most demand a volume to itself, and we must 
 now resume the thread of oiu* description. 
 
 The shops of Pompeii, both those con- 
 nected with the mansions and those of a more 
 tradesman-like kind, were small and mean. 
 The best seem to have been in the Street of 
 Abtmdance, also called the Street of the Silver- 
 smiths, leading out of the south-east corner 
 of the Forum; but a tradesman of London 
 or Paris, or even of a good provincial town, 
 would tm'n up his nose at them. At the 
 angle of the two streets, just behiad the 
 fountain shown in the photographic view, 
 was a small shop, called by some a thermo- 
 polium, or shop for the sale of hot drinks. 
 The walls were gaudUy painted in blue panels 
 with red borders, and towards the street was 
 a counter cased with mai'ble. The stains 
 left on these counters, apparently by wet 
 di'inking-giasses, have led to the identification, 
 or supposed identification, of several such 
 shops. A curious vessel for making these 
 warm drinks has been discovered. It some- 
 what resembles a modern urn, as wUl be 
 seen from the accompanying cut of it, but 
 is much more complicated. The annexed 
 figm*e shows a section of the urn with its conical cover ; a a is the body 
 of the urn, b a small cylindrical furnace in the centre. It has four holes 
 
 URN FOR WARM DECOCTIONS DRANK IN THE 
 TIIERMOPOLIA. 
 
 SECTION OF THE URN. 
 
50 
 
 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 in the bottom, as shown on the plan at <;, meant to let the ashes fall 
 through, and to create a draught ; c, a vase-shaped mouth, by means of which 
 the water was poured iu, serving also for the escape of steam ; d, a tube, 
 which, by means of a cock, served to let off the fluid. It is placed thus 
 high to prevent the pipe being stopped up by the ingredient decocted; e is a 
 conical cover, the hollow of which is closed by a thin plate somewhat con- 
 cave ; /, a moveable flat cover with a hole in the middle, which closes the 
 whole urn except the mouth of the small furnace ; m jn, nuts and screws 
 which fasten the moveable cover on the rim of the urn ; i /, rim, convex on 
 the outside and concave within, which, the cover being put on, receives into 
 its concavity the rim of the mouth of the furnace. 
 
 While on the subject of shops, we will briefly describe a cook's shop in 
 the quarter of the theatres, represented in a restored form in the annexed 
 cut. The front is entirely open to the street and displays a counter, before 
 
 A COOK S SHOP. 
 
 which a customer is standing. The front was closed at night with shutters 
 sliding in grooves in the lintel and basement wall. The counter has several 
 large jars let into it, calculated to hold oil, olives, pickles, &c. At the 
 further end of the coimter is a small oven, probably for keeping some 
 favourite dishes warm. All the details of the view are taken from objects 
 existing or depicted at Pompeii. At the right hand top corner maj' be 
 again seen the sacred serpent. 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 51 
 
 The general narrowness of the streets of Pompeii may be inferred from 
 those seen in the preceding view ; where, however, it wUl also be perceived 
 that they were commonlj^ provided with trottoirs. The convenience of the foot 
 passengers was also consulted^ by placing large stepping-stones for crossing. 
 In the narrower streets or lanes one of these sufficed ; for three or four steps 
 brought a man from one wall to the other ; but ui the broader streets may be 
 seen three stepping-stones or even four. The wheels of the carriages passed 
 at the sides of the stones, while the horses probably stepped over. From 
 the few remains of horses or carriages discovered at Pompeii it may be in- 
 ferred that its streets were not so encumbered with this sort of traffic as 
 those of a modern town of the same class. Pompeii, however, standing on 
 the road to southern Italy, must have been a considerable thoroughfare ; to 
 which, indeed, the deep ruts visible in some of its streets, and even marks of 
 the iron tyres of the wheels, bear satisfactory evidence. The narrowness of 
 the streets, especially as the houses were not very lofty, must have been 
 rather agreeable than otherwise in that hot climate, as calculated to afford 
 more shade. In some of the lanes the view of the sky must have been 
 almost excluded by the projecting mamiana, or balconies. We may judge 
 of their effect by the restoration of one effected by the Commendatore 
 Fiorelh, the present director of the excavations, in the street called after it, 
 Vico del Balcone P ensile .^ the only example in the place. 
 
 Nearly opposite to the main entrance to the house of Pansa stands one of 
 the public baths, excavated in the year 1824. These establishments are a 
 characteristic feature of ancient life, to wliich modern times can offer no 
 parallel. At Rome especially they were ultimately carried to an extraordi- 
 nary pitch of magnificence. The vast remains of the Baths of Caracalla and 
 Diocletian that may be seen in that capital still strike the spectator with 
 astonishment. But though these establishments provided accommodation for 
 hmidreds of bathers at once, this was only part of then* attraction. They 
 stood among extensive gardens and walks, and often were surroimded with 
 a portico. Besides vast halls for swimming and bathing, they contained 
 numerous others for conversation, for various athletic exercises, for the de- 
 clamations of poets and the lectures of jjhilosophers ; in a Avord, for almost 
 every species of polite and manly amusement. 
 
 We must not of course expect anything approaching these establishments 
 in a provincial town like Pompeii, which perished too in an age when, even 
 at Rome, the extent and splendour of the public baths had not }'et attained 
 
52 
 
 THE RUINS OF P02IPEII. 
 
 to the highest point of development. Nevertheless, the baths of this third- 
 rate town cannot at present be matched in the most splendid capitals of 
 Em*ope. They occupy a large space of ground, and offer, in two distinct 
 suites of elegant aj^artments, one designed for men, the other for women, 
 accommodation roomy enough for many persons to enjoy at once the cold, 
 the warm, or the tepid bath. But beyond this no provision appears to have 
 been made in this set of baths for any other species of recreation. Within 
 five or ten minutes' walk of them, however, is another and a larger set, first 
 discovered in 1858, and called the Thermse Stabianse, from one of the sides 
 of the building abutting on the street of that name. These have in their 
 centre a spacious quadrangular court, partly sm-roimded with a portico, 
 which might have served as a pakestra, or place for wrestling and other 
 gymnastic exercises ; whilst a long and narrow-paved strip on one side of it, 
 on which stood two large spheres of stone, appears to have been intended for 
 some game with the nature of which we are imacquainted. On two sides of 
 the quadrangle, besides a large swimming bath open to the sky, were 
 several rooms suited for the accommodation of visitors, the outside walls of 
 which were adorned with paintings and well-executed reliefs in stucco. 
 Both the Pompeian thermce are pretty similar in arrangement. Each contains 
 both in the men's and women's di^-isions, an apodyterium, or undressing room, 
 n.fngidanum, or cold bath, a tepidarium^ or tepid bath, and a caldarium, or 
 warm and vapour bath, besides other apartments and necessary appm-tenances, 
 such as furnaces and the like. The bathing rooms are elegantly ornamented 
 with sculptures, paneled ceilings, bas-reliefs in stucco, &c. We annex a cut of 
 a stucco ornament in the ceiling of the tepidarium in the smaller Thermae. It 
 
 STUCCO ORNAMENT IN THE CEILING OF THE TEPIDARIUM. 
 
 represents a winged child or genius guiding two dolphins, and followed b}' 
 another genius riding one sea-horse and accompanied by another. 
 
 The way is not long from the Old Baths to the Forum. Keeping along 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 53 
 
 the street, called the Strada delle Terme^ or Street of the Baths, which 
 runs between them and the house of Pansa, we soon arrive at another which 
 cuts it at right angles. The portion of it on our left is the Strada di Mer- 
 curio, or Street of Mercury, so called from a figure of Mercviry in bas- 
 relief, stealmg or bearing a purse, on one of the houses in it. It is a rather 
 long street, leading quite down to the town walls, some way to the east of 
 the gate of Herculaneum ; it is straight, tolerably broad, and altogether one of 
 the handsomest streets in Pompeii. The houses that line its sides, or stand 
 in its immediate neighbourhood, are among the best in the town. The upper 
 end of it is spamied by a triumphal arch, on the top of which once stood a bronze 
 equestrian statue of Nero. It answered to another arch of the same descrip- 
 tion, which faces it at the entrance of the Forum. These arches have led to 
 the conjecture that it was the way of state into the city, and that formerly 
 there was at its termination a gate in the wall, which does not now appear. 
 
 The Street of Mercury is continued towards the Forum, by another 
 shorter, but rather broader, street, called the Street of the Forum, into 
 which it runs through the second triumphal arch. At the left, or north- 
 eastern corner of the street, stands a small temple, which must have been 
 pretty enough when perfect. It is identified, from inscriptions found in it, 
 to have been the Temple of Fortune, and is also connected in the same 
 manner with one M. Tullius, who erected it on his own ground, and with 
 his own money. There are no satisfactory means of connecting this person 
 
 VIEW OF THE TE:iiPI,E OF FORTUNE. 
 
 with the celebrated orator, M. Tullius Cicero. The cut annexed will give 
 an idea of it in its present ruined state. 
 
 Proceeding down this short broad street, and passing through the trium- 
 
54 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 phal arch, we find otirselves in the Forum. The photographic view annexed 
 is taken from a spot at some distance beyond it, when the spectator, having 
 turned romid, again fronts the north and the distant Vesuvius. Thi-ough 
 the archway is seen Nero's arch already mentioned, at the top of the Street 
 of Mercury. The niches in the first arch were destined to hold statues. 
 There are similar recesses towards the street on the other side, which appear 
 to have held foimtaius as well as statues. This arch was doubtless also sur- 
 mounted by a statue. The temple seen on the left of the arch has been 
 called the Temple of Jupiter; but, as in most other cases, without any 
 adequate authority for the appellation. In fact, of the nine temples of which 
 remains exist at Pompeii, two only, that of Fortune, already mentioned, 
 and that of Isis, are certainly known, from inscriptions found in them, to 
 have been dedicated to the divinities whose names they bear. 
 
 The Temple of Jupiter is prostyle^ or having a pseudo-dipteral portico 
 with six columns in the front of the Corinthian order, and fom* columns at 
 the sides, reckoning again the corner ones, and making in the whole twelve 
 colunuis; but for the most part only the lower portions of these cokunns 
 remain, as seen in the view. They are of lava, covered with stucco. There 
 are on each side of the interior of the cella., the front, and one of the side 
 walls of which are seen in the view, a row of eight apparentlj^ Ionic columns, 
 originally betAveen sixteen and seventeen feet high. Over these again was 
 another row of Cormthian columns, some of the capitals of which have been 
 found. The lower columns supported a gallery to which there was access 
 by stairs at the back of the temple ; while the higher ones are supposed by 
 some to have supported a light roof of painted wood ; though others think, 
 perhaps not so probably, that the temple was liypvethral, or open to the sky. 
 At the further end of the cell are three small chambers for the service 
 of the priests, or they might have served for the public treasmy. The clear 
 length of the cell between these chambers and the portico was about forty- 
 two feet, with a breadth of twenty-eight feet and a-half In this cell was 
 the statue of the deity. The journals of the excavations record there 
 ha^dng been found in it, January 21st, 1817, several fragments of a colossal 
 marble statue, and a colossal head, in alabaster, of a Jupiter, beautifull}' 
 executed; a discovery which strengthens the supposition that the temple 
 may have been dedicated to that deity. The interior of the cell was painted, 
 black and red being the predominant colom-s. The pavement consisted of 
 diamond-shaped pieces of marble, enclosed in a broad border of black and 
 
VIEW IN THE FORUM. 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
si" 
 
 ^1 • !"•" . 
 
 /ry'-tSl 
 
 
 } ,'1'^. I,'.' ■ V '■ ■ > v.- •' 
 
 IS' (I 'LiSi: * . 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 55 
 
 white mosaic. In the centre of the door-sill are traces of bolts for foldins: 
 doors. The temple, as will be seen, is placed on a lofty basement, or 
 podium, ascended by many steps ; a feature which essentially distinguishes 
 the temples of Pompeii from those of Greece. That it was of a later date, 
 and built after the Roman occupation, is shown by the stucco on the pillars ; 
 with which indeed most of the buildings round the Forum are covered. 
 There are the remains of an ancient temple in the Greek style, evidently 
 belonging to the early days of Pompeii, in the place called the Triangidar 
 Forum, near the theatres, at the southern extremity of the town. It is in 
 a very dilapidated state, but there are remains enough to make out the 
 method of its construction. Its style is the pure Grecian Doric, resembling 
 that of the celebrated temple at Passtum, and the columns are of solid stone. 
 This building, however, is also placed upon a podium ; a method which, by 
 raising the floor to a level with the eye, brought at onpe the whole order 
 into view, from the stylobate or platform of the columns to the roof In 
 the case of the temple of Jupiter, a side door in the basement, formed by the 
 podium, led to vaults beneath the temple. 
 
 On the right hand side of the triumphal arch another arch gave access 
 for foot passengers to the pavement and portico which surroiuided the 
 Forum. On the extreme right of the view is seen the entrance to a large 
 temple, which has been very commonly called the Pantheon ; but was more 
 probably the temple of Augustus. The former name was derived from 
 twelve pedestals placed in a circle in the middle of the large area which 
 the -^dsitor enters, on which are supposed to have stood statues of the twelve 
 oreater gods. But, not to mention that this would have been a somewhat 
 odd arrangement, and that we should rather have expected to see the shrines 
 of these aristocratic deities ranged roimd the sides of the building, as in 
 the Pantheon at Rome — which, however, did not contain the twelve Magni 
 Dii — so that each might receive with more majesty and decorum the adora- 
 tion of his worshippers, the pedestals themselves do not seem fitted for the 
 reception of statues, and especially of those of such mighty divinities. Nor 
 are the chambers or cells on the south side of the building supposed to 
 have been those of the priests of these deities, twelve in number, but only 
 eleven. Overbeck, therefore, seems rightly to have concluded that the 
 objects in question were no pedestals, but pediments for supporting some light 
 wooden roof or building, though we cannot agree with him that it might 
 have been a temple of Vesta ; a notion which seems to have been suggested 
 
56 
 
 TEE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 merely by its circular form. But, even allowing that this was a temple 
 at all, other deities beside Vesta had round temples, and all the accessories 
 of the buildmg seem in the highest degree inappropriate to the vestal 
 worship. It appears more probable that the buHding was dedicated to the 
 worship of Augustus. The chambers and aediculaB at the further side of the 
 buUdiug contained statues of members of the imperial' family, and one no 
 doubt of Augustus himself, to which may have belonged the fragment 
 discovered of an arm holding a globe. The Augustals, or priests of 
 Augustus, were a distinguished body, or corporation, at Pompeii, as is 
 evident from the frequent mention of them in hiscriptions, and such a build- 
 ing as the present would have been a suitable place for their meetings and 
 festivals. Such corporations, whether priestly or otherwise, are never averse 
 to good living ; and the numerous paintings of eatables and delicacies roimd 
 
 FROM THE PAINTINGS ON THE WALLS OF THE PANTHEON. 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 57 
 
 the walls of this temple, show that its priests formed no exception to the 
 remark. We have already given from these pictures a representation of 
 Cupids making bread; we now subjoin others of lobsters, fruit, birds, and 
 other articles. '* 
 
 In front of this building, imder the portico of the Forum, were seven 
 small shops, the lower part of the walls of which may still be seen in our 
 view. They were probably tahernce argentaria^ or shops of monej'-changers ; 
 a view which is corroborated by there having been foimd in one of them, in 
 a box almost destroyed, between 1200 and 1300 silver and brass coins. 
 The pedestals of some of the tables still remain. Still fm-ther in front, at 
 the edge of the foot-pavement, may be seen one of the pillars of the portico 
 of the Forum ; and on a line with it, several pedestals which appear to have 
 supported statues. 
 
 From the point of view whence the preceding photograph is taken, only 
 a small portion of the Forum, forming its north-eastern corner, can be seen. 
 To obtain a better prospect, we should proceed to its southern end, when 
 facing- round to the north, the whole area lies before us. When the Forum 
 and its buildings were in a perfect state, the view must have been very 
 beautiful and strikiag. Even in superficial size it is not much surpassed by 
 the Forum Romanum, or original Forum of Rome, while its situation is far 
 superior. Sunk in a deep hollow between the surrounding hills at the very 
 loAvest level in the city, the prospect from the Roman Forum was of the 
 most confined description, though doubtless this defect must have been 
 parti}!- compensated by the aspect of the magnificent buildings with which 
 the hills were lined aud crowned. The Forum of Pompeii, on the contrary, 
 occupies one of the most elevated sites in the town, and commands magnifi- 
 cent \dews of the surrounding country. On the north rises Vesuvius with 
 its two smnmits, from the higher one of which wreaths of smoke are con- 
 tinually ascending. On the south are seen Mount St. Angelo and Mount 
 Lactarius, gradually sinking down towards Cape Campanella, the southern- 
 most bomidary of the Gulf Nor was the Forum of Pompeii deficient in 
 architectm'al grandeur. When all that area was paved with pm-e white 
 marble — of which only a few isolated slabs now remain — when numerous 
 statues, some of them equestrian, stood on those dilapidated pedestals, the 
 coup-doeil must have been sufficiently striking. And as the ground-plans 
 in toto^ partly also the elevations of the temples and other buildings which 
 surromid it are still perfect, there is at present no spot more calculated to 
 
 I 
 
58 
 
 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 awaken reminiscences of ancient public life. It requires no great effort 
 of the imagination to restore the spot to its pristine state, and to repeople 
 it with its accustomed throng of occupants, partly men of business, partly 
 loungers. We may call up in fancy the bustling crowd of buyers and sellers 
 in the cloth market at the south-east corner, commonly called the Chalci- 
 dicum, or edifice of Eumachia; the members of the long robe and their 
 clients in the vast Basilica which faces it; the Augustales, those aldermen 
 of ancient times, preparing to feast on the choicest viands in the temple of 
 Augustus or the Pantheon ; other citizens, as fancy led or vows compelled, 
 offering a sacrifice m the temjjle of Jupiter, or Mercury, or Venus ; while those 
 who had no particular call either of business or devotion, seeking shelter from 
 the noontide sun under the spacious porticos, sauntered leisui'ely to and fro, 
 discussing the price of corn or wme, or the latest news from Rome, or set- 
 tling the approaching election of sediles, or speculating on the event of the 
 next gladiatorial comliat. 
 
 Before we quit the Forum, we must inspect it a little more minutely. 
 The porticos of which we have spoken consist of a Grecian Doric colon- 
 nade, which runs uninterruptedly around the west, south, and east sides 
 of the Forum. The columns are twelve feet high, and two feet three or 
 four inches in diameter. They were set arasostjde, that is, wide apart, the 
 distance between them being about three and a-half diameters, or eight feet 
 and a-half In this method of construction it was difficult to find pieces of 
 stone long enough to reach from one pillar to another and form the archi- 
 traves; so that it became necessary either to make these of wood, or to 
 
 construct a flat arch. The former method was 
 adojjted at Pompeii, and a stone entablature raised 
 upon the wood, as shown in the annexed cut. Above 
 this there was probably a gallery, the circuit of 
 which, however, must in some instances have been 
 interrupted by the porticos of the adjacent build- 
 ings. When this was the case, it has been sup- 
 posed that stau's ran up to the gallery, or that 
 there may have been some mode of passing with- 
 out descending to the ground. On the eastern 
 side are remains of an older arcade, which at the 
 time of the eruption the inhabitants were replac- 
 The pillars of the latter were of thi'ee materials. 
 
 CONSTRUCTION IN WOOD AND STONE OF 
 
 THE AR«OSTYLE PORTICO OF 
 
 THE FORUM. 
 
 ing with the portico. 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 59 
 
 of fine white caserta stone, of an ancient yellowish tnfa, and of brick 
 plastered. 
 
 We will now proceed to examine the remaining buildings which sur- 
 round the Forum. On the eastern side, that which stands next to the 
 Pantheon, or Temple of Augustus, already described, has by some been 
 thought to be a temple dedicated to three divinities, the inference beiug 
 drawn from thi-ee recesses, designed apparently for statues, in three sides 
 of the buildiug. The opinion of those, however, seems more probable who 
 hold that it was a Senaculum, or comicil-hall of the Decurions, the municipal 
 senate. Little remains of it but the outside walls, built of brick mostly in 
 the method called opus reticulatum (the bricks being set edge-ways, so as to 
 give the wall a net-like appearance), and some columns of the same material, 
 which were formerly covered with marble and stucco. The size of it well 
 adapts it for a senate-hall, its spacious area being eighty-three feet by sixty : 
 an altar stands m the centre, on which perhaps sacrifice was offered before 
 the debates of the Comicil began, as we know was the custom in the Curia 
 at Rome ; where the statue of Victory, to wliich these sacrifices were made, 
 became in the decliniag days of the empire so bitter a subject of contention 
 between the Pagan and the Christian senators. The altar, from its position, 
 does not seem to favour the idea that it could have mioistered to the statues 
 of di\Tinities placed in the thi'ee recesses. Of these, however, the two on 
 each side, near the entrance, contain each a large basis apparently meant for 
 the statues of gods ; while other smaller niches in the walls may have been 
 intended for statues of the emperors, or of deserving citizens. The building 
 terminates at the end opposite the entrance in an opsis', or semicircular 
 recess, in which there is a raised seat, probably intended for the president 
 of the assembly and the chief magistrates. On one side of this recess is a 
 chamber which may have served for recoi'ds. The pavement was composed 
 of slabs of marble of different colom-s, symmetrically arranged, but of which 
 there only remains a piece in the middle. The front of the portico of this 
 edifice, composed of fluted white marble columns of the Ionic order, ranged 
 even with the pillars of the portico of the Forum, without interrupting the 
 promenade below. 
 
 The building next to that just described is undoubtedly a temple. It 
 comprises an almost square area, fifty-seven feet and a-half, by about fifty 
 feet and a-half, at the further end of which, elcA'ated on a podium, is a small 
 chapel, or sacellum. Steps on each side of the basement lead to the plat- 
 
60 
 
 TEE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 form of the cella ; at the further end of which is a basis for the statue of the 
 deity. In the middle of the area, in front of the chapel, is an altar of white 
 marble, with an imfinished bas-relief representing a sacrifice. The sacrificer 
 appears to be a magistrate ; he has a wreath round his head, which is also 
 partly covered with liis robes. In his hand is a patera, with which appa- 
 rently to sprinkle and purify the victim before it is offered up. This figure 
 has sometimes been imagined to represent Cicero, from a fancied likeness to 
 the great orator; an idea sprmging from a natural desire to identify the 
 objects which, after so many centuries, the excavations have brought to 
 lio-ht. The \'ictim is led by the popa^ or man whose office it was to kill it. 
 He is naked to the waist, and bears the sacrificial axe (malleus). A boj' 
 holding a vase and patera, the sacred vitta, or fillet, hanging from his neck, 
 follows the principal personage. Near him is a figure holding a patera that 
 seems to be filled with bread, whilst another figure is sounding the tibia or 
 double flute. Behind are lictors; and in the back is represented a temple, 
 decorated with garlands, before which the sacrifice is offered. On the side 
 of the altar opposite to tliis is a bas-relief of a wreath of oak-leaves, bound 
 with a fillet, with a young olive tree on each side ; while the other two sides 
 are decorated with sculptures of instrtiments used in sacrifice, as shown in 
 the annexed cut. These consist of a patera, a vase, a vitta or fillet, an 
 
 incense box, a ladle, and a spiral in- 
 strument, the piu'pose of which is not 
 precisely known, but which may have 
 been used by the haruspex who m- 
 spected the entrails of the \dctim. 
 The little chapel, or sacelhim., is only 
 about fifteen feet long by thii'teen 
 broad, so that it could contain little 
 more than the statue of the deity. 
 The building, like others of the same kind, had apartments destined for the 
 priests, in which numerous amphorce, or wine jars, were discovered. Those, 
 however, as well as other articles, seen in the view, are the produce of 
 different excavations; the Temple of Mercury having been converted into 
 a temporarj' place of deposit for such articles as are not thought worthy of 
 being carried to the Museum : and on this account it is closed with a raUmg. 
 The appellation of the Temple of Mercmy, commonly given to this 
 building, rests on no better foundation than that of the Temple of Jupiter. 
 
 ORNAMENTS OF SACRIFICE ON THE SIDES OF THE ALTAR. 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 61 
 
 It seems to have been vaguely drawn from a passage in Vitruvius, that the 
 Temple of Mercury should be on the Forum. But if this name is uncertain, 
 that of the Temple of Quirinus, which is sometimes given to it, is decidedly 
 erroneous. This latter appellation was taken from an inscrijotion on a basis 
 which stands in front of the temple, commemorating the deeds of Romulus 
 and his deification under the name of Quirinus. But as this pedestal was 
 not found within the walls of the temple, but on a line with the colonnade 
 of the Forum, and as an exactly similar one, with an inscription in honour 
 of iEneas, stood on the other side of the Forum, exactly opposite to it, it is 
 evident that they supported statues in honour of those two foimders of the 
 Roman race, and were in no way connected with the temples near them. 
 
 We now come to one of the largest public buildings in Pompeii, except 
 of coui'se the baths and the theatres. It embraces an area of about one 
 hmidred and thirty feet long, by sixty-five broad, having a peristyle and 
 crypto-porticus on three of its sides ; and in front, comprehendmg the foot- 
 way of the Forum, a pseudo-dipteral portico of eighteen columns, supported 
 on pedestals. The interior peristyle, or miinterrupted colonnade, consisted 
 of admii'ably executed Corinthian columns of white marble, to judge by a 
 small remaining portion of one pUlar. Their total disappearance may be 
 explained either by the Pompeians having returned and dug them up, or b}' 
 their having been carried ofi" by later emperors ; a practice to which we have 
 already alluded. Above the colonnade and crypto-porticus, there were pro- 
 bably wooden galleries. The cornice of the peristyle seems to have pro- 
 jected far over the interior area, and thus to have protected numerous little 
 tables made of lava, on which it is conjectured that goods were displayed 
 for sale. For over a side entrance in the Street of Abmidance, which here 
 turns down at right angles from the Forum, is an inscription stating that the 
 crypto-porticus and a Chalcidicum were built at the expense of Eumachia, a 
 public priestess ; while at the further extremity of the building, and in that 
 portion of it which is supposed to be the Chalcidicum, was a statue of 
 Eumachia, and another inscription j^urporting that it was erected to her by 
 the fullers ; out of gratitude, we may presume, for her munificence in build- 
 ing this portico for their accommodation. Hence it has been concluded that 
 the edifice was used as a market by the cloth manufactm-ers and fullers. 
 We have already given some account of the latter trade as exercised at 
 Pompeii. Ancient habits must have made this trade much more important 
 among the Romans than it is now. When it is considered that wool formed 
 
62 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 almost the only material of their dresses, which, consequently, ia a warm 
 climate like Italy, must have often required a thorough pvmfication, — not to 
 mention the anxiety of a beau of small fortime to make his toga wear well 
 and look well to the last, — we may readily imagine that the cloth manufac- 
 turer and the fuller must have had a large and lucrative trade ; though ia 
 some cases, perhaps, the article was manufactiu-ed at home. Hence, we 
 need not be surprised that so large a building was appropriated to the use 
 of tradesmen of this description. It is generally called the edifice of 
 Eumachia, sometimes also the Chalcidicum ; though the latter name properly 
 belonged, perhaps, only to the smaller portion of it ia the rear. 
 
 The Street of Abundance, or of the Silversmiths, already mentioned as 
 leading down by the side of this building, was one of the best and broadest 
 ia Pompeii, though iohabited apparently almost entirely by tradesmen. It 
 is a peculiarity of the houses here that they have imderground kitchens. 
 The Street of Abundance was contiaued by a short but still broader street, 
 called the Street of the Holcooii, iu which were situated the Stabian Baths 
 ah-eady described. On the other side of the Street of Abundance, facing 
 the edifice of Eumachia, and at the extreme south-eastern corner of the 
 Forum, stood a buildiag, the use of which cannot be determined, but which 
 is sometimes thought to have been a school, and has obtained the name of 
 the School of Verna. It has not, however, much the appearance of a school, 
 the stone bench or counter ia it seeming rather iatended for the display of 
 goods. Its name was taken from an iascriptioa oa the albinn, or whitened 
 space for advertisements, which stood opposite to it on the wall of Euma- 
 chia's edifice ; but which, from its situation, can of coiu-se prove nothing with 
 respect to this building. 
 
 We are now arrived at the southern side of the Forum, or that which 
 faces the temple of Jupiter. This side is entii'ely occupied by three build- 
 ings very similar both in size and plan. In the absence of all inscriptions 
 or other means by which they might be identified, they have been supposed 
 to be either curice, for the assemblies of magistrates, or courts of justice — 
 wrongly called tribunalia — something like our police covu^ts, for the trial 
 of minor ofiences and causes. All that can be said with certaiaty is, that 
 they are assuredly not temples, as they do aot bear the slightest resemblance 
 to any sacred building discovered at Pompeii. It has been sometimes cou- 
 jectm'ed that the middle one was an cerarium, or treasury ; the only foimda- 
 tion, however, for which conjectm-e is that some two himdred loose pieces 
 
THE BASILICA. 
 
 .^^- 
 
tfn^*t.«(] ! , ' b 
 
 •^r- 
 
 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 63 
 
 of coin were found in it ! They seem to have been highly decorated mth 
 marble statues and columns, fragments of which, as well as pedestals for the 
 statues, were found on the floors. Adjoining these buildings on the west, 
 but not in the Forum, are some houses excavated by General Championnet. 
 
 At the south-west corner of the Forum, opposite to the so-called School 
 of Verna, stands the Basilica, of which we give a photographic view. Its 
 destination is clearly identified by its plan and arrangement, as well as, 
 curiously enough, by the testimony of two ancient graffiti of its name on the 
 walls, though somewhat mis-spelt {bassilica). Before we describe it, we will 
 say a word or two on the origin and destination of such buildmgs. 
 
 The idea of a Basilica, as its Greek name implies, BatrtXiK?) (o-xoa, sc, or 
 oiKi'a, a regal portico or building), was borrowed from the Greek, and the 
 model of it was perhaps copied from the regal portico at Athens, where the 
 magistrate called the King Archon sat to administer justice. The first build- 
 ing of the sort at Rome was erected by M. Porcius Cato, the censor, about 
 the beginmng of the second century, b. c, and was called, after him, the 
 Basilica Porcia. It seems to have served both as a law coiu't and a sort of 
 exchange, and thus helped to relieve the Forum, the inconveniently small 
 dimensions of which probably began about this time to make themselves felt. 
 Cato's building was followed in a few years by two others, the Basilica 
 Fulvia and the Basilica Sempronia. Several more were erected mider the 
 empire, of which the most celebrated are the Basilica Julia, the Basilica 
 Ulpia, and that of Constantine. Of these three last there are still remains ; 
 but, with the exception of the Basilica Ulpia in the Forum of Trajan, where 
 the broken pillars still remain much in the same fashion as in the Pompeian 
 basilica, they are not so well calculated as that at Pompeii to give us an idea 
 of this species of buildmg. 
 
 With regard to its plan, a basilica was of an oblong form, and the rules 
 of architectiu-e requu*ed that its breadth should not be more than one half, 
 nor less than one third, of its length. The basilica of Pompeii complies with 
 this rule, bemg two hmidred and twenty feet long, and eighty broad. Gene- 
 rally, on its lower columns rested smaller ones, supporting an upper gallery, 
 and this also appears to have been the case at Pompeii. This latter basilica 
 was entered through five doorways, approached by a flight of four steps. 
 The peristyle supporting the roof consisted of twenty-eight large Ionic 
 columns. The space between the peristyle and the exterior walls was thus 
 converted into a covered gallery, over which, as we have said, ran an vipper 
 
64 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 one, reached by a staircase outside the buildiug. Overbeck, however, con- 
 tends that there was no upper gallery, that the large Ionic pillars supported 
 the roof, and that the staircase outside led not to the gallery of the basihca, 
 but to that of the portico surrounding the Forvim. The same author, how- 
 ever, is forced to admit that the engaged, or half-pillars, in the side walls, 
 as seen in the view, which are considerably thinner than those which divide 
 the nave and aisles, and which could scarcely have been more than half their 
 height, seem to have helped to support a gallery ; and that the existence of 
 a gallery is further confirmed' by the shafts, or fragments of the shafts, of 
 smaller columns of the Corinthian order, with their capitals, having been 
 foimd within the building, as well as the larger capitals of the Ionic pillars. 
 At each corner of the building two pillars are joined together, which is sup- 
 posed to be luiique m Grecian architecture, and the earhest known example 
 of that union of columns seen in a Gothic pier. It has also been disputed 
 whether the basilica Avas hypcvthral., and oj^en to the sky, or roofed. The 
 former supposition is rather favoured by the finding of rtwfe/?.ca, or sculptiu-ed 
 ornaments, such as lions' heads, &c, which served to decorate the interior 
 edge of a compluvium., or ojjen roof. 
 
 A basilica usually had at the further extremity either a circular recess 
 (apsis), or a square one. The absence of this m the building at Pomjjeii does 
 not, however, militate against its having been a basilica, as there is ample 
 room for the tribimal of the proetor or duumvir at the further extremit}- 
 of the peristyle, where indeed it now stands. It is between six and seven 
 feet high, and must have been ascended by wooden stairs. It was adorned 
 with small columns, as seen in the view. In front is a pedestal on which 
 were found the legs of a bronze statue. On each side of the tribunal was an 
 apartment, intended probably for suitors and advocates, or for the officers of 
 the court. Beneath the tribimal was a small dmigeon or cellar, entered by 
 stairs on each side, and lighted by two small aj^ertures or vent holes. Its 
 destination has not been ascertained, but it has been not improbably con- 
 jectured that it served as a temporary prison for accused persons. 
 
 The interior appears to have been richly decorated. The pavement was 
 of marble, which, however, has been carried off, and only the pozzuolano 
 remains, in which it was imbedded. Like many other buildings in Pompeii, 
 it bears evident marks of having been anciently excavated. The pUlars, 
 however, are of brick coated with stucco. The interior walls were painted 
 to resemble different coloiu-ed marbles; while the exterior is said to have 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 65 
 
 been adorned, when first discovered, with grotesque architectiu'al paintings, 
 of which there are no longer any traces. As a coiu't of justice, the basilica 
 naturally sheltered a great many loiterers, not only suitors, witnesses, and 
 others awaiting the coming on of a trial; but also persons attracted by 
 curiosity, or seeking to kill time. Their presence was attested, when the 
 stucco on the walls was perfect, by the numerous graffiti scratched upon it, 
 which, however, with the exception of those carried to the ]\Iuseum, have 
 now almost entirely disappeared. In this respect the Pompeians resembled 
 the same class of persons m modern times who find a pleasure in recording 
 their names, or thoughts, or sentiments, in a similar manner. A favourite 
 mode of record is that John Thomas, of London or Xew York, or Jaques 
 Bonhomme, of Paris or Brussels, or of some place very far beneath the 
 importance of those capitals, was here on a certain day. Such notices by 
 modern travellers may be seen on the most magnificent and venerable ruins 
 of antiqmty, and even sometimes, in spite of all the care of the attendants, 
 on the houses of Pompeii itself. The ancient perpetrator of one of these 
 inscriptions on the walls of the basUica was little aware of the value of his 
 laboiu's in the eyes of posterity, when he recorded the important fact that 
 C. Pumidius Dipilus "was here" on the 3rd of October, in the consulsliip 
 of M. Lepidus and Q. Catulus. For modern investigators have hence 
 uiferred the fact that the building must be older than the year, b. c. 79, the 
 date of that consulship, and thus probably one of the oldest round the 
 Forum of Pompeii. 
 
 It is well known that the earliest Christian churches were built after 
 the plan of a basQica, and some of those at Rome retain the name to this 
 day. There were two reasons for this practice : the Christian architects 
 naturally felt a repugnance to take the heathen temples as models, while at 
 the same time the form of the basilica was much better adapted to the 
 requirements of Christian worship. Such were the churches of the Lateran, 
 the Vatican, S. Paolo fuori le Mura, Sta. Croce in Gerusalemme, Sta. Agnese, 
 two miles beyond the Porta Pia, S. Lorenzo fuori le Miu'a, and SS. Petrus 
 et Marcellinus, outside the Porta Maggiore. Some chm'ches of a latter date 
 also assumed the same form as those of S. Sebastian and Sta. Maria Mag- 
 giore ; which latter, especially, conveys an excellent idea of the arrangement 
 of an ancient basilica. But Sta. Agnese is the only one which has preserved 
 the characteristic of an upper portico over a lower one. 
 
 On the northern side of the basilica, a small street, the Strada della 
 
 K 
 
66 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 Marina.^ leads from the Forum to the Sea Gate. On the further side of this 
 street, its main entrance facing the basilica, and its eastern side ranging along 
 the Forum, stands the largest temple in Pompeii, commonlj' called the Temple 
 of Venus. Tliis name indeed is not better authenticated than those of the 
 other temples in the Forum. It was at first considered to have been a 
 Temple of Bacchus, from a couple of pictures of a Bacchic character having 
 been found within its precincts. An inscription, wrongly interjireted, indeed, 
 first led to the notion that it was a temple of Venus. That appellation is perhaps 
 better supported by the consideration that as Venus was the patron goddess 
 of Pompeii, it is reasonable to suppose that the most magnificent temple in 
 the place was dedicated to her worship, and by the fact that in the cell was 
 found a marble statue of Venus, something in the style of the celebrated 
 Medicean statue at Florence, as well as a head of the same goddess. The 
 name, however, of this, as well as of several other bmldings, will never, 
 it is to be feared, be certainly determined; unless perhaps the excavators 
 should some day have the good fortune to discover a plan of the city like 
 the Capitoline plan of Rome. 
 
 This temple occupies the greater part of the western side of the Forum ; 
 the length of the area in which it stands being one hundred and fifty feet, 
 with a breadth of seventy-five feet. The court in which the temple stands is 
 entirely surroimded by a peristyle of forty-eight columns, forming a portico 
 between thirteen and fourteen feet in breadth. The columns, originally Doric, 
 have been altered into Corinthian, both ill designed and executed. The lower 
 third of them is painted yellow, and the rest is white. About two-thirds of 
 the upper part of the oblong area in the middle is occupied by the temple. 
 It stands, like most of the other Pom23eian temples, on a lofty podium, 
 ascended by a flight of eleven steps. It is peripteral and amphiprostyle, 
 being smTounded with twenty-eight fluted Corinthian columns partly painted 
 blue. The portico in front of the cell is hexatyle, or having six columns in 
 front, with foui* at the sides. Within the cella, besides the statue already 
 mentioned, was foimd a beautiful mosaic border, represented in the annexed 
 cut. Before the steps leading up to the cella stood the altar. Its form, say 
 some authorities, was not adapted for bloody or burnt sacrifices, but only for 
 offerings of fruit, cakes, and incense — a circumstance which supports its claim 
 to be a temple of Venus, a goddess that did not deKght in bloody sacrifices. 
 Other authorities, however, say that a piece of black stone placed upon the 
 altar had three receptacles for fire, and that the ashes of victims were found 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 67 
 
 on it. At the north end of the temple were several apartments, having an 
 outlet to the Forum. In one destined apparently for the priest ma}- still be 
 
 :mo?aic LouljLi:. 
 
 seen, though in an evanescent state, a beautiful painting of Bacchus and 
 Silenus, carefully fastened with ii'on cramps and cement, showing that it had 
 been removed by the ancients from some other place. Inside the area, on 
 the right, is a terminal figure. The walls imder the colonnade were painted 
 in bright colours, with landscapes, country houses, and interiors with figures. 
 There Avere also figures representing dancers, sacrificers to Priapus, battles 
 with crocodiles, &c. One painting represented the dispute between Aga- 
 menmon and Achilles ; another, Hector tied to the car of Achilles. Round 
 the lower part of the wall ran a long 
 series of dwarfish figm'es, of which 
 the annexed cut will convey an idea. 
 
 In a recess imder the colonnade 
 of the Forum at the northern ex- 
 tremity of the wall of this temple 
 are the public standard measures for grain, oil, and wme. ISej'ond the 
 temple, and with the prison next to it, filling the remaining s})ace of the 
 west side of the Forum, is a long narrow quadrangular building, which 
 is sometimes thought to have been a granary, while others have taken it 
 for a lesche, or sort of coftee-house. 
 
 With the exception of the theatres and one or two more temples and 
 
 DWARFS, FROM A PAINTING AT POMPEII. 
 
68 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 other buildings, we have now described all the public edifices of Pcmpeii. 
 There is near the theatres a small but very well preserved Temple of Isis, 
 one of the two whose destination is satisfactoi'ily ascertained by an inscrip- 
 tion found in it. From its state of preservation, it is better calculated 
 perhaps than any other in Pompeii to initiate us into the mysteries of ancient 
 worship. A description of it, however, could not be made intelligible without 
 a view and a groimd-plan, and we therefore pass it over. In its neighbour- 
 hood is another small temple, or rather sacellum, by some called a Temple 
 of Jupiter and Jimo, while others think that it was dedicated to ^Esculapius 
 and Hygieia. The statues of the divinities found in it, whoever they may 
 be, made of terra-cotta, are now in the national Museum at Naj^les. It is 
 difficult to distinguish between representations of Jupiter and J^^sculapius 
 when unaccompanied, as in the present instance, with their respective attri- 
 butes. If, however, the statues in question are those of Jupiter and Juno, 
 the father of gods and men sinks into insignificance beside his consort, who 
 is much larger than he, and quite his better half. 
 
 Proceeding in a south-westerly direction down the street in which stands 
 the Temple of Isis, and which from that circiunstance has been named Strada 
 del Tempio d'Iside, we come immediately after that building to another 
 of an oblong form having three of its sides occupied with a portico, while in 
 the middle of it stands a curious pediment, resembling a stone pulpit, ascended 
 by high steps at the back. From some supposed connection with the adjoin- 
 ing temple, with which, however, there is no communication, the building in 
 question has been called the Curia Isiaca. Its real destination has proved 
 quite a riddle to antiquarians. From a door in it leading towards the great 
 theatre, it seems not improbable that it may have been in some way connected 
 with it. 
 
 Beyond the Curia Isiaca, on the same side of the street, and quite at the 
 end of it, we come to the Propylasum forming the entrance to what has been 
 called the Forum Triangulare. This Propylaeum has been reckoned among 
 the best remains of Pompeii. It consists, as will be seen in the annexed 
 photograph, of eight Ionic columns, raised upon two steps, which, when per- 
 fect, probably supported a kind of attic. These columns, which were about 
 eighteen feet in height, were made of a volcanic stone, coated with stucco and 
 painted yellow. Their capitals present a feature foimd only in monuments 
 of high antiquity ; the volutes characteristic of the Ionic order being foimd 
 on four sides of them, instead of two joined by the usual coussinet. The 
 
THE TRIANGULAR FURUM. 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 69 
 
 lengtli of the ffi9acle is about fifty-four feet. Between the last two co- 
 lumns at the western extremity, facing the Street of the Theatres, which here 
 runs into the Street of Isis, stands one of those little square foimtains so 
 often fomid at Pompeii. It was sujsj^lied with water through the mask 
 sculptured on the stone which surmounts it. A wall behind the columns, at 
 a distance of fourteen or fifteen feet from them, formed a spacious vestibule. 
 On the face of this wall may be perceived the remains of six marble consoles, 
 intended probably to support busts. In the vestibule were found some articles 
 of gold and silver and an emerald ring. The wall, as will be seen in the 
 view, is pierced with two gateways, one being at about the centre of it, the 
 other on the left at the end. On passing one of these gates we find ourselves 
 in a large, open, triangular space, the left hand side of which is entirely, and 
 the right partially, occupied by a portico consisting altogether of about a 
 hundred columns of the Doric order. Remains of these columns, as of those 
 of the Propylseum, still exist of greater or smaller height, one only being at 
 present entirely perfect. At the further extremity, on the edge of the hill 
 or plateau on which Pompeii stands, the portico is not continued. Here, 
 according to Mazois, there was formerly a wall built of squared stones about 
 thirty-six feet high ; but it is now almost entirely hid by rubbish covered 
 with a rich vegetation, which reaches down to the road below. The longer or 
 eastern side of this triangidar space was about four hinidred and fifty feet in 
 length, and the other two between two hundred and fifty and three himdred. 
 The destination of the ample space thus enclosed has been a matter of 
 dispute. Some consider it to have been the Forum of ancient Pompeii, 
 others the Acropolis; but to the latter ojiinion may be objected the fact that 
 it lies not on the highest point of the city, the present Forum being still 
 higher. All that appears certain is, that, from the temple which stands in the 
 middle of it, and from the capability of closing the entrance, it may be in- 
 ferred that it was a sacred enclosiu-e. The interior space, which is carefully 
 levelled, consists at present only of earth, but may anciently have been paved 
 with stone or marble. To the Greek temple, which stands in the middle of 
 it, sometimes called the Temple of Neptune, sometimes of Hercules, we have 
 already adverted above. One side of the podium on which it stood is 
 seen in the view, on the right in the middle distance, with the altars at its 
 extremity. The foreground on this side shows an imexcavated portion of the 
 town covered with rank vegetation. In the centre of the picture, also in the 
 middle distance, is seen part of the great theatre. Its two upper ranges are 
 
70 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 ^dsible with their outer corridors opened with arcades. The entrances in the 
 wall are upon a level with the second cavea, from which staircases ascended 
 to that above. The large square mass of building before the theatre is 
 thouo-ht to have been a reservou-. The modern house at a little distance be- 
 hind the theatre on the left and the trees near it stand on a part of the 
 town which has not yet been excavated. Bej-ond is the country through 
 which the Sarno flows, and the background is filled by Moimt St. Angelo. 
 
 Of the interior of the theatres we can give no views. They are, however, 
 in a very tolerable state of preservation, and convey a good idea of the 
 arrauaement of such buildings in ancient times. The smaller one which 
 adjoias the greater theatre, and with which there is a commimication, is 
 thought to have been intended for musical performances — a sort of opera- 
 house — and with that ^•iew to have been roofed over. It would contain about 
 fifteen hundred persons. The theatres were built on the side of a hill, so 
 that in the great one the audience could enter on a level with the upjjer 
 gallery and thus descend to theu' seats. It was a custom of the Greeks to 
 select a hill side for their theatres ; and this leads us to imagine that those of 
 Pompeii were origmally of Greek construction, though afterwards slightly 
 altered to suit the customs of the Eoman di'ama. Such a method of con- 
 struction offered two advantages; it saved expense iu the building, and 
 it enabled the audience to enjoy an extensive prospect. In this last respect 
 perhaps the Greek theatre at Taormina, between Jlessina and Catania in 
 Sicily, is uniivalled. Standing nearly a thousand feet above the sea, with 
 ^tna at its back, the view on all sides is magnificent. The ruins, too, and 
 especially the scene, are in a very perfect state. These, however, appear to 
 be Roman though erected on an originally Greek foundation. From the 
 theatre at Pompeii may also be enjoyed an extensive prospect, bounded in 
 the distance by ]\Iomit St. Angelo. 
 
 A large quadrangular enclosure behind the theatres is bj' some supposed 
 to have been a barrack ; by others, with more probability, a ludus gladiator ins ., 
 or quarters for gladiators. The frequent exhibition of gladiatorial combats at 
 Pompeii, as appears from inscriptions, must have required a great number of 
 gladiators to have been kept there, and the place in question would have been 
 by no means too lai'ge for the purpose. Its destination, however, is better 
 shown by the gladiatorial arms that have been found here, wliile none of the 
 ordinary military weajjons have been discovered. Among the articles found was 
 a bronze helmet enriched with bas-reliefs, the subjects of which related to some 
 
 I 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 71 
 
 of the principal events of the Trojan war ; also greaves for the legs highly or- 
 namented, as represented in the annexed cuts. The masks sculptured on the 
 greaves represent the tragic, comic, and satiric features. The inscriptions, 
 too, and drawings on the walls relate to the combats of the arena. 
 
 The amphitheatre, being situated at the 
 south-eastern extremity of the town, and 
 there being no other excavations near it, 
 is often left un visited by travellers ; nor in- 
 deed to those who have seen any of the 
 Roman amphitheatres which so frequently 
 occur in Italy and France is there much to 
 attract attention in that at Pompeii. Yet 
 
 RRONZE HELMET FOUND AT POMPEII. 
 
 SPEriMEN OF THE GREAVES SUPPOSED TO HAVE 
 BEEN WORN BY THE GLADIATORS. 
 
 without paymg it a visit our idea of the place will hardly be complete. Seges 
 est ubi Troja fidt. These \dneyards which we traverse in our way to it, these 
 fields planted with mulberry trees and sown with lupins and corn, smile and 
 flourish on the surface of the fiery flood which destroyed the city. They 
 cover buildings as splendid perhaps as those which we have already seen, 
 and containing, it may be, still richer treasures of art. 
 
 The amphitheatre at Pompeii was calculated to hold about twelve thousand 
 persons. "When we consider that at Puteoli, withm twenty miles of it, there 
 
72 
 
 TEE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 ■was another, and, at a not much greater distance, the magnificent one of 
 Capua, we are forcibly struck with the fondness of the Roman nobles for 
 these bloody sports, who could not endiu'e even in their seats of pleasiu^e and 
 retirement to be deprived of them. How popular these exliibitions were is 
 testified, as we have ah-eady said, by the numerous graffiti relating to them, 
 as well as by the sculptru'es on one of the mausoleums in the Street of the 
 Tombs. Not only did slaves and freedmen engage in these inhuman sports, 
 but even persons of rank and fortune, so that Augustus found himself com- 
 pelled to prohibit men of senatorial or equestrian rank from appearmg as 
 gladiators. But some of the succeeding emperors were not so scrupulous. 
 Nero, who delighted in the shows of the arena, is said to have brought upon 
 it upwards of a thousand senators and knights ; and Commodus did not hesi- 
 tate to disgrace the imperial purple by appearing himself numberless times 
 
 as a gladiator. The bas-reliefs 
 on the tomb exhibited a great 
 variety of these combats both 
 on foot and horseback, as well as 
 venationes, or fights with wild 
 beasts. We annex two or thi-ee 
 cuts which will convey an idea 
 of these combats. The fii'st 
 represents an equestrian con- 
 test between apparently a bar- 
 barian combatant named Be- 
 Nobilior appears to have parried 
 with his buckler a tlu'ust of Bebrix's lance, 
 and is about to return the blow, while Bebrix 
 places himself in a postm-e of defence. In the 
 second group a gladiator of the sort called a 
 Samnite, from the way m wliich he is armed, 
 has been conquered by another called a Myr- 
 millo. The Samnite is holdmg up his left hand 
 to implore the mercy of the people or the em- 
 peror. If the spectators were dissatisfied with 
 the vanquished combatant they gave the signal 
 for his death by turning down then- thumbs, 
 and his victorious antagonist was obliged to become his executioner. In the 
 
 brix, and a Roman one named Nobilior 
 
 I 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 73 
 
 present instance the MyrmUlo seems inclined to bestow the coup-de-grace on 
 his conquered adversary without waiting for the decision of the people ; but 
 he is checked by the lanista, or director of the combat, who seizes his 
 sword-arm. It is remarkable that m these bas-reliefs the swords are entirely 
 omitted, and it has been conjectured that it was intended to insert them in 
 metal. The left arm and the upper part of the body of the combatants were 
 always left uncovered, those parts being sufficiently protected by the shield. 
 The third cut represents combats between the gladiators called bestiarii and 
 
 wild beasts. In the lower compartment a wild boar appears to be attacking 
 a naked and defenceless man, who is in a recumbent posture, and whose only 
 chance of safety must lie in the activity with which he avoids the onset. Be- 
 yond a wolf is rimning off with a javelin fixed in his breast, at which he is 
 gnawing ; while further on a stag with a rope roimd his horns has been pulled 
 to the groimd, in which position he is attacked by two dogs or wolves. The 
 upper part is thought to show the manner in which the bestiarii were trained 
 in their profession. Armed with a couple of javelins, the bestiarius is attack- 
 ing a panther made fast to a bull by a collar and rope ; while behind the bull 
 another man with a lance appears to be goading him forwards. By this 
 method the novice was in some degree seciu*ed from a sudden spring of the 
 panther, while at the same time much more skill and wariness are required 
 than if the panther had been fastened to an immoveable post. 
 
 We have now gone through all the public buildings of Pompeii, and must 
 turn again to contemplate the private houses, which form indeed its most in- 
 teresting features. 
 
 We need hardly observe that in Pompeii, as in other towns, ancient as well 
 as modern, the houses varied greatly in size and splendour, from the cabins 
 of the poorer classes to the mansions of men of equestrian and senatorial 
 
 L 
 
74 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 rank. It is, of eom'se, the houses of the last kind that are most calculated to 
 attract our attention from the beauty of their architectm'e and the paiutiags 
 and other ornaments with which they were decorated ; yet it wUl not be un- 
 interesting to examine a little how the middle and lower classes were 
 lodged. 
 
 From the short notice already given of the house of Pansa, it will appear 
 that a first-class mansion always contained two large halls or courts, called 
 the Atrium and the Peristyle, surroimded with a number of more or less 
 splendid rooms, serving the purposes of sleeping, eating, and drawing-rooms ; 
 while in some cases there was also a garden bej'ond the peristyle. The an- 
 nexed photograph of the House of Cornelius Rufus, to which we have already 
 alluded, very well displays the arrangement of the atrium, tablinum, and 
 peristyle. Below houses of this class others descended in the followuig de- 
 grees : first, houses without a peristyle or a garden ; second, houses without 
 either peristyle or atrium, and containing only a few living-rooms. Yet in all 
 the three classes there was of course often a considerable difference ; the two 
 lower degrees differing as much in size and convenience as the higher did in 
 elegance and splendour. 
 
 A small house in the Vicolo di Modesto, a little way beyond that of Pansa, 
 may serve as an example of the third class of dwellings. It has neither 
 atrium nor peristyle ; but in order to enable the family to enjoy the fresh air 
 which the richer classes obtained in those courts, a stone bench ran along the 
 front of the house. The street door by the side of it opened into a sort of 
 covered hall. On the left some stairs led to an upper story, behind which 
 there is a small apartment apparently for the slave. On the right hand side 
 is an xmicovered passage, with a well at the end of it, running along the 
 greater part of the house ; on the left of which is what ajjpears to have been 
 a workshop, with a door from the entrance hall, and lighted by small windows 
 from the uncovered passage. This apartment is followed by a dining-room 
 entered by a door from the same passage ; and behind this again, quite at the 
 further extremity of the house, a kitchen, as may be recognized' by the hearth. 
 The sleeping rooms must have been upon the upper floor. 
 
 We shall select one more house of this class, but of a much better descrip- 
 tion. It did not belong to a shopkeeper, there bemg no shop in it ; but its 
 owner must have been a person of small income ; and as it stands close to the 
 Gate of Herculaneum, and the steps for ascending the walls, it has been con- 
 jectured that it may have belonged to the person who had charge of the gate. 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 75 
 
 The entrance leads into a covered passage, or corridor, running along the 
 whole side of the house ; at the further end of which is a stau'case leading to 
 a small apartment, and to a terrace which extends over the length of the 
 passage. Close to the staircase is the cell of a slave, probably the only one 
 in the house. At the end of the passage at the foot of the stairs, a door 
 on the left leads into what seems to have been a winter eating room. Behind 
 this room is a kitchen, and quite in the corner of the house a small lararium^ 
 or domestic chapel. This place, which is a remarkable one in so small a 
 house, had no window, and could have been lighted only by lamps. A stone 
 bench runs roimd two sides of it. At the extremity of it, facing the entrance 
 is a niche, with a painting, now almost obliterated, of Fortuna, Pomona, or 
 some such goddess, reposing on a couch and holding a cornucopia. Before 
 it is an altar. The greater part of the house is engrossed by a court or 
 garden, which appears, from holes intended for that piu-pose, to have been 
 covered with a trellis, and thus answered in some measure the purpose of an 
 atrium or peristyle. It contains a stone triclinium, where the family during 
 the fine weather — that is, during the greater part of the year — probably took 
 their meals. Behind the triclinium is a niche for the statue of some god, to 
 which the pious owner might make his libations ; and in the corner of the 
 com't near the street door is a puteal, or well. 
 
 The next house that we shall instance is a middle-class one, having an 
 atrium, or cavcedittm, but no peristyle. It is called the Casa di Modesto, and 
 is situated at the bottom of the Vicolo of the same name near the town 
 walls. The atrium in this case was of the kind called displuviatum ; that is, 
 the roof, iustead of sloping down to the fom- sides of the square opening in 
 the middle of it, and thus throwing the rain water into the impluvium, or 
 basin below, slanted, on the contrary, away from it, towards the sides 
 of the house, and thus threw the water outside instead of in — a very rare 
 method of construction. The water was thus lost, which in most cases was 
 conveyed into an underground cistern, and applied to domestic piu-poses. In 
 the house in question the impluvium has no issue to carry the water off, being 
 merely intended to catch the small quantity that fell through the aperture of 
 the compluvium. For the same reason, not being exposed to the drippings 
 from the roof, the impluvium appears to have been surrounded with a 
 narrow flower bed. At each side of the prothyrum, or entrance passage, 
 which is very long for the size of the house, were apartments. The larger 
 one on the left was, from the stone counter in it, evidently a shop ; and as it 
 
76 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 has a communication with the interior of the house, it was no doubt kept by 
 the proprietor. The smaller rooms on the other side of the prothyrum served 
 probably as a kitchen and a cell for the slave who acted as porter or door- 
 keeper. On the farther side of the atrium are two ajiartments handsomely 
 decorated. Their use cannot be certainly determined, but one of them 
 probably served as a dining-room. On the left hand side of the atritun is a 
 flight of stairs leading to two apartments on the upper story. 
 
 Notwithstanding its small size, this house was very beautifully and taste- 
 fully decorated with paintings, the subjects of which were taken from the 
 Greek mythology, and from Homer's Odyssey. They have now perished; 
 but they were perfect in 1812 when seen by Mazois, who took copies of them. 
 One of them represented Ulysses drawing his sword upon Cii'ce to avenge 
 his companions transformed by the enchantress. Cii'ce is using the sujipli- 
 catory gesture so frequently described in the Greek poets, by falling on her 
 knees and endeavouring to clasp with one hand the knee of Ulysses, whUe 
 she stretches out the other to touch his beard. Her head is surrounded with 
 a nimbus, or glory, which appears like a plate of solid gold, resembling that 
 seen round the heads of saints in early Christian pictures. Another painting 
 represented Ulysses discovering Achilles at Scyros among the daughters of 
 Lycomedes. 
 
 What we have here said will sufiice to convey a general idea of the in- 
 ferior classes of houses. We have already described the general arrange- 
 ment of a first class house when sjieaking of that of Pansa (above, p. 43); 
 but we shall here add a few more particulars. 
 
 The fronts even of the best houses were in general veiy plain, the taste 
 and money of the proprietor being employed in decorating the interior. It 
 has been already observed that, with the exception of the suburban villa of 
 Diomedes, there is not a house in the place that possesses anythmg like a 
 front portico. The house of Diadumenus, not far from the Stabiau Baths, 
 excavated in the jiresent year, has perhaps the most aristocratic kind of ap- 
 proach, as the pavement in front of it is raised some feet above the level of 
 the street, and must be ascended by steps at each end. The street door, 
 which was lofty and narrow, was commonly decorated on each side with 
 pilasters, as shown in the cut already given of the entrance to the house of 
 Pansa (above, p. 42). These pilasters are seldom of any regular order, and 
 are frequently fantastically decorated. Often on the threshold some inscrijj- 
 tion in mosaic, such as Salve, or Have {Ave with the aspirate), bids the visitor 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 77 
 
 welcome, and bespeaks, as it were, beforehand the hospitality of the owner. 
 Some of the devices met with, however, are not of so inviting a character. 
 Thus in that of the Tragic Poet, the first thing which meets the eye of the 
 visitor on entering is a large fierce dog, executed in mosaic, in the act appa- 
 rently of springing upon him, though he is secured with a collar and chain. 
 The animal is well executed ; he is black, spotted with white, and the collar 
 is red. Beneath is written in large letters Cave Canem, " Bewai'e the dog." 
 This mosaic has been removed 
 to the entrance of one of the 
 rooms in the National Museum. 
 In some cases a bear, dolphin, 
 or other animal is represented; 
 in others some emblem, as an 
 anchor or a rudder, which may 
 tyjjify, perhaps, the profession 
 of the owner. 
 
 On passing the prothyrum 
 and entering the atrium of a 
 first class house, the coup- 
 d'oeil is very striking; and with- 
 
 out examining whether all the 
 
 O 
 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 O O 
 
 o C 
 
 oA V £o C ""^^ A 
 
 
 MOSAIC AT THE ENTRANCE OF THE PROTHYRUM OF THE TRAGIC 
 poets' HOUSE. 
 
 details are in the best taste, 
 it must of course have been 
 more so when everything was 
 in a perfect state. The large array of columns that meets the eye, the 
 foimtains that played in the middle of those extensive courts are calculated 
 to impress the modern visitor with the idea that he is entering a public 
 building rather than a private residence. Hence the most splendid and 
 luxurious modern capitals, such as London or Paris, if biu-ied to-morrow 
 bj' a volcanic eruption from Primrose Hill or Montmartre, would not — 
 settmg aside their public buildings — convey the idea of so much mag- 
 nificence as this small provincial town. The difference is to be explained by the 
 diflerent habits of ancient and modern life, and the different building arrange- 
 ments which were in consequence adopted. The ancient Romans, from their 
 republican habits, which being once fixed were not easily changed under the 
 empire, lived more in public than we do. A man of the higher class had not 
 only to, receive and entertain his acquaintance and private friends, but also a 
 
78 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 large number of clients and retainers. These last came only, as to a levee, 
 to consult the great man and pay their respects ; they did not perhaps sleep 
 at his house, or even dine with him, but they would requii'e an ample space 
 for their reception. Hence, while a modern house is prmcipally occupied 
 with rooms for the accommodation of the famUy, these in an ancient one 
 were curtailed to the smallest possible dimensions. These different piu-poses 
 required a different arrangement in the whole plan of the house. The ancient 
 house occupied a larger area than the modern one. It was more spread out, 
 and did not rise into several stories, having commonly only one above the 
 ground floor. We are speaking of com*se only of the houses of Pompeii. 
 At Eome, where the ground was more valuable, they often rose to the height 
 of six or seven stories ; and Augustus was obliged to check the tendency this 
 way by prohibiting the buildmg of houses more than seventy feet high. 
 Such houses as those of Pansa or the Faun, in an area of two himdred feet 
 (without the garden) by one hundred, contained perhaps fifty different apart- 
 ments of one kind or another, while a modern architect perhaps woidd not 
 put more than a quarter of the number into the same space. The greater 
 part of them indeed are little better than closets, the atrium and the peri- 
 style occupying the chief portion of the area. It was the former of these 
 that was devoted to public purposes, while the peristyle and surrounding 
 apartments were for the private use of the family. 
 
 It is often said that these Pompeian houses must have been very xmcom- 
 fortable dwellings. Viewed through the medium of oiu* northern habits 
 they may be so ; but comfort is a relative term, and in such cases depends 
 very much upon climate and habits of life. In the warm sunny weather, 
 which in southern Italy prevails during the greater part of the year, that 
 open, airy, cheerftd space, rendered still more refreshing by the sight and 
 sound of water thrown from the fountains, and by the aspect and fragrance 
 of beds of the choicest flowers, must have been in the highest degree de- 
 lightful. Those spacious, shady porticoes formed an in-door promenade, 
 sheltered both from rain and sun, and might even serve for a sort of supple- 
 mentary apartments. To be shut up diu-ing a few wintry days in small 
 rooms, yet on that accoimt all the more capable of being easily warmed, was 
 a small price to pay for such enjoyments. 
 
 The aspect of the interior of a first-class house is well conveyed by the 
 photographic view already given of that of Cornelius Rufus (see above, 
 p. 74), and will be further illustrated by that annexed, represeutmg the 
 
HOUSE OF HOLCONIUS. 
 
 -=S3Jg?j 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 79 
 
 peristyle of the house of Holconius. This house is among the more recent 
 excavations, having been finally cleared in 1861, though some of the shops 
 at its sides were discovered at a very early period. It stands at the corner 
 of the Street of the Holconii and that of the Theatres, its principal entrance 
 being in the former. 
 
 As we can give no ground-plan of the house, it would be wearisome to 
 enter into a detaU of all its parts, and we shall therefore confine ourselves to 
 those adjacent to the peristyle. The tablinum stood just in front of the 
 columns seen in the foreground of the view. It affords a normal example of 
 that apartment, bemg entirely open towards the atrium, but capable of being 
 shut on the side towards the peristyle by sliding doors of wood, of the jambs 
 of which remains may still be seen fixed to the wall with iron cramps. The 
 floor was of pounded brick incrusted with small pieces of marble, while the 
 walls were adorned with paintings now almost destroyed. Among them may 
 be recognized a representation of the story of Lima and Endymion, and Leda 
 with a nest fidl of children. Near the tablinum was fomid a skeleton, sup- 
 posed to be that of the lady of the house, who seems to have been endeavour- 
 ing to make her escape with her treasures, but was here overwhelmed and 
 prostrated in death. She had with her a box containing her valuables; 
 among which the most remarkable is a necklace composed of various amulets. 
 She had also with her several small locks. Three more skeletons were found 
 in different parts of the bmldiug. There were also discovered small glass 
 bottles for perfumes, and essences, and other articles. 
 
 Before the tablinum stood two detached columns as shown in the view. 
 The remainder of the colonnade of the peristyle surroimded a xysttis, or 
 flower garden, in the middle of which is a small square piscina, or basin, 
 between six and seven feet deep. In the centre is a pillar supporting a 
 roimd marble table, from the middle of which rose a jet-cVeau. On the 
 further side of the garden is another foimtain, consisting of a boy, sculptured 
 in white marble, standing on a pedestal, having under one arm a goose, 
 whUst, from a vase held in the other, the water flowed down a little staircase 
 in front of the pedestal. Water also spu'ted from pipes in several of the 
 colunms at a height of about four feet from the ground, falling into a toler- 
 ably broad channel, or gutter, which ran roimd the garden. Thus was 
 presented quite a little system of waterworks, which in warm weather, com- 
 bined with the colours and scent of the flowers, must have had a delightfully 
 refresliing effect. In the walls of the piscina, are eight iron hooks, meant 
 
80 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 apparently to keep fish, fruit, or other articles cool in the water, which, from 
 its continual motion, was always fresh. In front of the piscina is seen 
 another round marble table. 
 
 Over the roof of the portico, supported by the pillars, ran a gallerj', with 
 another set of columns, ascended by a staircase near the tablinmu. This 
 gallery gave access to the apai'tments on the upper floor. The peristyle is 
 simply decorated. The lower third of the columns, having the channelling 
 only marked with lines, is painted red, while the upper and channelled part 
 is white. The walls are black, and adorned with small pictures of eatables, 
 separated by ornaments. The border at the bottom is painted with water- 
 plants and water fowl. On the wall on the right was a graffito.^ to the follow- 
 ing effect: " Jvily 7th, lard 2001b, garlic 250 bundles;" meaning probably 
 that these things were either bought or sold on that day. 
 
 Two of the rooms on the further side of the peristyle, and at the extre- 
 mity of the house, are visible in the view. The smaller one on the right 
 appears to be a bed-chamber. The floor is of opus Signinum ; the walls, 
 painted mostly red and yellow, besides the architectural ornaments so com- 
 monly met with, have pictures of Nereids riding through the waves on sea- 
 monsters. The pictiu-e facing the entrance, so far as can be made out, 
 represents the Dioscuri. Next to this ajjartment, on the left, is a large and 
 handsome exedra, or retiring room. It is paved with black and white 
 marble, and has in the middle a small impluvium, or basin ; from which we 
 may infer that there was a corresponding aperture in the roof. The walls 
 were adorned with small but well-executed pictui*es. One in the front 
 represents Narcissus admiring himself in the fomitain. That on the left wall 
 has for its subject a Hermaphrodite leaning on the shoulder of SUenus; that 
 on the right, Bacchus accompanied by his thiasos, that is, his usual troop, 
 or rout, discovering Ariadne. 
 
 This last subject is a very common one in the paintings at Pompeii; but 
 as it is well treated in this instance, and as the picture is in a very tolerable 
 state of preservation, we have inserted a photograph of it. 
 
 Bacchus, after his arrival in Naxos, finds Ariadne simk in a profoimd 
 slumber. Her face is hid in the pillows ; over her head stands Sleep, with 
 outspread wings, as if to take his departure, and bearing in his left hand 
 a torch reversed, a symbol common to him. with his brother Death. A 
 young Faun lifts the sheet, or veU, in which Ariadne is enveloped, ia an 
 attitude expressive of siu^rise at her beauty, and looks earnestly at the god. 
 
FRESCO OF BACCHUS AND ARIADNE. 
 
 "^^^^ 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 81 
 
 as if to discover what impression it makes upon him. Bacchus, crowned 
 with ivy and berries, clothed in a short tunic and flowing pallium, having 
 on his legs rich buskins, and holding in his right hand the thyrsus bound 
 with a fillet, appears to be approaching slowly and cautiously, for fear that 
 he should awake the nymph. Meanwhile, a Bacchante in the back-ground 
 raises her tambourine, and seems to strike it strongly, as if summoning the 
 Bacchic troop to descend ffom the mountains. At the head of them is 
 Silenus, also crowned with ivy, and supporting his footsteps with a long 
 knotted staff. He is followed by a Faun plajdng on the double flute, and 
 by eight Bacchantes. On a part of the mountain to the left, from Avhich 
 springs a tree, another Bacchante and Faim are looking on the scene below.* 
 Around the picture is painted a sort of frame. 
 
 The general appearance of a wall decorated with paintmgs in this style 
 will be better understood by a \dew of one in the house of Sii'icus, or Salve 
 Lucrum. This house, excavated in 1851, adjoins the Stabian Baths, in the 
 Vico del Lupanare., but has its principal entrance in the Strada Stabiana ; 
 from an inscription near which it derives its first name. Its second name 
 was taken from a mosaic inscription on the threshold of the atrium. Salve 
 lucru, with the customary omission of the m; meaning, "Welcome, gain!" 
 from which it has been inferred that the owner was en2:a2:ed in trade. The 
 house is a sort of double one, being connected with that called the House 
 of the Russian Princes. It is chiefly remarkable for its paintings, which are 
 in a good state of preservation. The best of them are three in the apart- 
 ment called the Exedra. The first of these represents Neptime and Apollo 
 presiding over the building of the walls of Troy; the second, Thetis pre- 
 senting herself to Vulcan to demand the arms of Achilles ; and in the third, 
 which is that seen to the left in our A^iew, is depicted the drimken Hercules. 
 The figm'es are about one third of the natural size. 
 
 The demi-god has been sacrificing to Bacchus, whose altar is seen in 
 the middle of the picture, and has only been too pious in his devotions. 
 Crowned with ivj, clothed in a short, red, transparent tunic, Hercules, over- 
 come with wine, has fallen on the ground, at the foot of a tree, and with 
 difficulty supports himself with his left arm ; the right is elevated in the air, 
 and he seems endeavoui'ing to snap his fingers, to express, with the charac- 
 teristic abandon of drunkenness, the nothingness of all human affairs in 
 
 * FioreDi, •' Gioniale degli Scavi," No. iii. p. 87. 
 M 
 
82 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 comparison of jollity, good eating, and particularly good drinking. Behind 
 him a little cupid is carrjdng off his cup. On the altar, which is bedecked 
 mth garlands, thi-ee cupids, assisted by a fourth, who has climbed the tree, 
 are elevating on their shoulders the hero's quiver ; while foiu" others on the 
 ground, to the left of the altar, are trying to raise his ponderous cIuIj. This 
 part of the picture has often been expressed on gems. At the base of the 
 altar is a votive tablet, with the image of Bacchus, declaring the deity to 
 whom it was sacred. 
 
 On the left of the picture, in an elevated position, is a beautiful group 
 of three females, scantUy clothed, and having on their wrists refidgent 
 bracelets. She, in the middle, who sits on a rock, with a fan in her hand, 
 a customary attribute of Venus, is probably Omphale, with her Lydian hand- 
 maids, who seem to look with complacency on the hero's condition, as tend- 
 ing to rivet his ser^dtude. A little grove, and a column with a vase upon 
 it, terminate the \'iew on this side. 
 
 On a mountain top, probably that of Tmolus, on the right of the picture, 
 Bacchus, accompanied by Fauns and Bacchantes, is gazing intently on the son 
 of Alcmena. His attitude is one of tranquU repose and satisfaction, as he 
 appears to converse with his followers. A Bacchante leans over the god; 
 the raised arm of a Faun on the left expresses his joy and admiration at 
 the scene; another, on the right, manifests the same feelings by remo^-ing 
 his pan-pipe from liis lips, and breaking off the tune that he was plajdng. 
 
 This picture, for the grace and harmony of its composition, as well as 
 its freshness of colouring and delicacy of handling, is one of the most import- 
 ant monuments of the pictorial art discovered at Pompeii. Two of the 
 groups, that of Hercules, and that of Omphale, are found repeated in sepa- 
 rate pictm'es ; but this is the only instance yet discovered in which the three 
 groups are combmed together, and form one picture : nor is that of Bacchus 
 and his companions to be fotmd elsewhere. The whole is thought to refer 
 to a satyric drama on the subject of the Lydian Hercules. 
 
 The spacious and lofty exedra in which these paintings are has a thresh- 
 old of white mosaic, bordered with black zones, with ornaments in the 
 middle like shields, in the shape of a half moon. The floor is painted with 
 black fillets, except a piece of mosaic in the centre, in which are represented 
 two diotce^ or double-handled wine jars, with shoots of vine which interlace 
 and surround a rectangular piece of marble, formed of twenty-two squares 
 oi giallo antico. The walls, which are painted in yellow compartments on a 
 
FRESCO IN HOUSE OE SIRICUS. 
 
ij^/vJ. 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 83 
 
 red ground, terminate above in a bold scroll border, within the s^iirals of 
 which are depicted quadrupeds and winged Cupids in various attitudes. 
 Above this border, up to the roof, the walls are painted with pieces of archi- 
 tecture and other ornaments. The whole is surmounted by a small cornice 
 supporting the roof, which is richly decorated with stuccos and gilt bas- 
 reliefs. The three pictures before mentioned are upon a red ground, and 
 framed as it were in a meander, in the fashion of a cornice, and adorned at 
 the corners with fantastically shaped animals. At the sides of them are seen 
 capricious pieces of architecture, on the top of which, as on an acroterium, 
 stand centaurs and beasts in ferocious attitudes. Those on each side of the 
 picture of Hercules contain the image of Apollo ]Musagetes, with the bow 
 and lyre (not seen in the photograph), and the Muse Calliope, with a roll 
 of paper m her hand. The remaining Muses, painted on a yellow ground, 
 with accurate execution and vivid colouring, decorate the other compart- 
 ments of the exedra^ together with some views of houses and landscapes. 
 The podium., or part near the floor, is painted black and divided into square 
 compartments, ornamented with festoons of plants attached to candelabra 
 supporting spheres, with aquatic plants, bucrania, or ox heads, and Bacchic 
 vases.* 
 
 The house of Holconius contains several well-preserved pictures, besides 
 that of Bacchus and Ariadne already described ; but which, as we can give 
 no copies of them, need not here detain us. 
 
 Another handsome house, with well-preserved pictures, but of very 
 unequal merit, is that of Marcus Lucretius, in the Strada Stabiana, called 
 at first the Casa delle Suonatrici, or House of the Female Musicians, from 
 paintings found in it. We have before remarked that this is one of the 
 only two houses in Pompeii of which the names of the owners are satis- 
 factorily ascertamed; in the pre- 
 sent case, by means of a painting 
 containing a letter addressed, M. 
 LucKETio Flam. Martis Decuri- 
 ONi PoMPEi(io); or, "to M. Lu- 
 cretius, Priest of Mars and De- 
 curion of Pompeii." We amiex 
 a woodcut of this device. Lucre- 
 tius, therefore, must have been a 
 
 ADDRESS OF LUCRETIUS. 
 
 * See Fiorelli, " Giomale degli Scavi," No. xiii. ji. 12, sqq. 
 
84 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 man of much consideration in the to^vn. His house is a large one, but 
 irregular in its plan. It seems to have been imder repau* at the time 
 of the eruption; at least, we cannot in any other way accoimt for the 
 rough state in which the impluvium., or water-basin, in the atrium was 
 foimd. It was no doubt intended to be lined with marble; in its pre- 
 sent state it forms a strong contrast with the elegance of the rest of the 
 atrium. This has a pavement of white mosaic ; the lower part of the walls 
 is pamted in imitation of variously-coloured marbles; above, they are blue 
 and ornamented with grotesques ; the whole svirmounted by a frieze of gUt 
 stucco, many fragments of which were found dm'uig the excavation. A 
 lararium., or shruae of the Lares, stands on the right on entering. It is 
 not, however, so handsome as the larariiim in the house of Diadumenus, 
 excavated this year. The bed-chambers, and other rooms which sm-round 
 the atrium, contained several good pictures, some of which have been 
 removed to the Museum at Naples. 
 
 The most notable thing in the house, however, is the formtain in the 
 peristyle, of wliich a \dew is given in the accompanying photograph. This 
 ■sdew also shows the tablinum, or ajiartment which usually intervenes 
 between the atrium and the peristyle. It is raised, in this case, as will be 
 seen, one step above the pavement of the atrium. Its floor consists of a 
 white marble mosaic, sxirroimded with narrow black borders. In the middle 
 is a slab of giallo caitico, encircled with a border of variegated mosaic. The 
 walls are richly decorated with pieces of architecture, and in the middle 
 of them are spaces for two large pictures, which must have been removed 
 before the erujjtion. The wooden frames in which the pictm'es were con- 
 tained have left their impressions on the stucco, as well as the marks of two 
 horizontal supports at the back of them. These marks, which are about two 
 inches deep, have led some writers to suppose that the pictures were painted 
 on wood. Whether, however, there were any such at Pompeii is a moot 
 l^oint; and Overbeck contends that the supports at the back might have 
 served as well for a thm stucco tablet as to bind together the pieces of a 
 wooden one. The ceiling of the tablinum was also of stucco, with coloured 
 panels and gilt rosettes in the centre of them, as appears from numerous 
 fragments which were discovered. 
 
 The level of the peristyle is about thi'ee feet higher than that of the 
 tablinum, as shown by the dwarf wall on the further side of the aj)artment ; 
 a circumstance which brings the small figui'es composing the fountain more 
 
HOUSE OF LUCRETIUS. 
 
 <^<2)^p=^ 
 
TEE RUINS OF POMPEII. 85 
 
 under the vie^y of the spectator. In order to enter the peristyle, the \-isitor 
 must ascend a flight of seven steps in the fauces., or narrow passage, on the 
 left of the tablinum. On these steps was found a skeleton. The peristyle 
 is small for so good a house; the atrium, on the contrary, is proportion- 
 ately large, and there is a second atrium quite at the extremity of the house 
 on the left, with another entrance in a little by-street. The peristyle is 
 surroimded on two of its sides with square columns, painted with plants on 
 a red ground. The pillars are connected together by a low wall, which 
 leaves two openings into the xystus, or garden. On the other sides it is 
 bounded by the tablinum in front, and by an exedra, or wcnis, on the right. 
 On the left, two small apartments look upon it, in one of which, apparently 
 a library or study, was found the painting before mentioned, with the name 
 of Lucretius. 
 
 The interior of the peristyle, instead of having a viridariuvi, or flower 
 bed, is entirely occupied with the singular fountain, or system of foiuitains, 
 seen in the view. On the further side is a small vaulted alcove, approached 
 by five steps, and decorated with mosaics, shell-work, and painting. It con- 
 tains a small marble figiu-e of Silenus. His hair, beard, and the hide with 
 which he is partly covered, bear traces of having been painted red. On his 
 left is a small pillar supporting a sort of leather bottle, painted black, on 
 which he leans, and from which the water issued. At the bottom of the 
 steps it was collected into a square stone trough, or channel, which con- 
 ducted it into a cii'cular basin in the middle of the court. This basin, which 
 is between six and seven feet in diameter, and rather more than two feet 
 deep, has in its centre a hollow column, covered with giallo antico, when9e 
 sprung a jet-d'eau. On each side of the steps of the principal fountain are 
 two Hermaj with double heads. One of these represents Bacchus and 
 Ariadne, the other a Faim and Bacchante. There are two similar Hermaj in 
 the foreground, near the tabliuum, each representing a bearded Bacchus 
 and a Bacchante. Near these are two singular sculptures of Cupids riding 
 on dolphins, and entwined by polypuses. In the middle is a small group, of 
 very middling execution, representing a young Faim extracting a thorn from 
 the foot of a Satyr. The larger scidptures on the left are of a much better 
 description. The fiu'ther one represents a Faun with his hand raised over 
 his head as if to protect it from the sun's rays. Before him is the figiu-e of 
 a Satyr, terminating below in a Hermes. He holds in his right hand a 
 syrinx, or pan-pipe, and under his left arm a little kid, wliilst a she-goat 
 
86 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 raises herself to his legs, as if asking back her young. The basin is sur- 
 rounded with figures of animals of various sizes, among which may be dis- 
 tinguished a duck, two cows reposmg, two ibises, &c. These pieces of 
 sculpture have nothing in common with one another, and are so preposter- 
 ously assorted as not to give us any very high idea of the taste of M. Lucre- 
 tius. His house terminates the excavations towards the east, as will be 
 perceived by the trees and earth in the back-ground. 
 
 The idea of a foimtain in mosaic has been carried out in several places 
 on a larger scale than here. Two houses in the Street of Mercury, called 
 from this feature the House of the Great Fomitain and the House of the 
 Little Fountain, were discovered at an early period of the excavations. 
 Another of the same kmd was excavated in 1865, in a house in the Street 
 of the Augustals, nearly opposite to that known as the House of the Rudder 
 and Trident. This fountain, which stands in a garden behind the tablLnum, 
 is ornamented with mosaic and shell-work, and represents in its middle com- 
 partment Neptime standing in the sea, surromided with all sorts of fishes. 
 The topmost compartment seems to represent a recumbent nymph or Nereid. 
 At the sides are Cupids and masks, and the whole is surmounted with a 
 cornice and pediment. We annex a photograph. 
 
 It is natural to inquire how these houses, of which we see only the bare 
 walls, were furnished; but, unfortunately, it is a question which cannot be 
 very satisfactorily answered. The greater part of the furniture, being made 
 of wood, has vanished, and it is chiefly from paiutiags that we must be con- 
 tent to derive our knowledge of it. On the whole, perhaps, we may con- 
 clude that it was not so elaborate in its nature as our own. The extensive 
 area occupied by open courts, and the comparative smallness of the habitable 
 rooms, did not render much fm-niture necessary. The marble or mosaic 
 floors, and the painted stvicco walls, required no carpets or paper-hangings. 
 The beds seem often to have stood in alcoves or recesses in the walls, and 
 there are indications that they were protected by a pole and rings with cur- 
 tains. Traces of a folding screen have also been foimd, which may have 
 served the same pm*pose. The paintmg of a bed in the small house near 
 the Gate of Herculaneum, already described, shows one closelj' resembling 
 a modern French bed. The bedstead seems to be either gold, or gilt 
 wood or metal. The mattress is white, with violet stripes and gold star- 
 like spots. The cushion was also violet. We annex a woodcut of this 
 piece of furniture. It was probably in this instance more riclily decorated 
 
MOSAIC FOUNTAIN. 
 
 '^^m^ 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 87 
 
 BED AND TABLE, FROM A PAINTING. 
 
 than usual, since it served, as already intimated, for the couch of some god- 
 dess; but beds of the same form 
 were probably in common use. They 
 were made of wood, bronze, and 
 sometimes of ivory ; and, as may be 
 imagined, varied very much in the 
 style and richness of their decora- 
 tion. The bedstead, however, was 
 often nothmg more than a sort of 
 bulk, constructed of brick or stone, 
 seven or eight foot long, thi'ee broad, 
 and only about two to two and a-half high, on which the mattress and 
 cushions were laid. 
 
 The triclinium, or couch, which surrounded three sides of the dining 
 table, was also sometimes made of stone, as we have already seen in the 
 instances of the funeral triclinium in the Street of the Tombs, and in the 
 house just mentioned at the Herculaneum Gate. In the dining-rooms of 
 the better houses, however, and especially those destined for winter use, 
 they seem to have been of wood, as we do not often find in them remains 
 of stone or brick benches. A dining apartment in the house of Lucretius, 
 before described, to the right of the tabliuum, contained vestiges of such 
 a couch. It appears to have been a hand- 
 some piece of furnitiu'e from the remains of 
 it, consisting of its eight feet of carved wood, 
 fastened to the floor by an iron spike in the 
 centre, and covered with wrought silver, to 
 which no doubt they owe their preservation. 
 On these triclinia, when in use, was spread 
 a sort of mattress, with bolsters or pillows, 
 on which the guest leant with his left arm, 
 leaving the right free, to help himself from 
 the table. 
 
 Of chairs and stools there are more re- 
 mains, and they are also found more fre- 
 quently depicted in paintings. The com- 
 monest form is a folding stool without arms 
 or back, its legs usually representing those of curule chair, from a picture in pompeh. 
 
88 
 
 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 some aiiimal, and the seat being composed of cloth or leather stretched over 
 ffU'ths. Such stools were sometimes made of bronze. There were also 
 chairs with backs, rounded so as to make a very comfortable seat. The arm 
 chaii", solium., or throne, with a high strait back, was the chair of the gods, 
 or distinguished persons. In p. 87 is a cut of a curule chair, from a pictiu'e. 
 Of the bisellium, or seat of honour, used in the theatres or at other public 
 spectacles by those to whom it has been granted, we have already spoken. 
 
 Examples of tables are rarer than those of chairs, nor do the ancients 
 appear to have possessed such a variety of them as we ; but they seem some- 
 times to have been adorned with almost fabvilous luxiu-y. Then* dinmg 
 tables were of different sorts, sometimes havuig one foot, sometimes several ; 
 but the tripod is the most usual form of ancient table. The dining appa- 
 ratus seems sometimes to have consisted of a stone table with one foot, on 
 which was placed a moveable frame or tray {ferculum) containing the dishes. 
 The tray was changed according to the number of courses. ]\larble tables, 
 
 with beautifully sculptm'ed legs, were 
 perhaps sometimes used as dining 
 tables, but more usually for the dis- 
 play of some rich and costly article, as 
 a vase, a lamp, a small statue, or the 
 like. Such tables were commonly 
 placed in the tablinum, though in a 
 somewhat different form they are also 
 found in the atrium, and most com- 
 monly over a well behind the implu- 
 vium, where they might serve to hold 
 di'inking vessels, or things intended to 
 be cooled in the water. There is an 
 elegant specimen of such a table in the 
 atrium of the house of Cornelius Rufus, 
 a view of which has been given above 
 (p. 74). In this instance, as will be 
 seen, the table is wanting, and the 
 legs alone remain, sculptured in the 
 resemblance of some fabulous animal, 
 MOVEABLE xnipOD. ftud jouied togcthcr by a marble 
 
 slab, also riclily sculptured. They had also small bronze tables, gene- 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 89 
 
 rally tripods, very elegantly wrought, which served, like the small tables in 
 our drawing-rooms, to hold a vase of .flowers, or any similar purpose. Some 
 times these had a top of rosso antico, or some other costly marble. Such 
 tables were frequently constructed to open or shut at pleasure, each of the 
 legs being united to the others by two braces, the lower ends of which moved 
 up and down upon rings, while at the upper ends, and where they crossed 
 each other, they could only move round a pin or hinge. The construc- 
 tion of this kind of table is shown in the cut in ]). 88 ; which, however, is a 
 very plain sjjecimen of such a piece of furniture. 
 
 Of all the articles of ancient domestic use, lamps and candelabra are 
 those which have come down to us in the greatest number and variet}'. 
 The Roman lamp, so far as its use was concerned, was of the most simple 
 and primitive description. They had none of our contrivances for concen- 
 tratmg the flame by means of a glass, &c. The ancient lamp consisted of a 
 round and usually flat vessel to contain the oil and the wick, which last pro- 
 jected from a hole made for it, something after the fashion of the common 
 lamps still used in cellars. The wick consisted merely of a few thi'eads of 
 twisted flax drawn through this hole in the upper surface. A single speci- 
 men of an ancient wick has been accidentally preserved. It consists of 
 combed but not spmi flax, twisted into a sort of string. It owes its preser- 
 vation to its contact with the metal; a circumstance Avhich has also pre- 
 served some other easily perishable materials : as, for instance, linen purses, 
 the linings of bronze helmets, &c. (Overbeck, ii. 56). There was nothing to 
 steady its flame, or to prevent its being agitated by every breeze ; and the 
 usual way to increase the light was to increase the number of lamps. Hence 
 the astonisliing quantity of them discovered at Pompeii, about live hundred 
 of them having been found in one of the corridors alone of the old Baths, 
 and upwards of a thousand in the entire building. Lamps of this common 
 sort were made of baked clay ; but those of a handsomer descrij^tion were 
 of bronze, and sometimes even of gold. The varying and tasteful forms ot 
 the more expensive kind of lamps, and the beauty and elegance of theij' 
 workmanship, form a striking contrast with their clumsiness of construction 
 as articles of use ; and while they betray the superiority of ancient taste over 
 modern, illustrate at the same time the more practical genius of the present 
 times. 
 
 The ancients, however, had a contrivance for increasing the light thrown 
 by one lamp, by multiplying the number of the wick-holes. Thus there are 
 
 N 
 
90 
 
 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 BRONZE LAMP AND STAND. 
 
 lamps for one wick, for two or three wicks, aud up to as many as a dozen or 
 fourteen. In order to elevate the lamp, so that it might thi'ow its light 
 further than if it stood upon the bare table, bronze stands were used, often 
 of very elegant workmanship. We give an example in the annexed cut of 
 
 one of these stands, supporting a bronze lamp 
 for two wicks, adorned with great taste, aud 
 having upon its cover the device of a little boy 
 wrestling with a goose, one of the prettiest de- 
 signs of ancient plastic art. For atria and 
 public buildings, where the lamp was to stand 
 alone, tall and slender candelabra were used, 
 having at the top a disc or plinth to hold the 
 lamp. The richer sorts of these candelabra are 
 decorated with a profusion of ornaments, aud 
 some are beautifully damasked or inlaid with 
 other metals. Sometimes the shaft represents 
 a slender channelled column, sometimes a tree throwing out shoots or 
 buds. As a rule they stand on three feet, representing the claws of 
 some animal, as a lion or griffin. In some cases, mstead of a plinth, 
 the lamps were hung by chains from projections on the top of the 
 shaft, as if from the boughs of a tree. Some of them have a sliding 
 shaft, resemblmg that of a music stand, so that the light may be raised 
 or lowered at pleasure. 
 
 Great numbers of terra-cotta vases have also been found, of which that 
 represented in the annexed woodcut is a favourable 
 specimen. The lip and the base have an ovolo mould- ■ 
 ing. The handles are formed apparently of interlaced 
 branches, terminating in the heads of animals. The 
 neck is black, with the same device, pamted in white 
 on each side, of a chariot drawn either by four panthers 
 or tigers at full speed. A winged genius holds the 
 reins in his left hand, and goads the animals with a 
 javelin which he brandishes in his right. Before the 
 quadriga is another winged figure with a thyrsus in 
 his left hand, whUst with the right he appears to be seizing the reins. A few 
 of the details in this design are painted yellow, while the car and the mantle 
 of the genius are red. 
 
 TERRA-COTTA VASE. 
 
TEE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 91 
 
 We will just advert to a few articles for a lady's toilette. The annexed 
 cut represents two mirrors, one sqtiare, the other round. For these, steel was 
 the usual material, though occasionally 
 they are made of glass. Above them 
 is a lighted lamp with two wicks ; and 
 on the table b}' their side a box of 
 ])ins. The latter article, as appears 
 from a passage in Pliny, Avas manufac- 
 tured at Sidon. The next cut exhibits 
 a few articles of jewellery, drawn of the 
 same size as the originals. No. 1 is a 
 front and side view of an ear-ring, con- 
 sisting of a thick plain gold spheroid, 
 haA-ing a metal hook at the back to fasten 
 it to the ear. No. 2 is an ear-rins of 
 simpler consti'uction, with pearl pen- 
 dents. No. 3 is a breast-pin, consist- 
 ing of a Bacchanalian hgure with the wings of a bat, typifying the drowsi- 
 ness which follows long potations. Belts of grapes are twined across his 
 body, and in one hand he holds a patera, in the other a glass. The fourth 
 article is a ring with serpents' heads, a sufficientl}' common device. 
 
 Minnons, &c. 
 
 ARTICLES OF JEWELLERY. 
 
 From the drawinjr-room and the bedchamber we will descend for a mo- 
 ment into the kitchen, where, however, we shall not find much to arrest our 
 attention. The want of a fire-place appears to have been in a good measure 
 supplied by braziers, which served to warm the rooms, to keep dishes hot, to 
 boil water, and perhaps to perform some minor culinary operations. The 
 
92 
 
 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 sides of these machines were hollow, to contain water, the centre was 
 filled with lighted charcoal, which, by means of a trivet above it, might per- 
 form the operations of boiling, stewing, or frying. We annex a cut of one 
 of these machines of a more ornamental character than usual. It is fourteen 
 
 inches square, exclusive of a semi- 
 circular projection raised above 
 the rim of the brazier, and hol- 
 lowed to receive water. On the 
 top of it are three eagles, their 
 heads curved downwards towards 
 their breasts, and intended appa- 
 rently to support a boiler. At the 
 side of this semicircular part rises 
 a sort of tower with a moveable 
 lid, having a bust for its handle. 
 The water was drawn off through 
 a mask in front of the machine. 
 The ancient pots and cauldrons 
 ''''^^'^''- do not differ so nmch from our 
 
 own as to require any particular description ; but it may be observed that 
 they are generally more elegant in their forms. The amiexed cut represents 
 
 a cooking vessel on a tripod, with a 
 frying-pan on each side, not much 
 differing in form from our own. 
 
 We will close this brief sketch 
 of Pompeii with some account of its 
 art, and especially its paintings ; for 
 which we must acknowledge our 
 obligations to a chapter in the se- 
 cond volume of Overbeck's work. 
 The pictorial remains of Hercula- 
 neum and Pompeii — and fortimately in the latter town they are very 
 numerous — camiot be too highly prized; for while there are ample re- 
 mains of ancient sculpture and ancient architecture, these are almost the 
 only specimens from which we can form any idea of the art of painting in 
 antiquity. But before entering upon an examination of them, we will say 
 a few words on the technical methods in Avhich they were executed. 
 
 I 
 
 COOKING VTENSILS. 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 93 
 
 The ancients appear to have painted, by means of different processes, on 
 wood, cloth, parchment, ivory, and plaster; but for our present purpose it 
 will suffice to divide their paintings into two classes — easel pictures and wall 
 pictures, or frescoes. Of these two kinds, specimens of the latter only are 
 preserved at Pompeii. That easel pictm-es were painted there we know from 
 representations of artists employed upon them; and that finished pictures 
 were sometimes let into the walls is also certain from unequivocal traces ; 
 nevertheless it is doubtful whether any pictures so let in were on wood ; and 
 at all events, if they were, none such have been preserved ; for all the pictui'es 
 which appear to have been so inserted are certainly on stucco. There is no 
 Pompeian easel picture now in existence, and we must therefore confine our- 
 selves to the examination of the frescoes. 
 
 Many researches have been made into the mode in which these pictures 
 were executed ; the method of preparing the ground for them, the natm-e of 
 the colours used, and the manner of laying them on have been minutelv 
 examined. These researches have been aided by chemical analyses of half- 
 destroyed jiictures and of raw colours found in shops ; but, though much has 
 been learnt in this way, these researches have not served to clear up every 
 doubt, and to establish one single and incontestable theory. Chemical analysis 
 has shown that the colom's are almost exclusively derived from the animal 
 kingdom. Of vegetable colom's there is but coal-l^lack ; and of animal 
 colours only two, and those very seldom used; a pm'ple made of the se- 
 cretion of the purple snake mixed with chalk {purpurissum) and ivorv 
 black. The piire colours, through the mixmg of which the different shades 
 and tones were produced, were : for white, white chalk — not cerussa, or white 
 lead, though that was also sometimes used ; for yellow, ochre (sil), mixed 
 with chalk to make different shades, and with red lead to j^roduce an orano-e ; 
 for red, red earth or chalk, red lead {miniiwi), bui-nt ochre, and, more seldom, 
 cinnabar; for blue, oxide of copper; for brown, burnt ochre; which, how- 
 ever, like green, is usually found as a mixed colour. 
 
 To prepare the wall for paintmg on, it was first sjjread rough-cast with a 
 thick coat of lime mixed with pozzolana ; over wMch was laid one or several 
 coats of fine lime-mortar; and over this again two, or, when very carefully 
 prepared, three coats of very fine mortar, very finely powdered plaster, or 
 powdered marble being applied to the sm-face of each layer. Each of these 
 coats was laid on before that immediately preceding it had become quite 
 dry. The second and the last coat were beaten down and smoothed with a 
 
94 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 bacuhis, or sort of strickle, and thus was produced the admirable firm- 
 ness and smoothness of grounds prepared in this manner. The surface 
 thus obtained never cracked, and was of so firm a substance that it 
 could be saAvn off like a jsiece of marble, and so fixed in another wall; 
 a process not only anciently employed at Pompeii, but also since its 
 rediscovery, in order to convey the pictures painted on tliis substance to the 
 museum. 
 
 It was formerly a very general opinion that the pictures painted on the 
 surfaces thus prepared Avere painted a fresco on the still moist stucco. In 
 accordance with this view the pictures were no sooner discovered than they 
 were immediately daubed with a preservative varnish, thus rendering all 
 chemical experiments impossible. More recent experiments have been 
 variously estimated, and there is still a great difference of opinion as to the 
 mode in which the Avail-paintings were executed. Some writers hold that 
 fresco was the usual method, others decide for painting a tempera on the dry 
 stucco, AvhUe some assume a mixed method, like O. Mliller, who, in his 
 " Archseologie der Kunst" (§ 319, 5), asserts that at Herculaneum the ground 
 colours are painted a fresco, the rest a tempera ; and if it be true that this 
 method was pursued at Herculaneum, it might also have obtained at Pom- 
 peii. Other writers have decided for an encaustic method ; and that encaustic 
 Avas used at Pompeii is incontestable, as colours prepared with resin were 
 foiuid in a shop there, while one of the pictures in the Pantheon seems 
 to be an allegorical representation of the art. In this method the colours 
 were prepared with wax or resin, and rendered fluid by the admixture 
 of some ethereal oil; they were then laid on with a brush, and melted 
 into the ground with a hot iron, and at the same time spread and toned 
 down. This method, howcA^er, seems rather to haA^e been applied to easel 
 pictures on wood, to the painting of arcliitectural members in stone ; 
 perhaps also of statues and bas-reliefs. For as by this method the coloiu-s 
 remained uninjured by the weather, it was well adapted for all sorts 
 of out-of-door work. It may possibly also have been now and then applied 
 to wall-painting ; but that it was universally so applied may be unequiA^ocally 
 denied. 
 
 Overbeck, from his own priA^ate researches, is of opuiion that three distinct 
 methods may be traced. The first of these is pure fresco. Walls which 
 were to serve as grounds for some other technical method were universally 
 prepared in this waj- ; also all imitations of marble and other stones, as well 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 95 
 
 :is architectural paintings. Perhaps also a few of the larger pictures in the 
 middle of walls are in fresco ; but, as a rule, these are done in one of the two 
 methods which we shall now proceed to describe. 
 
 Both these methods differ from fresco in the circumstance that the colour- 
 ing may be scraped off or removed without damaging the ground ; while they 
 differ from each other as follows : — 
 
 In the first of them the coloui's are very thickly laid on, but run off thin 
 towards the edges, holding fast to the ground, and fastest where they are 
 thinnest. Although they can be scraped off they cannot be removed with a 
 sharp blade. In this way are executed ornaments, fantastic pieces of archi- 
 tecture, plants, flowers, animals, most of the small landscapes, and the flying 
 tigm'es on the walls. These objects are painted on walls which have been 
 already coloured a fresco., the ground of which, when they are removed, ap- 
 pears iminjured. Yet, when such designs are subjected to chemical analysis, 
 they do not show a trace of lime or any other organic binding medium, so 
 that we are quite in the dark as to the nature of them. 
 
 The most singular method is the second kind of tempera., the characteris- 
 tics of which are that the body of colour is thinner but more evenly laid 
 on throughout. It caimot be easily scratched off, but may be removed 
 with a knife in larger or smaller patches of the thickness of a card, when the 
 ground below, whether it has been painted or not, remains uninjured. It is 
 in this way that most of the large pictures are executed, as Avell as man}' of 
 the flying figures ; but in no case do we find the mere ornaments and smaller 
 objects thus painted. From some chemical tests, not, however, very exten- 
 sively applied, Overbeck could discover no traces of resin or white of eggs ; 
 he thuiks, however, that lime was present in such pictures, but in very small 
 quantities ; a circumstance wliich may perhaps be accounted for by the lapse 
 of eighteen centuries. 
 
 The style of painting in the Pompeian pictures is bold and free, and con- 
 sequently sometimes hasty and careless. The outline seems to have been 
 drawn with chalk or charcoal, and sometimes to have been scratched with a 
 sharp point. In some cases, especially in landscapes, it may be doubted 
 whether there was any outline at all, so that, when closely examined, the 
 boimdaries cannot be distinguished. The upper parts of pictures, not being 
 so well seen, are more carelessly treated than the lower parts. It may readih- 
 be supposed that different hands were employed upon the same wall; the 
 large pictm'es being imdertaken by a superior artist, while a clever journey- 
 
96 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 man or apprentice executed the frames or borders which surromid them, 
 the architectural pieces, and other ornaments of the like kind. 
 
 We will now proceed to examine the Pompeian paintings with regard to 
 the place which they should occujay considered as works of art. 
 
 Although the wall-paintings of Pompeii are almost the only ones that caii 
 convey to us any idea of Greek art, it must at the same time be regarded as 
 a very imperfect idea. The}- are the productions only of a small provincial 
 town, and that, too, at a period when the art of painting was already on the 
 declme. Nevertheless, after making these allowances, they have served not 
 only to correct, but also to elevate, our ideas of ancient paintmg, as is evident 
 from a comparison of what has been written on that subject before and after 
 their discovery ; and it is now pretty generally allowed that both with regard 
 to subject, composition, drawing, and colouring, it is of a higher grade than 
 had been previously supposed. 
 
 Allowance must further be made for the circumstance that Pompeian 
 painting, m the mass, can be regarded only as decorative, painting. The 
 larger mythological compositions and the ^^ictures of domestic life, or genre 
 pictures, might indeed by some be regarded as specimens of a higher and 
 more substantial kind of art, and as having a loftier ideal character. In sup- 
 port of this "view it might be urged that the painted frames which surround 
 these compositions and separate them from the other wall decorations, as well 
 as the circumstance that some of them are let into the walls, tend to show 
 that they are pictures, in the stricter sense of the word, as opposed to mere 
 decorations. And it appears to lis that if the}' can be shown to have been 
 copies, or even free imitations, of paintings by celebrated masters, as we 
 thmk some of them undoubtedly were, this circumstance must also tend to 
 add to their ideal character. As a general remark, however, it is no doubt 
 true that the wall-paintmgs of Pomjieii are essentially decorative, and thus 
 even the pictures of a better and higher class would be made subservient to 
 this purpose. Hence we may accomit for exaggerated voluptuousness, frequent 
 hastiness of execution, and other defects. At the same time, regarding them 
 in this decorative character, we must not overlook their excellent adaptation 
 to the purpose intended ; the cheerfidness and airiness which counteracted the 
 darkness and narrowness of their framing ; the inexhaustible wealth of orna- 
 ment ; the good selection and suitable grouping of obj'ects ; the excellent adap- 
 tation of the ornaments to the size and purposes of the room, by making them 
 sometimes richer, sometimes simpler, now in darker colours, now in lighter, and 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 97 
 
 the harmony m the general aspect of an apartment painted in this manner. 
 Even the cii'cle of subjects chosen for the greater pictures may be regarded 
 as subsidiary to the main object of decoration. Although confined to a 
 small sphere, it offers, nevertheless, a great variety, and embraces only those 
 myths, which, through their frequent treatment by poets and artists, had 
 become the common property of the educated world. They are of a familiar 
 kmd, and calculated to excite gentle and pleasui-able emotions without the 
 trouble of much thought or study, and were thus admirably adapted for 
 rooms which were to serve as daily habitations. In the same manner the 
 predommance of subjects which charm and delight the senses, rather than 
 those which excite sublime or tragical emotions, must be regarded as in no 
 small degree connected with the essentially decorative character of these 
 paintings. 
 
 Besides the allowances which, on the preceding grounds, are to be made 
 when \'iewing the paintings of Pompeii as samples of ancient art, we must 
 also consider the circumstances under which they are seen. Those that have 
 been removed to the National Museum are not only out of place and separated 
 from their proper accompaniments, but have also been frequently put in 
 situations where they can scarcely be seen, or, at all events, can be seen only 
 very imperfectly. They have, moreover, been badly treated, and some of 
 them have been repeatedly daubed with varnish, so as hardly to be recog- 
 nized any longer. Their colours also have faded and changed, the natural 
 effect of atmospheric and other influences during a period of many centu- 
 ries. Of late days a better plan has been adopted of leaving the pictures 
 just as they were fomid, where they will be better studied and imderstood. 
 But even in their original situations we must remember that there are stUl 
 some allowances to be made ; and especially that they are viewed imder a quite 
 different light. For the houses being now uncovered, they are seen in broad 
 day and sunshine, for which few or none were originally calculated; since 
 even those in the atriums and peristj'les were seen in a comparatively broken 
 light. In some of the smaller and darker rooms it is difficult to say how the 
 light could have penetrated at all. In such rooms the pictures must some- 
 times have been hardly visible except by lamp or candle light. The Pan- 
 theon is perhaps the best place in which to judge of the effects originally 
 intended. On the left of the entrance the paintings are covered "with a broad 
 roof, and in this situation their colours appear more fresh and lively. 
 
 The Pompeian pamtings, with regard to their subjects, may be divided 
 
 o 
 
98 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 into the four following classes : first, architectural and other decorative paint- 
 ing ; second, landscape, with more or fewer figures ; third, genre pictures, or 
 scenes from familiar life and from the drama, including also still life, fruit, 
 flowers, &c; fourth, historical painting. 
 
 The first of these classes, in its lower kinds, camiot properly be called 
 artistic paintmg; it rather resembles the work of our higher sort of house 
 painters ; such as the representation of various coloured marbles, socles, cor- 
 nices, pillars, &c. Artistic 2)ainting may, however, be said to begin with the fan- 
 tastic architectural views and perspectives which form a sort of frame for other 
 jiictures ; as in the photograph of the wall of Siricus given above. To enter 
 into all the varieties of this sort of architectural decoration would require 
 many pages of description, which even then would not convey so lively and 
 accurate an idea of it as the inspection of a few walls, or of the pictures of 
 them in the works of Gell, Niccoluii, Zahn, and others. Perhaps one of the 
 most perfect specimens of wall-paiutmg at Pompeii is that in the House of 
 the Toilette of Hermaphroditus, which will be found beautifully represented 
 in the last-named writer's " Ornamente aller classischen Kunstepochen," 
 Heft xvii. taf. 81. It will sufiice here to say that this kind of painting 
 varies from a couple of small pillars, or a view into a neighbouring room, up 
 to buildings of several stories, with stairs, balconies, j^orticos, and aerial 
 perspectives. These architectural decorations, or frames, vary in richness 
 according to the objects which they enclose. The most simple ones enclose 
 only a portion of the painted wall, either quite plain or with only an insig- 
 nificant design or figure upon it ; others, growing richer in proportion, contain 
 medallions, pieces of landscape or stUl life, and so up to the mj^thological 
 pictures. The socles and friezes are also adorned with small figures wherever 
 there is space, as genii, cupids, and other children. 
 
 The second sort of paintuigs — namely, landscapes with more or fewer 
 figures, — are found either in the socles and friezes, or in the middle compart- 
 ments of the wall ; varying, of course, in size and importance according to the 
 place which they occupy, and also, it is hardly necessary to say, in the 
 manner in which they are treated. The small and less important consist 
 merely of a few bushes, or a tree, near which some animal is grazing. 
 Others present a building and a tree or two, with a distant prospect over sea, 
 or plain, or momitain. Some consist of a sea piece, perhaps, with a sliip near 
 an island or tongue of land, on which is a temple or a portico. These are 
 varied Avith a few figures, as a shepherd or two with some animals. Some- 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 99 
 
 times they are of a comical nature, as in a little picture in which is seen a 
 part of the banks of the Nile. A donkey, with a pannier on its back, is going 
 to drink without noticing a lurking crocodile, into whose jaws it is rmniing, 
 whilst the driver is straining every muscle to pull him back by the tad. 
 Larger pictures are essentially \dews, with architectural perspectives of fan- 
 tastic buddings, bridges, harbours, temples, porticos, and even whole 
 quarters of toAvus ; or of a more rural character, where trees and bushes are 
 more numerous than the buildmgs. Such views are peopled with figures of 
 promenaders, shepherds, fishermen with rods or nets, sadors rowing or sail- 
 ing, sacrificers, travellers in coaches or on donkeys, fowlers, hunters, persons 
 engaged in the vintage, &c. One Ludius is said to have introduced this sort 
 of wall-painting in the time of Augustus (Plin. N. H., xxxv. 116 sq. ) The 
 annexed cut wdl convey some notion of this sort of picture. A few of such 
 landscapes occupy a 
 
 space of eight or ten 
 feet square; but these 
 are very rare instances. 
 Sometimes, but rarely, 
 such pictures contain 
 figures representmg a 
 mj-thological subject, 
 but which are evidently 
 subordinate to the land- 
 scape. One of these, for 
 instance, represents Per- 
 seus delivering Andro- 
 meda from the sea-mon- 
 ster. The figures here 
 are seen in the sea, in 
 the foregroimd, whUe 
 
 '>^Mm^:=^^^m:^ 
 
 j:23,. 
 
 FARM-YARD SCENE. 
 
 behind is a rocky and desolate coast, on which the waves are breaking, 
 and where the aspect of desolation is augmented by several dead trees which 
 are seen in the middle distance. 
 
 The third class of painting, which maybe called genre painting, or represen- 
 tations of domestic or famdiar life, must be taken in a very extensive significa- 
 tion, so as to embrace all those objects which cannot be included in the defi- 
 nition either of landscape painting or of mythological and historical pamting. 
 
100 
 
 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 The lowest class of pictures of this class are those representing stUl life — as 
 dead game, fish, flowers, fruit, &c ; and it may be remarked that the represen- 
 tations of eatables are much more numerous than those of any other objects. 
 The ve7iationes, or combats with beasts in the amphitheatre, naturally 
 suo-gested the paintings of animals with which several of the houses at 
 Pompeii are adorned ; though m such cases they are not represented in the 
 amphitheatre, but in some wild landscape suitable to their savage nature. 
 Some of these are executed with a great deal of spirit ; but on the whole 
 they are not to be compared to some modem efforts m this style. 
 
 Of genre paintings, in which the human figure is mtroduced, we must 
 place in the lowest class those in which no story is told, but consist of one 
 or two figures, or even mere heads in medallion, or othei-wise. Such are the 
 flyino- figures so frequently seen ou the walls, and medallions like those of 
 Mars and Venus m the House of the Rudder and Trident, called also, from 
 
 these paintmgs, Casa di Marie e Venere. Of 
 the same kind are a remarkable series of 
 eight small pictures in a bed-room in the 
 House of Holconius, representing in square 
 compartments the usual personages of the 
 Bacchic thiasos. Thus one of the compart- 
 ments shows Bacchus himself, another, 
 Ariadne, others, Bacchantes and Fauns, 
 Paris with his crook and Phrygian cap, &c. 
 The annexed photograph of Bacchus and a 
 Faim will convey an idea of this sort of 
 paintmg. The figures, so frequently recur- 
 ring on the walls, of dancmg women are also 
 commonly called Bacchantes ; but according 
 to more modern inqiiirers this is a mistake. 
 They are mere human dancers, perhaps, 
 belonging to the lowest classes of society, 
 executmo- some of the mimic dances of 
 antiquity. Some of the best specimens of 
 this sort were fomid at an early period in 
 a house near the Gate of Herculaneum, 
 called, after them, Casa delle Danzatrici. 
 One of these figures is represented in the 
 
 riGVRE IN THE HOUSE OF THE FEMALE DANCERS. 
 
 accompanymg cut. 
 
FRESCO OF BACCHUS AND FAUN. 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 101 
 
 Paintings with a few figures representing some scene of ordinary 
 life are such as that, to which we have already alluded in the House of 
 the Fuller, representing the process of cleaning or fullmg cloth, of a 
 female painter copymg a head of Bacchus, whUe two other women look 
 on, and others of the like kmd. Some of these are of a grotesque and comical 
 character, resembling our caricature, as one fomid in the Casa Carolina, 
 and represented in the following cut. A pigmy artist, somewhat scantily 
 
 STUDIO OF A PAINTER OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 dressed, is taking the portrait of another pigmy, whose head already makes 
 a great figure upon the' canvas. The distance at which the artist sits 
 from his work, and the mamier in which he holds the brush, seem to de- 
 mand great steadiness and sureness of hand, and suggest the notion that some 
 practice of this sort was requisite in order to obtain that certamty of touch 
 which the wall-pamting must have demanded. The easel much resembles 
 our own, while by the artist's side is a little table with his palette and a pot 
 in which to wash his brushes. On the right his colour-grinder is preparing 
 colours mixed with wax and oil m a vessel with hot embers under it. In the 
 distance is a pupil, who, disturbed apparently by the entrance of two amateurs, 
 turns roimd to see what is going forward. The \dsitors seem to be discussing 
 the merits of the picture. At the extremity is a bird, the meaning of which 
 is not obvious, but is supposed to typify some singer or musician. 
 
 The representation of little ciqjids, or winged genii, engaged m various 
 occupations, is a very favourite subject for paintings of this kmd; and it must 
 be allowed that their forms and attitudes are generally rendered with great 
 elegance and playfulness. They are depicted hunting, fishmg, dancing, 
 playmg, and sometimes engaged m very commonplace and mechanical occu- 
 pations. Thus in one jiicture two of these little figures are represented as 
 carpenters sawmg a board; in another, as shoemakers engaged upon their 
 
102 
 
 THE EUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 trade at a table, while on shelves round the room are several specimens of 
 their handiwork ready for sale. They are, of course, more frequently foimd 
 in their proper capacity as messengers of love, and engaged m all sorts of 
 espiegleries in the service of the ladies. A favourite subject of this sort is the 
 love-merchant — an old man who offers to some fair one a cage full of loves 
 for sale. Among the wall-paintings of Pompeii are two or three celebrated 
 pictures of this kind. In one of these a handsome lady is leaning against a 
 pillar. On the ground before her is a cage, out of which an old man is pidl- 
 ing a little Cupid by the wmg, while two more still remain in it. Two have 
 been previously released, one of whom has hid himself behind the lady and 
 peeps forth to see what the old man is domg ; while a fifth, on whom the 
 lady's gaze is intently fixed — and perhaps this little love is the right one — is 
 flying towards her with two garlands in his hands. In all this there was 
 doubtless a hidden meaning at which we can only guess. 
 
 A still more elevated class of genre pictures are those representing scenes 
 from the drama, either tragic or comic. The first of these kmds comes more 
 properly under that higher class of painting which we reserve for final 
 examination, and we shall have to advert aocain to some of these tragic 
 scenes ; we mention them here in coujimction with the comic scenes, for the 
 sake of convenience, and because they are both rej)resentations of theatrical 
 rather than real life ; if the epithet real may be applied to mj'thological and 
 epic subjects. Such scenes were, no doubt, taken from well-known and 
 popular plays, and, like the mythological subjects, would be familiar to aweTj 
 
 educated person. We insert a cut 
 of either kind, as they will serve 
 to show the different costumes of 
 tragedy and comedy. In the first, 
 or trasric scene, will be observed 
 the o-y/coc, or lofty wig, and the 
 cothurni., buskins, or high shoes, 
 employed to increase the actors' 
 stature. To add in proportion to 
 the other parts of the figure, the 
 body was stuffed and padded, and 
 
 TRAGIC SCENE, FROM A PAINTING AT POMPEII. 
 
 the arms were lengthened by 
 
 means of gloves, so as to convey 
 the idea of colossal and super-human size. Such additions, as well as the 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 103 
 
 COMIC SCENE, FROM A PAINTING AT POMPEII. 
 
 exaggerated features of the masks, seem to have been reuclered necessary by 
 
 the vast size of the ancient theatres ; 
 
 to our taste, at least, nothing but 
 the softening effects of distance 
 could have rendered such pre- 
 posterous figures endurable. In 
 comedy a more natural character 
 was preserved, as will be seen 
 from the second cut. 
 
 We now ajjproach the higher 
 class of pamting, which had for its 
 subjects the gods and heroes of mythology. Here also we may observe two 
 distinct classes; namely, pictures which tell no story, but which consist of 
 smgle figures, or, at most, two or three not engaged m any particular action ; 
 and another and a higher kind, 
 which represent some well-known 
 mythological, epic, or tragic story. 
 
 The single figures represented 
 in this sort of painting are princi- 
 pally those of the gods, accom- 
 panied m general with their attri- 
 butes. The house at the top of 
 the Street of Mercury, near the 
 triumphal arch, called sometimes 
 the Casa del JSfaviglio, or House of 
 the Ship, sometimes also of Ze- 
 phyrus and Flora, or of Ceres, 
 contained in its atrium several 
 fine pamtings of this sort ; as 
 Jupiter, Bacchus, Cybele, Ceres, 
 and Mercury, in sitting postures. 
 Some of these have been carried 
 to the ]\Inseum, others have be- 
 come eifaced or nearly so. We 
 insert a cut of one of the latter, 
 representmg Jupiter enthroned, in 
 a contemplative attitude. At his painting of jititer, from the house of ceres. 
 
fe 
 
 104 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 feet is the eagle; his head, which is surrounded with a 7iimbus^ or glory, 
 rests upon his right hand, while in his left he holds a golden sceptre. The 
 throne, partly covered with green cloth, and the footstool were also of 
 gold, adorned with precious stones; his mantle was of a violet colour, Imed 
 with azure. These higher gods, from motives of reverential piety, which 
 will be easilj^ conceived, were seldom represented in action. These paint- 
 ings, in conjunction with statues, help us to an idea of the forms and attri- 
 butes with which the ancients endowed their deities. The House of the 
 Quasstor, or of Castor and Pollux, in the same street, contained a noble 
 painting of Ceres, esteemed the most important representation of that god- 
 dess to be foimd in the whole circle of ancient art. 
 
 Both these houses, as well as many others, contain flying figures of 
 mythological personages. For these representations such gods and god- 
 desses, or demi-gods, were naturally chosen, m whom the act of hovering in 
 the air did not seem imnatural, or incompatible with their dignity. A flying 
 Jupiter, or Juno, or Minerva, would be intolerable, while such an act appears 
 a natural and even graceful one in an Iris or Aurora, a Victoria or a Hebe. 
 In the same category may be placed most of the personages of the Bacchic 
 troop, Bacchantes, Msenades, Centaurs, and the like. Such figures do not 
 occuj^y the centre compartment or post of honour in a wall, but are used 
 to adorn the side divisions. In the same class may be j^laced quiescent 
 figures, as Muses, or allegorical figures representing Poetry, Music, Peace, 
 and the like. 
 
 We come now to the highest class of paintings, or those in which some 
 mythological or epic story is represented. Pictures of this class demand, of 
 course, for their proper execution the highest talents of an artist, not only in 
 the more mechanical parts of drawing and colouring, groupmg and composi- 
 tion, but also as to the mamier in which the story is told, the beauty and 
 dignity of the figures, and the passions expressed in their attitudes and 
 features. 
 
 With regard only to the mechanical handling, these ancient pictures, 
 though far from being the mere statuesque representations which they were 
 once thought to be, yet differ very widely from modern art. One of the 
 widest of these diff"erences lies in the way in which the light is managed. 
 They present none of those striking effects of light and shade so often seen 
 in modei'n pictures, and which it must be confessed are sometimes little 
 better than tricks of art, by throwing the light through an open door, or 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 105 
 
 window, or some similar artifice. All the Pompeian paintings are what may 
 be called day-light pictures. In none of them, except one recently found, 
 supposed to represent the matricide of Alcmteon, do the persons represented 
 throw a shadow on the ground. The light m the Pompeian pictures, with 
 perhaps one or two exceptions, is so clear and regularly distributed as to 
 give them a certam aii* of coldness. Yet, from the accomits of ancient 
 writers, we may conclude that ancient painting was not deficient in eff"ects of 
 light and shade; and we may therefore, perhaps, with Overbeck, attribute 
 the style observable in the Pompeian pictures to the circiimstance that they 
 were intended to decorate rooms not over well lighted, and m which, conse- 
 quently, pictures with much shadow in them would have produced but little 
 effect ; while, on the other hand, the dark grounds of the walls in which they 
 were inserted served to bring out the colouring of the figures. As we do 
 not now see them mider the light for which they were designed, we are 
 hardly competent to j^ronoimce an opuiion upon them with regard to this 
 pomt. 
 
 It must likewise be considered that the colouring of these ancient 
 frescos, like modern pictures of the same kind, could not possess the 
 warmth and glow of an oil-painting. On the other hand, pleasmg and 
 striking effects are often produced in them by a contrast of coloin-s ; as, for 
 instance, in the picture of the education of Achilles, the contrast of the light 
 and brilliant carnations of the youthful hero's skin with the tawny red of 
 that of the Centaur. The same effect is observable in the flying figures of 
 Bacchants and Bacchantes, and also in the contrast of skin and clothing. 
 And on the whole the colouring of the larger pictures mu.st be pronounced 
 harmonious. Colours are seldom or never found in combmation which pro- 
 duce a disagreeable eflfect upon the eye; nor, however highly coloured a 
 picture may be, is it ever spotty or patchy. The drawing is often incorrect, 
 but seldom wanting in vigour; it more frequently falls perhaps into the 
 opposite fault of exaggeration. 
 
 Even the larger pictures differ, of coirrse, very much among themselves 
 with regard to the composition and grouping. Some consist of only a few 
 figures, in which there is little story to be told, while others contain a 
 great many, and represent an action of the most touching and interesting 
 kind. Of the former class are such pictm-es as that already mentioned of 
 the Centaur instructing Achilles, Meleager returned from hunting. Narcissus 
 viewmg himself in the foimtain, &c, and most of those of an amatory kind ; 
 
 p 
 
106 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 as the loves of Mars and Venus, of Venus and Adonis, of Diana and Endy- 
 mion, &c. The annexed photograph, from a picture of Mars and Venus, will 
 convey an idea how such subjects are treated. Some pictures, on the other 
 hand, from the iuterest attachmg to the story represented, and the emotions 
 which it is calculated to excite, demand the very highest powers of a painter. 
 Such, for instance, is the celebrated painting of Achilles dismissing Briseis; 
 perhaps, on the whole, the finest discovered at Pompeii, and calcidated, had 
 it been the only one, to give us a very high idea of ancient art. It was 
 found in the House of the Tragic Poet, excavated in 1824. Achilles is sit- 
 ting enthroned before his tent; his shield leans against the side of the 
 throne ; m his left hand he lightly holds a sceptre, with the right he gives 
 the signal for the delivery of Briseis to Agamemnon's heralds. Nothing can 
 surpass the dignity and grace of the figure of Achilles. The head is a per- 
 fect model of youthfid manly beauty ; the countenance expresses both love 
 and anger as he fixes his eyes on the lovely Briseis, and revolves in his mind 
 the tyrannical act of Agamenmon ; while the nudity of the upper part of the 
 body gives full scope for the dis^^lay of his fine musciilar development. An 
 idea of this head may be obtained from Sir W. Gell's " Pompeiana" (second 
 series) ; but a better one from Ternite's " Wandgemalde von Pompeji," with 
 explanatory letter-press by C. 0. Miiller. Gell's engraving was taken from 
 a sketch by Ternite, and is said by him not to do it justice. We borrow the 
 following description of this celebrated picture from Sir W. Gell : — 
 
 " The scene seems to take place m the tent of Achilles, who sits in the 
 centre. Patroclus, with his back towards the spectator, and with a skin of 
 deeper red, leads in from the left the lovely Briseis, arrayed in a long and 
 floating veil of apple-green. Her face is beautiful, and not to dwell upon 
 the archness of her eye, it is evident that the voluptuous pouting of her 
 ruby lip was imagined by the painter as one of her most bewitching attri- 
 butes. AchUles presents the fair one to the heralds on his right; and his 
 attitude, his manly beauty, and the magnificent expression of his counte- 
 nance are mimitable. 
 
 " The tent seems to be divided by a drapery about breast high, and of a 
 sort of dark bluish green, like the tent itself. Behind this stand several war- 
 riors, the golden shield of one of whom, whether intentionally or not on the 
 part of the painter, forms a sort of glory round the head of the principal hero. 
 
 " It is probably the copy of one of the most celebrated pictures of 
 antiquity. 
 
FRESCO OF MARS AND VENUS. 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 107 
 
 " When first discovered the colours were fresh, and the flesh particularly 
 had the transparency of Titian. It suffered much and imavoidably during 
 the excavation, and something from the means taken to preserve it, when a 
 committee of persons qualified to judge had decided that the wall on which 
 it was painted, was not in a state to admit of its removal with safety. At 
 length, after an exposure of more than two years, it was thought better to 
 attempt to transport it to the studii at Naples, than to suffer it entu-ely to 
 disapjDear from the wall. It was accordingly removed with success in the 
 summer of the year 1826, and it is hoped that some remains of it may exist 
 for posterity. 
 
 " The painter has chosen the moment when the heralds, Talthybius and 
 Eurybates, are put in possession of Briseis, to escort her to the tent of 
 Agamemnon, as described in the first 1)ook of the Iliad, and thus translated 
 by Pope : — 
 
 Patroclus now th' unwilling beauty brought ; 
 She in soft sorrow and in pensive thought 
 Passed silent, as the heralds held her hand, 
 And oft looked back, slow moving o'er the sand." 
 
 The size of this picture was four feet two inches by four feet. 
 
 Another famous picture, and requiring, for an adequate representation 
 of the subject, the highest powers of art, was that of Medea meditating the 
 murder of her children; forming one of the paintings in the House of the 
 Quaestor. Like a few other of the Pompeian pictures, it is supposed to have 
 been a copy of a Greek master-piece ; and in this mstance the prototype is 
 said to have been the celebrated work on the same subject by Timomachiis 
 of Byzantium. This picture, with another of Ajax, by the same artist, were 
 purchased by Julius Ctesar for the enormous sum of eighty Attic talents, or 
 between £19,000 and £20,000, m order to adorn his temple of Venus 
 Genitrix. It seems probable that the picture of Timomachus contained 
 only the figure of Medea, and that the children did not appear, or were, at 
 all events, treated in a very subordinate maimer. The painter relied — as 
 only a great artist could — on the eff"ect to be produced by the expression 
 of Medea, before she had yet quite resolved upon the dreadful act, and while 
 the emotions of maternal love for her children and revenge against the father 
 of them are still struggling for the mastery. It is, indeed, in this struggle, 
 more than in the act itself, that the tragic interest of the story lies; and 
 Timomachus, m a different art, only followed the prmciples of the Greek 
 
108 THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 drama in keeping the actual murder out of sight, in accord with Horace's 
 well-known line : — 
 
 Isec pueros coram populo Medea trucidet. 
 
 The sword yet remained undrawn in her folded hands, but her lingermg, 
 irresolute attitude, and her speaking featm-es, told the whole story. The 
 work of Timomachus coidd therefore have only suggested the general idea 
 to the painter of the Pompeian pictiu-e ; for though, in the latter, the head 
 and attitude of Medea appear to bear considerable resemblance to the picture 
 of Timomachus, yet she is already beginning to draw her sword. This 
 alteration, however, may perhaps be justified on the groimd that in the 
 Pompeian picture the children are introduced; whose careless innocence 
 while engaged in a game of dice or marbles, and totally imconscious of the 
 fate that hangs over them, is a touching feature in the composition. Yet it 
 would lose much of its effect vuiless the spectator saw, both by the action 
 of Medea and the horror expressed in the coimtenance and attitude of the 
 children's pedagogue, that their death was resolved on. 
 
 We shall mention only one more picture of this kind, — the Sacrifice of 
 Iphigenia, in the House of the Tragic Poet. This also is thought to be a 
 copy of the celebrated picture of Timanthes on the same subject ; and it is, 
 at all events, certain that it contains a characteristic featm-e of the Greek 
 original, — the veiled head of Agamemnon. It is singular that Pliny and 
 Qumtilian, who must have been acquamted with the Medea of Timomachus, 
 shoidd have thought that Timanthes adopted this attitude from inability to 
 portray the expression of sorrow in the features of Agamemnon. The loss 
 that he was called on to endm'e was no doubt heart-rending enough ; but the 
 sacrifice of a daughter at the call of religion, and by its ministers, can hardly 
 be compared to the agony of Medea, agitated by opposite and contendmg 
 passions, and about to murder her children with her own hand. Yet Timo- 
 machus was able to express the intensit}' of that agony with a skUl that 
 excited imiversal admiration. After all that has been written on this ques- 
 tion, we may find a simple solution of it m the natural custom of concealing 
 our sorrow and our tears; and, perhaps, the artist could have chosen no 
 better method to awaken the sympath}- of the spectators with the grief 
 of a father and a king. The picture represents the moment at which 
 Chalcas is about to strike the fatal blow. Iphigenia, borne away b}' two 
 men, is appealing to her father; but, by some defect in the drawmg, she 
 
FRESCO OF JUDGMENT OF PARIS. 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 109 
 
 appears to have no legs ; for it is quite impossible to imagine that they could 
 have been altogether hidden behind one of her supporters. To the left, on 
 a small pillar, is seen a golden image of Diana, with two dogs at her feet, 
 and a lighted torch in each hand. The goddess herself appears m the 
 clouds, while another female figure is brmging the hind which is to be 
 substituted for Iphigenia as a victim. 
 
 The three preceding pictures are taken from the heroic cycle, which 
 afforded a much greater quantity of subjects to the artists of Pompeii than 
 the history and adventures of the gods of Olympus. Subjects of the latter 
 kind are not, however, wanting. They are generally love scenes; as the 
 amours of Jupiter with Leda and Danae, the abduction of Ganymede, the 
 pursuit of Daphne by Apollo, the loves of Mars and Venus, of Venus and 
 Adonis, of Lima and Endymion, of Mercury and Herse, of Zephyrus and 
 Flora, &c. The judgment of Paris seems to have been a favourite subject, 
 and is often repeated. The accompanying photograph is a specimen of its 
 manner of treatment. But Bacchus affords more subjects than any other 
 deity, his story and worship being rich m picturesque materials. Such are 
 his education when a child by old Silenus, scenes from his vagrant ramblings 
 with his chorus of Satyrs and Bacchantes, his invention of the drama, and 
 more frequently than any, his discovery of Ariadne abandoned bj' Theseus : 
 of which last we have already given a specimen. 
 
 In like manner, the subjects taken from the heroic cycle commonly turn 
 upon love adventures, and serious or tragic scenes are comparatively rare; 
 a circumstance which, as before explained, may be referred to the essentially 
 decorative character of these paintings. For, when the eye is to dwell 
 habitually on them, pleasing scenes of this description are prefex'able to those 
 which awaken painful emotions. The three pictures, indeed, before des- 
 cribed, are of a serious, and two of them of a highly tragic nature. But 
 these are exceptions to the general practice, and they were selected merely 
 as instances of the skill and power with which the ancient painters could 
 treat the most elevated and pathetic subjects. 
 
 From the heroic cycle, the labours of HerciUes, the adventures of 
 Theseus, the Argonautic expedition, and the himting of the Calydonian 
 boar, furnish the most numerous subjects. Of all the labours of Hercules, 
 his combat with the Nemean lion is that most frequently selected for repre- 
 sentation. It is found not only in pictures, but also on vases, gems, and 
 couis. From the life of Theseus, we find the recover}' of his father's arms. 
 
no TEE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
 
 his victory over the Minotaur in the Cretan Labyrinth, and, what is very 
 frequently repeated, his abandonment of the sleeping Ariadne at Nasos. 
 From the legend of the Argonauts, besides the stoiy of Medea already men- 
 tioned, we find that of Phrixus and Helle, and the landmg of the former at 
 Mb,. Perseus and Andromeda is a favourite subject, and his exhibiting to 
 her in a foimtaiu the head of Medusa. We have also Meleager returned 
 from himting, Meleager and Atalanta, &c. Scenes from the Trojan War, 
 and the events which preceded and followed it, are, of course, of frequent 
 recurrence. Of the judgment of Paris we have already given an example. 
 We find besides, Leda with the nest, containing the Dioscuri and Helen, 
 Apollo and Neptune building the walls of Troy, Thetis dipping Achilles in 
 the Styx, his education by the Centaur Chiron, his discovery by Ulysses 
 among the daughters of Lycomedes, Thetis receiving Achilles' arms from Vul- 
 can, his dismissal of Briseis (in a picture already mentioned), &c. Pictures 
 of events that occurred after the fall of Troy are not so common; but we have 
 from the Odyssey, Ulysses and Circe (a picture in the house of Modestus, 
 already mentioned), and in the so-called Pantheon, a charming picture of 
 the inter\'iew of Ulysses with Penelope when he returns to his home in the 
 disguise of a beggar. 
 
 It Avill be observed that all the preceding examples are drawn from 
 Greek sources, while those which can be traced to an Italian or Latin origin 
 are exceedingly rare indeed. This fact serves to confirm the idea that the 
 paintings of Pompeii were the work of Greek artists, and that they were 
 cojjies, or, at all events, more or less free imitations of Greek originals. 
 Fiorelli,* indeed, in two paintings recently discovered in the house of Siricus, 
 or Salve Lucrum, thinks that he can recognize subjects taken from the 
 jEneid. The first is thought to represent lajsis operating vipon the wound 
 of ^neas ; the second, Tumus between Lavinia and Amata, when the latter 
 dissuades him from again fighting with the Trojans. These explanations, 
 however, and especially as regards the latter pictvu-e, are very problematical. 
 But representations of Romulus and Remus suckled by the wolf, of Vesta 
 and the Lares, and one or two other Roman subjects are occasionally foimd. 
 
 Of the art of antiquity, mosaic, next to painting, has been most illus- 
 trated by the discoveries at Pompeii ; for though some exquisite little 
 statuettes have been found, especially the well-known ones of the Dancing 
 
 * " Giomale degli Scan," No. siii. p. 17, sq. 
 
THE RUINS OF POMPEII. Ill 
 
 Faun, the Silenus, and the Narcissus, yet m this branch of art the remains 
 discovered at Pompeii are but small in comparison with the vast treasures 
 of sculpture collected from other quarters. 
 
 Mosaic, or the art of inlaying in various coloured stones, was at first 
 only employed in pavements, and consisted of a few simple patterns. By 
 degrees, and mider the successors of Alexander, it obtained a higher 
 development, and began, by the representation of objects, to emulate paint- 
 ing. The first eminent artist m this way whom we find mentioned is Sosus 
 of Pergamus ; who in one of his pieces imitated the unswept floor of a dining 
 room, with a vessel full of water on it, upon the sides of which were a dove 
 drinking, and others smining themselves. Copies of this celebrated work 
 have been found at Hadrian's Villa near Tivoli, and at Naples. The 
 materials of this art at first consisted of pieces of stone, marble, or coloured 
 clay ; at a later period, even precious stones were used, and at last coloured 
 glass, as at present. At Pompeii this art was employed not only for floors, but 
 also for wall-paintings — of which there is a specimen in the House of Apollo 
 — and even for the decoration of columns. Many fine specimens Avere 
 discovered there, among which may be mentioned two bearing the name of 
 Dioscorides, and representing comic scenes. The House of the Faun was 
 particularly rich m mosaics. Here were found a beautiful border on the 
 threshold of the atrium, consistmg of masks, wreaths, &c. considered to be 
 one of the finest specimens of decorative mosaic. Also, in one of the rooms 
 of the same house, the pretty design of Acratus riding on a panther; but, 
 above all, the celebrated Battle of Issus, the largest and finest mosaic in the 
 world, though unfortunately much damaged. Its situation in the National 
 Museum does not allow a photograph of it to be taken, and as its subject 
 could not be well explained without an engraving, we forbear to enter 
 into it. 
 
 OHISWICK PRESS : — PRINTED ET WHITTINGHAM AND TVILKINS, 
 TOOKS CODRT, CBANCERT LANE. 
 

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