I

How shall I undertake to conveyto the reader who has not visitedPompeii, an impression of thebeauty of its situation? Wordsare weak when confronted withthe reality. Sea, mountains, andplain,—strong and pleasing back-ground,—great masses and bril-liant yet harmonious colors,splendid foreground effects andhazy vistas, undisturbed natureand the handiwork of man, allare blended into a landscape ofthe grand style, the like of whichI should not know where else tolook for.

BEFORE 79

When Pompeii was foundedwe do not know. It is more thanlikely that a site so well adaptedfor a city was occupied at anearly date. The oldest building,the Doric temple in the ForumTriangulare, is of the style of the6th century B.C.; we are safe inassuming that the city was thenalready in existence.

The founders were Oscans.They belonged to a widely scat-tered branch of the Italic stock,whose language, closely relatedwith the Latin, has been imper-fectly recovered from a consid-erable number of inscriptions.The Campanian Oscans, sprungfrom a hardy race, became civi-lized from contact with theGreeks, who at an early periodhad settled in Cumae and laterin Naples.

When toward the end of the5th century B.C. the Samnites,kinsmen of the Oscans, left theirrugged mountain homes in theinterior and pressed down towardthe coast, the Oscans were unableto cope with them.

In 424 B.C. the Samnitesstormed and took Capua, in 420,Cumae; and Pompeii likewisefell into their hands. But theywere no more successful thanthe Oscans had been in resistingthe influence of Greek culture.How strong this influence wasmay be seen in the remains atPompeii. The architecture of theperiod was Greek; Greek divini-

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PompeiiExcerpts from “Pompeii: its Life and Art”

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ties were honored, as Apollo andZeus Milichius; and the standardmeasures of the mensa ponder-aria were inscribed with Greeknames.

In less than a hundred yearsnew strives arose between themore cultured Samnites of theplain and their rough and warlikekinsmen in the mountains. ButRome took a part in the struggle,and in the Samnite Wars (343-290 B.C.) brought both the menof the mountains and the menof the plain under her domin-ion.

Although the sovereignty ofRome took the form of a per-petual alliance, the cities in realitylost their independence. Thecomplete subjugation and Ro-manising of Campania, however,did not come till the time of theSocial War (90-88 B.C).

In the year 80 a colony of Ro-man veterans was settled in Pom-peii under the leadership of Pub-lius Sulla. Cicero later made aspeech in behalf of Sulla, de-fending him against the chargethat he had taken part in theconspiracy of Catiline and had

Pompeii today

by August Mau

1 Terme Suburbane2 Porta Marina e cinta murata3 Tempio di Venere4 Tempio di Apollo5 Basilica6 Foro7 Edifici Amministrazione Pubblica8 Edificio di Eumachia9 Tempio di Vespasiano10 Santuario dei Lari Pubblici11 Macellum12 Tempio di Giove13 Granai del Foro14 Mensa Ponderaria15 Terme del Foro16 Tempio della Fortuna Augusta17 Casa del Fauno18 Casa della Fortuna Piccola19 Casa dei Dioscuri20 Casa di Meleagro21 Casa di Apollo22 Casa del Poeta Tragico23 Casa di Pansa24 Casa del Forno25 Casa di Sallustio26 Casa del Chirurgo27 Porta Ercolano e cinta muraria28 Necropoli di Porta Ercolano29 Villa di Diomede30 Villa dei Misteri31 Necropoli di Porta Vesuvio32 Castellum aquae33 Casa degli Amorini Dorati34 Casa di cecilio Giocondo35 Terme Centrali36 Casa dei Vettii37 Casa della Caccia Antica38 Panificio39 Lupanare40 Terme Stabiane 41 Foro Triangolare42 Tempio Dorico43 Teatro Grande44 Quadriportico dei Teatri45 Teatro Piccolo

46 Tempio di Asclepio (o di Giove Melichio)47 Tempio di Iside48 Palestra Sannitica49 Casa del Citarista50 Casa dei Ceii51 Casa del Menandro52 Fullonica di Stephanus53 Casa del Larario di Achille54 Casa dei Giulio Polibio55 Casa della Nave Europa56 Orto dei Fuggiaschi57 Casa del Giardino di Ercole58 Casa di Octavius Quartio59 Casa della Venere in Conchiglia60 Anfiteatro61 Palestra Grande62 Necropoli di Porta Nocera63 Porta Nocera64 Porta Nola e cinta muraria

65 Necropoli di Porta Nola66 Casa dei Mosaici Geometrici67 Casa e Thermopolium di Vetutius Placidus68 Thermopolium69 Arco Onorario70 Casa dell’Ara Massima71 Area didattica della viticoltura antica72 Orto botanico della flora vesuviana antica73 Casa del Moralista74 Casa di Ifigenia

75 Casa di Trebio Valente76 Casa di Obellio Firmo77 Caserma dei Gladiatori78 Casa di Lucrezio Frontone79 Casa del Principe di Napoli80 Casa dei Quadretti Teatrali 81 Foro Boario82 Casa del triclinio all’aperto83 Osteria del Gladiatore84 Casa delle Lucerne

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the duumvirs with judiciary au-thority, duumviri iuri dicundo,and two aediles, who were re-sponsible for the care of buildingsand streets and the oversight ofthe markets.

All these officials were electedannually by popular vote. Thecandidates offered themselvesbeforehand. If none came for-ward, or there were too few,—for the city officials not only re-ceived no salary, but were underobligation to make generous con-tributions for public purposes,as theatrical representations,games, and buildings,—the mag-istrate who presided at the elec-tion named candidates for thevacancies; but each candidate sonamed had the right to nominatea second for the same vacancy,the second in turn a third. Thevoting was by ballot; each voter

threw his voting tablet into theurn of his precinct. No informa-tion has come down to us re-garding the precincts (curiae)into which the city must havebeen divided for electoral pur-poses.

How large a population Pompeiipossessed at the time of the de-struction of the city it is impos-sible to determine. A painstakingexamination of all the housesexcavated would afford data foran approximate estimate; butthe results thus far obtained bythose who have given attentionto the subject are unsatisfactory.Fiorelli assigned to Pompeiitwelve thousand inhabitants, Nis-sen twenty thousand. Undoubt-edly the second estimate is nearerthe truth than the first; accordingto all indication the population

Darius at the Battle of Issus, mosaic from the House of the Faun, now in Naples

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Pompeii

tried to induce the old residentsof Pompeii to join in the plot.From this speech we learn thatSulla's reorganization of the citywas accomplished with so greatregard for the interests of thePompeians, that they ever afterheld him in grateful remem-brance.

We learn, also, that soon afterthe founding of the colony dis-putes arose between the oldresidents and the colonists,about the public walks (ambu-lationes) and matters connectedwith the voting; the arrangementsfor voting had probably been somade as to throw the decisionalways into the hands of thecolonists. The controversy wasreferred to the patrons of thecolony, and settled by them. Fromthis time on, the life of Pompeiiseems not to have differed fromthat of the other small cities ofItaly.

After the establishment of the

Roman colony, Pompeii wasnamed Colonia Cornelia VeneriaPompeianorum, from the gentilename of the Dictator Sulla (Lu-cius Cornelius Sulla Felix) andfrom the goddess to whom hepaid special honor, who now, asVenus Pompeiana, became thetutelary divinity of the city. Thisgoddess is represented in wallpaintings. In that she appears ina blue mantle studded with gold-en stars, and wears a crown setwith green stones. Her left hand,which holds a scepter, rests upona rudder; in her right is a twig ofolive. A Cupid stands upon apedestal beside her, holding upa mirror.

From this time the highest offi-cial body, as in Roman colonieseverywhere, was the city council,composed of decurions. The ad-ministration was placed in thehands of two pairs of officials,

Fresco found in the Villa of the Mysteries

Alexander the Great, mosaic

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may once have been on fire andhave contained craters, the firesof which died out when therewas no longer anything left toburn."

Earthquakes, however, were ofcommon occurrence in Campa-nia.

Our chief source of informationfor the events of August 24-26,79, is a couple of letters of theYounger Pliny to Tacitus, whopurposed to make use of themin writing his history. Pliny wasstaying at Misenum with his un-cle, the Elder Pliny, who was incommand of the Roman fleet.In the first letter he tells of hisuncle's fate. On the afternoonof the twenty-fourth, the admiralPliny set out with ships to rescue

from impending danger the peo-ple at the foot of Vesuvius, par-ticularly in the vicinity20of Her-culaneum. He came too late; itwas no longer possible to effecta landing. So he directed hiscourse to Stabiae, where he spentthe night; and there on the fol-lowing morning he died, suffo-cated by the fumes that were ex-haled from the earth. The secondletter gives an account of thewriter's own experiences at Mis-enum.

With the help of the letters ofPliny, in connection with thefacts established by the excava-tions, it is possible to picture toourselves the progress of theeruption with a fair degree ofclearness.

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may very likely have exceededtwenty thousand.

This population was by nomeans homogeneous. The orig-inal Oscan stock had not yet lostits identity and from the timewhen the Roman colony wasfounded additions continued tobe made to the population fromvarious parts of Italy.

The Greek element was par-ticularly strong. This is provedby the number of Greek namesin the accounts of Caecilius Ju-cundus, for example, and by theGreek inscriptions that have beenfound on walls and on amphorae.The Greeks may have come fromthe neighboring towns; most ofthem were probably freedmen.

Thus far there has come tohand no trustworthy evidencefor the presence of Christians atPompeii; but traces of Jewish in-fluence were found. An inter-esting bit of evidence is a wallpainting, which appears to have

as its subject the Judgment ofSolomon. On a tribunal at theright sits the king with two ad-visers; the pavilion is well guardedwith soldiers. It is not certainthat the reference here is toSolomon.

A somewhat similar story istold of the Egyptian king Boc-choris. However, the balance ofprobability is in favor of the viewthat we have here the Jewishversion of the story, because thisis consistent with other factsthat point to the existence of aJewish colony at Pompeii.

In inscriptions upon wine jarswe find mention of a certain M.Valerius Abinnerichus, a namewhich is certainly Jewish. As welearn from Pliny, these fish sauces,prepared for fast days, were usedespecially by the Jews.

THE CITY OVER-WHELMED

Previous to the terrible eruptionof 79, Vesuvius was consideredan extinct volcano. "Above theseplaces," says Strabo, writing inthe time of Augustus, "lies Vesu-vius, the sides of which are wellcultivated, even to the summit.This is level, but quite unpro-ductive. It has a cindery appear-ance; for the rock is porous andof a sooty color, the appearancesuggesting that the whole summit

Villa of the Mysteries

Young Dionysus on tiger, with a glass wine cup, mosaic from House of Faun

obliged to leave his sleepingroom from fear that the doorwould be blocked up by thefalling masses.

Early in the morning of the25th there was a severe shockof earthquake. Then the dustbegan to fall, and a cloud offearful blackness, piercedthrough and through with flash-es of lightning, settled downover land and sea.

Herculaneum was coveredwith the same materials; theywere not, however, depositedin regular strata, but were mixedtogether, and being drenchedwith water, hardened into akind of tufa which in placesreaches a depth of sixty-fivefeet. Excavating at Herculaneumis in consequence extremely diffi-cult; and the difficulty is furtherincreased by the fact that a mod-ern city, Resina, extends over thegreater part of the ancient site.The excavations thus far attempt-ed have in most cases been con-ducted by means of undergroundpassageways. The statement thatHerculaneum was overflowed bya stream of lava, though fre-quently repeated, is erroneous.

With the dust a copious rainmust have fallen; for the bodiesof those who perished in thestorm of dust left perfect molds,into a number of which soft plas-ter of Paris has been poured,

making those casts of humanfigures which lend a melancholyinterest to the collections in thelittle Museum at Pompeii.

The extraordinary freshness ofthese figures, without any sug-gestion of the wasting away afterdeath, is explicable only on thesupposition that the envelopingdust was damp, and so com-menced immediately to hardeninto a permanent shape. If thedust had been dry and had packeddown and hardened afterwards,we should be able to trace atleast the beginnings of decay.

From the number of skeletonsdiscovered, it has been estimated

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The subterranean fires of Vesu-vius pressed upward to find anoutlet. The accumulations of vol-canic dust and pumice stone thathad been heaped up on themountain by former eruptionswere again hurled to a greatheight, and came down uponthe surrounding country. On thewest side of Vesuvius they min-gled with torrents of rain, andflowed as a vast stream of muddown over Herculaneum. Onthe south side, driven by a north-west wind as they descendedfrom the upper air, they spreadout into a thick cloud, whichcovered Pompeii and the plainof the Sarno. Out of this cloudfirst broken fragments of pumicestone—the average size not largerthan a walnut—rained down tothe depth of eight to ten feet;then followed volcanic dust, wetas it fell by a downpour of water,

to the depth of six or seven feet.With the storm of dust camesuccessive shocks of earthquake.

Such was, in outline, the courseof the eruption. It must have be-gun early in the morning of the24th, and the stream of mudmust have commenced imme-diately to move in the directionof Herculaneum; for shortly afterone o'clock on that day the ad-miral Pliny at Misenum receivedletters from the region threat-ened, saying that the danger wasimminent, and that escape waspossible only by sea. Even thenthe Younger Pliny saw, high aboveVesuvius, the cloud, shaped likean umbrella pine, which was torain down destruction on Pom-peii. Toward evening, the shipsoff Herculaneum ran into thehail of pumice stone, which, dur-ing the night so increased in vi-olence that the admiral Pliny was

Mosaic from the House of the Faun

House of the Ara Maxima

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was quite forgotten. Possiblysome remains of the ancientbuildings were yet to be seen; atany rate it seems to have beenbelieved that a city once existedthere, for the site was called LaCivita.

In the years 1594-1600 Domeni-co Fontana was bringing waterfrom one of the springs of theSarno to Torre Annunziata, andin the course of the work cut anunderground channel throughthe site of Pompeii and discov-ered two inscriptions; but nofurther investigations were made.The indifference of Fontana maybe explained by the fact that thewater channel was not dug outfrom above, but was carried as atunnel through the hill on whichthe city stood, so that the work-men came to the ancient surfaceat only a few points.

The excavation of the buriedCampanian towns began, not atPompeii, but at Herculaneum,where in 1709 the workmen ofthe Austrian general, Count El-beuf, sunk a shaft, reaching theancient level at the rear of thestage of the theater. The state-ment that Elbeuf discovered thesite of Herculaneum by accident,his workmen being engaged indigging a well, is erroneous. Thelocation of the city was alreadyknown, and Elbeuf was searchingfor antiquities.

At first little was accomplished,but after 1738 excavations werecarried on by King Charles III ina more systematic manner. Thedirector of these excavations,Rocco Gioacchino de Alcubierre,in March, 1748, had occasion toinspect the water channel men-tioned above, and learned thatat the place called La Civita—which he thought was Stabiae—objects of antiquity were oftenfound. He came to the conclusionthat this site was more promisingthan that of Herculaneum, wherethe excavations just then wereyielding little of value; the resultof his recommendation was thaton the 13th of the same monthexcavations were commenced atPompeii, with twelve workmen.

The parts excavated were notleft clear until after 1763, whenthe discovery of the inscriptionof Suedius Clemens, on the Streetof Tombs, had established thefact that the site was that ofPompeii. Important discoverieswere made soon after. In theyears immediately following 1764the theaters, with the adjacentbuildings, and the Street ofTombs, together with the villaof Diomedes, were laid bare. Theexcavations were conductedslowly and without system, yetwith scientific interest fosteredby the Herculaneum Academy(Accademia ercolanese), which

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that in Pompeii itself, abouttwo thousand persons perished.As the city contained a popula-tion of twenty thousand ormore, it is evident that the ma-jority of the inhabitants fled;since the eruption commencedin the morning, while the hailof pumice stone did not begintill afternoon, those who ap-preciated the greatness of thedanger had time to escape.

Of those who remained in thecity part were buried in thehouses—so with twenty personswhose skeletons were found inthe cellar of the villa ofDiomedes; others, as the hail ofpumice stone ceased, venturedout into the streets, where theysoon succumbed to the showerof dust that immediately fol-lowed. As the bodies wasted awaylittle except the bones was leftin the hollows formed by thedust that hardened around them,and the casts already referred to,which have been made from timeto time since 1863, give in somecases a remarkably clear andsharp representation of the vic-tims.

THE UNEARTHING OFTHE CITY

The first excavations at Pompeiiwere undertaken by the survivorsshortly after the destruction of

the city. As the upper parts ofthe houses that had not fallenin projected above the surface,it was possible to locate the placesunder which objects of valuewere buried. Men dug down fromthe surface at certain points andtunnelled from room to roomunderneath, breaking throughthe intervening walls. From thiswe understand why compara-tively little household furnitureof value has been found. Notonly were rich house furnishingsin demand,—the excavators car-ried away valuable building ma-terials as well. So eagerly werethese sought after that largebuildings, as those about the Fo-rum, were almost completelystripped of their marble.

In the Middle Ages Pompeii

Ossified remains

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in a city that had developed grad-ually from a small beginning, inwhich the location of streets hadbeen the result of accident.

Two wide streets that cross thecity very nearly at right anglesgive the direction for the otherstreets running approximatelynorth and south and east andwest, Mercury Street with itscontinuations, and Nola Street.The former probably served as abase line in laying out the city;this we infer from the fact thatwhile it is exceptionally broad,and the Forum lies on it, thereis no gate at either end, and itcould have been little used fortraffic. Nola Street has a gateonly at the east end; the westend opens into the Strada Con-solare, which follows the line of

the city wall and leads to theHerculaneum Gate at the north-west corner.

The public buildings of the cityform two extensive groups. Onegroup lies about the Forum withthis we may reckon the Baths inthe first block north, and thetemples of Fortuna Augusta andVenus Pompeiana. The nucleusof the other is formed by thetwo theaters and the large quad-rangular colonnade which, de-signed originally to afford pro-tection for theater-goers againstthe rain, was later turned intobarracks for the gladiators. Thereare in addition only four publicbuildings that need to be men-tioned. Two are bathing estab-lishments, the Stabian Baths, andthose at the corner of Stabian

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had been founded in 1755.Under Joseph Bonaparte and

Murat, 1806-15, the work receivedlarger appropriations, and wasprosecuted with greater energy,particularly in the quarter lyingbetween the Herculaneum Gateand the Forum. In the same pe-riod the Forum was approachedfrom the south side also. In 1799,at the time of the ParthenopeanRepublic, the French generalChampionnet had excavated,south of the Basilica, the twohouses which are still called byhis name. From these, in 1813,the excavators made their wayinto the Basilica, whence, in No-vember of the same year, theypushed forward into the Forum.

However, the excavation of theForum itself with the surroundingbuildings, prosecuted less vigor-ously and with limited means inthe period of the Restoration,was not completed till 1825; bythis time the temple of Fortunaand the Baths north of the Forumhad also been uncovered. Thefollowing years, to 1832, broughtto light the beautiful houses onthe north side of Nola Street—the houses of Pansa, of the TragicPoet, and of the Faun—and thoseon Mercury Street; later cameexcavations south of Nola Streetand in various parts of the city.

The fall of the Bourbon dynastyand the passing over of Naples

to the Kingdom of Italy causedanother interruption, which last-ed a year, from December 5, 1859,to December 28, 1860. On thelast date the excavations wereresumed under the direction ofGiuseppe Fiorelli, a man ofmarked individuality, who left apermanent impress upon everypart of the work. To him is duethe present admirable system,excellent alike from the technicaland from the administrative pointof view. We owe it to him, thatbetter provision is made nowthan formerly for the preservationand care of excavated buildingsand objects discovered; the earlierefforts in this direction naturallyleft room for improvement.

Fiorelli put an end to haphazarddigging, to excavating here andthere wherever the site seemedmost promising. He first set aboutclearing the undisturbed placeslying between the excavated por-tions; and when in this way thewest part of the city had beenlaid bare, he commenced to worksystematically from the excavatedpart toward the east.

A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW

The streets of Pompeii musthave been laid out according toa definite system; an arrangementon the whole so regular and sym-metrical would scarcely be found

Mosaic and fresco

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and Nola streets. The third is asmall building near the Hercu-laneum Gate, consisting of a hallopening on the street, with abase for a statue near the rearwall; this on insufficient groundshas been called a custom-house.The fourth, the Amphitheater,lies in the southern corner ofthe city.

There were priestesses of Ceresand of Venus, but the sanctuaryof Ceres has not been discovered.Mention is made also of a priestof Mars; but the temple of Mars,according to the precept of Vit-ruvius would be outside the city.

CONSTRUCTION AND ARCHITECTURAL PERI-

ODS

Exclusive of wood, which wasmore freely used in Pompeii than

in Campanian towns to-day, theprincipal building materials wereSarno limestone, two kinds oftufa (gray and yellow), lava, awhitish limestone often calledtravertine wrongly, marble, andbrick.

Bricks were used only for thecorners of buildings, for door-posts, and in a few instances, asin the Basilica and the house ofthe Labyrinth, for columns.

The masonry with limestoneframework dates from the earliestperiod. The walls were built with-out mortar, clay being used in-stead.

We may now turn to the ar-chitectural history of Pompeii,which, as we shall see, falls intosix periods.

The first period is that to whichthe Doric temple in the ForumTriangulare and the city walls

Basilica

belong. From the style of thetemple, we may safely concludethat it was built in the 6th centuryB.C.; the evidence is too scantyto enable us definitely to fix thedate of the walls. The buildingmaterials used were the Sarnolimestone and gray tufa.

The second period may be des-ignated as the Period of the Lime-stone Atriums, so characterizedfrom the peculiar constructionof a number of houses found indifferent parts of the city. Onthe side facing the street thesehouses have walls of ashlar workof Sarno limestone, but the innerwalls are of limestone frame-work.

Almost no ornamental formsbelonging to this period havecome down to us; so far only asingle column has been found,built into the wall of a house. Itis of the Doric style, and onceformed part of a portico that ranalong the west side of the smallopen space at the northwest cor-ner of Stabian and Nola streets.

We may assign the houses withthe limestone atriums to a periodjust preceding this war; reckoningin round numbers, they werebuilt before 200 B.C.

In the third, or Tufa Period,came the climax of the develop-ment of Pompeian architectureprior to the Roman domination.The favorite building material

was the gray tufa.All the public buildings of Pom-

peii that do not belong to thetime of the Roman colony havea homogeneous character; a listof them would include the colon-nade about the Forum, the Basil-ica, the temples of Apollo and ofJupiter, the Large Theater withthe colonnades of the ForumTriangulare and the Barracks ofthe Gladiators, the Stabian Baths,the Palaestra, and the outer partof the Porta Marina with the in-ner parts of the other gates.Closely associated with thesepublic edifices is a large numberof private houses; as a speciallycharacteristic example, we maymention the house of the Faun.

All these buildings are similarin style and construction; theyevidently date from a period ofgreat building activity. It mustalso have been a period of peaceand prosperity; for the wholecity, from the artistic and mon-umental point of view, under-went a transformation. CertainOscan inscriptions, an early Latinmonumental inscription, and afew words, dating from 78 B.C.,scratched upon the plaster ofthe Basilica, oblige us to placethe Tufa Period before the timeof the Roman colony; yet notlong before, for the next oldestbuildings date from the first yearsof the colony. The time of peace

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The fifth period extends fromthe last decades of the Republicto the earthquake of the year 63A.D. In the entire period, coveringmore than a century, we are un-able to distinguish a series ofbuildings which may be classedtogether in style and constructionas constituting a homogeneous,representative group.

House of Vettii, fresco fromthe first century A.D.

The sixteen years between theearthquake of 63 A.D. and thedestruction of the city form thesixth period in the architecturalhistory of Pompeii. The buildingsbelonging to it can be easily rec-ognized, not only from their sim-ilarity in style and ornament, butalso from certain external char-acteristics, as newness of appear-ance, unfinished condition, andthe joining of new to broken

walls. The only important build-ing wholly new is the largebathing establishment, the Cen-tral Baths, at the corner of Stabianand Nola streets. For the rest,effort seems to have been directedtoward restoring the ruined build-ings as nearly as possible to theiroriginal condition. The wall dec-oration throughout is of the In-tricate Style.

POMPEIAN HOUSE

Our chief sources of informa-tion regarding the domestic ar-chitecture of ancient Italy aretwo,—the treatise of Vitruvius,and the remains found at Pom-peii. The Pompeian houses pres-ent many variations from theplan described by the Roman ar-chitect; yet in essential particularsthere is no disagreement.

Fresco from the House of Vettii

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that furnished the backgroundfor the period can only havebeen that between the SecondPunic War and the Social War,about 200 to 90 B.C.; the TufaPeriod was approximately thesecond century before Christ.

The Tufa Period was a periodof monumental construction.Buildings and public places areadorned with colonnades of theDoric, Ionic, and Corinthianorders. The simple and beautifulforms of the Greek architectureare used, sparingly indeed, butwithout petty detail and withevident fear of excessive orna-mentation. Columns and archi-traves are white, with only slightsuggestion of the earlier Greekpolychrome decoration. A varietyof color, however, is laid on thewalls, and with this period thehistory of Pompeian wall deco-ration begins.

The fourth period covers theearlier decades of the Romancolony, from 80 B.C. to near theend of the Republic. Accordingto inscriptions which are still ex-tant, soon after the year 80 awealthy colonist, Gaius QuinctiusValgus, built the Small Theater,and afterwards the Amphitheateralso. Several other buildings inwhich the same style of masonryis found without doubt belongto the same period—the Bathsnear the Forum, the temple of

Zeus Milichius, a building justinside the Porta Marina, and ap-parently the hall at the southeastcorner of the Forum, which weshall identify as the comitium;with these should be includedalso the original temple of Isis,which was destroyed by the earth-quake of 63 A.D.

From the aesthetic point ofview the fourth period falls farbelow that just preceding; theexhaustion of resources and thedecline of taste due to the longand terrible war are unmistakable.Theater, Amphitheater, and Bathswere alike built for immediateuse, with crude and scanty or-namentation; and where richerornament was applied, as in thecase of the temple of Isis, it couldnot for a moment be comparedwith that of the Tufa Period inbeauty and finish.

Fresco

Fresco

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by the treasury officials.The last of the three parts of

the building is by far the largest.It was a high and spacious hall,with numerous entrances fromthe Forum. It was divided intotwo rooms by two short sectionsof wall projecting from the sides,and was evidently a market house,perhaps for vegetables and farmproducts.

The rooms formed by enclosingthe small colonnade at the rearof the court of Apollo have al-ready been mentioned. At theleft of the stairway leading tothe second story is a small roomwhich opens in its entire breadthupon the Forum. Close by is arecess, also open toward the Fo-

rum.In this recess stood the table

of standard measures, mensaponderaria, which is now in theNaples Museum. It is a large slabof limestone (a little over 8 feetlong and 1.8 wide), in which arenine bowl-shaped cavities withholes at the bottom throughwhich the contents could bedrawn off; this slab rested ontwo stone supports, and similarsupports above it carried anotherslab, which is now lost, withthree cavities. The table thuscontained twelve standards ofcapacity for liquid and dry meas-ure, but only ten are shown inthe illustration, as two are toofar back.

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The development of the Italichouse can be traced at Pompeiiover a period of almost four hun-dred years. The earlier form con-sisted of a single series of apart-ments,—a central room, atrium,with smaller rooms opening intoit, and a garden at the rear; anexample is the house of the Sur-geon.

Later, under Greek influence,a court with a colonnade andsurrounding rooms was added.This was called peristylium, 'peri-style'; it is simply the more elab-orate inner part of the Greekhouse, andronitis, joined to thedwelling of Italic origin. We findthe union of atrium and peristylewith their respective groups ofapartments fully accomplishedin the second century B.C., theTufa Period; the type of dwellingthus developed remained invogue during Roman times andis often called the Roman house.

The double origin is clearly in-dicated by the names of therooms. Those of the front partare designated by Latin words,—atrium, fauces, ala, tablinum; butthe apartments at the rear bearGreek names,—peristylium, tri-clinium, oecus, exedra. In largehouses both atrium and peristylewere sometimes duplicated.

The houses of Pompeii impressthe visitor as having been de-signed primarily for summer use.

The arrangements contemplatethe spending of much time inthe open air, and pains was takento furnish protection from theheat, not from the cold. Thegreater part of the area is takenup by colonnades, gardens, andcourts; from this point of viewthe atrium may be classed as acourt. With a single exceptionthe arrangements for heating sooften met with in the remainsof houses discovered in northerncountries are found at Pompeiionly in connection with bath-rooms.

BUILDINGS AT THENORTHWEST CORNER OFTHE FORUM, AND THETABLE OF STANDARD

MEASURES

The large building at the north-west corner of the Forum waserected after the earthquake ofthe year 63. It is divided intothree parts. Below, at the levelof the Forum, are two dark vault-ed chambers, one at the rear ofthe other. It has been supposed,not without probability, thatthese were the vaults of the citytreasury, the aerarium.

Above these chambers are tworooms which, if the identificationof the chambers below as thevaults of the city treasury is cor-rect, must have been occupied

House of the Golden Cupid

22

Pompeii

the Forum and on an elevationcommanding a wide view of thesea, we are safe in assigning thesanctuary to Venus Pompeiana,the patron divinity of RomanPompeii.

Prior to the founding of theRoman colony the site of thetemple had been occupied byhouses, built in several storieson the edge of the hill. In lessthan a century and a half thetemple was twice built, twice de-stroyed; a third building was inprogress at the time of the erup-tion.

The first temple was erectedin the early years of the Romancolony. An area approximately185 Roman feet square was pre-pared for it by levelling off andfilling up, terrace walls beingbuilt to hold in place the earthand rubbish used for filling.

In front of the temple are re-mains of a large altar of whitishlimestone. On the east side ofthe court is the base of an eques-trian statue, of the same mate-rial, which was afterwards ve-neered with marble; near it is apedestal of a standing figure,of masonry covered with stucco,and behind this is the smallbase of a fountain figure.

After the completion of thetemple the Pompeians set aboutrebuilding the colonnade, on ascale of equal magnificence.

How far the work had progressedbefore the earthquake of the year63 it is not easy to determine.Not less than three hundred mar-ble columns must have been re-quired to complete the work. Inpoint of size, the temple with itscourt formed the largest sanc-tuary, in richness of materialsthe most splendid edifice of theentire city.

The great earthquake felled tothe ground alike the finishedtemple and the unfinished colon-nade. But the Pompeians sooncommenced the work of rebuild-ing.

The third temple was to beeven more imposing than itspredecessor. The old steps wereremoved from the front. The ex-isting podium was cut back fiveRoman feet on each side, andfour inches at the rear, to formthe core of the new podium; onall sides of this a massive foun-

Atrium of the House of the SIlver Wedding

21

Pompeii

It is evident that the table hascome down from the pre-Romanperiod. The names of the meas-ures were originally written inOscan, beside the five largestcavities, and though the letterswere later erased, they are stillin part legible. Only one word,however, can be made out withcertainty, beside the next to thesmallest cavity; that is Kuiniks,plainly the same as the GreekChoinix. We naturally infer thatin the pre-Roman time the Pom-peians used Greek measures.

In the time of Augustus, about20 B.C., the cavities were enlargedand made to conform to the Ro-man standard. The adoption ofa uniform standard was made asubject of imperial regulation byAugustus, who, by this means,sought to promote the unificationof the Empire. Similar tables ofmeasures have been found invarious parts of the Roman world,

as at Selinunte in Sicily, in theGreek islands, and at Bregenzon the Lake of Constance.

TEMPLE OF VENUS POMPEIANA, OR

TEMPIO DI VENERE (#3 on the map on pg 3 & 4)

For some years it had beenknown that a temple once stoodin the rectangular block southof the Strada della Marina; andin 1898 workmen excavating herebegan to uncover the massivefoundations. When the volcanicdeposits had been removed itwas seen that the court of thetemple, with the surroundingcolonnade, occupied the wholearea between the Basilica andthe west wall of the long roomnow used as a Museum.

On the podium was found apart of a statuette of Venus, ofthe familiar type which representsthe goddess as preparing to enterthe bath; it was probably a votiveoffering set up by some worship-per.

In the subterranean passagewayentered near the southeast cornerthe excavators found another vo-tive offering, a bronze steeringpaddle of the kind shown inpaintings as an attribute of VenusPompeiana. From these indica-tions, as well as from the size ofthe temple and its location, near

Vestibule of the House of the Tragic Poet

24

Pompeii

turally the most interesting build-ing at Pompeii. Its constructionand decoration point to the pre-Roman time; and there is alsoan inscription scratched on thestucco of the wall, dating fromalmost the beginning of the Ro-man colony: C. Pumidius Dipilusheic fuit a. d. v. nonas OctobreisM. Lepid. Q. Catul. cos.,—'C.Pumidius Dipilus was here onthe fifth day before the nones ofOctober in the consulship ofMarcus Lepidus and QuintusCatulus,' that is October 3, 78B.C.

The name basilica (basilike stoa,'the royal hall') points to a Greekorigin; we should naturally lookfor the prototype of the Romanas well as the Pompeian structurein the capitals of the Alexandrianperiod and in the Greek coloniesof Italy.

A basilica was a spacious hallwhich served as an extensionof a market place, and was itselfin a certain sense a coveredmarket. It was not limited to aspecific purpose; in general,whatever took place on the mar-ket square might take place inthe basilica, the roof of whichafforded protection against theweather. It was chiefly devoted,however, to business transac-tions and to the administrationof justice.

The main hall and the corridor

were devoted to trade; the dealersperhaps occupied the former,while in the latter the throng ofpurchasers and idlers movedfreely about. The place set asidefor the administration of justice,the tribunal, was ordinarily anapse projecting from the rearend. In our Basilica, however,—and in some others as well,—itwas a small oblong elevated roomback of the central hall, towardwhich it opened in its wholelength.

The Pompeians, who at thetime when it was built werepupils of the Greeks in mattersof art, found their model not inRome but in a Greek city, perhapsNaples.

Five entrances, separated bytufa pillars, lead from the colon-

Garden in the House of Marcus Lucretius

23

Pompeii

dation wall was commenced, fiveand a half Roman feet thick,made of large blocks of basaltcarefully worked and fitted.

At the time of the eruption fivecourses of basalt had been laid,reaching a height of more thanfour.

TEMPLE OF APOLLO, OR TEMPIO DI APOLLO

(#4)

The building had been com-pletely restored after the earth-quake of 63, and was in good or-der at the time of its destruction.Though ancient excavators re-moved many objects of value,including the statue of the di-vinity of the temple, much wasleft undisturbed, as the interest-ing series of statues in the court;in addition, a number of inscrip-tions have been recovered. Onthe whole, more complete in-formation is at hand regardingthis sanctuary than in referenceto any other in Pompeii.

The temple stood upon a highpodium, in front of which is abroad flight of steps. The smallcella was evidently intended forbut one statue. The columns atthe sides of the deep portico,which in other respects followsthe Etruscan plan, are continuedin a colonnade which is carriedcompletely around the cella.

It presents an odd mixture ofstyles, of which other examplesalso are found at Pompeii; a Doricentablature with triglyphs wasplaced upon Ionic columns hav-ing the four-sided capital knownas Roman Ionic. The second storywas probably of the Corinthianorder.

The pedestal in the cella, onwhich the statue of Apollo stood,still remains, but no trace of thestatue itself has been found.

Other divinities besides Apollowere honored in this sanctuary,which in the earlier time wasevidently the most important inthe city. The statues themselves,with one exception, have beentaken to Naples. There were inall six of them, grouped in threerelated pairs. In front of the thirdcolumn at the left of the entrance,stood Venus, at the right was ahermaphrodite—both marble fig-ures of about one half life size.They belong to the pre-Romanperiod and were originally ofgood workmanship, but even inantiquity they had been repeat-edly restored and worked over.As a work of art, the hermaph-rodite is the more important.

BASILICA (#5)

The Basilica, at the southwestcorner of the Forum, was themost magnificent and architec-

26

Pompeii

FORUM (#6)

The Forum is usually ap-proached from the west side bythe short, steep street leadingfrom the Porta Marina. Entering,we find ourselves near the lowerend of an oblong open space, atthe upper end of which, towardVesuvius, stands a high platformof masonry with the ruins of atemple—the temple of Jupiter;the remains of a colonnade areseen on each of the other threesides.

Including the colonnade theForum measures approximately497 feet in length by 156 inbreadth; without it the dimen-sions are 467 and 126 feet. Thenorth side, at the left of the tem-ple, is enclosed by a wall in whichthere are two openings, one atthe end of the colonnade, theother between this and the tem-ple; at the right the wall boundingthe open space has been replacedby a stately commemorative arch,while the end of the colonnadeis closed by a wall with a pas-sageway.

Another arch, of much simplerconstruction, stands at the leftof the temple, in line with thefaçade; it cuts off the area be-tween the temple and the colon-nade from the rest of the Forum.A third arch once stood in a cor-responding position at the right.

No private houses opened onthis area; it was wholly given upto the public life of the city andwas surrounded by temples, mar-kets, and buildings devoted tothe civic administration.

The area of the Forum waspaved with rectangular flags ofwhitish limestone. In front ofthe colonnade, the pavement ofwhich was about twenty inchesabove that of the open space, abroad step or ledge projected,covering a gutter for rain water;the water found its way into thegutter through semicircular open-ings in the outer edge of thestep.

Of the many statues that onceadorned the Forum not one hasbeen found. As may be seen fromthe pedestals still in place, theywere of three kinds, and variedgreatly in size.

First, statues of citizens whohad rendered distinguished serv-ices were placed in front of thecolonnade on the ledge over thegutter. Four pedestals that oncesupported statues of this sortmay be seen on the west side.

Then equestrian statues of lifesize were set up in front of theledge, these also in honor of dig-nitaries of the city. On one ofthe pedestals the veneering ofcolored marble is still preserved,with an inscription showing thatthe person represented was Quin-

25

Pompeii

nade of the Forum into the eastend of the basilica.

There are only scanty remainsof the floor, which consisted ofbits of brick and tile mixed withfine mortar and pounded down(opus Signinum); it extended ina single level over the whole en-closed space, and from this levelour estimates of height are reck-oned.

The large columns about themain hall, with a diameter ofmore than 3½ feet, must havebeen at least 32 or 33 feet high;the attached half-columns withthe columns at the entrance andat the rear, including the Ioniccapitals, were probably not morethan 20 feet high.

The tribunal at the rear is themost prominent and architec-turally the most effective portion

of the building. The base is treat-ed in a bold, simple manner;upon it, at the front, stands arow of columns the lower por-tions of which show traces oflatticework. The decoration ofthe walls, like that of the rest ofthe interior, imitates a veneeringof colored marbles. The shapeand comparatively narrow di-mensions of the elevated roomindicate that we have here a tri-bunal in the strict sense, a raisedplatform for the judge and hisassistants. Here the litigants stoodon the floor in front of the tri-bunal, and when court was insession the general public musthave been excluded from thispart of the corridor.

Under the tribunal was a vault-ed chamber half below the levelof the ground; two round holes,indicated on the plan, openedinto it from above. It could hardlyhave been designed as a placefor the confinement of prisoners;escape would have been easy bymeans of two windows in therear, especially when help wasrendered from the outside. Morelikely it was used, in connectionwith the business of the court,as a storeroom, in which writingmaterials and the like, or evendocuments, might be kept; theycould easily have been passedup through the holes when need-ed.

Kitchen

28

Pompeii

their wares. In later times thepressure of business led to theerection of separate buildingsaround the Forum to relieve thecongestion; such were the Ma-cellum, used as a provision mar-ket; the Eumachia building, erect-ed to accommodate the clothingtrade; the Basilica and the markethouse west of the temple ofJupiter, devoted to other branchesof trade. Yet in a literal sensethe Forum always remained thebusiness center of the city.

It served, too, as the favoritepromenade and lounging place,where men met to discuss mat-ters of mutual interest.

The life of the Forum seemedso interesting to one of the citi-zens of Pompeii that he devotedto the portrayal of it a series ofpaintings on the walls of a room.The pictures give a vivid repre-sentation of ancient life in asmall city. First, in front of theequestrian statues near the colon-nade we see dealers of everykind and description. There sitsa seller of copper vessels andiron utensils. Next come twoshoemakers, one waiting onwomen, another on men; thentwo cloth dealers. Further on aman is selling portions of warmfood from a kettle; then we seea woman with fruit and veg-etables, and a man selling bread.Another dealer in utensils is

engaged in eager bargaining,while his son, squatting on theground, mends a pot.

Then come men wearing tunics,engaged in some transaction. Be-yond these, some men are takinga walk; a woman is giving almsto a beggar; and two childrenplay hide and seek around a col-umn.

The following scene is not easyto understand, but apparentlyhas reference to some legalprocess; a woman leads a littlegirl with a small tablet beforeher breast into the presence oftwo seated men who wear thetoga.

The most important religiousfestivals were celebrated in theForum. Here naturally festal hon-ors were paid to the highest ofthe gods—the whole area en-closed by the colonnade was thecourt of his temple; but we learnfrom an inscription, mentionedbelow, that celebrations were

Second story

27

Pompeii

tus Sallustius, "Duumvir, Quin-quennial Duumvir, Patron of theColony."

Finally, on the south side, thelife size equestrian statues werealmost all removed in order tomake room for four much largerstatues, the pedestals of whichstill remain. These must haverepresented emperors, or mem-bers of the imperial families. Thepedestal in the middle is the old-est. Upon it was probably placeda colossal statue of Augustus.

Near the southeast corner aninscription was found: V[ibius]Popidius Ep[idii] f[ilius] q[uaestor]porticus faciendas coeravit,'Vibius Popidius, the son of Epid-ius, when quaestor caused thiscolonnade to be erected.' No clewto the date is given, but it musthave been before the coming ofthe Roman colony, for after thattime there was no office ofquaestor in Pompeii. It must alsohave been before the Social War.We may with much probabilityassign the inscription to the sec-ond half of the second centuryB.C.

Remains of the colonnade ofPopidius are still to be seen onthe south side, and on the ad-joining part of the east side, ex-tending just across AbbondanzaStreet.

The Basilica at the southwestcorner and the temple of Jupiter

both conform to the same varia-tion from the direction of theearly north and south street thatwe have noticed in the case ofthe colonnade of Popidius; theybelong, therefore, to the sameremodelling of the Forum. It isquite possible that the erectionof the temple, by limiting thearea of the Forum on the northside, caused its extension towardthe south beyond the earlierboundary.

A remodelling of the Forumcommenced in the early yearsof the Empire, the pavement hav-ing been laid before the pedestalof the monument to Augustuswas built. It was never carried tocompletion. On the west sidethe new colonnade was almostfinished when the earthquake ofthe year 63 threw it nearly alldown. At the time of the eruptiononly the columns at the southend of this side, which had safelypassed through the earthquake,were still standing with theirentablature. The area was thenstrewn with blocks, which thestonecutters were engaged inmaking ready for the rebuilding.

The Forum of Pompeii, as ofother ancient cities, was first ofall a market place. Early in themorning the country folk gath-ered here with the products ofthe farm; here all day long trades-people of every sort exhibited

30

Pompeii

right and the left are alike inhaving at the end opposite theentrance an apse large enoughto accommodate one or moremagistrates with their attendants;they were the official quartersof the aediles and the duumvirs,while the middle hall was thecouncil chamber, curia, wherethe decurions met.

The middle room was obviouslyintended to be the most richlyornamented of the three, andwas further distinguished fromthe others by the elevation of itsfloor, which was more than twofeet above the pavement of thecolonnade. In front of the en-trance is a platform reached ateither end by an approach hardlywide enough for two persons,thus suited for a select ratherthan a large attendance.

The office of the aediles, situ-ated at the corner of the colon-nade and close to the Basilicawas particularly convenient formagistrates who, among otherduties, were charged with themaintenance of order and theenforcement of regulations inthe markets.

BUILDING OF EUMACHIA,OR

EDIFICIO DI EUMACHIA(#8)

The plan of the large building

on the east side of the Forum,between the temple of Vespasianand Abbondanza Street, is simpleand regular. In front is a deepportico, facing the Forum. Theinterior consists of a large oblongcourt with three apses at the rearand a colonnade about the foursides; on three sides there is acorridor behind the colonnade,with numerous windows openingupon.

An inscription appears in largeletters on the entablature of theportico, and again on a marbletablet over the side entrance inAbbondanza Street: EumachiaL. f., sacerd[os] publ[ica], nominesuo et M. Numistri Frontonis filichalcidicum, cryptam, porticusConcordiae Augustae Pietati suapequnia fecit eademque dedi-cavit,—'Eumachia, daughter ofLucius Eumachius, a city priest-ess, in her own name and thatof her son, Marcus NumistriusFronto, built at her own expensethe portico, the corridor (cryptam,covered passage), and the colon-nade, dedicating them to Con-cordia Augusta and Pietas.’

The word pietas, in such con-nections, is difficult to translate.It sums up in a single conceptthe qualities of filial affection,conscientious devotion, and obe-dience to duty which in the Ro-man view characterized the prop-er conduct of children toward

29

Pompeii

held here in honor of Apolloalso, whose temple adjoined theForum, and was at first evenmore closely connected with itthan in later times.

Vitruvius informs us that inGreek towns the market place,agora, was laid out in the formof a square (a statement whichis not confirmed by modern ex-cavations), but that in the citiesof Italy, on account of the gladi-atorial combats, the Forumshould have an oblong shape,the breadth being two thirds ofthe length.

The purpose in giving a length-ened form to the Forum, as alsoto the Amphitheater, was nodoubt to secure, at the middleof the sides, a greater number ofgood seats, from which a spec-tacle could be witnessed.

In the Pompeian Forum thebreadth is less than one third ofthe length. However, there canbe little doubt that gladiatorial

exhibitions were frequently heldthere before the building of theAmphitheater, which dates fromthe earlier years of the Romancolony. After this time the Forumwas still used for games and con-tests of a less dangerous charac-ter.

MUNICIPAL BUILDINGS,OR

EDIFICI AMMINIS-TRAZIONE

PUBBLICA (#7)

At the south end of the Forumwere three buildings similar inplan and closely connected. Thebuilding at the right was at thecorner of the Forum, while thespace separating the other twolay on a line dividing the Foruminto two equal parts; east of thelast building is the Strada delleScuole.

The three buildings were erect-ed after the earthquake of 63, onthe site of older buildings of thesame character. In the walls ofthat furthest east, considerableremains of the earlier walls areembodied; in that near the cornerthe original pavement is pre-served, and in the middle buildingthere are traces of the originalpavement.

These spacious halls must haveserved the purposes of the cityadministration. The two at the

Floor

32

Pompeii

At the rear a small temple standsupon a high podium which proj-ects in front of the cella andreached by two flights of steps.The pedestal for the image ofthe divinity is built against therear wall.

In the middle of the court isan altar faced with marble andadorned on all four sides withreliefs of moderately good work-manship.

The temple itself was built, to-gether with the court, after theearthquake of 63, and at the timeof the eruption the work wasnot entirely completed. The wallsof the cella and of the entrancefrom the Forum had receivedtheir veneering of marble andwere in a finished state; but thoseof the court were still awaitingcompletion.

The temple must have beenbuilt in the time of Vespasian,who reigned from 68 to 79 A.D.;and as this emperor possessedtoo great simplicity of characterto allow men to worship himas a god while he was still alive,it was probably dedicated to hisGenius.

SANCTUARY OF THE PUB-LIC LARES, OR SANTUARIODEI LARI PUBBLICI (#10)

In earlier times a street openedinto the Forum south of the

macellum. Later, apparently inthe time of Augustus, it wasclosed, and the end, togetherwith adjoining space at the south,was occupied by a building whichmeasures approximately sixty byseventy Roman feet.

In richness of material and ar-chitectural detail this was amongthe finest edifices at Pompeii. Itswalls and floors were completelycovered with marble.

It is evident that we have herea place of worship, yet not, prop-erly speaking, a temple. Theshrine in the apse, with its broadpedestal for several relativelysmall images, presents a strikinganalogy to the shrines of theLares found in so many privatehouses. Cities, as well as house-holds, had their guardian spir-its.

The worship of these tutelarydivinities was reorganized by Au-gustus, who ordered that, justas the Genius of the master of

Temple of Apollo

31

Pompeii

their parents and grandparents.Here mother and son united indedicating the building to per-sonifications, or deifications, ofthe perfect harmony and the re-gard for elders that prevailed inthe imperial family.

The reference of the dedicationcan only be to the relation be-tween the Emperor Tiberius andhis mother Livia. In 22 A.D.,when Livia was very ill, the Senatevoted to erect an altar to PietasAugusta. In the following yearDrusus, the son of Tiberius, gaveexpression to his regard for hisgrandmother by placing her like-ness upon his coins, with theword Pietas.

At the time of the eruptionmen were still engaged in re-building the parts of the edificethat had suffered in the earth-quake of 63. The front wall atthe rear of the portico was fin-ished and had received its ve-neering of marble; as shown by

the existing remains, it con-formed to the plan of the earlierstructure. The columns andentablature of the portico hadnot yet been set in place; con-siderable portions of them werefound in the area of the Forum.

In front of the entrance fromAbbondanza Street, is a fountainof the ordinary Pompeian form;as the material is limestone it isprobably of later date than theother fountains, which are gen-erally of basalt. The figure rep-resents Concordia Augusta, butthe name Abundantia, given toit when first discovered, stilllingers in the Italian name forthe street, which might moreappropriately have been calledStrada della Concordia.

TEMPLE OF VESPASIAN,OR

TEMPIO DI VESPASIANO(#9)

South of the sanctuary of theCity Lares is another religiousedifice of an entirely differentcharacter. Passing from the Fo-rum across the open space onceoccupied by the portico—ofwhich no remains have beenfound—we enter a wide doorwayand find ourselves in a four-sidedcourt somewhat irregular inshape. The front part is occupiedby a colonnade.

Temple of Venus

34

Pompeii

Octavia, the sister of Augustus,and Marcellus, the hope of Au-gustus and of Rome, whose un-timely death was lamented byVirgil in those touching versesin the sixth book of the Aeneid.

The macellum in its presentform was at the time of the erup-tion by no means an ancientbuilding. While finished and nodoubt in use at the time of theearthquake of 63, it had beenbuilt not many years before, inthe reign of Claudius or of Nero,in the place of an older structurewhich dated from the pre-Romanperiod.

We can hardly doubt thatClaudius was worshipped inPompeii during his lifetime; it isknown from inscriptions thateven before the death of ClaudiusNero was honored with the serv-ices of a special priest.

TEMPLE OF JUPITER, OR TEMPIO DI GIOVE (#12)

Three temples adjoined the Fo-rum at Pompeii. In addition,there was a sanctuary of the CityLares; and the temples of VenusPompeiana and Fortuna Augustawere but a short distance away.These religious edifices are rep-resentative of the different peri-ods in the history of the city.

In very early times, the Oscansof Pompeii received from the

Greeks who had settled on thecoast the cult of Apollo, and builtfor the Hellenic god a large, finetemple adjoining the Forum onthe west side.

Several centuries later, the di-vinities of the Capitol—Jupiter,Juno, and Minerva—were en-throned in the temple that onthe north side towered abovethe area.

Further north, in the first blockat the right beyond the Forum,is the temple of Fortuna Augusta,the goddess who guarded thefortunes of Augustus, erected in3 B.C. A chapel for the worshipof Claudius and his family wasplaced in the macellum; thisseems to have sufficed also forthe worship of Nero. After Nero'sdeath and after the brief CivilWar, a temple was built close tothe shrine of the Lares in honorof Vespasian, the restorer ofpeace, the new Augustus. Thiswas the last temple erected inPompeii; it was not entirely fin-ished at the time of the erup-tion.

In the second century B.C. thelarge and splendid Basilica, serv-ing the double purpose of a courtand an exchange, was built atthe southwest corner.

Diagonally opposite, near thetemple of Jupiter, a provisionmarket, the macellum, was con-structed; this also at an early

33

Pompeii

the house was worshipped at thefamily shrine, so his Geniusshould receive honor togetherwith the Lares of the differentcities. As the house had its shrinefor the Lares, so also had thecity.

Undoubtedly we should recog-nize in this edifice the sanctuaryof the Lares of the city, Larariumpublicum.

MACELLUM (#11)

The large building at the north-east corner of the Forum was aprovision market, of the sortcalled macellum.

Such markets without doubtexisted in the Greek cities afterthe time of Alexander; from theGreeks, as in the case of thebasilica, the Romans took boththe name and the architecturaltype.

The first macellum in Romewas built in 179 B.C. in connec-

tion with the enlargement of afish market. The plan of thebuilding is simple. A court in theshape of a rectangle, slightlylonger than it is broad, is sur-rounded by a deep colonnadeon the four sides.

Under this roof the fish thathad been sold were scaled, thescales being thrown into thebasin, where they were found ingreat quantity. Behind the colon-nade on the south side, and open-ing into it, was a row of marketstalls or small shops. Above thesewere upper rooms, in front ofwhich was a wooden gallery, butthere was no stairway, and ap-parently the shopkeeper whowished to use his second storyhad to provide himself with aladder.

We also find two rooms whichgave to the building a religiouscharacter and placed it underthe special protection of the im-perial house. One, at the middleof the east end, is a chapel con-secrated to the worship of theemperors. The floor is raisedabove that of the rest of thebuilding, and the entrance isreached by five steps leading upfrom the rear of the colonnade.On a pedestal against the rearwall, and in four niches at thesides, were statues, of which onlythe two in the niches at the righthave been found; these represent

Basilica

36

Pompeii

lature, between the columns ofthe upper series, statues and vo-tive offerings were doubtlessplaced. The floor about the sideswas covered with white mosaic,of which scanty remains havebeen found; the marble pavementof the center has wholly disap-peared.

A head of Jupiter as found inthe cella, as was also an inscrip-tion of the year 37 A.D., contain-ing a dedication to Jupiter Opti-mus Maximus, the ruling deityof the Capitol at Rome. It is thusproved beyond question that theCapitoline Jupiter was wor-shipped here; and it will not bedifficult to ascertain what otherdivinities shared with him thehonors of the temple.

As the Roman colonies strovein all things to be Rome in minia-ture, each thought it necessaryto have a Capitolium—a templefor the worship of the gods ofthe Roman Capitol, Jupiter, Juno,and Minerva; and this naturallybecame the most importanttemple in the city. That theworship of the three divinitieswas established at Pompeii isevident from the discovery ofthree images representing them,in the little temple conjecturallyassigned to Zeus Milichius.

BATHS NEAR THE FORUM,OR TERME DEL FORO (#15)

The bathing establishment inthe block north of the Forum issmaller and simpler in its arrange-ments than that described in thelast chapter, but the parts areessentially the same. Here alsowe find a court, with a colonnadeon three sides; a system of bathsfor men, comprising a dressingroom with a small round frigi-darium opening off from it, atepidarium, and a caldarium; asimilar system for women, theplace of the frigidarium beingtaken by a tank for cold baths inthe dressing room; and a longnarrow furnace room betweenthe two baths. On three sides ofthe establishment are shops, inconnection with which are severalinns.

These baths were built shortlyafter 80 B.C., about the time thatUlius and Aninius repaired the

Forum

35

Pompeii

date. It was entirely rebuilt inthe time of the Empire, perhapsin the reign of Claudius.

On the west side, from pre-Ro-man times, stood a small colon-nade in two stories, with its rearagainst the rear of the colonnadeon the north side of the court ofthe temple of Apollo; only thefirst story, of the Doric order,has been preserved. Probably thisstructure and the small openspace in front were at first usedas a market; later, in the imperialperiod, shops were built uponthe open space, and the colon-nade was made over into closedrooms, the purpose of which,except in the case of one, is un-known.

The temple of Jupiter dominatesthe Forum, and more than anyother structure gives it character.It probably dates from the pre-Roman period, the columns beingof tufa covered with white stucco.The earthquake of the year 63left the temple in ruins, and atthe time of the eruption the workof rebuilding had not yet com-menced.

The temple stands on a podium10 Roman feet high, and includ-ing the steps, 125 Roman feetlong. Very nearly a half of thewhole length is given to the cella;of the other half, a little morethan two thirds is occupied bythe portico, leaving about a third

(20 Roman feet) for the steps.The pediment was sustained bysix Corinthian columns about28 feet high. This arrangement—a deep portico in front of thecella—is Etruscan, though thecanon of Vitruvius, that in Etr-uscan temples the depth of theportico should equal that of thecella, is violated. The high podiumalso, with steps in front, is char-acteristic of Etruscan, or at leastof early Italic religious architec-ture. On the other hand, the ar-chitectural forms of the super-structure are Greek, and thesein turn have had their influenceupon the plan.

Just in front of the doorway,which was fifteen Roman feetwide, are the large stones withholes for the pivots on whichthe massive double doors swung;the doors here were not placedin the doorway, but in front ofit, and were besides somewhatlarger, so that the effect was ren-dered more imposing when theywere shut.

The ornamentation of the cellawas especially rich. A row ofIonic columns, about fifteen feethigh, stood in front of each ofthe longer sides; the entablatureabove them probably served as abase for a similar row of Corinthi-an columns, the entablature ofwhich in turn supported the ceil-ing. On the intermediate entab-

Forum

38

Pompeii

surrounded by dolphins; under-neath is a mask of Oceanus black-ened by the soot.

The frigidarium is well pre-served. In all its arrangements itis almost an exact counterpartof the one in the Stabian Baths,with decorations suggestive of agarden.

The tepidarium is in the con-dition of the tepidariums of theStabian Baths before the im-proved arrangements for heatingwere introduced. There were nowarm air chambers in the wallsor the floor.

The caldarium is well preserved;only a part of the vaulted ceilinghas been destroyed.

We learn from an inscriptionon the labrum, in bronze letters,that it was made under the di-rection of Gnaeus MelissaeusAper and Marcus Staius Rufus,who were duumvirs in 3-4 A.D.,at a cost of 5250 sesterces. Thisroom seems to have received itsfinal form before the new methodof heating the water in the alveuscame into vogue; there is notrace of a bronze heater, such asthat found in connection withthe bath basin of the women'scaldarium at the Stabian Baths.The simple decoration is inmarked contrast with the usualornamentation of the later styles.

The rooms of the women'sbaths are small, their arrangement

being determined in part by theirregular shape of the corner ofthe building in which they areplaced; but the system of heatingis more complete than in themen's baths, for both the tepi-darium and the caldarium wereprovided with hollow floors andhot air spaces in the walls ex-tending to the lunettes and theceiling. The vaulted ceilings ofboth of these rooms, as well asof the apodyterium, are pre-served; but the caldarium haslost its hollow floor and walls,together with the bath basin,which was placed in a large nicheat the right as one entered; onlythe base of the labrum remains.

TEMPLE OF FORTUNA AUGUSTA, OR TEMPIO DIFORTUNA AUGUSTA (#16)

Passing out from the Forumunder the arch at the northeastcorner, we enter the broadeststreet in Pompeii. On the right acolonnade over the sidewalk runsalong the front of the first block,at the further corner of which,where Forum Street opens intoNola Street, stands the smalltemple of Fortuna Augusta.

The front of the temple is in aline with the colonnade, whichseems to have been designed asa continuation of the colonnadeabout the Forum. The colonnade

37

Pompeii

Stabian Baths. The names of thebuilders are known from an in-scription found in duplicate: “L.Caesius C. f. d[uum] v[ir] i[uri]d[icundo], C. Occius M. f., L. Ni-raemius A. f. II v[iri] d[e] d[ecu-rionum] s[ententia] ex peq[unia]publ[ica] fac[iundum] curar[unt]prob[arunt] q[ue]”. Thus we seethat the contract for the buildingwas let and the work approvedby Lucius Caesius, duumvir withjudiciary authority and the twoaediles, Occius and Niraemius,who are here styled duumvirs,for reasons already explained;the cost was defrayed by an ap-propriation from the public treas-ury.

The court here was not a palaes-tra; it was small for gymnasticexercises, and was not providedwith a swimming tank and dress-ing rooms. The open space wasoccupied by a garden.

The colonnade on the northand west sides of the court had

slender columns standing farapart, with a low and simpleentablature; on the east side thecolumns were replaced by pillarscarrying low arches, which servedas a support for a gallery affordinga pleasant view of the garden.This gallery was accessible fromthe upper rooms of several innsalong the street leading northfrom the Forum, whose guestsno doubt found diversion inwatching what was going on be-low—an advantage that may havebeen taken into account by thecity officials in fixing the rent.

From the court a corridor ledinto the men's apodyterium,which could be entered also onthe north side from the Stradadelle Terme. This room containedbenches; but there were no nich-es, as in the dressing rooms ofthe Stabian Baths, and woodenshelves or lockers may have beenused instead. The small darkchamber at the north end mayhave been used as a storeroomfor unguents, such as the Greekscalled elaeothesium.

Light was admitted to the dress-ing room through a window inthe lunette at the south end,closed by a pane of glass half aninch thick, set in a bronze framethat turned on two pivots. Oneither side of the window arehuge Tritons in stucco relief,with vases on their shoulders,

Municipal building

40

Pompeii

um, with living rooms on threesides; a small tetrastyle atrium,with rooms for domestic servicearound it and extending on theright side toward the rear of thehouse; a peristyle, the depth ofwhich equals the width of thelarge and half that of the smallatrium; and a second peristyle,occupying more than a third ofthe block. At the rear of the sec-ond peristyle is a series of smallrooms the depth of which variesaccording to the deviation of thestreet at the north end of the in-sula.

In front of the main entrancewe read the word HAVE (morecommonly written ave), 'Wel-come!' spelled in the sidewalkwith bits of green, yellow, red,and white marble.

The floor of the fauces, as ofmany of the other rooms, is richin color. It is made of small tri-angular pieces of marble andslate—red, yellow, green, white,and black. At the inner end itwas marked off from the floorof the atrium by a stripe offinely executed mosaic, sugges-tive of a threshold, now in theNaples Museum. Two tragicmasks are realistically outlined,appearing in the midst of fruits,flowers, and garlands, the detailsof which are worked out withmuch skill.

The atrium was a room of im-

posing dimensions. The lengthis approximately 53 feet, thebreadth 33; the height, as indi-cated by the remains of the wallsand the pilasters, was certainlynot less than 28 feet. Above wasa coffered ceiling. The sombershade of the floor, paved withsmall pieces of dark slate, formedan effective contrast with thewhite limestone edge and brilliantinner surface of the shallow im-pluvium, covered with pieces ofcolored marbles similar to thosein the fauces. Still more markedwas the contrast in the strongcolors of the walls. Below was abroad surface of black; then aprojecting white dentil cornice,and above this, masses of darkred, bluish green, and yellow.The decoration, as usual in thefirst style, was not carried to theceiling, but stopped just abovethe side doors; the upper part ofthe wall was left in the white.

As one stepped across the mo-

Public Lares

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Pompeii

is certainly not older than theearlier years of the Empire, andthe temple dates from the timeof Augustus.

The divinity of the temple andthe name of its builder are bothknown to us from an inscriptionon the architrave of the shrineat the rear of the cella: M. TulliusM. f., d. v. i. d. ter., quinq[uen-nalis], augur, tr[ibunus] mil[itum]a pop[ulo], aedem Fortunae Au-gust[ae] solo et peq[unia] sua,—'Marcus Tullius the son of Mar-cus, duumvir with judiciary au-thority for the third time, quin-quennial duumvir, augur, andmilitary tribune by the choice ofthe people, (erected this) templeto Fortuna Augusta on his ownground and at his own expense.

Such inscriptions were ordi-narily placed on the entablatureof the portico.

The worship of Fortuna Au-gusta was in charge of a collegeof priests, consisting of four slaves

and freedmen, who were calledMinistri Fortunae Augustae,—'Servants of Fortuna Augusta.'

HOUSE OF THE FAUN, OR CASA DEL FAUNO (#17)

The house of the Faun, sonamed from the statue of a danc-ing satyr found in it, was amongthe largest and most elegant inPompeii. It illustrates for us thetype of dwelling that wealthymen of cultivated tastes livingin the third or second centuryB.C. built and adorned for them-selves. The mosaic pictures foundon the floors (now in the NaplesMuseum) are the most beautifulthat have survived to moderntimes.

The wall decoration, which isof the first style, in the more im-portant rooms was left unalteredto the last, and is well preserved.This decoration, however, doesnot date from the building ofthe house. In order to protectthe painted surfaces against mois-ture, the walls in the beginningwere carefully covered with sheetsof lead before they were plas-tered.

An entire block, measuring ap-proximately 315 by 115 feet, isgiven to the house; there are noshops except the four in front.The apartments are arranged infour groups: a large Tuscan atri-

Temple of Vespasian, bas-relief

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Pompeii

ious kinds, and sea monsters; inthe other was the picture—oftenreproduced—in which the Geniusof the autumn is represented asa vine-crowned boy sitting on apanther and drinking out of adeep golden bowl.

The colonnade of the first peri-style was of one story. The entab-lature of the well proportionedIonic columns presented a mix-ture of styles often met with inPompeii, a Doric frieze with adentil cornice. The wall surfaceswere divided by pilasters anddecorated in the first style. Inthe middle of the garden the del-icately carved standard of a mar-ble fountain basin may still beseen.

The open front of the broadexedra was adorned with twocolumns, and at the rear was awindow extending almost fromside to side, opening upon thesecond peristyle. Between thecolumns of the entrance weremosaic pictures of the creaturesof the Nile,—hippopotamus,crocodile, ichneumon, and ibis;and in the room, filling almostthe entire floor, was the mostfamous of ancient mosaic pic-tures, the battle between Alexan-der and Darius. The battle isperhaps that of Issus. The leftside of the picture is only inpart preserved. At the head ofthe Greek horsemen rides

Alexander, fearless, un-helmeted,leading a charge against thepicked guard of Darius. The longspear of the terrible Macedonianis piercing the side of a Persiannoble, whose horse sinks underhim. The driver of Darius's char-iot is putting the lash to thehorses, but the fleeing king turnswith an expression of anguishand terror to witness the deathof his courtier, the mounted no-blemen about him being panic-stricken at the resistless onsetof the Greeks. The grouping ofthe combatants, the characteri-zation of the individual figures,the skill with which the expres-sions upon the faces are rendered,and the delicacy of coloring givethis picture a high rank amongancient works of art.

Alexander, having thrown asidehis helmet, is leading the chargeupon the guard of Darius, whois already in flight.

On either side of the exedra

Temple of Jupiter

41

Pompeii

saic border at the end of thefauces, a beautiful vista openedup before the eyes. From theaperture of the compluvium adiffused light was spread throughthe atrium brilliant with its richcoloring. At the rear the loftyentrance of the tablinum attract-ed the visitor by its stately dig-nity.

The shrubs and flowers of thegarden are bright with sunshine,and fragrant odors are waftedthrough the house; in the midsta slender fountain jet rises inthe air and falls with a murmurpleasant to the ear.

Of the rooms at the side of theatrium, one was apparently thefamily sleeping room; places fortwo beds were set off by slightelevations in the floor. This roomhad been carefully redecoratedin the second style; the roomopposite, the decoration of whichwas inferior to that of the rest,was perhaps used by the porter

(atriensis).The tablinum, like that of the

house of Sallust, had a broadwindow opening on the colon-nade of the peristyle. In the mid-dle of this room is a rectangularsection paved with lozenge-shaped pieces of black, white,and green stone; the rest of thefloor is of white mosaic. Thefloor of each ala was ornamentedwith a mosaic picture. In that atthe left are doves pulling a neck-lace out of a casket—a work ofslight merit.

The mosaic picture found inthe right ala is characterized bydelicacy of execution and har-monious coloring. It is dividedinto two parts; above is a catwith a partridge; below, ducks,fishes, and shellfish. A large win-dow in the rear wall of this alaopens into the small atrium, notfor the admission of light, butfor ventilation; in summer therewould be a circulation of air be-tween the two atriums.

Two doors, at the right and theleft of the tablinum, opened intolarge dining rooms, one nearlysquare, the other oblong. Bothhad large windows on the sideof the peristyle, and the one atthe left also a door opening uponthe colonnade. The mosaic pic-tures in the floors harmonizedwell with the purpose of therooms. In one were fishes of var-

Macellum

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Pompeii

Roman time.In the floor of the fauces, im-

mediately behind the doublefront door, is a dog, attached toa chain, outlined in black andwhite mosaic, with the inscrip-tion, cave canem, 'Beware of thedog!' The picture was for manyyears in the Naples Museum.The black and white mosaic iswell preserved in the atrium, thetablinum, and the dining roomopening on the peristyle, as wellas in the fauces.

The decoration of the large din-ing room is especially effective.In the front of the room is abroad door opening into thecolonnade of the peristyle; eachof the three sides contains threepanels, in the midst of a lightbut carefully finished architec-tural framework. In the centralpanels are large paintings: ayoung couple looking at a nestof Cupids; Theseus going onboard ship, leaving behind him

the beautiful Ariadne; and a com-position in which Artemis is theprincipal figure. In four of thesmaller panels are the Seasons,represented as graceful femalefigures hovering in the air; theothers present youthful warriorswith helmet, shield, sword, andspear.

The atrium, unlike most ofthose at Pompeii, was rich inwall paintings. Six panels, morethan four feet high, presented aseries of scenes from the storyof the Trojan war, as told in the"Iliad."

In arranging the pictures, thedecorators had little regard forthe order of events. The subjectswere the Nuptials of Zeus andHera (at a on the plan); the judg-ment of Paris—though this isdoubtful, as the picture is nowentirely obliterated; the deliveryof Briseis to the messenger ofAgamemnon; the departure ofChryseis, and seemingly Thetis

Baths

43

Pompeii

were two dining rooms, one openin its entire breadth upon thesecond peristyle, the other havinga narrow door with two win-dows.

In the sleeping room on theother side of the corridor, whichhad been redecorated in the sec-ond style, remains of two bedswere found. The room next to itwas the largest in this part ofthe house; at the time of theeruption it was without decora-tion and was used as a winecellar. A great number of am-phorae were found in it, as alsoin both peristyles.

The domestic apartments wereentered by a front door betweenthe two shops at the right. Thevestibule, unlike that of the otherentrance, is open to the street.

This part of the house wasmuch damaged by the earthquakeof 63, and there are many tracesof repairs, particularly in the up-per rooms.

The kitchen is of unusual size.A niche for the images of thehousehold gods was placed inthe wall at the left, so high upthat it could only have beenreached by means of a ladder.The front is shaped to resemblethe façade of a small temple, andin it is a small altar of terra cottafor the burning of incense.

HOUSE OF THE TRAGICPOET, OR CASA DEL POETA

TRAGICO (#22)

In the "Last Days of Pompeii"the house of the Tragic Poet ispresented to us as the home ofGlaucus. Though not large, itwas among the most attractivein the city. It received its presentform and decoration not manyyears before the eruption, ap-parently after the earthquake of63, and well illustrates thearrangements of the Pompeianhouse of the last years.

The house received its nameat the time of excavation, in con-sequence of a curious misinter-pretation of a painting—now inthe Naples Museum—which wasfound in the tablinum. The sub-ject is the delivery to Admetusof the oracle which declared thathe must die unless some oneshould voluntarily meet deathin his place. The excavatorsthought that the scene repre-sented a poet reciting his verses;and since they found, in the floorof the tablinum, a mosaic picturein which an actor is seen makingpreparations for the stage, theyconcluded that the figure withthe papyrus in the wall paintingmust be a tragic poet.

The plan does not differ mate-rially from that which we havefound in the houses of the pre-

46

Pompeii

of Artemis with a torch in eachhand, a dog on either side. Justas the girl is to be slain, Artemisappears in the sky at the right,and from the clouds opposite anymph emerges bringing a deer,which the goddess accepts as asubstitute.

HOUSE OF SALLUST, OR CASA DI SALLUSTIO (#25)

The house of Sallust receivedits name from an election notice,painted on the outside, in whichGaius Sallustius was recommend-ed for a municipal office. It hasno peristyle, and its original planclosely resembled that of thehouse of the Surgeon. It wasbuilt in the second century B.C.;the architecture is that of theTufa Period, and the well pre-served decoration of the atrium,tablinum, alae, and the diningroom at the left of the tablinumis of the first style. The pilastersat the entrances of the alae andthe tablinum are also unusuallywell preserved; the house isamong the most important forour knowledge of the period towhich it belongs.

The rooms on the left side wereused as a bakery. The rooms atthe right were private apartmentsadded later and connected withthe rest of the house only bymeans of the corridor.

At the rear was a garden ontwo sides (24, 24'), with a colon-nade. A broad window in therear of the left ala opened intothis colonnade, a part of whichwas afterwards enclosed, makingtwo small rooms. At the end ofthe latter room a stairway wasbuilt leading to chambers; in thebeginning the house had no sec-ond floor.

In the corner of the garden isan open air triclinium, over whichvines could be trained; there wasa small altar near by. A jet ofwater spurted from an openingin the wall upon a small platformof masonry. Only the edges ofthis portion of the garden, whichis higher than the floor of thecolonnade, were planted.

The large dining room mayonce have belonged to the bakery;the anteroom leading to it wasmade from one of the side roomsof the atrium.

The proportions of the atriumare monumental. The treatmentof the entrances to the tablinumand the alae, with pilasters joinedby projecting entablatures, thesevere and simple decoration,and the admission of lightthrough the compluvium in-creased the apparent height ofthe room and gave it an aspectof dignity and reserve.

There was a small fountain inthe middle of the little garden,

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Pompeii

bringing arms across the sea toAchilles. Half of the painting inwhich Chryseis appears was al-ready ruined at the time of ex-cavation; the other half was trans-ferred to the Naples Museum,together with the paintings thatwere best preserved, the Nuptialsof Zeus and Hera, and the send-ing away of Briseis.

The two pictures last mentionedare among the best known ofthe Pompeian paintings, and haveoften been reproduced. In onewe see Zeus sitting at the right,while Hypnos presents to himHera, whose left wrist he gentlygrasps in his right hand as if todraw her to him. Hera seemshalf reluctant, and her face, whichthe artist, in order to enhancethe effect, has directed towardthe beholder rather than towardZeus, is queenly in its majestyand power.

A higher degree of dramaticinterest is manifested in the otherpainting. In the foreground at

the right, Patroclus leads forwardthe weeping Briseis. In the middleAchilles, seated, looks towardPatroclus with an expression ofanger, and with an impatientgesture of the right hand directshim to deliver up the beautifulcaptive to the messenger ofAgamemnon, who stands at theleft waiting to receive her. BehindAchilles is Phoenix, his faithfulcompanion, who tries to softenhis anger with comforting words.Further back the helmeted headsof warriors are seen, and at therear the tent of Achilles.

Another painting worthy ofmore than passing mention wasfound on a wall of the peristyle,and removed to the Naples Mu-seum. The subject is the sacrificeof Iphigenia, who was to be of-fered up to Artemis that a favor-able departure from Aulis mightbe granted to the Greek fleet as-sembled for the expeditionagainst Troy.

At the right stands Calchas, hissheath in his left hand, his un-sheathed sword in his right, hisfinger upon his lips. The haplessmaid with arms outstretched insupplication is held by two men,one of whom is perhaps Ulysses.At the left is Agamemnon, withface averted and veiled head,overcome with grief. Beside himleans his scepter, and on a pillarnear by we see an archaic statue

Temple of Fortuna Augusta

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Pompeii

placed further back. The livingrooms would be grouped aboutthe central spaces in the waythat would best suit the config-uration of the ground and meetthe wishes of the owner. In mostparts of Italy a large farmhousewould contain appliances formaking wine and oil.

The arrangement of the twotypes of country house in thevicinity of Pompeii may be brieflyillustrated by reference to an ex-ample of each, the villa ofDiomedes and the farmhouse atBoscoreale.

Villa of Diomedes is locatedbeyond the last group of tombsat the left of the road leadingfrom the Herculaneum Gate. Anextensive establishment similarin character, the so-called villaof Cicero, lies nearer the Gateon the same side of the road; onthe right there is a third villa, ofwhich only a small part has beenuncovered. The three seem tohave belonged to a series ofcountry seats situated on theridge that extends back fromPompeii in the direction ofVesuvius. The villa of Diomedes,excavated in 1771-74, receivedits name from the tomb of Mar-cus Arrius Diomedes, facing theentrance, on the opposite sideof the Street of Tombs.

We assume that the villa wasbuilt in Roman times, but before

the reign of Augustus. In frontof the door was a narrow porch.The door opened directly intothe peristyle, in the middle of agarden. At the left is a small tri-angular court containing a swim-ming tank and a hearth on whicha kettle and several pots werefound; the Romans partook ofwarm refreshments after a bath.The wall back of the swimmingtank was in part decorated witha garden scene, not unlike thosein the frigidariums of the twoolder public baths. Over the tankwas a roof supported by twocolumns, and on the other twosides of the court there was alow but well proportioned colon-nade.

The arrangements of the bathwere unusually complete, com-prising an apodyterium, a tepi-darium, and a caldarium. A smalloven stands on one end of thehearth in the kitchen, and a stonetable is built against the wall on

House of the Faun

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Pompeii

the rear wall of which is coveredby a painting representing thefate of Actaeon, torn to piecesby his own hounds as a penaltyfor having seen Diana at thebath. At first the colonnade hada flat roof, with an open walkabove on the three sides; butwhen the large dining room wasconstructed, the flat roof andpromenade on this side were re-placed by a sloping roof over thebroad entrance to the diningroom. On the outer walls of thetwo sleeping rooms were twopaintings of similar design, Eu-ropa with the bull, Phrixus andHelle with the ram.

This portion of the house prob-ably dates from the latter part ofthe Republic; it underwent minorchanges in the course of the cen-tury during which it was used.

The shop at the left of the en-trance opens upon the atriumas well as on the street; the prin-cipal counter is on the side ofthe fauces, and near the innerend is a place for heating a vesselover the fire. Large jars were setin the counter, and there was astone table in the middle of theroom. Here edibles and hotdrinks were sold to those insidethe house as well as to passers-by.

This explanation is confirmedby the close connection of thebakery with the house; and the

use of the open-air triclinium isentirely consistent with it.

VILLA OF DIOMEDES, OR VILLA DI DIOMEDE (#29)

Two classes of villas were dis-tinguished by the Romans,—thecountry seat, villa pseudo-urbana,and the farmhouse, villa rustica.The former was a city house,adapted to rural conditions; thearrangements of the latter weredetermined by the requirementsof farm life.

The country seats manifesteda greater diversity of plan thanthe city residences. They wererelatively larger, containing spa-cious colonnades and gardens;as the proprietor was unrestrictedin regard to space, not beingconfined to the limits of a lot,fuller opportunity was affordedfor the display of individual tastein the arrangement of rooms.We can understand from the let-ters of Pliny the Younger, de-scribing his two villas at Lau-rentum and Tifernum Tiberinum(now Città di Castello), and fromthe remains of the villa of Hadri-an at Tivoli, how far individualitymight assert itself in the planningand building of a country home.

The main entrance of a countryseat, according to Vitruvius,should lead directly to a peristyle;one or more atriums might be

50

Pompeii

were found the skeletons of eight-een adults and two children: atthe time of excavation the im-pressions of their bodies, and insome instances traces of theclothing, could be seen in thehardened ashes. Among thewomen was one with two neck-laces, two arm bands and fourgold rings. The victims were suf-focated by the damp ashes thatdrifted in through the small win-dows. According to the reportof the excavations, fourteen skele-tons of men were found in otherparts of the house, together withthe skeletons of a dog and a goat.

CENTRAL BATHS, OR TERME CENTRALI (#35)

Seneca in an entertaining lettergives an account of a visit about60 A.D. to the villa at Liternumin which the Elder Scipio hadlived in the years immediatelypreceding his death, in 183 B.C.The philosopher was particularlystruck with the bath, the sim-plicity of which he contrastsforcibly with the luxurious ap-pointments of his own time. Wecannot follow him through theextended disquisition—he speaksof various refinements of luxuryof which we find no traces atPompeii; but he mentions as themost striking difference the lackof light in the old bath, with its

small apertures more like chinksthan windows, while in his daythe baths were provided withlarge windows protected by glass,and people 'wanted to be par-boiled in full daylight,' besideshaving the enjoyment meanwhileof a beautiful view. Some suchfeeling as this we have in turningfrom the two older baths at Pom-peii—one of pre-Roman origin,the other dating from the timeof Sulla—to the Central Baths,which were in process of con-struction at the time of the erup-tion, and had been designed inaccordance with the prevailingmode of life.

Entrances from three streetslead to the ample palaestra. Onthe northeast side is the excava-tion for a large swimming tank,and for a water channel leadingto the closet. In order to havewater at hand for building pur-poses, the masons had built alow wall around an old impluvi-um on the south side into whicha feed pipe ran. For a short dis-tance on the north side the sty-lobate had been made ready forthe building of the colonnade;elsewhere only the preliminarywork had been done. The roomsat the southeast corner were nodoubt intended for dressingrooms for the palaestra and theplunge bath.

Two small rooms open upon

49

Pompeii

the long side. The room in thecorner was used as a reservoirfor water, which was broughtinto it by means of a feed pipeand thence distributed throughsmaller pipes leading to the bathrooms and other parts of thehouse.

At the left of the peristyle is apassage leading to a garden. Thelarge room at the rear of theperistyle may be loosely called atablinum; it could be closed atthe rear. Back of the tablinumwas originally a colonnade, whichwas later turned into a corridor,with rooms at either end. Beyondthe colonnade was a broad terraceextending to the edge of the gar-den. It commanded a magnificentview of Stabiae, the coast in thedirection of Sorrento, and theBay. Connected with it was anunroofed promenade over thecolonnade surrounding the largegarden below. A rectangularroom, indicated on the plan butnot in the restoration) was af-

terwards built on the terrace.Members of the family could

pass into the lower portion ofthe villa by means of a stairway,the slaves could use a 359 longcorridor, which was more directlyconnected with the domesticapartments. The flat roof of thequadrangular colonnade was car-ried on the outside by a wall, onthe inside by square pillars. Therooms opening into the front ofthe colonnade were vaulted, andthe decoration, in the last style,is well preserved.

At the opposite corners of thecolonnade were two airy gardenrooms. The garden enclosed bythe colonnade was planted withtrees, charred remains of whichwere found at the time of exca-vation. In the middle was a fishpond, in which was a fountain.

The door at the rear of the gar-den led into the fields. Near itwere found the skeletons of twomen. One of them had a largekey, doubtless the key of thisdoor; he wore a gold ring on hisfinger, and was carrying a con-siderable sum of money—tengold and eighty-eight silver coins.He was probably the master ofthe house who had started out,accompanied by a slave, in orderto find means of escape.

At the time of the eruptionmany members of the familytook refuge in the cellar. Here

House of the Tragic Poet

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Pompeii

cornice of the domed ceiling.There was probably anotherround opening at the apex, de-signed for a bronze shutter, whichcould be opened or closed frombelow by means of a chain, so asto regulate the temperature.Doors led into the laconicumfrom both the tepidarium andthe caldarium.

HOUSE OF THE VETTII,OR CASA DEI VETTI (#36)

The house of the Vettii was sit-uated in a quiet part of the city,and was not conspicuous by rea-son of its size. Its interest for uslies chiefly in its paintings andin the adornment of the wellpreserved peristyle.

The relationship between thetwo owners, Aulus Vettius Resti-tutus and Aulus Vettius Convivais not known. They were perhapsfreedmen, manumitted by thesame master; Conviva, as welearn from a painted inscription,was a member of the Brother-hood of Augustus,—Vetti Con-viva, Augustal[is].

Opening on the peristyle arethree large apartments, and twosmaller rooms. A door at theright leads into a small sideperistyle, with a quiet diningroom and bedroom.

The domestic apartments werenear the front of the house. At

the right of the principal atriumis a small side atrium without aseparate street entrance. Groupedabout it were rooms for the slavesand the kitchen with a largehearth. Beyond the kitchen is aroom for the cook. At the rearof the small atrium is the nichefor the household gods.

The columns of the peristyleare well preserved. They arewhite, with ornate capitals mold-ed in stucco and painted with avariety of colors. Part of theentablature also remains; the ar-chitrave is ornamented with anacanthus arabesque in white stuc-co relief on a yellow background.

Nowhere else in Pompeii willthe visitor so easily gain an im-pression of the aspect presentedby a peristyle in ancient times.The main part of the house wassearched for objects of value afterthe eruption, but the garden wasleft undisturbed, and we see init today the fountain basins, stat-

House of Sallust

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Pompeii

the north entrance of the palaes-tra; one of them, perhaps, wasto be a ticket office, for the ad-justment of matters relating toadmission, the other a cloakroom, in which the capsariuswould guard the valuables of thebathers.

Two doors admit the visitorfrom the palaestra to the seriesof bath rooms, one of them open-ing from the north end of thecolonnade. The first room wasdesigned to answer the purposeof a store, with four booths open-ing into it for the sale of ediblesand bathers' conveniences.

The apodyterium, tepidarium,and caldarium had each threelarge windows opening on thepalaestra. None of the roomswere finished, though a hollowfloor and hollow walls had beenbuilt in the tepidarium, caldari-um, and laconicum.

Five smaller windows on thesoutheast side of the caldariumlooked out on a narrow garden,about which the workmen hadcommenced to build a wall tocut off the sight of the firemenpassing to and fro between thetwo furnaces. The caldarium wasso placed as to receive the greatestpossible amount of sunlight, par-ticularly in the afternoon hours,when it would be used; this wasin accordance with a recommen-dation of Vitruvius, who says

that the windows of baths ought,whenever possible, to face thesouthwest, otherwise the south.

The contrast is indeed markedbetween the numerous large win-dows here, with their attractiveoutlook, and the small apertures,high in the walls and ceiling,through which light was admittedin the older baths.

In the Central Baths there wasno frigidarium; but a large basinfor cold baths, nearly five feetdeep, was placed in the dressingroom opposite the windows. Sup-ply pipes were so laid that jetswould spring into the basin fromthree small niches, one in eachwall.

The tepidarium—here, as usual,relatively small—is connectedwith the apodyterium by twodoors, and similarly with the cal-darium. The latter room has abath basin at each end, thus af-fording accommodations fortwenty-six or twenty-eightbathers at once. The hot air fluesleading from the furnaces underthe bath basins were alreadybuilt, and above them openingswere left for semi-cylindricalheaters like that in the women'scaldarium of the Stabian Baths.

The round sweating room, la-conicum, was made more ampleby means of four semicircularniches, and lighted by three smallround windows just above the

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Pompeii

STABIAN BATHS, OR TERME STABIANE (#40)

In comparison with the greatbathing establishments of Rome,the baths at Pompeii are of mod-erate size. They have, however,a special interest, due in part totheir excellent preservation, inpart to the certainty with whichthe purpose of the various roomscan be determined; and their re-mains enable us to trace the de-velopment of the public bath ina single city during a period ofalmost two hundred years.

It is not easy for one livingunder present conditions to un-derstand how important a placethe baths occupied in the life ofantiquity, particularly of the Ro-mans under the Empire; theyoffered, within a single enclosure,opportunities for physical careand comfort and leisurely inter-course with others, not unlikethose afforded in the cities ofmodern Europe by the club, thecafé, and the promenade.

Though the Roman baths dif-fered greatly in size and in detailsof arrangement, the essentialparts were everywhere the same.First there was a court, palaestra,surrounded by a colonnade. Thiswas devoted to gymnastic exer-cises, and connected with it inmost cases was an open-air swim-ming tank. The dressing room,

apodyterium, was usually enteredfrom the court through a pas-sageway or anteroom. A basinfor cold baths was sometimesplaced in the dressing room; inlarge establishments a separateapartment was set aside for thispurpose, the frigidarium. To avoidtoo sudden a change of temper-ature for the bathers, a roommoderately heated, tepidarium,was placed between the dressingroom and the caldarium, in whichhot baths were given. At one endof the caldarium was a bath basinof masonry, alveus; at the otherwas ordinarily a semicircularniche, schola, in which stood thelabrum, a large, shallow, circularvessel resting upon a support ofmasonry, and supplied with luke-warm water by a pipe leadingfrom a tank back of the furnace.The more extensive establish-ments, as the Central Baths atPompeii, contained also a roundroom, called laconicum from itsSpartan origin, for sweating bathsin dry air. In describing baths itis more convenient to use theancient names.

In earlier times the rooms wereheated by means of braziers, andin one of the Pompeian bathsthe tepidarium was warmed inthis way to the last. A more sat-isfactory method was devisednear the beginning of the firstcentury B.C. by Sergius Orata, a

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Pompeii

uettes, and other sculpturesplaced there by the proprietor.

Near the middle of the gardenis a round, marble table. Threeothers stand under the colon-nade, one of which, at the rightnear the inner end, is particularlyelegant. The three feet are carvedto represent lions' claws; theheads above are well executed,and there are traces of yellowcolor on the manes. On two pil-lars in the garden are doublebusts, the subjects of which aretaken from the bacchic cycle.One represents Bacchus and abacchante, the other Bacchusand Ariadne; there are traces ofpainting on the hair, beard, andeyes.

The wall paintings of this houseare the most remarkable discov-ered at Pompeii. The earlier paint-ings are found in the atrium, thealae, and the large room at theend of the peristyle. The earlierpaintings must have been placed

upon the walls before the year63, in the reign of Claudius orthe earlier part of the reign ofNero.

The later pictures are on thewalls of the fauces, the largeapartment at the left of the atri-um, the colonnade of the peri-style, the two dining rooms open-ing on the peristyle, and thesmall peristyle with the adjoiningrooms; to the same class belongsalso the painting of the Geniuswith the Lares in the side atrium,which, aside from this, containsno pictures.

The contrast between the earlierand the later decoration is somarked that it seems impossibleto explain except on the assump-tion of a change of owners. Wemay well believe that about themiddle of the first century thiswas the home of a family of cul-ture and standing, who securedfor the decoration of it the bestartist that could be obtained,bringing him perhaps from Romeor from a Greek city. But withina score of years afterwards thehouse passed into the hands ofthe Vettii, freedmen, perhaps,whose taste in matters of art wasfar inferior to that of the formeroccupants, and a number ofrooms were redecorated.

Villa of the Mysteries

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Pompeii

oughly rubbed with unguents,as a safeguard against taking cold.

Some bathers omitted the warmbath. They passed through thetepidarium directly into the la-conicum or caldarium, wherethey had a sweat; they then tooka cold bath, or had cold waterpoured over them, and wererubbed with unguents.

In the simplest form of the baththe main rooms were not usedat all. The bathers heated them-selves with exercise in the palaes-tra, then removed the dirt andoil with scrapers and bathed inthe swimming tank.

The largest and oldest bathingestablishment at Pompeii is thatto which the name Stabian Bathshas been given, from its locationon Stabian Street. It was built inthe second century B.C., but wasremodelled in the early days ofthe Roman colony, and after-wards underwent extensive re-pairs. It is of irregular shape, andoccupies a large part of a block.

Entering from the souththrough the broad doorway,we find ourselves in the palaes-tra, which has a colonnade onthree sides.

On the east side of the courtare the men's baths, rooms;north of these are the women'sbaths, with the furnace roombetween them.

The anteroom of the men's

baths, opens at one end into thedressing room or apodyterium.It has a vaulted ceiling, richlydecorated. A door at the left leadsinto the frigidarium, and anotherat the right into a servants' wait-ing room.

The apodyterium also was pro-vided with benches of the samesort. Along the walls at the sides,just under the edge of the vaultedceiling, was a row of small niches,the use of which correspondedwith that of the lockers in a mod-ern gymnasium.

More effective is the decorationof the small round frigidarium.Light is admitted, as in the Pan-theon at Rome, through a roundhole in the apex of the domedceiling. At the edge of the circularbath basin, lined with white mar-ble, was a narrow strip of marblefloor, which is extended into thefour semicircular niches. Walland niches alike are painted torepresent a beautiful garden, with

Central Baths

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Pompeii

famous epicure, whose surnameis said to have been given to himbecause of his fondness for gold-en trout (auratae). He was theinventor of the 'hanging baths’,or balneae pensiles. These werebuilt with a hollow space underthe floor, the space being securedby making the floor of tiles, twofeet square, supported at the cor-ners by small brick pillars; intothis space hot air was introducedfrom the furnace, and as thefloor became warm, the temper-ature of the room above wasevenly modified.

This improved method of heat-ing was not long restricted tothe floors. As early as the Re-publican period, the hollow spacewas extended to the walls bymeans of small quadrangularflues and by the use of nippletiles, tegulae mammatae, largerectangular tiles with conicalprojections at each corner.

In bathing establishments de-signed for both men and women,the two caldaria were placed neartogether. There was a single fur-nace, hypocausis, where the waterfor the baths was warmed; fromthis also hot air was conveyedthrough broad flues under thefloors of both caldaria, thencecirculating through the walls.Through similar flues under-neath, the warm air, already con-siderably cooled, was conveyed

from the hollow spaces of thecaldaria into those of the tepi-daria. In order to maintain adraft strong enough to draw thehot air from the furnace underthe floors, the air spaces of thewalls had vents above, remainsof which may still be seen insome baths. In order to warmthem at the outset a draft firewas needed,—that is, a small fireunder the floor at some point aconsiderable distance from thefurnace and near the vents,through which it would causethe escape of warm air, and sostart a hot current from the fur-nace. The place of the draft firehas been found under two roomsof the Pompeian baths.

The most common form of thebath was that taken after exercisein the palaestra,—ball playingwas a favorite means of exer-cise,—use being made of all therooms. The bather undressed inthe apodyterium, or perhaps inthe tepidarium, where he wasrubbed with unguents; then hetook a sweat in the caldarium,following it with a warm bath.Returning to the apodyterium,he gave himself a cold bath eitherin this room or in the frigidarium;he then passed into the lacon-icum, or, if there was no lacon-icum, went back into the cal-darium for a second sweat; lastly,before going out, he was thor-

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Pompeii

was intended as a shelter for the-ater-goers, but was afterwardsturned into barracks for gladia-tors.

With a similar purpose, a colon-nade of the Doric order was builtalong two sides of the triangularlevel space about the Greek tem-ple. In front of the north end, ahigh portico of the Ionic orderwas erected facing the street,thus forming a monumental en-trance to the Theater. The south-west side of the area was leftunobstructed, and the place, byreason of its shape, is called theForum Triangulare, 'Three-cor-nered Forum.'

Early in the Roman Period, notlong after 80 B.C., a small roofedtheater was constructed east ofthe stage of the Large Theater.

Stabian Street north and southof the Small Theater was linedwith private houses. At the north-east corner of the block was atemple of Zeus Milichius, seem-ingly of early date, but entirelyrebuilt about the time that theSmall Theater was erected.

Of the ancient Doric templelittle remains: only the foun-dation, which was high for aGreek temple, with a flight ofsteps in front; two stumps ofcolumns and traces of a third;four capitals, and portions ofthe right wall of the cella.

The temple was of mixed con-

struction, part stone and partwood. In respect to age this tem-ple must have been built in the6th century B.C.

At the time of the eruption thetemple was in ruins.

LARGE THEATER, OR TEATRO GRANDE (#43)

Performances upon the stagewere first given in Rome in theyear 364 B.C.; a pestilence wasraging, and the Romans thoughtto appease the gods by a newkind of celebration in their honor.The performers were broughtfrom Etruria, and the exerciseswere limited to dancing, with anaccompaniment on the flute.There was as yet no Latin drama.The first regular play was pre-sented more than a century later,in 240B.C., and the playwrightwas not a Roman but a Greekfrom Tarentum, Livius Andron-icus, who translated both

Stabian Baths

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Pompeii

a blue sky above.The tepidarium and caldarium

were heated by means of hollowfloors and walls. The former ismuch the smaller, as we shouldhave expected from its use as anintermediate room, in which thebathers would ordinarily not tarryso long as in the caldarium.

The women's baths are enteredfrom the court through a longanteroom; the dressing room isconnected also with the two sidestreets by means of corridors.

The apodyterium is the bestpreserved room of the entirebuilding, and also the most an-cient. It shows almost no tracesof the catastrophe. The vaultedceiling is intact. The smooth,white stucco on the walls andthe simple cornice at the base ofthe lunettes date from the timeof the first builders. Now, asthen, light is admitted onlythrough two small openings inthe crown of the vault and a

window in the west lunette.The women had no frigidarium.

A large basin for cold baths wasbuilt at the west end of the dress-ing room, but this also is a lateraddition; before it was made,those who wished for cold bathsmust have contented themselveswith portable bath tubs.

The tepidarium and caldariumare in a better state of preserva-tion than those of the men'sbaths, which they closely resem-ble.

FORUM TRIANGULARE &DORIC TEMPLE, OR FORO TRIANGOLARE & TEMPIO

DORICO (#41 & 42)

The end of the old lava streamon which Pompeii lay runs offinto two points; in the depressionbetween them, was the StabianGate. On the edge of the spur atthe left a temple of the Doricstyle was built in very early times.

The sides of the temple followedin general the direction of theedge of the cliff.

In the 2nd century B.C. thenorthwest corner of the depres-sion back of the Stabian Gatewas selected as the site for alarge theater. This location waschosen, in accordance with theGreek custom.

South of the theater an exten-sive colonnade was erected. It

House of the Vettii

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Pompeii

arrangement prevailed in themunicipalities and the coloniesis not known, but if so the num-ber reserved here must have beensmaller.

The upper section, summacavea, supported by the vaultover the corridor, was too narrowto have contained more thanfour rows of seats.

The ima cavea was enteredfrom the orchestra. The mediacavea could be entered on thelower side from the passage (di-azoma, praecinctio) between itand the ima cavea, which at theends was connected by shortflights of steps with the parodoileading outside; on the upperside six doors opened into themedia cavea from the corridor,from which flights of steps de-scended dividing the seats intofive wedge-like blocks, cunei,with a small oblong block in ad-dition on either side near theend of the stage.

The summa cavea, which forconvenience we may call thegallery, was entered by severaldoors from a narrow vaulted pas-sage along the outside.

The outer wall back of thegallery rose to a considerableheight above the last row of seats.On the inside near the top wereprojecting blocks of basalt, con-taining round holes in whichstrong wooden masts were set;

from these the great awning,velum, was stretched over thecavea and orchestra to the roofof the stage, protecting the spec-tators from the sun. This sort ofcovering for the theater was aCampanian invention, and here,where the cavea opened towardthe south, was especially neces-sary.

The stage is long and narrow,measuring 120 by 24 Oscan feet;the floor is a little more thanthree feet above the level of theorchestra. The rear wall, as inancient theaters generally, wasbuilt to represent the front of apalace, entered by three doors,and adorned with columns andniches for statues. In each of theshort sections of wall at the endsof the stage is a broad doorway,extending across almost the en-tire space. The long narrow roombehind the stage, used as a dress-ing room (postscaenium), wasentered by a door at the rear,which was reached by an inclinedapproach. No trace of the roofof the stage remains, but fromthe better preserved theaters atOrange, in the south of France,and at Aspendus, in Asia Minor,we infer that it sloped back to-ward the rear wall. The floor wasof wood.

The theater in antiquity wasby no means reserved for scenicrepresentations alone. It was a

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tragedies and comedies from hisnative tongue.

The first stone theater in Romewas built by Pompey, the rival ofCaesar, in 55 B.C. In Pompeii, onthe contrary, a permanent theaterhad been erected at least a hun-dred years earlier.

The Oscan culture was so com-pletely merged in that of Romethat our knowledge of it as anindependent development is ex-tremely slight. From literarysources we know only of a crudeform of popular comedy in which,as in the Italian Commedia dell'arte, there were stock charactersdistinguished by their masks,—Maccus a buffoon, Bucco a vo-racious, talkative lout, Pappusan old man who is always cheat-ed, and Dossennus a knave. Thescene of these exhibitions wasalways Atella, the Gotham ofCampania, whence they werecalled Atellan farces.

The Theater at Pompeii, how-ever, is a proof that as early asthe second century B.C., in atleast one Campanian city, dra-matic representations of a highorder were given. Here, perhaps,as at Athens, they were associatedwith the worship of Dionysus;for the satyrs were companionsof the Wine-god, and the headof a satyr, carved in tufa, stillprojects from the keystone ofthe arch at the outer end of one

of the vaulted passages leadingto the orchestra. Greek verse,and native verse modelled afterthe Greek, must have gained ahearing at Pompeii, and the worksof Oscan poets—not a line ofwhich has come down to us—must have stirred the hearts ofthe people long before LiviusAndronicus, and Naevius, whobrought inspiration from hisCampanian home, produced theirdramas at Rome.

The cavea, the large outer partcontaining seats for spectatorsafforded seats for about five thou-sand persons. The seats arearranged in three semicircularsections. The lowest, ima cavea,next to the orchestra, containsfour broad ledges on which, aswell as in the orchestra itself,the members of the city council,the decurions, could place theirchairs, the 'seats of double width.'

The middle section, mediacavea, was much deeper, extend-ing from the ima cavea to thevaulted corridor. It containedtwenty rows of marble seatsarranged like steps, of which onlya small portion is preserved. Ona part of one of these, individualplaces, a little less than 16 incheswide, are marked off by verticallines in front, and numbered. InRome the fourteen rows nearestthe bottom were reserved for theknights. Whether a similar

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Roman theater the orchestra wasin the form of a semicircle, ofwhich the diameter was repre-sented by the stage. In Greektheaters the stage according toVitruvius was laid out on oneside of a square inscribed in thecircle of the orchestra; the or-chestra, as shown by existing re-mains, in most cases was eithera complete circle or was so ex-tended by tangents at the sidesthat a circle could be inscribedin it. The latter is the case in ourTheater, of which the orchestrahas essentially the same form asthat of the theater of Dionysusat Athens.

SMALL THEATER, OR TEATRO PICCOLO (#45)

The names of the builders ofthe Small Theater are knownfrom an inscription which isfound in duplicate in differentparts of the building: C. QuinctiusC. f. Valg[us], M. Porcius M. f.duovir[i] dec[urionum] decr[eto]theatrum tectum fac[iundum]locar[unt] eidemq[ue]prob[arunt],—'Gaius QuinctiusValgus the son of Gaius and Mar-cus Porcius the son of Marcus,duumvirs, in accordance with adecree of the city council let thecontract for building the coveredtheater, and approved the work.'Later the same officials, when,

after the customary interval, theyhad been elected quinquennialduumvirs, built the Amphitheater'at their own expense'.

The seating capacity of thebuilding was about fifteen hun-dred. The lowest section of thecavea, as in the Large Theater,consisted of four low, broadledges on which the chairs ofthe decurions could be placed.

The pavement of the orchestraconsists of small flags of coloredmarble. An inscription in bronzeletters informs us that it was laidby the duumvir Marcus OculatiusVerus pro ludis, that is insteadof the games which he wouldotherwise have been expectedto provide.

TEMPLE OF ASCHLEPIUSOR ZEUS MILICHIUS, ORTEMPIO DI ASCLEPIO O DI

GIOVEMELICHIO (#46)

The small temple near thenortheast corner of the blockcontaining the theaters is enteredfrom Stabian Street. The court,like that of the temple of Ves-pasian, has a colonnade acrossthe front; only the foundationand a Doric capital of lava arepreserved.

At the end of the colonnadeon the right is the room of thesacristan. The large altar stands

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convenient place for bringingthe people together, and wasused for public gatherings of themost varied character. In the the-ater at Tarentum the memorableassembly met which heaped in-sults upon the Roman ambassa-dors and precipitated war withRome.

Our Theater in its original formbelonged to the Tufa Period, butwas rebuilt in Roman times.Some particulars in regard to therebuilding are given in an in-scription: M. M. Holconii Rufuset Celer cryptam, tribunalia, the-atrum,—'Marcus Holconius Ru-fus and Marcus Holconius Celer(built) the crypt, the tribunals,and the part designed for spec-tators,' that is, the vaulted corridorunder the gallery, the platformsover the entrances to the orches-tra, and the cavea.

The two Holconii lived in the

time of Augustus. The elder, Ru-fus, was duumvir for the 4thterm in 3-2 B.C. The work onthe Theater was probably doneabout that time; for soon after-wards a statue in his honor waserected in the Theater, as welearn from an inscription. Later,in 13-14 A.D., the younger Hol-conius also, when he had beenchosen quinquennial duumvir,was honored with a statue.

The architect employed by theHolconii, a freedman, was nothonored with a statue, but hisname was transmitted to pos-terity in an inscription placed inthe outer wall near the east en-trance to the orchestra: M. Ar-torius M. l[ibertus] Primus, ar-chitectus,—'Marcus ArtoriusPrimus, freedman of Marcus, ar-chitect.'

The plan of the Theater con-forms to the Greek type. In the

Doric Temple

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ness. Their child Horus, alsocalled Harpocrates, born afterthe father's death, is the freshsun of the new day, the successorand avenger of his father, theconqueror of Set; he becomes anew Osiris, while the father, everblessed, rules in the realm of thedead, the kingdom of the West.Man, the followers of Isis taught,is an incarnation of deity, whosedestiny is also his. He is himselfan Osiris, and will enter upon abetter state of existence beyondthe grave if a favorable judgmentis passed upon him in the trialgiven to the dead.

In its new Alexandrian formthe worship of Isis and Osiris,or Serapis, as the latter divinitywas now called, spread, not onlyover all Egypt, but also over theother countries in the East intowhich Greek culture had pene-trated, and soon made its wayto Italy and the West.

A college of the Servants of Isis,Pastophori, was founded inRome in the time of Sulla, about80 B.C. In vain the authoritiestried to drive out the worshipof the Egyptian gods. Threetimes their temple, in the midstof the city, was destroyed byorder of the consuls, in 58, 50,and 48 B.C. But after Caesar'sdeath, in 44 B.C., the triumvirsbuilt a temple in honor of Isisand Osiris; and a few decades

later, perhaps in the reign ofCaligula, their festival was rec-ognized in the public Calendar.In Campania the Alexandriancult gained a foothold earlierthan in Rome. An inscription ofthe year 105 B.C., found at Puteoli,proves that a temple of Serapiswas then standing in that enter-prising city, which had close com-mercial relations with Egypt andthe East. Soon after this date theearlier temple of Isis at Pompeiimust have been built.

The entrance to the court ofthe temple is from the north.Above the door is an inscriptionwhich informs us that after anearthquake (that of the year 63)Numerius Popidius Celsinus, athis own expense, rebuilt the tem-ple of Isis from the foundation,and that in recognition of hisgenerosity, though he was onlysix years of age, the members ofthe city council, the decurions,admitted him without cost to

Large Theater

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Pompeii

close to the foot of the stepsleading up to the temple. It isbuilt of blocks of tufa, with afrieze of triglyphs and panels likethose found on walls in the firststyle of decoration.

The steps extend across thefront of the temple, the unusualelevation of which is explainedby the inequality of the ground.Of the six columns in thetetrastyle portico no remainshave been found, but three cap-itals of pilasters are preserved,two belonging to those at thecorners of the cella, and one,considerably smaller, to a door-post; they are of tufa, and wereonce covered with white stucco.

The excellent proportions andfine workmanship of the capitalspoint to the period of the firststyle of decoration; there wasformerly a remnant of that styleon the north wall of the cella,copied before 1837. Neverthelessthe quasi-reticulate masonry ofthe cella, closely resembling thatof the Small Theater, dates fromthe early years of the Romancolony. In this period the templein its present form was built,perhaps with the help of nativePompeian masons.

Attached to the rear wall of thecella was an oblong pedestal onwhich were placed two statues,representing Jupiter and Juno,together with a bust of Minerva,

all of terra cotta and of poorworkmanship. The suggestionat once presents itself that thiswas the Capitolium, erected bythe Roman colonists soon afterthey settled in Pompeii.

We should probably recognizein the head carved on the smallestof the pilaster capitals a repre-sentation of Zeus Milichius, adivinity honored in many partsof Greece, especially by the farm-ers; Zeus the Gracious, the patronof tillers of the soil. The serious,kindly face, bearded and withlong locks, was more than a mereornament; it was the god himselflooking down upon the worship-per who entered his sanctuary.

TEMPLE OF ISIS, OR TEMPIO DI ISIDE (#47)

The loftiest and purest religiousconceptions of the ancient Egyp-tians were embodied in the mythof Isis and Osiris, which in thethird millennium B.C. had alreadybecome the basis of a firmly es-tablished cult. These conceptionsapproached the monotheisticidea of an omnipresent god, andwith them was associated a beliefin a blessed immortality. Isis wasthe goddess of heaven, and Osiriswas the Sun-god, her brotherand husband, who is slain atevening by his brother Set,—theGreek Typhon,—ruler of dark-

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temple the colonnade presentsan interesting peculiarity of con-struction, which is found also inother buildings at Pompeii, asthe Stabian Baths. The place ofthe three middle columns onthat side is taken by two largepillars, higher than the rest ofthe colonnade, each of which isbacked by an attached half-col-umn. This arrangement madethe approach to the temple moreimposing, and also furnished anappropriate setting for the shrineof Harpocrates against the wall.

The principal altar, on whichsacrifice was offered to the di-vinities worshipped in the temple,is that near the foot of the stepsin front. The officiating prieststood on a block of stone at theside of it, with the temple at hisright; on this altar were foundashes and fragments of calcinedbones.

At the left of the steps leadingup to the temple, and facing thelarge altar, is a small pillar ofmasonry fifteen inches squareand nearly two and a half feethigh. A similar pillar, which for-merly stood at the right, hadthin slabs of stone on threesides. One of these, that on thefront of the pillar (now in theNaples Museum), was coveredwith hieroglyphics. It is a me-morial tablet, which Hat, 'thewriter of the divine word’, hi-

erogrammateus, set up in honorof his parents and grandparents;it contains symbolic representa-tions in three divisions, one abovethe other. In the upper divisionHat, his brother and colleagueMeran, their father and grand-father, are praying to Osiris, 'Lordof the Kingdom of the Dead';below, Hat is bringing to his par-ents and grandparents offeringsfor the dead, while in the lowerdivision Meran and two sistersunite with him in prayer to Osiris.

The presence of a statue ofBacchus in the niche in the rearwall of the cella is easily ex-plained; this divinity was iden-tified with Osiris.

While the Greek and Romangods were honored chiefly attheir festivals, the Egyptian di-vinities demanded worship everyday, indeed several times a day.The early service, the 'openingof the temple,' is described byApuleius, who was probably ad-

Temple of Achlepius

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their rank.Other inscriptions give infor-

mation in regard to the familyof the child Celsinus. His fatherwas Numerius Popidius Amplia-tus, his mother Corelia Celsa.The real rebuilders were of coursethe parents; by associating theirmunificence with the name oftheir son, they opened the wayfor him to the city offices, forwhich the father, a freedman,was not eligible.

Though the rebuilding of Celsi-nus was 'from the foundation,'remains of the old temple wereutilized, as shafts of columnsand Corinthian capitals coatedwith white stucco; and the planof the new building was verynearly the same as that of theold.

The architectural forms andthe workmanship of these re-mains point to a time just afterthe founding of the Romancolony; nevertheless the dimen-

sions of the colonnade, approxi-mately fifty by sixty Oscan feet,reduce to the pre-Roman stan-dard of measurement, and thebuilding may have been com-menced earlier. In later timesthe increasing number of theworshippers of Isis made neces-sary an enlargement of the sanc-tuary. The two rooms at the westend were added at the expenseof the palaestra, probably at thetime of the rebuilding.

In the middle of the court,which is surrounded by thecolonnade, is the temple, con-sisting of an oblong cella, theeast side of which is treated as afront, with a portico borne bysix columns. A pit for the refuseof sacrifices, enclosed by a wallstands in the corner of the courtnear the entrance from the street;in the opposite corner there is alarger enclosure having the ap-pearance of a small temple. Nearthis are two altars; a third altarstood close to the temple, andthere are five others, somewhatsmaller, between the columns.

The walls of the colonnadewere painted in bright colors ona deep red ground. The lowerpart of the columns was red, butabove they were white; the tem-ple also was white, the purposeobviously being to give the ap-pearance of marble.

Opposite the entrance of the

Small Theater

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their reelection as duumvirs.The Amphitheater may thus

have been finished half a decadelater than the Theater, but inany case it belongs to the earliestyears of the Roman colony,—asmight be inferred, in default ofother evidence, from the archaicspelling of the inscription, andthe character of the masonry,which is like that of the SmallTheater and the baths north ofthe Forum.

The colonists, however, did notreceive from Rome their impulseto erect such a building. Thepassion for gladiatorial combatswas developed in Campania ear-lier, and manifested itself morestrongly, than in Latium. Strabo'sstatement that gladiators werebrought forward at Campanianbanquets, in larger or smallernumbers according to the rankof the guests, has reference tothe period before the SecondPunic War; but it was considereda noteworthy event in Romewhen, in 264 B.C., gladiatorsengaged in combat in the ForumBoarium in celebration of fu-neral rites, as also when, on asimilar occasion in 216 B.C.,twenty-two pairs fought in theForum.

Buildings were erected forgladiatorial shows in Campaniantowns earlier than at the Capital.As late as the year 46 B.C. the

spectators who witnessed thegames given by Julius Caesar saton wooden seats supported bytemporary staging; and the firststone amphitheater in Rome wasbuilt by Statilius Taurus in 29B.C., almost half a century afterthe quinquennial duumvirate ofValgus and Porcius. The Am-phitheater at Pompeii is the oldestknown to us from either literaryor monumental sources.

In comparison with later andmore imposing structures, ourAmphitheater seems indeed un-pretentious. The dimensions(length 460 feet, breadth 345) aresmall when compared with thoseof the Coliseum (615 and 510feet, respectively) or even theamphitheaters at Capua or Poz-zuoli; and the lack of artisticform is noteworthy.

The arena is surrounded by awall about 6½ feet high. Thiswall was covered with frescoeswhich, still fresh at the time of

Temple of isis

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mitted to the college of the Ser-vants of Isis in Rome in the timeof the Antonines, and wroteabout 160 A.D. Before daybreakthe priest went into the templeby the side entrance and threwback the great doors, which werefastened on the inside. Whitelinen curtains were hung acrossthe doorway, shielding the inte-rior from view. Now the streetgate of the court was opened;the thronging multitude of thedevout streamed in and tooktheir places in front of the temple.The curtains were drawn asideand the image of the goddesswas presented to the gaze of herworshippers, who greeted herwith prayers and shaking of thesistrum, a musical rattle, the useof which was characteristic ofthe worship of the Egyptian gods.For a time they remained sitting,engaged in prayer and in thecontemplation of the divinity;an hour after daybreak the servicewas closed with an invocationto the newly risen sun. This de-scription throws light on thepurpose of the bench in front ofthe shrine of Harpocrates.

The second service was held attwo o'clock in the afternoon. Itis, perhaps, depicted in a frescopainting from Herculaneum, thesubject of which is a solemn actin the worship of Isis, the ado-ration of the holy water. In the

portico of the temple, above thesteps, two priests and a priestessare standing. The priest in themiddle holds in front of him, inthe folds of his robe, a vesselcontaining the holy water, whichwas supposed to be from theNile. There is an altar at the footof the steps; a priest is fanningthe fire into flame. On the rightand the left of the altar are theworshippers, with other priestswhile a flute player sits in theforeground at the right.

AMPHITHEATER, OR ANFITEATRO (#60)

In the southeast corner of thecity, lies the Amphitheater, thescene of gladiatorial combats.The Pompeians called it 'theshow,' spectacula, as in the in-scription, preserved in two copies,that gives us the names of thebuilders: “C. Quinctius C. f. Val-gus, M. Porcius M. f[ilius] duovir[i] quinq[uennales] coloniaihonoris caussa spectacula de suapeq[unia] fac[iunda] coer[arunt]et coloneis locum in perpetuomdeder[unt]”. According to this,the Amphitheater was built bythe same men, Valgus and Por-cius, who are already known tous as the builders of the SmallTheater; and they presented itto the city in recognition of thehonor conferred upon them by

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trance to the other, then comingforth in pairs as they were sum-moned to mortal combat.

At the middle of the west sidethere is a third passage, narrowand low; this is the gruesomecorridor through which the bod-ies of the dead were dragged bymeans of hooks, its entrance be-ing the Porta Libitinensis, 'DeathGate.'

The seats, of which there arethirty-five rows, have the sameform as those in the Small The-ater, and are of the same material,gray tufa. They are arranged inthree divisions,—the lowest, imacavea, having five rows; the mid-dle division, media cavea, twelve;and the highest, summa cavea,eighteen. In the middle sectionof the ima cavea on each sidethe place of the seats is taken byfour low, broad ledges, set asidefor members of the city council,who could place upon them theseats of honor, bisellia, to theuse of which they were entitled.At the middle of the east sidethe second ledge is interruptedfor a distance of ten feet, a doublewidth being thus given to thelowest. This place was designedfor seats of special honor, andwas, no doubt, reserved for theofficial who provided the games,and his associates. On the sameside the ledges are extended intothe next section on the south.

This supplementary section was,perhaps, intended for certainfreedmen, as the Augustales, whohad the right to use bisellia, butwho nevertheless could not be-come members of the city coun-cil, and were not ranked on asocial equality with the occupantsof the middle section.

The seats of the ima cavea andmedia cavea were reachedthrough a vaulted. It ran underthe first seats of the second range,and stairs led from it to both di-visions.

The Amphitheater had a seatingcapacity of about twenty thou-sand persons.

The north entrance to the arenawas adorned with two portraitstatues of Gaius Cuspius Pansa,father and son, placed in nichesin the walls facing each other.The statues have disappeared,but the inscriptions underneathare still in place. What servicesthe Pansas had rendered in con-nection with the Amphitheaterto merit this distinction, we donot know; but the father, as theinscription indicates, was 'prefectin accordance with the law ofPetronius'; that is, he was ap-pointed by the city council toexercise the functions of the twoduumvirs when no valid electionoccurred.

The attraction of the gladiatorialexhibitions, together with the

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excavation, are now known tous only from copies in the NaplesMuseum. They consisted of al-ternate broad and narrow panels.One of the scenes gives an in-teresting glimpse of the prepa-rations for the combat. In themiddle we see the overseer mark-ing out with a long staff the ringwithin which the combatantsmust fight. At the right a gladiatorstands, partly armed; two atten-dants are bringing him a helmetand a sword. A horn blower, alsopartly armed, stands at the left;and behind him two companions,squatting on the ground, makeready his helmet and shield. Ateither end of the scene, in thebackground, is an image of aWinged Victory with a wreath

and palm.The limestone coping of the

wall about the arena shows tracesof iron in the joints between theblocks, apparently remains of agrating designed to protect thespectators from attacks by theinfuriated wild beasts.

Two broad corridors connectthe ends of the arena with theoutside of the building. The oneat the north end, toward Vesu-vius, follows a straight line; theother bends sharply to the rightin order to avoid the city wall,which bounds the structure onthe south and east sides. By thesecorridors the gladiators enteredthe arena, first in festal array,passing in stately processionacross the sand from one en-

Amphitheater

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image of a fish on his helmet.Both were Neroniani; that is,from the training school for glad-iators founded by Nero, appar-ently at Capua. Pugnax and Mur-ranus had both been throughthree contests previously.

In the second pair Cycnus, inheavy armor, was pitted againstAtticus, who had the Thracianarms. Both were from the trainingschool founded by Julius Caesar,probably at Capua, and henceare called Iuliani. Cycnus won,but the audience had compassionon Atticus, and his life was spared.The same term was applied to adefeated gladiator permitted toleave the arena as to a soldierhaving an honorable discharge—missus, 'let go.'

The third pair fought in chari-ots, being dressed in British cos-tume. Scylax was from the Julianschool. Such establishments letout gladiators to those who gaveexhibitions, and obtained in thisway a considerable income. ButPublius Ostorius, as his nameimplies, was a freeman; presum-ably he was a gladiator, who,having served a full term, hadsecured his freedom, and wasnow fighting on his own account.Though beaten, he was permittedto live, perhaps on account ofhis creditable record; he had en-gaged in fifty-one combats.

The combatants from the

schools of Caesar and Nero wereespecially popular, and were gen-erally victorious; but gladiatorsbelonging to other proprietorsare mentioned, as in the inscrip-tions of a house on Nola Street,which will be mentioned againpresently. Here we find gladiatorswho were evidently freemennamed with others who wereslaves of different masters.

Occasionally the individual whoprovided the combats would erecta monument to the fallen, byway of perpetuating the memoryof his munificence. A familiarexample is the memorial set upby Gaius Salvius Capito at Venosa,of which the inscription is extant.The names are given of the glad-iators who were killed, togetherwith the number of their previouscombats and victories.

PALAESTRA, OR PALESTRA GRANDE (#61)

The oblong court north of theLarge Theater, between the en-trance of the Forum Triangulareand the temple of Isis, is thePalaestra. Originally, the enclosedarea was entirely surrounded bya colonnade, with ten columnson the sides and five at each end;but at a comparatively late period,probably after the earthquake of63, the columns at the east endwere removed and the space thus

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ample seating capacity of thebuilding, stimulated attendancefrom neighboring cities, and onone occasion unfortunate resultsfollowed. In the year 59 A.D. aRoman senator, Livineius Regu-lus, who had been expelled fromthe Senate, and had apparentlytaken up his residence at Pompeii,gave an exhibition that attracteda great concourse.

That the sports of the Am-phitheater had at all times thekeenest interest for the Pom-peians is evident, not only fromthe number of notices having todo with the games, which wesee painted in red on walls alongthe streets or on tombs by theroadside, but also from the count-less graffiti in both houses andpublic places having referenceto combats and favorite gladia-tors. The limits of space do notpermit us to describe the gladia-torial exhibitions as they tookplace at Pompeii and other Ro-man cities; but the inscriptionsbring so near to us the scenesand excitement of those daysthat it seems worth while toquote and interpret a few typicalexamples.

On a tomb near the NuceriaGate, excavated in 1886, is thefollowing notice, painted in redletters: “Glad[iatorum] par[ia] XXQ. Monni Rufi pug[nabunt] NolaK[alendis] Mais, VI. V. Nonas

Maias, et venatio erit”. 'Twentypairs of gladiators, furnished byQuintus Monnius Rufus, willfight at Nola May 1, and 3, andthere will be a hunt.' The formsof the letters and the numerousligatures point to a comparativelyearly period, perhaps antedatingthe reign of Augustus. The 'hunt,'venatio, was an exhibition ofwild beasts, which sometimeswere pitted against one another,sometimes fought with men. An-other tomb close by bears a noticeof a gladiatorial combat to takeplace at Nuceria.

Besides the general announce-ment of a gladiatorial exhibition,a detailed program, libellus, wasprepared in advance, of whichcopies were sold. No such copyhas come down to us, but thecharacter of the contents of aprogram may be inferred fromthe order of events which a Pom-peian with waste time on hishands scratched on a wall; thememorandum covers two exhi-bitions, which came near togetherin the early part of May, theresult of each combat being care-fully noted.

In the first pair of gladiatorsPugnax, equipped with Thracianweapons—a small, round shieldand short, curved sword or dag-ger—was matched with the Myr-millo Murranus, who bore armsof the Gallic fashion, with the

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making wine and oil.Special importance attaches to

the Boscoreale villa rustica, bothon account of the extreme rarityof examples of the type and be-cause of the character of the re-mains, which makes it possibleto determine the arrangementswith certainty.

The living rooms, the stable,and the rooms used for the mak-ing of wine and oil were all underone roof. The size of the buildingis not so great as might havebeen assumed from the varietyof purposes which it served; theenclosed area, exclusive of thethreshing floor, measures about130 by 82 feet. The plan (see im-age) is regular, the principal en-trance being near the middle ofthe southwest side.

The entrance was wide enoughfor carts and wagons, which werekept in the court (A). Along threesides of the court ran a colonnade,over which at the front were up-per rooms; the roof on the leftside and the rear rested oncolumns connected by a parapet.Under the colonnade at the fur-ther corner is a cistern curb (1),on one side of which is a largewash basin of masonry (2); onthe other is a pillar supporting asmall reservoir of lead (3). Thereservoir, reached by means ofsteps (4), was filled from the cis-tern.

In a Roman farmhouse thekitchen was the large, centralroom. In our villa rustica it liesat the north corner where, inwinter, it would receive the fullbenefit of the sunshine.

A large door in the right wallof the kitchen opened into thestable (H). Near it was a stairway(3) leading to upper rooms; inthe corner was a pit (4) affordingaccess to a small cellar in whichthe standard of the press beamin the adjoining room (P, 4) wasmade fast. In the opposite cornerwas a reservoir of lead (2) standingon a foundation of masonry; itreceived water from the reservoirin the court (A, 3) and suppliedthe bath. On the same side ofthe room is the entrance to thebath and to the closet (G).

The arrangements of this bathare in a better state of preserva-tion than those of most otherRoman bath; the tank and reser-voir with the connecting pipesmay now be seen at Pompeii inthe little Museum near the Forumfitted up for the exhibition ofthe objects found in this villa.The bathrooms comprised anapodyterium (D), a tepidarium(E), and a caldarium (F) with abath basin at one end and alabrum in a semicircular recessat the other. The bath was heatedfrom a small furnace room (C).Over the hot air flue leading

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gained was added to the templeof Isis.

The building clearly dates fromthe pre-Roman period. Thecolumns are of tufa coated withstucco.

An Oscan inscription was foundhere which says that the buildingwas erected by the QuaestorVibius Vinicius, with moneywhich Vibius Adiranus had leftby will to the Pompeian youth.At the west end of the courtwere dressing rooms where theboys, before exercising, couldanoint themselves and afterwardscould remove the oil and dirtwith the strigil; such a dressingroom in connection with a bathwas called a destrictarium. Waterwas brought into the court by alead pipe, which passed throughone of the columns at the rightof the entrance and threw a jeteither into a basin standing belowor into the gutter in front of thecolonnade.

VILLA RUSTICA OF BOSCOREALE

Less than two miles north ofPompeii, near the village ofBoscoreale, a farmhouse was ex-cavated in 1893-94.

Two classes of villas were dis-tinguished by the Romans,—thecountry seat, villa urbana, andthe farmhouse, villa rustica. Theformer was a city house, adaptedto rural conditions; the arrange-ments of the latter were deter-mined by the requirements offarm life.

The country seats manifesteda greater diversity of plan thanthe city residences. They wererelatively larger, containing spa-cious colonnades and gardens;as the proprietor was unrestrictedin regard to space, not beingconfined to the limits of a lot,fuller opportunity was affordedfor the display of individual tastein the arrangement of rooms.

The main entrance of a countryseat, according to Vitruvius,should lead directly to a peristyle;one or more atriums might beplaced further back. The livingrooms would be grouped aboutthe central spaces in the waythat would best suit the config-uration of the ground and meetthe wishes of the owner. In mostparts of Italy a large farmhousewould contain appliances for

Boscoreale, fresco

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from the furnace into the hollowspace under the floor of the cal-darium was a water heater inthe form of a half cylinder similarto the one found in Pompeii’sStabian Baths. The tepidarium,as well as the caldarium, had ahollow floor and walls.

Over the furnace stood a roundlead tank, the lower part of whichwas encased in masonry; thepipes connecting it with thereservoir in the corner of thekitchen and with the bathroomswere found in place. The middlepipe supplied the tank with coldwater; the flow could be regulatedby means of a stopcock. The low-er pipe started from the reservoir,but before reaching the tank wasdivided, the left arm leading intothe tank, the other into the bathbasin. In the public baths there

was a separate tank for lukewarmwater; here a moderate temper-ature was obtained by mixinghot and cold water.

On the side of the reservoir wesee the end of the feed pipe lead-ing from the reservoir in thecourt; at the right is a supplypipe which conducted to the sta-ble (H) water not needed for thebath.

On the same side of the courtis a room (J), in which were foundremains of tools; several sickleswere hanging on the walls. Nextare two sleeping rooms (K, L); apassage between them leads tothe bakery, with a single mill (1)and oven (2). In the corner is adining room (N) in which theremains of three couches werefound; it was separated from thecourt by an anteroom (M).

Over the colonnade on thefront side of the court was asleeping room with a large roomadjoining, perhaps the bedroomof the overseer, villicus, which,according to Varro should benear the entrance.

The oblong room at the north-east side of the court containedappliances for making wine. Ateach end was a large press witha raised floor. By means of a pul-ley and a rope, the outer end ofthe press beam could be raisedor lowered. When it was loweredin order to increase the pressure

Boscoreale, fresco from the Villa of P.

Fannius SynistorBoscoreale, plan of a villa rustica

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of a deep circular basin of lava,so hollowed out as to leave inthe center a strong standard ofthe stone, miliarium. In the topof this standard was set an ironpin, on which was fitted a re-volving wooden crosspiece. Thiscarried two wheels of lava, havingthe shape of half a lens, whichtravelled in the basin. The wheelswere carefully balanced so thatthey would not press against theside of the basin and crush thestones of the olives.

In the long room S remains ofbean straw and parts of a wagonwere found. South of it is thethreshing floor (T), the surfaceof which is raised above theground and covered with Signiapavement. The water that fellupon the threshing floor was

conducted to a small open cistern(U).

In the second story was a mod-est but comfortable series ofapartments (over V, W, X, andpart of Q), apparently designedfor the master's use, as was alsothe dining room (N) with K andL.

In a place where such a findwould least have been anticipat-ed—the cistern in the room ofthe wine presses—was made aremarkable discovery of treasure.Here a man had taken refuge,and with his skeleton were foundabout a thousand gold coins,four gold bracelets, ear-rings, agold chain, and the beautiful col-lection of silver ware afterwardspresented by Baron Rothschildto the Louvre.

Boscoreale, fresco from the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor

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on the grapes, both standard andwindlass posts would be pulledout of the ground unless firmlybraced. Under the rear of eachpress was a small cellar, in whichwas placed a framework for hold-ing the standard in place. Onewas entered from a pit in thecorner of the kitchen (B, 4), theother from a similar depressionin a small separate room (W); at6 was a pit for fastening thewindlass posts.

The grape juice ran into roundvats sunk in the ground. In frontof the first press are two, in frontof the second only one; a cisternof which the curb (3) is indicatedon the plan, here takes the placeof the other vat. The cisterncould be filled also from the firstpress by means of a lead pipeunder the floor. The round vatswere for the pure juice of thefirst pressing. Into the other wasconducted the product of thesecond pressing; the remains ofthe grapes, after the juice hadceased to flow, were drenchedwith water and again subjectedto pressure.

In Pliny's "Natural History" weread that in Campania the bestwine underwent fermentationin the open air, exposed to sun,rain, and wind. This villa suppliesan interesting confirmation ofthe statement; the round fer-mentation vats fill a large court

(R), the walls of which are piercedwith openings in order to givereadier access to the wind. Alongone side runs a channel of ma-sonry about three feet above theground (1), protected by a narrowroof; thence the grape juice wasdistributed through lead pipesto the vats. During the vintageseason, the inner end of thechannel was connected with thepress room by means of a tem-porary pipe or channel enteringthe wall above the cistern (P, 3).

Three of the small rooms to-ward the rear were sleepingrooms (V-V). In another (X) wasfound a hand mill. At the end ofthe passageway was a doubleroom containing the appliancesfor making oil, a press (in Y) anda crusher (in Z). The press waslike the wine press describedabove, only much smaller, witha raised floor, a standard for thepress beam, a pit for bracing thestandard of the press beam (3),two posts at the ends of thewindlass (4, 4), a pit from whicha crosspiece connecting theseposts could be reached, and avat (6) at one side for receivingthe oil.

The olive crusher, trapetum, isnow in the Museum at Pompeii.It was designed to separate thepulp of the olives from the stones,which were thought to impairthe flavor of the oil. It consists