Ruins of Ancient Cities Part 21

"Already the ashes began to fall; I turned my head; a thick cloud was rushing precipitately towards us.--'Mother,' said I, 'let us quit the high road; the crowd will stifle us in that darkness which is pursuing us.' Scarcely had we left the high road before it was night, the blackest night. Then nothing was to be heard but the lamentations of women, the groans of children, and the cries of men. We could distinguish, through the confused sobs and the various accents of grief, the words, _my father!_--_my son!_--_my wife!_--there was no knowing each other but by the voice. One was lamenting his destiny; another the fate of his relations: some were imploring the G.o.ds; others denying their existence; many were invoking death to defend them from death.

Some said that they were now about to be buried with the world, in that concluding night which was to be eternal:--and amidst all this, what dreadful reports! Fear exaggerated and believed everything.

"In the mean time a glimmering penetrated the darkness; this was the conflagration which was approaching; but it stopped and extinguished; the night grew more intensely dark, and the shower of cinders and stones more thick and heavy. We were obliged to rise from time to time to shake our clothes. Shall I say it? Not a single complaint escaped me. I consoled myself, amid the fears of death, with the reflection that the world was about to expire with me.

"At length this thick and black vapour gradually vanished. The day revived, and even the sun appeared, but dull and yellowish, such as he usually shows himself in an eclipse. What a spectacle now offered itself to our yet troubled and uncertain eyes! The whole country was buried beneath the ashes, as in winter under the snow. The road was no longer to be discerned. We sought for Misenum, and again found it; we returned and took possession; for we had in some measure abandoned it.

Soon after, we received news of my uncle. Alas! we had but too good reason to be uneasy for him.

"I have told you, that, after quitting Misenum, he went on board a galley. He directed his course towards Retina, and the other towns which were threatened. Every one was flying from it; he however entered it, and, amidst the general confusion, remarked all the phenomena, and dictated as he observed. But already a cloud of burning ashes beat down on his galley; already were stones falling all around, and the sh.o.r.e covered with large pieces of the mountain. My uncle hesitated whether he should return from whence he came, or put out to sea. _Fortune favours courage_ (exclaimed he), _let us turn towards Pomponia.n.u.s_. Pomponia.n.u.s was at Stabiae. My uncle found him all trembling: embraced and encouraged him, and to comfort him by his security, asked for a bath, then sat down to table and supped cheerfully; or, at least, which does not show less fort.i.tude, with all the appearance of cheerfulness.

"In the mean time Vesuvius was taking fire on every side, amid the thick darkness. 'It is the villages which have been abandoned that are burning,' said my uncle to the crowd about him, to endeavour to quiet them. He then went to bed, and fell asleep. He was in the profoundest sleep, when the court of the house began to fill with cinders; and all the pa.s.sages were nearly closed up. They run to him; and were obliged to awaken him. He rises, joins Pomponia.n.u.s, and deliberates with him and his attendants what is best to be done, whether it would be safest to remain in the house or fly into the country. They chose the latter measure.

"They departed instantly therefore from the town, and the only precaution they could take was to cover their heads with pillows. The day was reviving everywhere else; but there it continued night; horrible night! the fire from the cloud alone enlightened it. My uncle wished to gain the sh.o.r.e, notwithstanding the sea was still tremendous. He descended, drank some water, had a sheet spread, and lay down on it. On a sudden, violent flames, preceded by a sulphureous odour, shot forth with a prodigious brightness, and made every one take to flight. My uncle, supported by two slaves, arose; but suddenly, suffocated by the vapour, he fell[267],--and Pliny was no more[268]."

If this visitation affected Misenum in so terrible a manner, what must have been the situation of the unfortunate inhabitants of Pompeii and Herculaneum, so near its focus? The emperor t.i.tus here found an opportunity for the exercise of his humanity. He hastened to the scene of affliction, appointed curatores[269], persons of consular dignity, to set up the ruined buildings, and take charge of the effects. He personally encouraged the desponding, and alleviated the misery of the sufferers; whilst a calamity of an equally melancholy description recalled him to Rome; where a most destructive fire, laying waste nearly half the city, and raging three days without interruption, was succeeded by a pestilence, which for some time carried off ten thousand persons every day!

Herculaneum and Pompeii rose again from their ruins in the reign of t.i.tus; and they still existed with some remains of splendour under Hadrian[270]. The beautiful characters of the inscription, traced out on the base of the equestrian statue of Marcus Nonius Balbus, son of Marcus, are an evident proof of its existence at that period. They were found under the reign of the Antonines. In the geographical monument, known under the name of Peutinger's chart, which is of a date posterior to the reign of Constantine, that is to say in the commencement of the 4th century, Herculaneum and Pompeii were still standing, and then inhabited; but in the Itinerary, improperly ascribed to Antoninus, neither of these two cities is noticed; from which it may be conjectured, that their entire ruin must have taken place in the interval between the time when Peutinger's chart was constructed, and that when the above Itinerary was composed.

The eruption, which took place in 471, occasioned the most dreadful ravages. It is very probable that the cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii disappeared at that period, and that no more traces of them were left.

It appears, by the observation of Sir W. Hamilton[271], that the matter, which covers the ancient town of Herculaneum, is not the produce of one eruption only; but there are evident marks that the matter of six eruptions has taken its course over that which lie immediately above the town; and which was the cause of its destruction. These strata are either of lava or burnt matter, with veins of good soil between them.

The stratum of erupted matter that immediately covers the town, and with which the theatre and most of the houses were filled, is not of that sort of vitrified matter, called lava, but of a sort of soft stone composed of pumice, ashes, and burnt matter. It is exactly of the same nature with what is called the Naples stone. The Italians call it tufa; and it is in general use for building.

HERCULANEUM was covered with lava; Pompeii with pumice stone; yet the houses of the latter were built of lava; the product of former eruptions.

All memorials of the devoted cities were lost[272]; and discussions, over the places they had once occupied, were excited only by some obscure pa.s.sages in the cla.s.sical authors. Six successive eruptions contributed to lay them still deeper under the surface. But after that period had elapsed, a peasant digging a well beside his cottage in 1711, obtained some fragments of coloured marble, which attracted attention.

Regular excavations were made, under the superintendence of Stendardo, an architect of Naples; and a statue of Hercules, of Greek workmanship, and also a mutilated one of Cleopatra, were drawn from what proved to be a temple in the centre of the ancient Herculaneum.

It may be well conceived with what interest the intelligence was received, that a Roman city had been discovered, which, safely entombed under-ground, had thus escaped the barbarian Goths and Vandals, who ravaged Italy, or the sacrilegious hands of modern pillagers.

The remains of several public buildings have been discovered[273], which have possibly suffered from subsequent convulsions. Among these are two temples; one of them one hundred and fifty feet by sixty, in which was found a statue of Jupiter. A more extensive edifice stood opposite to them; forming a rectangle of two hundred and twenty-eight feet by one hundred and thirty-two, supposed to have been appropriated for the courts of justice. The arches of a portico surrounding it were supported by columns; within, it was paved with marble; the walls were painted in fresco; and bronze statues stood between forty columns under the roof. A theatre was found nearly entire; very little had been displaced; and we see in it one of the best specimens extant of the architecture of the ancients. The greatest diameter of the theatre is two hundred and thirty-four feet, whence it is computed, that it could contain ten thousand persons, which proves the great population of the city.

This theatre was rich in antiquities[274], independent of the ornamental part. Statues, occupying niches, represented the Muses; scenic masks were imitated on the entablatures; and inscriptions were engraven on different places. a.n.a.logous to the last were several large alphabetical Roman characters in bronze; and a number of smaller size, which had probably been connected in some conspicuous situation. A metallic car was found, with four bronze horses attached to it, nearly of the natural size; but all in such a state of decay, that only one, and the spokes of the wheels, also in metal, could be preserved. A beautiful white marble statue of Venus, only eighteen inches high, in the same att.i.tude as the famous Venus de Medicis, was recovered; and either here, or in the immediate vicinity, was found a colossal bronze statue of Vespasian, filled with lead, which twelve men were unable to move.

Besides many objects entire, there were numerous fragments of others, extremely interesting; which had been originally impaired, or were injured by attempts to remove them.

When we reflect, that sixteen hundred years have elapsed since the destruction of this city[275], an interval which has been marked by numerous revolutions, both in the political and mental state of Europe, a high degree of interest must be experienced in contemplating the venerable remains, recovered from the subterraneous city of Herculaneum.

Pliny, the younger, in his letters, brings the Romans, their occupations, manners, and customs, before us. He pictures in feeling terms the death of his uncle, who perished in the same eruption as the city we now describe; and that event is brought to our immediate notice by those very things which it was the means of preserving. Among these we see the various articles which administered to the necessities and the pleasures of the inhabitants, the emblems of their religious sentiments, and the very manners and customs of domestic life.

These curiosities consist not only of statues, busts, altars, inscriptions, and other ornamental appendages of Grecian opulence and luxury; but also comprehend an entire a.s.sortment of the domestic, musical, and surgical instruments; tripods of elegant form and exquisite execution; lamps in endless variety; vases and basins of n.o.ble dimensions; chandeliers of the most beautiful shapes, looking-gla.s.ses of polished metal; coloured gla.s.s, so hard, clear, and well stained, as to appear like emeralds, sapphires, and other precious stones; a kitchen completely fitted up with copper pans lined with silver, kettles, cisterns for heating water, and every utensil necessary for culinary purposes; also specimens of various sorts of combustibles, retaining their form though burnt to a cinder. By an inscription, too, we learn that Herculaneum contained no less than nine hundred houses of entertainment, such as we call taverns. Articles of gla.s.s, artificial gems, vases, tripods, candelabra, lamps, urns, dice, and dice-boxes; various articles of dress and ornaments; surgical instruments, weights and measures, carpenters' and masons' tools; but no musical instruments except the sistrum, cymbals, and flutes of bone and ivory.

Fragments of columns of various coloured marble and beautiful mosaic pavements were also found disseminated among the ruins; and numerous sacrificial implements, such as paterae, tripods, cups, and vases, were recovered in excellent preservation, and even some of the knives with which the victims are conjectured to have been slaughtered.

The ancient pictures of Herculaneum[276] are of the utmost interest; not only from the freshness and colour, but from the nature of the subjects they represent. All are executed in fresco; they are exclusively on the walls, and generally on a black or red ground. Some are of animated beings large as life; but the majority are in miniature. Every different subject of antiquity is depicted here; deities, human figures, animals, landscapes, foreign and domestic, and a variety of grotesque beings; sports and pastimes, theatrical performances, sacrifices, all enter the catalogue.

In regard to the statues found[277], some are colossal, some of the natural size, and some in miniature; and the materials of their formation are either clay, marble, or bronze. They represent all different objects, divinities, heroes, or distinguished persons; and in the same substances, especially bronze, there are the figures of many animals.

It is not probable that the best paintings of ancient Greece and Italy[278] were deposited in Herculaneum or Pompeii, which were towns of the second order, and unlikely to possess the master-pieces of the chief artists, which were usually destined to adorn the more celebrated temples or the palaces of kings and emperors. Their best statues are correct in their proportions, and elegant in their forms; but their paintings are not correct in their proportions, and are, comparatively, inelegant in their forms.

A few rare medals also have been found among these ruins, the most curious of which is a gold medallion of Augustus, struck in Sicily in the fifteenth year of his reign.

Nor must we omit one of the greatest curiosities, preserved at Portici[279]. This consists of a cement of cinders, which in one of the eruptions of Vesuvius surprised a woman, and totally enveloped her. This cement, compressed and hardened by time around her body, has become a complete mould of it, and in the pieces here preserved, we see a perfect impression of the different parts to which it adhered. One represents half a bosom, which is of exquisite beauty; another a shoulder, a third a portion of her shape, and all concur in revealing to us that this woman was young; that she was tall and well made, and even that she had escaped in her chemise, for some of the linen was still adhering to the ashes.

Though the city was destroyed[280] in the manner we have related, remarkably few skeletons have been found, though many were discovered in the streets of Pompeii; but one appears under the threshold of a door with a bag of money in his hand, as if in the att.i.tude of escaping, leaving its impression in the surrounding volcanic matter.

These and other valuable antiquities are preserved in the museum at Portici, which occupies the site of ancient Herculaneum, and in the Mus...o...b..rbonico at Naples. For details in respect to which, we must refer to the numerous books that have described them.

One of the most interesting departments of this unique collection is that of the Papyri, or MSS., discovered in the excavation of Herculaneum. The ancients did not bind their books (which, of course, were all MSS.) like us, but rolled them up in scrolls. When those of Herculaneum were discovered, they presented, as they still do, the appearance of burnt bricks, or cylindrical pieces of charcoal, which they had acquired from the action of the heat contained in the lava, that buried the whole city. They seemed quite solid to the eye and touch; yet an ingenious monk discovered a process of detaching leaf from leaf, and unrolling them, by which they could be read without much difficulty. It is, nevertheless, to be regretted, that so little success has followed the labours of those who have attempted to unrol them. Some portions, however, have been unrolled, and the t.i.tles of about 400 of the least injured have been read. They are, for the most part, of little importance; but all entirely new, and chiefly relating to music, rhetoric, and cookery. The obliterations and corrections are numerous, so that there is a probability of their being original ma.n.u.scripts.

There are two volumes of Epicurus "on Virtue," and the rest are, for the most part, productions of the same school of writers. Only a very few are written in Latin, almost all being in Greek. All were found in the library of one individual, and in a quarter of the town where there was the least probability of finding anything of the kind.

The following is a list of the most important works that have been discovered:--

1. Philodemus, on the Influence of Music on the Human Const.i.tution.

2. Epicurus upon Nature.

3. Philomedes on Rhetoric.

4. Id. on the Vices.

5. Id. on the Affinities of the Vices and the Virtues.

6. Id. on the Poets.

7. Id. some Philosophical Fragments.

8. Id. on Providence.

9. Democritus, some Geometrical Fragments.

10. Philostratus on Unreasonable Contempt.

11. Carnisirus on Friendship.

12. Cotothes on Plato's Dialogue of Isis.

13. Chrysippus on Providence.

We shall give the reader a specimen, in a fragment of a poem on the Actian war, copied from a ma.n.u.script taken from Herculaneum; supposed to be written by C. Rabirius:--

COL. I.

... XIM......... AEL .. TIA ...........

.. CESAR . FA .. AR . HAR . IAM. ..... G ...

.. RT.HISILLE .. NATO . CVM ..... ELIAPOR ..

QVEM IVVENES; gRANdAeVOSERATpEr cVNcTA seguntus[281]

BELLAFIDEDEXTRAQVE POtENSRERVMQuEPERVsum CALLIDVSADSIDVus traCTANDOIN MVNERE martis IMMINET oPSESSIS ITALuSIAMTVRRIBVS alTIS Adsiliens muriSNECDEFVit IMPETVSILLIS.

COL. II.

funeraque adCEDVNTPATRiis deforMIATerRIS et foedA Illa mAGISQVAMSi NOS geSTA LATEReNT CVM cuPERet potIVSPELVSIA mOENIACAESAR _vix_ ERATIMperIISANIMOs COHlberE SVorVM; QuIDcAPITIS Iam caPTA IACENt QVAE praemia belli?

SVBRVITISfERro meAMOENIA QVONdAMERat hoSTlS.

HAECMIHICVMdomin APLEBES QVOQVE nunc sibi VICTRIX VINDICAT hanc faMVLAM ROMANA POTEntia taNDEM.

COL. III.

fas et ALeXANDRO thAlaMOS iNtRaRE DEoRVM DIco ETIAMdOLVISSEDEAM vIDISSe triuMphoS AcTIACOSCVM.cAVSa fORES Tu MaxIMA beLLI Pa.r.s.eTIAMIMperIIQVAEFEMINATanTA? VIrORuM QVAESERIEs ANTIQVA fVIT? NI GLORIAMENDAX MVLTA vetuStATISNIMIOConcEDATHONORI.

COL. IV.

.................... EN .................