A GLANCE AT HISTORY
A
fresco discovered in Pompei in 1879 in the "Casa del Centenario" (House
of the Centennial) and preserved today in the Naples National Museum shows
"Bacco" with an enormous cluster of black grapes at the foot of an isolated
mountain believed to be Mount Vesuvius. The volcano did not seem to be a
danger to the inhabitants of Pompei before that terribile day in 79 A.D..
The slopes were surrounded by grapevines, the top was a thick forest full
of game. Frequently the wine anphorae from Pompei carried the inscription
"Vesuvinum" and in the kitchens there were sometimes paintings of wild-pork
heads.
The city, founded by the Osci, rose high on a counterfort created by a
prehistoric lavaflow and was crossed by the Sarno River which represented
a comfortable link with the sea for the people living in the valley. Even
if ceramic pieces and stone arms found seem to date the first human settlements
back to the Bronze and Iron Ages (VIII century B.C.) a lava block wall and
small groups of dwellings dated between the VII and VI century B.C. represent
the first certain example of the founding of the city.
The
land was first dominated by the Greeks who ruled over the gulf of Naples,
then by the Etruscans who ruled over the Campania hinterland and then again
by the Greeks (474-425) after the defeat of the Etruscans at Cuma. Towards
the end of the 5th century B.C. the city was conquered by the Samnites who
came down from the mountains in the Irpinia and Sannio regions. Pompei will
remain under their influence for more than 3 centuries until the Rome conquest
of Campania (end III century B.C.) and the conquest of the city, but allowed
to maintain its own institutions and language. In 89 B.C. Lucio Silla and
his troops besieged Pompei and occupied it. Nine years later, in 80 B.C.
Pompei became a Roman colony and absorbed the language, customs and architecture
of the Romans. In 62 A.D. it was seriously damaged together with other Campania
cities, by a violent earthquake, but reconstructed quickly. Pompei was growing
rapidly: it had approximately 20.000 inhabitants when on August 24, 79 A.D.
Mount Vesuvius awoke and completely destroyed it together with the neighbouring
cities of Ercolano and Stabia. A famous letter written to Tacito by Plinius
the Young contains a description of the eruption and of the tragic death
of his host uncle, Plinius the Elder a naturalist and commander of the Miseno
Fleet. A layer of approssimately six, seven meters of ashes and lapilli
buried the city. Most of its inhabitants died while trying to escape along
the road to Stabia and to Nocera, or by soffocation in the cellars of their
own homes.
Many casts by Giuseppe Fiorelli, director of excavations in 1840, obtained by pouring liquid plaster into the spaces left by the corpses buried in the ash bank are a continuous witness of the tragedy. Pompei was forgotten until 1594 and 1600 when the works to build a canal for transportation of water from the Sarno River to Torre Annunziata drilled the hill of the Civita and brought to light the ruins of many buildings and inscriptions.
It was only in 1748, under the rule of Charles of Borbone, that the first real excavations actually started. Excavations were greatly incremented in 1800, infact most of the public buildings were discovered between 1806 and 1832. Among these are the Forum and some of the most important private houses such as the House of Pansa, of the Tragic Poet and of the Faune.
In 1860, during the Reign of Italy, Giuseppe Fiorelli became director of the excavations which he conducted in an orderly manner. He also promoted contemporary interventions of restoration and protection. After an interruption due to the 1st World War, excavations recommenced in 1924 under the supervision of Archaeologist Amedeo Maiuri who passionately dedicated to this work the rest of his life, almost 40 years.Three fifths of the city equal to a surface of approximately 66 ha, and a wall of 3220 meters perimeter have been brought to light, thus offering an exciting view of the buildings, and of the original decorations and house tools. On the basis of the road plan archaeologists have split up the area into nine regions each of which into insulae and have progressively numbered the entrance room of each block (insulae).
A TIMELESS CITY
The
most fascinating aspect of Pompei, the event that makes it a one in the
world city, from a historic and artistic point of view, is the possibility
to put together step by step, along the lava basalt paved roads, the everyday
life of the inhabitants of a city which became immortal after the catastrophic
eruption in 79 A.D.. The Forum was the heart of the city, the center of
all the economic, commercial and political activities and the meeting place,
the "Square", of all the Pompeians. In this vast space, surrounded by a
double colonnade and decorated with bronze and marble statues which have
unfortunately all gone lost except for the pedestals, were situated all
the most important public buildings.
Here
were the Basilica where justice was administered, the seats of the "Diumviri",
the "Decuriones" and the "Aediles" who governed the city, the "Comitium"
where the magistrates voted, the Italic Temple to Zeus which together with
the temple to Apollo and all the other sacred buildings scattered throughout
the city and dedicated to the various other gods, evidenced the Pompeians
sense of religion.
A very strong religious sense if we consider that they also decorated their
own private homes with "larari". This big rectangular space 38 m x 142 m
was also the seat of commerce. Small pieces of fruit pits, cereals, fish
bones, meat and vegetables were found in the "Macellum", a covered market
built during the imperial period, where the earth products were sold. Agriculture
was very prosperous thanks to the fertile land: pompeian "horti" (vegetable
gardens) were famous for their vegetables, grapevines, olives, honey and
"spelta" a special type of wheat which permitted two harvests a year.
The
building of "Eumachia" a priestess of Venus, seat of the "Fullones" corporation
(washers, cleaners, garment producers) was used for the auction of wool,
garments and other clothes products. Commerce in the Pompeian economy incremented
after the 62 A.D. earthquake. Along the "Abbondanza" road, one of the decumans
crossing the city from east to west, were the "thermopoli", such as the
Asellina thermopoli, where hot and cold beverages were mixed. Along this
road were also the "cauponae", pubs and eating places, the cleaners or fullones.
In the fullones kept by Stefano the "impluvium" originally used to gather
water, had been transformed into a basin for washing clothes. The garments
were then pressed by the laborers in basins and whitened with urine. Even
an immense villa such as the one that belonged to Giulia Felice was partially
used for pubs and little stores. Bread stores with big cone shaped millstones
pushed by mules and slaves for the production of flour and bread, stores
selling "garum" the favorite dried fish sauce made from tunafish, and little
artisan stores of iron, ceramic and gold were scattered all over the city.
Every Pompeian tried to save some of his time for "otium". The busiest city areas had thermal baths: the Forum thermae, the central ones, the Stabian ones, all very important in the every day life of the city. These places, split into Women and Men sections contained the "calidarium" (hot bath), the "tepidarium" (warm bath) and the "frigidarium" (cold bath) and rooms (frequently decorated with stuccos) for massages and beauty treatments. Body care was continued in the gymnasiums, such as the "Grande Palestra", an enormous building from the imperial period, where sports activities were performed. Big root moulds prove the existance of plane-trees which shaded the entire area. Plays were a very important appointment.
Classical
performances, comedies and tragedies were performed in the Big Theatre (200
- 150 B.C.) which had a capacity of 5000 spectators. Today, we can only
see a few of its cavea tiers along with the stage and niche. Musical auditions
and mime performances were held in the Little Theatre (covered), built after
80 B.C. and whose tiers, seating 1000 spectators, have been completely preserved.
The gladiator games were held in the great elliptic amphitheatre, built in 80 B.C. with a capacity of 12000 people. Pompeians had a particularly refined architectural taste in decorating their own homes and gardens. The first buildings (Italic period - IV and III centuries B.C.) were extremely simple, with an entrance hall, a roof which included the "compluvium" to convey water to the basin below the "impluvium", the "cubicula" or bedrooms, the "tablinum", meeting place for the family at the end of the entrance hall, and the "hortus" on the rear. In the course of the years the buildings became more and more complex thus offering more than one "atrio", "peristilio" (court surrounded by pillars) and garden.
The decorations became more complex: we can find warm and brilliantly colored decorations such as the famous "pompeian red", with mythologic, heroic, religious, erotic or fantastic subjects.
Beautiful
examples of these decorations are the frescos in the "House of the Vettii"
where the Cupids indicate the various artisan activities, the splendid "Venus
in the Shell" in the House of Venus, or the mysterious cycle of frescos
(3 m x 17 m long) in the "Mystery Villa" dedicated to the worship of Dionysus,
which represent some of the greatest paintings of the past.
The bronze sculpture art, whose most famous example is the dancing Faune in the homonymous house, the love for vases and silverware confirmed by the finding of 115 pieces of silver in the "House of Menandro", are also extremely important examples of these decorations. The gardens where Pompeians dined on "triclini" (three legged sofas) during the summer, were full of fountains such as the ones in polychrome mosaics of the "House of the Big and Small Fountain". This was possible because Pompeians had running water thanks to the lead pipelines that supplied the entire city with running water and which also caused quite a few problems of toxicity. The mosaics beautifully completed the home decorations: the most simple ones in black and white geometrical designs, such as Cave Canem of the “House of the Tragic Poet”, the masterpieces had a variety of colors such as the ones in the Battle of Isso, found in the “House of the Faune”, and today in the National Museum of Naples.
