Having thus given the accounts of Kotzebue, and also of an English
tourist, as to Pompeii and Herculaneum, we will now add the narrative of
our distinguished fellow-citizen, Professor Silliman, who passed over
the same ground in 1851. All these views are given, because the subject
is one of so much intrinsic interest, and because some objects are
mentioned by each writer that are not by the others. Professor Silliman
says: “We passed rapidly along through Portici, Resina, and Torre del
Greco,[6] which form one long-continued street, lying over Herculaneum,
a large city, whose entombed remains were far beneath our carriage
wheels. Vesuvius was on our left, quiet and sublime. Clouds vailed its
crater from our view, but its venerable sides were enveloped in the
black drapery of its own lava floods. The currents have often flowed
over the road on which we were traveling. Here and there, the lava had
been cut through in the streets, and it protrudes in black, rocky
masses, upon which many of the houses have been erected. Lava formed the
walls of the houses, and the fences around the fields, and lava, only
lava, was everywhere around us. After a short interval of cultivated
fields, we arrived in Torre del Annunciata, in a street similar to those
we had passed, and surrounded by a country in the highest state of
cultivation, where every foot of the rich volcanic soil is made
available. Farm-houses and villas appeared clustering around the eastern
and southern foot of Vesuvius, and creeping up its sloping sides, so
reckless are the people of past catastrophes, although Herculaneum
reposes in its profound grave at the foot of the mountain, and the great
sepulcher of Pompeii, with its funereal monuments, is in full view
before them. They have also been very recently warned again, by the
terrific eruption of February, 1850, which, bursting out back of
Vesuvius, on the east, took an unwonted direction, thus giving another
proof that no situation on or near the mountain is safe; but still the
inhabitants repose in careless security.
-----
Footnote 6:
“Torre del Greco, a town containing eighteen thousand people, was
overwhelmed, in 1794, by an eruption of lava from Vesuvius, flowing
from the middle of its western slope, only five miles above the town.
The melted torrent buried the place, and inundated the sea,
encroaching upon it one-third of a square mile.”
-----
“As we drove slowly onward, checking the horses from time to time, in
order to realize the scenes around us, Antonio, from the coach-box,
suddenly exclaimed, ‘There is Pompeii!’ We eagerly looked, and saw a
low, green ridge of land, covered by grass and shrubs. It appeared as an
extended mound, over which the traveler might have driven, as thousands
have heedlessly done in centuries past, unconscious that a city of the
dead slumbered beneath the hoofs of the horses. Only a few minutes
elapsed, before standing erect in the carriage, we discerned the still
naked heaps of pumice that have been thrown out during the excavations;
and immediately after, in breathless silence, we were at the door of the
house of Diomede! An elegant country-house, a Roman villa, just outside
of the walls of the city, still stands, almost eighteen hundred years
after the great catastrophe. Its columns are erect, its walls entire,
and its open doors seem to invite the stranger to enter; but the family
are not there, and silence reigns in the halls of Diomede!
“I never before felt as I did when I entered this deserted
house—pensive, solemn, and in full sympathy with the tragical story.
Sentinels still keep these doors; not the helmeted Roman, who, firm and
unmoved, surveyed the storm of fire but yielded not to fear, preferring
to die at his post,[7] but Neapolitans stationed there by the government
to prevent invasion of the ruins. One there was, a veteran, whose snowy
hair, and visage so deeply marked by time, made us almost feel as if he
must have been present when the volcanic tempest raged, and had,
Salathiel-like, come down to our time to relate the events of those
dreadful days. But a garrulous guide, who spoke tolerable English,
placed himself at the head of our party, and was our =cicerone= through
an intensely interesting day. We mused for a few minutes in the vacant
rooms of the house of Diomede, walked upon the still beautiful mosaic
pavements and floors, passed through the dormitories, the triclinium,
the impluvium, and the hall for conversation; observed the
water-cistern, and the channels worn in the stone curb by the friction
of the rope, and then descended to the vaults beneath, in which so many
members of the family met their fate. This gallery is strongly arched
with brick, and was used as a wine-cellar, as appears from twenty-five
amphoræ still remaining there, and which were found filled with volcanic
matter.
-----
Footnote 7:
“In the Pompeian museum at Naples, we afterward saw the skull of such
a Roman, whose head was still covered by his helmet, and whose
skeleton was found at his station in the gate of Pompeii.”
-----
“On the twenty-fourth of August, in the year 79 of our own era, and not
long after midday, Vesuvius broke the repose of untold ages, and
resumed, with tragical energy, his ancient reign of fire, awakening the
slumbering echoes of his power with terrible detonations and fearful
earthquakes. A darkness that might be felt, shrouded in the profoundest
gloom the midday sun, and ashes fell like snow upon the mountain, the
plain, the bays of Naples and Baiæ, and far into the surrounding
country. Rain from the condensed steam of the eruption deluged the whole
district; torrents of fluid mud, formed by the ashes and water, swept
over every obstruction, and filled to overflowing every depression of
the surface. The terrified inhabitants, overwhelmed by superstitious
fears, joined the droves of domestic animals, whose keener instincts had
already impelled them to desert a district filled with sulphureous
vapors, and vibrating with ominous and unwonted sounds, wandering, they
knew not where, in search of some place where the frightful evidences of
the wrath of the gods might be avoided.
“But the family of Diomede sought refuge from the falling pumice under
the strong arch of the wine-cellar, strong enough to resist and sustain
the load of falling materials, but not proof against the deluge of
volcanic mud, whose unexpected inundation brought death to the mistress,
her children, and fifteen female slaves. The record of the manner of
their death is even now perfectly legible. The form of the mistress,
with her back and head to the wall, with outstretched arms, is clearly
delineated by the difference of color. Surrounding her are the
impressions of the persons of seventeen others, various in stature, but
all standing, save one infant in the arms. When these silent vaults were
excavated, here stood the skeletons of these unfortunate people, the
rich jewels of the mistress and of her daughter circling the bony
fingers and wrists and neck. These we afterward saw in the museum at
Naples, the left shoulder of the mother, as also the skull of the
daughter, whose name, _Julia_, was engraved upon her bracelet. Equally
strange and wonderful was it to see the cast of the bosom of this Roman
matron, taken with lifelike precision, in the soft and fluid tufa. Her
hand still grasped the purse, whose contents are also among the
wonderful treasures of the same museum. Beyond the garden and the
fish-pond, which are contiguous to the wine-cellar, there is a gateway
where were found two skeletons, with valuable vessels and money; one
hand held a rusted key, and the other a bag with coin and cameos, and
vessels of silver and bronze were here. These are believed to have been
the remains of the master Diomede and his servant. A wrapper contained
eighty pieces of silver money, ten of gold, and some bronze. It appears
highly probable that, having left the family in a place which was
believed to be safe, they were engaged in transporting valuables to a
place of deposit, when they were overtaken by the same deluge which
destroyed their friends.
“The water-line to which the fluid magma rose in this quadrangular
vaulted gallery, is still visible upon the walls, (some twelve to
fifteen inches above the tallest head,) nearly even with several small
apertures through which, as well as through the door, it probably
flowed. It is not unlikely that this inundation was accompanied by
torrents of carbonic acid and other noxious gases, so abundantly exhaled
in more modern eruptions of Vesuvius, by which these refugees from the
dangers above ground were perhaps so suddenly suffocated as to remain
unmoved in the positions where they were found. The sudden death of the
elder Pliny, who, his nephew says, was suffocated by a noxious
exhalation upon the same occasion, and at no great distance from
Pompeii, may, with much probability, be ascribed to the same cause.
“The facts now detailed clearly show that vast torrents of mud must have
passed through the streets of Pompeii, since dry ashes and ejections of
lapilli and pumice, unaided by water, could never have found their way
into the interior of closed amphoræ, nor made perfect molds of the human
form, nor left a level water-line upon the inner walls of close arched
passages. The shower of materials which buried the city, was mainly
composed of small pieces of white pumice and rounded lapilli of various
colors, interspersed with some large projected masses of rock-bombs,
such as Vesuvius has often thrown out in later times. These by their
fall broke through the roofs, and at the places where they struck,
depressed the mosaic pavements into a concave form, as we saw in several
of the houses. A darker colored sand appears to have alternated with the
pumice, and often forms a distinct and thick layer upon it. Numerous
such alternations have been made out by the Neapolitan geologists, and
we afterward saw the same order of stratification distinctly in another
part of the town, where fresh excavations were going on. The fresh
section here showed, that these loose materials fell much as snow falls
in our northern climates when driven by the wind, being thicker in the
angles than in the centers of the houses, and rising in curves
corresponding to the elevations and depressions of the surface.
“The celebrated Appian way passed by the house of Diomede, and through
Pompeii to Stabiæ. The road is now above ground, and is evidently as
perfect as when Pompeii was buried. It is paved with large blocks of the
ancient lava of Mount Somma, which, of course, proves the occurrence of
early eruptions of the volcano, although at an unknown era. Deep ruts
are worn by the wheels in the solid lava, which is as firm as trap,
while the stones are strongly marked by the rust of the iron worn off
from the wheel-tires. The furrows prove that the wheels were not more
than four feet apart. This is proved also by the position of the
stepping-stones for crossing the streets, which were so placed that the
wheels passed between them. The stepping-stones were very large, and two
and a half or three feet long, their longest diameter coinciding with
the direction of the street; and they were laid so near to each other
that the passengers could pass quite across the street from one
side-walk to the opposite, without stepping down. There were side-walks
in the principal streets, about three feet wide, and two feet above the
pavement. The streets were paved with the same hard lava rock, and in
many places it was worn into deep hollows by human feet, thus proving
the high antiquity of the city. The street near the barracks is only
thirteen feet wide. We passed through one street in which the pavement
was in very bad order; the ruts were worn irregularly and very deep, the
stones were tilted out of the proper level, and there, as sometimes
happens in modern cities, the street commissioners had evidently not
done their duty.
“The Appian way, near to Pompeii, but outside of the walls and
immediately contiguous to them, is, as at Rome, bordered on both sides
by _tombs_. and in general they are in good condition, having been
preserved during seventeen centuries equally from injuries by the
weather and by wanton violation. They are of marble, and their Latin
inscriptions still commemorate their tenants. One tomb, constructed in
the manner of the columbaria, is dedicated to the gladiators, and is
decorated with bas-reliefs representing their combats. Near the tombs,
and outside of the walls, we saw sheds for the horses of those who
arrived after the gates of the city were closed. No stables have been
discovered in the town, but skeletons of horses were found at this
place, where there was a large tavern.
“Pompeii was first discovered in 1748. It lies about twelve miles
south-east from Naples. The town was extremely compact, and appears to
have been only three-fourths of a mile long by half a mile wide. The
houses were joined together. Twenty streets, which are only fifteen feet
wide, had been uncovered twenty years since. Although only one-third
part of the city has been cleared of its covering, five or six hours
were industriously employed by us, with our two guides, in visiting the
most interesting private dwellings and the public buildings. We were
indeed richly rewarded for our effort. Here we were, walking in the very
streets and on the very pavements on which the ancient Romans trod; we
were surveying the very houses in which they dwelt: we saw the
vestibules, the impluvium (an interior and central receptacle for the
rain-water from the roofs;) their triclinia, or dining-halls; their
colonnades, surrounding an interior open area, in which they walked and
conversed with their families and friends; the fish-ponds, also in an
open area; the private marble baths; the kitchens and other arrangements
for culinary purposes; the gardens in the rear of the houses, the halls
and colonnades opening into the garden; the whole forming a domestic
dominion secure from public inspection. All these arrangements were
perfectly intelligible to us; and as we walked from house to house, it
was not difficult to imagine that we were making calls, and that the
people were not at home.
“Everywhere, even in the smaller houses, the floors were adorned with
mosaic; many of the best designs have been sent to Naples, but,
including what is still covered, much more remains in place, and not
essentially injured. When it is considered that no melted lava flowed
into Pompeii, but that it was covered solely by a volcanic shower of
comminuted pumice and other pulverulent materials, which accumulated
until the roofs were crushed inward by the weight, it will be easily
understood that the mosaic floors may have remained for seventeen or
eighteen hundred years, substantially uninjured. The mosaic of Pompeii
is uncovered in many places, and when the dust is brushed away and the
surface is wiped with a wet cloth, as was done for our gratification,
all the original brightness and beauty of the figures shine forth, and
in the finest patterns, the execution was in a high degree tasteful and
elegant. At the door of the mansion of the edile Glaucus, which was one
of the largest and best in the city, there was, in the vestibule and
before entering the house, a very startling mosaic figure of a large and
powerful dog, secured by a chain around his neck, but crouching and
fierce, as if about to spring upon the visitor; and immediately before
this vigilant sentinel, you read in large Roman letters, CAVE
CANEM—beware of the dog! The inscription is preserved in the original
place where we saw it, but the dog has been removed to the museum at
Naples. It is still a perfect figure of a Roman dog.
“The frescoes of Pompeii and Herculaneum, have put us in possession of
very perfect specimens of the skill of the Romans in the art of
painting. The only examples of their pictorial talent previously known,
were the comparatively imperfect decorations in the baths of Titus at
Rome. In these buried cities nearly all the walls of the houses are
frescoed, and among these, have been found many superb specimens of
ancient art. Most of the best have been removed to the museum of Naples,
but some of considerable merit still remain in place, and no doubt
further excavations will show numerous others now unknown. The colors
are somewhat faded, but are bright when wet. The copies in water-colors,
sold at Naples, give very perfectly the idea of these frescoes, but with
more brilliancy than is possessed by the original. Many of these figures
are nude, although many are draped. We were particularly struck with the
singularity of some of the figures on the walls, having _shoes_ very
much like our modern ones. As the great object of art is to present
Nature in her forms of greatest purity and grace, these nude figures can
not meet with more objections than their modern representatives. We saw
nothing in Pompeii or Herculaneum, worthy of so much criticism in point
of taste, as may be seen in almost any of the European galleries of
modern painting. Titian’s Loves of the Gods in Blenheim palace,
certainly surpass the ancients in this respect.
“An expected visit of the Duke d’Aumale (son of Louis Philippe, and
allied by marriage to the royal family of Naples) has been made the
occasion of _an additional excavation_, which is now being carried on by
order of the king. We thought it rare good fortune, that we could stand
by and see the moving of materials which had not been disturbed since
the catastrophe. They are entirely unconsolidated, and are easily moved
by the shovel. The accumulations did not appear to be more than ten feet
above the tops of the houses, but if measured from the level of the
streets, they might have been twenty feet in thickness. In it were
distinctly visible the alternation of fine pumice, coarse pumice,
lapilli and dark colored sand, before mentioned.
“We had the pleasure of seeing apartments that had been recently opened,
and of going into several of them. In these, the pictures are fresh, and
far less faded than in those that have been long exposed. In one of
these houses, all the marble figures found around the impluvium, and
colonnade, and fountain, have been allowed to remain intact, as the
Romans left them, when they fled for their lives. Around the fountain in
one of these houses, there were numerous grotesque jets formed of
marble, in the shape of miniature bulls, ducks and dolphins, and
associated with them was a Bacchus. A leaden tube which formerly
conveyed water for the fountain, remains in place as it passed through
the wall. We observed, as illustrating the condition of the art of
working this metal among the Romans, that the pipe was not drawn nor
cast, but was made by folding up a sheet into the tubular form, and
closing the joint by a lap without solder. In this house was a large
vaulted music room, the walls of which are nearly perfect. The object
for which the room was constructed, was sufficiently indicated by
figures of musical instruments, and of persons playing upon them.
Columns were in general use in the better houses, around the included
area, in the gardens, and in other places. In the best dwellings they
are of polished marble, in many they are stuccoed. Some of the Roman
houses, in their most perfect and uninjured condition, must have been
very beautiful, although their accommodations were much more limited
than those of modern times. The rooms, the dormitories especially, were
much smaller, and the houses were low, and rarely rose above two
stories. They were so constructed as to admit of the most perfect
domestic seclusion: no eye could scrutinize the family privacy from the
street, or from another house. Various names have been given to several
of the larger and more beautiful houses in Pompeii, sometimes fanciful,
but more frequently from some statue, mosaic, painting, or other
distinctive work of art found in them, referring, as is sometimes
supposed, to the owner. Thus we saw the houses of the Faun, of the
Medusa, of the three Fountains, and those of Pansa, of Glaucus, of
Sallust, and of Cicero. It is doubtful whether Cicero had a house at
Pompeii, and still more doubtful whether the one called by his name had
any connection with him. The three fountains in the house of that name,
are decorated with modern sea-shells, such as now abound in the
Mediterranean, and in a style of patterns still prevalent in Naples. The
fountains in the two houses newly exposed were very elegant, and in
perfect condition.
“The forum was large and handsome, and surrounded with double rows of
columns for a covered colonnade. In connection with it, was a temple of
Jupiter, and another opposite to it, of Venus, both decorated with
massive monolithic columns. Half-dressed blocks of marble and portions
of columns lie on the ground in the forum, where they were in process of
preparation, to repair the injuries done to the building by the shocks
of an earthquake, before the destructive eruption. Numerous dislocated
and propped walls in the city bear testimony to the same event, which
occurred in the year 63. Connected with the forum, was the basilica or
hall of justice, a structure adorned with columns, and provided with an
elevated tribune for the judges. Vaulted apartments beneath, were used
as a prison, communicating by a circular opening in the crown of the
arch, with the hall above. In this prison, which we entered, were found
three skeletons of prisoners, ironed to the floor, doubtless waiting
their examination at the time of the catastrophe, which so unexpectedly
changed the venue of their trial to another bar! Many acres are inclosed
by the various structures of the forum, whose very ruins, with their
numerous columns, make a grand appearance. Among the ruins, are those of
a temple to Esculapius, one for Hercules, and another for Fortune.
“Numerous monuments and inscriptions in Pompeii, indicate the Greek
origin of the original colony, and the Egyptian customs and society
which preceded the Roman dynasty. The temple of Isis still shows its
sacrificial altar, and inscriptions in Egyptian characters cover the
columns. Some of the largest and most beautiful of the silver vessels in
the museum at Naples, were found in this temple. Curiously enough, as we
entered these ancient precincts, in which the serpent was held sacred, a
snake, reputed by the guide as venomous, crossing our path, was made a
victim, which we offered on the altar.
“Beneath a superb portico in the street of the tombs, the skeletons of a
female and several children were discovered; in the street near the
temple of Isis, another skeleton was found at the depth of ten feet, and
below it, a large collection of gold and silver medals in perfect
preservation, chiefly of the reign of Domitian.
“The theaters, whose remains are distinct, are the comic, the tragic,
and the amphitheater. They were lined with polished marble, and were, in
every way, highly finished and elegant. Of the two former, the entire
plan and the greater part of the structure are visible, and most of the
seats are in place.
“The amphitheater was in a remote part of the city, near the eastern
wall. It has undergone so little dilapidation, that it appears almost
perfect. We approached it by ascending the ground until we were quite at
the top, and we then descended by the stone seats, quite to the arena,
which, by pacing, we found to be two hundred and forty feet by one
hundred and twenty. From the arena we looked up over the entire circuit
and elevation of the seats, which are almost perfectly preserved—thanks
to the sepulture of seventeen hundred years. Had this amphitheater been
in the midst of Naples, as the Coliseum was at Rome, it would, no doubt,
have fared as ill at the hands of the architects. It was easy for us now
to people it in imagination, with the thousands of Romans who have so
often gazed and applauded from these seats, while blood, both brute and
human, was flowing in the arena where we were standing. Such may have
been the scenes when the tempest of fire broke forth, for the people of
Pompeii are said to have been then engaged in the amphitheater.
“There are two buildings for _public baths_, which are well preserved;
the bronze seats and braziers still remain in them. For men, there was a
common bath, circular and large enough for entire immersion; it is of
marble, and is now in good condition. The dome, or ceiling, has in part
fallen in, but the portion over the bath is preserved. We measured the
room and found it to be sixty feet by twenty. There was another bath for
women, contiguous to this, but at a proper distance. This marble bath is
quite perfect, and the room being entirely arched has been preserved
uninjured. It is most interesting. There is a living fountain at one
end, and there was an arrangement, whose object is even now quite
apparent, for warming the room by hot air or steam. Here, in this
ancient ladies’ bath, we dined upon our stores brought out from Naples.
Intruding upon this retreat, once so sacred, we seated ourselves quite
conveniently, on the side of the bath, in a fine frescoed room of sixty
feet by sixteen. This was the most perfect building that we saw in
Pompeii. In this vicinity, there is a _living fountain_ still abundant,
and the river Sarno runs at this moment beneath Pompeii. Through a wide
opening we saw its copious and lively stream still flowing in its
ancient channel, apparently undisturbed by volcanic and earthquake
convulsions.
“The walls of Pompeii are still in good condition; they were three miles
in circuit, from eighteen to twenty feet high, and twenty feet thick.
Seven gates have been discovered; the gate of Herculaneum, of Vesuvius,
of Capua, of Nola, of Sarno, of Stabiæ, and of the theaters. The sites
of nine towers have been ascertained. We ascended the wall by stairs of
stone, doubtless coeval with the wall itself: the view was imposing.
Vesuvius rose above the desolated city, looking down upon its naked
walls and roofless houses. The volcanic mound still covers two-thirds of
the city, and nothing on its upper surface tells of what lies below. It
were greatly to be desired, that an enlightened and energetic
government, with adequate means, would uncover the entire city, with its
numerous hidden works of art and materials of history.
“The baker’s shop, with his oven of arched and modern form, the tub of
stone in which he wet his broom, and the hourglass-shaped mills of hard
lava for grinding the grain, we saw all perfect. There were mills of two
sizes: one small, such as could be turned by hand, as when ‘two women
were grinding at the mill,’ and one much larger, and provided with
square holes to receive the ends of levers, requiring, of course, much
more force to turn them, and doubtless worked by men. The shops of the
wine and oil merchants were provided with large _amphoræ_ set in masonry
under the counter, for storing those fluids, and numerous other
arrangements for the convenience of the occupants were visible.
“In one house we saw a small circular window, in which part of the glass
plate which originally filled it still remains. One other similar glass
is said to have been found, although shutters were in general use for
most of the windows. As there were no windows, as with us, opening upon
the street, and all the doors and windows of the house opened upon
private courts and gardens, there was in this mild and equable climate
far less occasion for the use of glass than might seem at first
requisite. That they understood the manufacture of glass, and how to
color it, by the use of the oxyds of cobalt and copper, is abundantly
proved by the remains of this ancient art now in the Borbonico museum,
at Naples.
“One peculiarity in the construction of the Pompeian houses favors the
removal and preservation of the frescoes. The walls upon which the
pictures are painted are not solid, but the frescoed surface is
supported by studs of masonry or iron, at a distance of some four or
five inches in front of the brick walls. Security from dampness is thus
obtained, and the task of removing the valued surface much simplified
and facilitated. The declining sun found us still lingering on the seats
of the amphitheater, at the remotest angle of the city wall, dwelling
with delight upon these memorials of the past, and speculating upon the
probability of renewed activity in Vesuvius, whose quiet blue cone rose
over our right shoulders crowned with a soft cloud of vapor. It was late
in the evening of this most interesting day when we reached the door of
our hotel, long after darkness had hidden the landscape.