“The same eruption which destroyed Pompeii, Stabiæ, Oplontia and
Teglanum, entombed Herculaneum also. Its site was, however, unknown, as
well as that of the other buried towns; and the fatal event is only
occasionally alluded to by the Roman writers. In the year 63, an
earthquake had shattered these cities, a precursor of their coming doom.
In 1711, a peasant, in digging a well, discovered, at twenty feet depth,
pieces of colored marble. In 1713, the digging being continued, they
struck down into a temple, and discovered the statues of Cleopatra and
Hercules; and subsequent explorations disclosed the theater. Our time
being very fully occupied with Pompeii on the day when we were there, we
reserved to another opportunity a visit to Herculaneum. We descended
quite conveniently down steps of stone, and arrived at the pit of the
theater, seventy-nine feet below the level of the main street of
Portici, and Torre del Greco. With a guide, we proceeded, by the light
of candles and torches, until we came to this subterranean theater,
which had been filled with volcanic materials. I do not call it lava,
because there is every reason to believe that, like Pompeii, Herculaneum
was buried by pumice, cinders, ashes, lapilli and sand. There has been
much discussion on this subject; but had the buildings of Herculaneum
been inclosed in heated lava, it is obvious that every fresco painting
and marble would have been destroyed, and much more, the numerous papyri
and other substances of an organic character, which have been found
there. Now it happens that the frescoes of Herculaneum, so far as it has
been uncovered, are not only of a higher character in respect of art
than those in Pompeii, but also in better preservation. The solidity of
the material enveloping Herculaneum is easily understood, when we
remember that it has been for over seventeen hundred years under the
enormous pressure of seventy or eighty feet of superincumbent rock.
Since the catastrophe of August, A. D. 79, numerous flows of molten lava
have passed over the site of Herculaneum; and these successive
accumulations have amounted to the thickness just named. Add the effects
of water, dissolving lime and silica, and infiltrating these materials
among the loose pumice, and we see cause enough to account for the
solidification of these loose materials. Moreover, no sluggish and
semi-viscid lava (such as the Vesuvian lavas a short distance from their
outlet always are) could ever have entered all the intricate passages of
the theater and other buildings; while a fluid magma of volcanic mud
would act in the same situation just as it is now found, like plaster of
Paris in a mold.
“When we see with what labor and expense the excavations have been made
in Herculaneum, and how difficult it is to dispose of the materials,
which must be borne a long way through narrow passages like the
galleries of a mine, and raised nearly one hundred feet to the surface,
where a populous town forbids the accumulation of rubbish; we are the
more easily reconciled to the suspension of the labor, and to the
throwing of the fragments into cavities that had been previously
excavated, and from which all interesting matters had been removed.
“Discoveries in Herculaneum have been very numerous, but are so similar
to those made in Pompeii that it is unnecessary to go much into detail
beyond what has been already mentioned. This city being, in fact,
contemporary with Pompeii, we should, of course, expect to find great
similarity. It would seem, however, to have been a grander city, and
probably more populous. It has been computed that the theater would
contain ten thousand people, which would imply a large population. Two
temples were discovered, one of them one hundred and fifty feet by
sixty. This contained a statue of Jupiter. Opposite to this was another
building of two hundred and twenty-eight feet by one hundred and
thirty-two, supposed to have been constructed for the courts of justice.
It had a colonnade supporting a portico; its pavement was of marble, its
walls were frescoed, and there were bronze statues standing between the
forty-two columns that supported the roof.
“The theater is now the only public place that can be seen in
Herculaneum, and the excavations have brought its form very distinctly
into view. Its marble seats and the pit have been so far cleared, that
we distinctly comprehend the design and plan. The galleries of access
from the streets, and some of the rooms that were appendages of the
theater, have been opened. It appears to have had two principal gates
and seven entrances, called vomitories. Many statues, and mosaics, and
frescoes, have been found in Herculaneum, and some of them, especially
the statues, are of surpassing beauty. We were desirous to see the famed
impression of a mask, and by holding a candle near to it the form could
be distinctly seen. The impression is in concave, and is that of a
strongly marked face of an adult; the copy is well defined, and
corresponds perfectly with a molding made by soft aqueous materials, and
not at all to one made by lava.
“The well, by which the light was originally let down upon the theater,
of course attracted our attention. It is now enlarged into a pit of
fifteen to twenty feet in diameter, and narrowed toward the bottom to
the size of a common well; it descends far below the bottom of the
theater, and, like other wells, contains water. A flood of light flows
down through this orifice; and it is cheering to pass from the dark
chambers of the theater, to look up again upon the light of heaven. The
subterranean walk, aided by candles, of which each person carries one,
is, however, far from being unpleasant. Steps are cut in the solid mass,
all obstacles are cleared away, and although we find it cool and damp,
it is not gloomy, but in a high degree solemn and impressive. We are
walking in an ancient tomb—the tomb of a buried city—a city which was
large and populous. It was active with pleasure and business long before
our Saviour was on earth, and it was overwhelmed while some of his
apostles were still alive. How different was our situation here and at
Pompeii. In the latter city we walked the streets in open day and on the
common level: here, we were deep down in a stony sepulcher; the mansions
of the departed were all around us, but they were wrapped in solid rock.
The rumbling of the carriages in the streets of another city, whose busy
population was passing nearly one hundred feet above our heads, was loud
and incessant. It was an earthquake from above, and we could easily
understand how the earthquake from below should so readily propagate its
vibrations through many miles, or hundreds of miles, of solid materials.
Among the interesting places heretofore excavated, but now filled again,
were the basilica, the market, the scholæ, a columbarium, and the
so-called villa of Aristides, in which papyrus, bronzes, rare mosaics,
and all things that attested to the wealth and taste of the proprietor,
were found. In excavations made prior to 1728 they found the most
splendid house of the ancients that had ever been seen by modern eyes.
“A great work on Herculaneum was published by royal authority, in the
thirty-eight years intervening between 1754 and 1792, in nine folio
volumes, including the pictures, lamps, bronzes and candelabra; seven
hundred and thirty-eight pictures were named in the catalogue, and the
other articles were proportionally numerous. The work was presented, by
royal munificence, to the principal public libraries of Europe.
“Both Herculaneum and Pompeii were mentioned with commendation by
Cicero. Both appear to have been favorite residences of the opulent
Romans; both towns were in the first class of provincial cities, and
Herculaneum especially was adorned by many villas. They had all the
public establishments that were usual in Rome. Indeed, the entire
circuit, from Cape Misenum around through the towns and villages of the
bay of Baiæ, and onward through Naples to Herculaneum, and Pompeii, and
Stabiæ, appears to have been within the range of Roman sumptuousness,
and a cherished resort for rural retirement from the eternal city.
“The =papyri= of Pompeii are generally illegible, being penetrated by
the pulverulent material, which, aided by water, had usurped the place
of the vegetable matter, or assimilated it to coal; a portion of it was
found to be soluble in naphtha. Those buried in Herculaneum were not
penetrated by the enveloping matter; and the inscriptions, although
black like tinder, could still be read, as writing can often be seen
upon burnt paper. The papyri MSS. were generally written in Greek; a few
are in Latin. There is much variety of chirography, and there are many
erasures. Tickets were attached to the bundles, stating the title of the
work. In a single villa in Herculaneum were found sixteen hundred and
ninety-six rolls of papyrus, of the eighteen hundred thus far known. In
1819, four hundred and seven of the sixteen hundred and ninety-six had
been unrolled, of which only eighty-eight were legible; twenty-four had
been sent as presents to foreign princes; of the remaining twelve
hundred and sixty-five, only from eighty to one hundred and twenty were
in a state to promise any success, according to the chemical method at
that time recommended by Sir Humphrey Davy. The titles of four hundred
of those least injured, which have been read, although new are
unimportant, music, rhetoric and cookery being the chief subjects. There
are two volumes of Epicurus on Nature, and there are other works by that
school. The rolls, in their coiled condition, were scarcely a span long,
and two or three inches thick; they were made of pieces of Egyptian
papyrus, glued together; some of the rolls were, when extended, forty or
fifty feet long. The method found most successful for unrolling the
papyri is to suspend them by silk cords in a glass case; and by
attaching the delicate lining membrane of some species of bird to the
back, with the aid of silken cords and regulated weights suspended by
pulleys, gravity slowly unfolds the brittle tissue at a rate of almost
inappreciable tardiness. We were permitted to see this curious process.
“A little further from Vesuvius than Pompeii, but in the same direction,
was Stabiæ, which was covered at the same time with the other cities.
The town of Castel del Mare is built over a portion of it. A part of
Stabiæ was excavated, but has been covered again, so that at present
there is nothing of it to be seen. Some manuscripts on papyrus were
found there, as at Herculaneum, but very few skeletons have been
discovered; it is probable that most of the inhabitants had time to make
their escape. I have elsewhere alluded to the death of the elder Pliny,
which happened here. As commander of the Roman fleet, he was stationed
on the opposite side of the bay, at Cape Misenum; but the splendid
outburst of Vesuvius, then novel, induced him, prompted by his humanity
and by his zeal in natural science, to cross over with a few attendants;
he approached too near, and was constrained to remain over night. Being
corpulent and of an asthmatic habit, he was suffocated by the deadly
gases exhaled in the volcanic tempest, which proved too much for his
peculiar condition, and he died on the spot. The affecting and beautiful
narrative written by his nephew, the younger Pliny, addressed to the
historian Tacitus, is familiar to the readers of Roman literature, and
can never be perused without a deep and painful interest.”
We would merely add, in closing this long but deeply interesting
narrative of the buried cities, that it is supposed that about one-third
of the entire city of Pompeii is now uncovered, including four principal
streets, and all the important buildings of the ancient city. A long
street, leading to the Stabian gate, is now being excavated; and in this
street, one of the most remarkable discoveries has been made of any
which have yet occurred; _viz._, _that of the complete roofing of a
house_. As already stated, Pompeii, having been destroyed by falling
ashes, and then covered with earth, had suffered the loss of the roofs
of its houses. Indeed, some supposed they had been carried away by a
whirlwind which they imagined must have preceded or attended the
volcanic eruption. The little care used in clearing away the incumbent
matter, had left us in the dark as to the construction of the ancient
roofings. But quite recently, this discovery has been made of a complete
roof of a house, formed of tiles, each about twelve inches square, with
coping tiles running between them; and over the backbone, so to speak,
of the construction, a cement was applied to make the roofing
water-tight. So perfect is this roof, that it might have been
constructed yesterday; and it would suit a modern English or American
cottage as well as a Roman dwelling. The whole is now inclosed in a
railing, and for the present will not probably be removed.