Pompeii

Pompeii

Pompeii is possibly the best-documented catastrophe in Antiquity. Because of it, we know now how the Pompeians lived because they left behind an extensive legacy of art, including monuments, sculptures and paintings. Pompeii lay on a plateau of ancient lava near the Bay of Naples in western Italy in a region called Campania, less than 1.6 kilometers from the foot of Mount Vesuvius. With the coast to the west and the Apennine Mountains to the East, Campania is a fertile plain, traversed by two major rivers and rich soil. However, in the early days, it was not a remarkable city. Scholars have not been able to identify Pompeii's original inhabitants. The first people to settle in this region were probably prehistoric hunters and fishers. By at least the eight century B.C., a group of Italic people known as the Oscans occupied the region; they most likely established Pompeii, although the exact date of its origin is unknown. "The root of the word Pompeii would appear to be the Oscan word for the number five, pompe, which suggests that either the community consisted of five hamlets or, perhaps, was settled by a family group (gens Pompeia)"(Kraus 7). In the course of the eight century B.C., Greek and Etruscan colonization stimulated the development of Pompeii as a city around the area of the Forum. A point for important trade routes, it became a place for trading towards the inland. Up until the middle of the 5th century B.C., the city was dominated politically by the Etruscans. In the course of the 6th century B.C., the influence of Greek culture is also documented by terracottas, ceramics and architecture. A group of warriors from Samnium, called Samnite, invaded the region in the 400's B.C. Pompeii remained a relatively unimportant village until the 200's B.C., when the town entered a prosperous period of building and expansion. The Romans defeated the Samnites, and Pompeii became part of the emerging Roman state. Pompeii joined the Italic revolt against Rome, the Social War of 91-87 B.C., and was crushed by Sulla. Although the city was not destroyed, it lost its autonomy, becoming a colony called Colonia Veernia Cornelia P, in honor of its conqueror L. Cornelius Sulla. By 79 AD, Latin had replaced Oscan as the principal language, and the laws and culture of Imperial Rome were implanted. The "romanization" had began. Pompeii grew from a modest farming town to an important and sophisticated industrial and trading center. In 62 A.D., the first disaster, a terrible earthquake hit the city. As the city was being rebuilt the second disaster struck. In the summer of A.D. 79, Vesuvius suddenly erupted with violence. Hot ashes, lava and stones poured into Pompeii. The eruption caught Pompeians by surprise: "They heard the crash of falling roofs: an instant more and the mountain-cloud seemed to roll towards them, dark and rapid, like a torrent; at the same time, it cast forth from its bosom a showe of ashes mixed with vast fragments of burning stone! over the crushing vines- over the desolate streets- over the amphitheater itself- far and wide- with many a mighty splash in the agitated sea- fell that awful shower.", (Bulwer-Lytton 1). The remains of about 2,000 victims out of a population of 20,000 have been found in excavations. Some of them were trapped and killed in their homes. Others died as they fled. Archaeologists have found the shells (molds) of the bodies preserved in the hardened ash. By pouring plaster into the shells, they can make copies of the victims, even to the expressions of agony on their faces. Pompeii was not forgotten. Peasants in the area searched for hidden treasure and they made tunnels. In the 1500's workers digging a tunnel to change the course of the Sarno river discovered parts of a temple and the forum, but no one paid much attention. In 1748, a farmer discovered a wall and the authorities in Italy began a series of excavations. After 1860, Giuseppe Fiorelli served as director of the excavations. He directed the first uncovering of the whole city block by block. The Italian government has provided funding money for this project. After many years of work, we can now walk in Pompeii "as Pompeians did". After standing in line for quite a while and paying for a ticket, the tourist experiences what are about to live are quite unique. When walking in Pompeii, you can close your eyes and feel the magic of the city, because it seems like the time has not gone by. Visitors can see the buildings as they stood 2,000 years ago. They can walk in and out of houses and up and down narrow streets, see the Temple of Jupiter, which was an ancient ruin at the time of the eruption, or sit in a tepidarium (part of a Roman public bath). Tourists can also visit the Antiquarium and see the casts of some of the bodies, houseware, the remains of food such as carbonized loaves of bread, eggs and other things that also date back to ancient Rome. The center of public life is called the Forum, and it played a fundamental role in the political, religious and economic life of the city. It had the Temple of Apollo, the Temple of Vespasian, the Sanctuary of the Lares Publici, Macellum, a Basilica, public buildings, etc. In Pompeii, there are two theaters, gladiators barracks, an amphitheater, private and public baths, temples, gates, houses and villas, and even a bakery. Pompeii attracted many wealthy Romans. They built great villas near the Mediterranean shore, where they could enjoy the mild, sunny climate. It is in the houses where wall paintings are founded, and, believe it or, not Pompeii owes its fame to the mural art preserved because they were "hermetically sealed by hardened lava and slime from all destructive atmospheric influences"(Kraus 156). Because of that, the houses of Pompeii have given us a treasure of mural paintings, the most complete record of the changing fashions in interior decoration in the entire ancient world. The quantity of the paintings, tells us about both the prosperity and the taste of the times. In the early years of exploration, excavators were interested exclusively in the mural paintings, especially those about Greek heroes and famous myths. They were cut out of the walls and transferred to the Naples Archeological Museum. Later, archeologists stopped this practice and serious attention was given to the mural designs as a whole. At the end of the 19 century, August Mau, a German art historian, divided the paintings into four so-called pompeian styles. The technique used in these walls differed considerably from that used in Renaissance frescoes. Before the artist could begin his work, the rough wall had to be covered with three coats of fine lime mortar, followed by other three coats of a mortar using powdered marble. When the wall surface was ready, it was polished with mable dust and the colors laid on at the same time.

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