Pompei

Today we went to Pompei. I can't believe I just wrote that sentence. We've been trying to get there for several years. We were in Italy in 2005, and had a horrible time getting here and ended up turning around in the Naples train station and going back to Rome. Long story short, the train was late, we got to Naples and we had language barrier issues, Anna nearly got mugged and the next bus to Amalfi didn't leave until the morning. Suffice to say, we didn't make it.
But now, we are here and we were going to make it to Pompei come hell or high water. We took the train from Sorrento, got our tickets and audio guides, and we were in! Below is a picture of the main street of Pompei.



For those of you who may not know, Pompei was an Ancient Roman city that was destroyed in several days by the volcano Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. There is debate about whether it happened in August or October of that year. There are eyewitness accounts that put the eruption in August, but when the city was discovered by mistake in the mid 1700's, bodies were found wearing colder weather clothing, and the produce that was found in the markets would have been harvested in the fall. Produce that would have been for sale in August had already been dried and stored.
In any case, the city was covered in nearly 60 feet of ash and pumice. It happened so fast that much of the city was perfectly preserved, giving us a snapshot of what life would have been like in the Roman Empire during the first century.

Legend says that Pompei was founded by the Greek hero, Hercules, during the sixth century B.C. on his way back from Spain, where he had vanquished yet another mythic monster. In actuality, the city was founded between the sixth and eight centuries B.C. by the Oscans. After being fought over and counquered several times by different peoples, Pompei was assimilated into the Roman empire around 80 B.C.

I should specify that Pompei is not like a normal museum. You do not follow a predrescribed path and follow all the tour groups around. It is a city. A large one at that; the site covers over 35 acres. We were both surprised at the scale of the place. Side streets turn off the main boulevards. Gardens pop up seemingly out of nowhere, and you can find some rare moment of quiet if you veer off the main paths.


Above is the end of a railing in a small amphitheater. The carving is of a lion's paw with feathers above it. I'm not sure what the significance is; it may have just been the style at the time. You can see the risers of the ampitheater in the background. This theater was likely used for musical productions and reading of poetry. There was a larger amphitheater (which you will see later) for theatrical productions and an areana for sports events and gladiator battles.





We also came upon a temple devoted to the Egyptian goddess of nature, Isis. We also learned about her in Egypt. She is the goddess that is most often portrayed as a cow, or a woman with a cow's horns. There are carvings and symbols of her everywhere. It is interesting that so much Egyptian culture is found here. We learned from our audioguide that it was fashionable to paint images of Egypt in one's house, and we saw a scene from the nile in one merchant's home. We also learned that the Egyptian god of death, Anubis, morphed into the Roman god Mercury. This was clearly a time of religious transition, as people interepreted ancient religions in their own way (remember, in the first century A.D. the time of the Pharoahs in Egypt was already considered ancient history). As we continue on this trip, we can really see how all these cultures influenced each other. We saw similar relationships in Greece.

This is the larger ampitheater I spoke of earlier. You can get an idea of the scale of the site. The photo above is of just one city block. The city of Pompei was twenty or more blocks in either direction.

At first glance, the photo above just looks like a pile of rubble, until you look in the background. There, you can see Mt. Vesuvius looming in the distance. It was a strange and eerie feeling to be walking around the city with Vesuvius in sight. The way the clouds are surrounding the mountain here, it almost looks like it's getting ready to errupt again. It seems unfair that Pompei still has to exist here, in sight of the mountain that killed so many of it's inhabitants.

Here, you can see a floor mosaic in one of the homes along the main row. This was likely the house of a wealthy merchant, and the mosaic was their way of keeping in with the current style. It is interesting to note that even in the first century, when Pompei was at it's height, it was considered a vacation destination for many Romans. There are ruins of several villas surrounding the city.

It was also a very fashionable city. People were compelled to "keep up with the Jones'" and renovated their homes regularly. New wall paintings, columns, and mosaics would appear depending on the current style, not unlike today's society.

At the time of the eruption in 79 A.D., the city was still recovering from an earthquake that had occurred 17 years earlier in 62 A.D. The quake, which would have registered at around 7.5 on today's Richter scale, devistated the city, demolishing many houses and shops. No one is sure why the reconstruction took so long, but when Vesuvius started having indigestion, buildings were still being repaired. Because of this, many buildings had not been completed and were found half built.

The shot above is an example of what a wine shop would have looked like in Pompei. Wine was kept in ceramic jars that sat in the holes in the counter to keep it cool. Patrons would come in and buy a certain amount of wine, and that would be poured into a jug for the customer to carry. On the back wall, you can see the shop sign. In another part of the city, there was another wine shop that used the word Vesuvius, and the Latin word for wine, vino, to come up with one of the first marketing puns, "Vesuvivino". Even back then, people understood the importance of differentiating themselves from their competitors.

This is the outside of the city arena, where many sports events, particularly gladiator battles, occured. The Pompeins, indeed most of the peoples of the Roman Empire, were experts in crowd control. The arenas were built with several gates and ramps to get people to and from their seats.

This is the tunnel under the arena. It was used for crowd movement, and also to move the gladiators and animals around for the fights. The gladiators were made up of slaves and criminals who were trained in special camps. They were very popular, and many people had their favorite fighters, much like professional wreslters today. The gladiators were also very popular with women, as indicated by some grafitti found on the arena wall. It was from one of the gladiators (his name eludes me now) who wrote that he was irresistable to women and had to fend them off of him. This is probably an exageration by a fighter with a larger than normal ego, but it does show that the fighters enjoyed popularity and celebrity status, even though, or perhaps because, they likely only had a few days or weeks to live.

Behind us is the ramp leading out of the arena. It was a strangely exciting feeling to walk out onto the floor of the arena, where many men and animals would have literally been fighting for their lives.

A view of the arena from the entrance. It is not as large as the Coliseum in Rome, but it is better preservered.

On the way out of Pompei, we took a small side street to an out of the way section called the "Garden of Fugitives". It is a walled garden that now serves as a small vineyard. It is also the location of several plaster casts of some of the victims that were found during the excavation. There are ten of them; men, women and children, all laying in positions of pain and fear. Some have their heads in their hands. Some are laying spread eagled, and others are clutching each other. We both felt very solumn standing there in front of these figures. It felt like we were paying our respects to the ghosts of the city. We stood for a minute, and then turned and walked away. Out of respect for the dead, we didn't take any pictures. Sorry guys, it just didn't feel right. - Scott