DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61387#0041
THE RUINS OF POMPEII.
17
interpretation. In a shop under the Old Baths were found the skeletons of a
young man and a young woman locked together in a close embrace. Their
age was shown by their fine and well-preserved teeth.
Besides swallowing up several important towns, the eruption of 79
disfigured the face of nature for miles around, rendered barren those fertile
fields, and converted that smiling landscape into a mass of hideous ruins.
Here verdant vines o’erspread Vesuvius’ sides,
The generous grape here pour’d her purple tides.
This Bacchus loved beyond his native scene,
Here dancing satyrs joy’d to trip the green.
Far more than Sparta this in Venus’ grace ;
And great Alcides once renown’d the place:
Now flaming embers spread dire waste around,
And gods regret that gods can thus confound.
Martial, Epig. iv. 44.
The Emperor Titus formed the project of rebuilding Pompeii; but it
came to nothing, either through his death, which ensued a year or two after-
wards, or because it was discovered that the expense would exceed any
probable returns, and that it was better to abandon a territory which, for
many ages to come, seemed devoted to sterility. From the marks of having
been opened and rifled, which may be observed in several of the houses, as
well as from the fact that no very considerable sums of money have been
found, it is plain that some of the inhabitants must have returned, and by
means of excavations, recovered some of their most valuable property. Even
down to the reign of Alexander Severus the place seems to have served as a
sort of quarry; for that emperor is said to have procured from the buried
city a great quantity of marble, columns and statues, for the purpose of
embellishing the works which he erected at Rome. This circumstance may
serve to account for the dilapidated appearance of many of the monuments;
for it can hardly be supposed that they were reduced to that condition solely
by the earthquake of the year 63.
In process of time Pompeii and its sisters in misfortune became entirely
forgotten, and through a long night of ages seemed to sleep the sleep of death.
The site on which it stood, and even its very name, sank into oblivion;
although here and there the summit of some of its buildings cropped up
above the soil, and the name of civita, or the city, which still lingered in the
mouths of the peasants, might have served to indicate its position. After
the revival of learning, indeed, the names of the buried cities sometimes
D
17
interpretation. In a shop under the Old Baths were found the skeletons of a
young man and a young woman locked together in a close embrace. Their
age was shown by their fine and well-preserved teeth.
Besides swallowing up several important towns, the eruption of 79
disfigured the face of nature for miles around, rendered barren those fertile
fields, and converted that smiling landscape into a mass of hideous ruins.
Here verdant vines o’erspread Vesuvius’ sides,
The generous grape here pour’d her purple tides.
This Bacchus loved beyond his native scene,
Here dancing satyrs joy’d to trip the green.
Far more than Sparta this in Venus’ grace ;
And great Alcides once renown’d the place:
Now flaming embers spread dire waste around,
And gods regret that gods can thus confound.
Martial, Epig. iv. 44.
The Emperor Titus formed the project of rebuilding Pompeii; but it
came to nothing, either through his death, which ensued a year or two after-
wards, or because it was discovered that the expense would exceed any
probable returns, and that it was better to abandon a territory which, for
many ages to come, seemed devoted to sterility. From the marks of having
been opened and rifled, which may be observed in several of the houses, as
well as from the fact that no very considerable sums of money have been
found, it is plain that some of the inhabitants must have returned, and by
means of excavations, recovered some of their most valuable property. Even
down to the reign of Alexander Severus the place seems to have served as a
sort of quarry; for that emperor is said to have procured from the buried
city a great quantity of marble, columns and statues, for the purpose of
embellishing the works which he erected at Rome. This circumstance may
serve to account for the dilapidated appearance of many of the monuments;
for it can hardly be supposed that they were reduced to that condition solely
by the earthquake of the year 63.
In process of time Pompeii and its sisters in misfortune became entirely
forgotten, and through a long night of ages seemed to sleep the sleep of death.
The site on which it stood, and even its very name, sank into oblivion;
although here and there the summit of some of its buildings cropped up
above the soil, and the name of civita, or the city, which still lingered in the
mouths of the peasants, might have served to indicate its position. After
the revival of learning, indeed, the names of the buried cities sometimes
D