DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61387#0069
THE RUINS OF POMPEII.
37
carriages, about fourteen feet and a-half wide, and two small side entrances
for foot passengers, vaulted over; but the top has now fallen in, and the
arch is imperfect. It was a double gate; the outer defence being a port-
cullis, whilst the inner one towards the town consisted of folding doors.
There appears to have been a large aperture in the vaulting of the carriage
entrance, by means of which assailants who had broken through the port-
cullis might be attacked with missiles while preparing to batter down the
second doors. The gate is evidently one of the more recent ones, and a
Roman work. Close to it, on the left in the inside, is a flight of high and
narrow steps, by which the wall may be ascended. The alternate layers
of brick and lava with which the gate is constructed were plastered over
with a fine white stucco, which, at the time when it was excavated, was
covered on the outside with a number of inscriptions; unfortunately, how-
ever, for the most part illegible. These inscriptions had been traced over
previous ones which had been effaced by a fresh coating of white.
The Gate of Herculaneum must, from its situation, have formed, as we
have already observed, the principal entrance to Pompeii. Yet the street
in which we find ourselves after passing it, called the Strada Consolare^ or
Consular Street, is by no means one of the best in the town. It is narrow
and somewhat crooked, and must have been surpassed in appearance by
several others in the place, as the Street of Fortune, the Street of Mercury,
the Street of the Forum, the Street of Abundance, &c. Yet there are some
notable houses in passing up it; as, on the left hand side, the House of the
Vestals—very inappropriately so called, to judge from some pictures found
in it—the House of the Surgeon, deriving its name from some surgical
instruments in it, which very much resemble those now in use, and show
that there is little new udder the sun; and a building that has been called
the Dogana, or custom house, principally on the strength of some scales and
a great many weights having been found in it. It was perhaps more pro-
bably the warehouse of a scale-maker. These weights were made of marble,
basalt, or lead, and were for the most part round; but they had often the
shape of the articles sold in the shop, as may be seen in some specimens in
the museum at Naples. The weight was inscribed upon them. Some of
the leaden ones were square, and had engraved upon them the words, eme
et habebis: “buy and you shall have.” On the right hand side of the
street, or that towards the sea, are some houses of the kind we have already
described, having the higher story on a level with the street, with two more
37
carriages, about fourteen feet and a-half wide, and two small side entrances
for foot passengers, vaulted over; but the top has now fallen in, and the
arch is imperfect. It was a double gate; the outer defence being a port-
cullis, whilst the inner one towards the town consisted of folding doors.
There appears to have been a large aperture in the vaulting of the carriage
entrance, by means of which assailants who had broken through the port-
cullis might be attacked with missiles while preparing to batter down the
second doors. The gate is evidently one of the more recent ones, and a
Roman work. Close to it, on the left in the inside, is a flight of high and
narrow steps, by which the wall may be ascended. The alternate layers
of brick and lava with which the gate is constructed were plastered over
with a fine white stucco, which, at the time when it was excavated, was
covered on the outside with a number of inscriptions; unfortunately, how-
ever, for the most part illegible. These inscriptions had been traced over
previous ones which had been effaced by a fresh coating of white.
The Gate of Herculaneum must, from its situation, have formed, as we
have already observed, the principal entrance to Pompeii. Yet the street
in which we find ourselves after passing it, called the Strada Consolare^ or
Consular Street, is by no means one of the best in the town. It is narrow
and somewhat crooked, and must have been surpassed in appearance by
several others in the place, as the Street of Fortune, the Street of Mercury,
the Street of the Forum, the Street of Abundance, &c. Yet there are some
notable houses in passing up it; as, on the left hand side, the House of the
Vestals—very inappropriately so called, to judge from some pictures found
in it—the House of the Surgeon, deriving its name from some surgical
instruments in it, which very much resemble those now in use, and show
that there is little new udder the sun; and a building that has been called
the Dogana, or custom house, principally on the strength of some scales and
a great many weights having been found in it. It was perhaps more pro-
bably the warehouse of a scale-maker. These weights were made of marble,
basalt, or lead, and were for the most part round; but they had often the
shape of the articles sold in the shop, as may be seen in some specimens in
the museum at Naples. The weight was inscribed upon them. Some of
the leaden ones were square, and had engraved upon them the words, eme
et habebis: “buy and you shall have.” On the right hand side of the
street, or that towards the sea, are some houses of the kind we have already
described, having the higher story on a level with the street, with two more