DOI Kapitel:
Chap. II: Herculaneum, Papyri - Torre del Greco - Pompeii; its Theatres, Temple, Porticos, and Villa, general Appearance and Effect - Excursion to the Aqueduct, and Palace of Caserta
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62268#0044
34
CLASSICAL TOUR
Ch. II
adorned with statues. The Neapolitan govern-
ment then interposed, and suspended all further
excavations for the space of twenty years; at
which time, instead of satisfying the public curi-
osity and doing itself immortal honor by pur-
chasing the village and buildings above, and lay-
ing open the whole city below, it bought the
ground, but with characteristic stupidity resolved
to cover it with a palace. The excavations were
indeed continued occasionally but negligently, and
rather for the purpose of profit than of liberal cu-
riosity. However, a basilica, two temples, and
a theatre were successively discovered and strip-
ped of their numerous pillars and statues. Streets
were observed, paved, and flagged on the sides,
and private houses, and even monuments ex-
plored. A prodigious number of statues of bronze
of different sizes, pillars of marble and alabaster,
and paintings and mosaics, many entire and in
high preservation, others fractured and damaged,
have been drawn from the edifices of this subter-
raneous city, and give a high idea of its opulence :
to these we may add every species of ornaments
used in dress, of weapons and armor, of kitchen
utensils and domestic furniture, of agricultural
and chirurgicai instruments. More treasures,
without doubt, might be extracted from this long
forgotten mine of antiquity, but the almost incon-
ceivable indifference of the Spanish court, and the
CLASSICAL TOUR
Ch. II
adorned with statues. The Neapolitan govern-
ment then interposed, and suspended all further
excavations for the space of twenty years; at
which time, instead of satisfying the public curi-
osity and doing itself immortal honor by pur-
chasing the village and buildings above, and lay-
ing open the whole city below, it bought the
ground, but with characteristic stupidity resolved
to cover it with a palace. The excavations were
indeed continued occasionally but negligently, and
rather for the purpose of profit than of liberal cu-
riosity. However, a basilica, two temples, and
a theatre were successively discovered and strip-
ped of their numerous pillars and statues. Streets
were observed, paved, and flagged on the sides,
and private houses, and even monuments ex-
plored. A prodigious number of statues of bronze
of different sizes, pillars of marble and alabaster,
and paintings and mosaics, many entire and in
high preservation, others fractured and damaged,
have been drawn from the edifices of this subter-
raneous city, and give a high idea of its opulence :
to these we may add every species of ornaments
used in dress, of weapons and armor, of kitchen
utensils and domestic furniture, of agricultural
and chirurgicai instruments. More treasures,
without doubt, might be extracted from this long
forgotten mine of antiquity, but the almost incon-
ceivable indifference of the Spanish court, and the