DOI chapter:
Chapter VI: From Naples to Castellamare
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.59000#0251
From Naples to Castellamare
Mont Angelo to the sea, is still as pure as in the days
when it was sought as a haven of health by the Romans.
An atmosphere of classic and royal convalescence from
ancient days down to Tiberius, and on from the time of
the Anjous, seems still to linger about the place. We
can see the whole plain where the great tragedy of 79
was enacted ; mark the spots where, dotted like a milky
way, white with colonnaded villas, and temples to
Minerva, to Hercules, to Diana and Ceres, lay the
doomed cities of the Campania ; conjecture the flight
from Pompeii towards the sea, and along the Stabiaen
road to the height where we stand, and so to Sorrento.
But, wonderful as it was, perhaps it was not more so
than the scene left behind, when a gray desert of lava
and pumice stones stretched from the mountain to
Castellamare, and amidst that desolation a relief party
landed on the shore beneath, to search for the body of
the brave old admiral. The name of Pliny reminds us
that in the summer of 1899 there were some excavations
that seemed to throw a new light upon his death—light
obviously illusive when compared with the precious
details left to us in the Letters of Pliny the younger.
“In July 1899 certain desultory excavations were
undertaken on the farm of Signor Matrone, between
the river Sarno and the Stabiaen gate of Pompeii, near
the Molino Fienzo, not for any archaeological or scientific
purpose, but in quest of valuables and marketable
objects. The results brought to light include a set of
shops, built in the reticulated style, opening into a
porch or veranda which runs parallel with the high
115
Mont Angelo to the sea, is still as pure as in the days
when it was sought as a haven of health by the Romans.
An atmosphere of classic and royal convalescence from
ancient days down to Tiberius, and on from the time of
the Anjous, seems still to linger about the place. We
can see the whole plain where the great tragedy of 79
was enacted ; mark the spots where, dotted like a milky
way, white with colonnaded villas, and temples to
Minerva, to Hercules, to Diana and Ceres, lay the
doomed cities of the Campania ; conjecture the flight
from Pompeii towards the sea, and along the Stabiaen
road to the height where we stand, and so to Sorrento.
But, wonderful as it was, perhaps it was not more so
than the scene left behind, when a gray desert of lava
and pumice stones stretched from the mountain to
Castellamare, and amidst that desolation a relief party
landed on the shore beneath, to search for the body of
the brave old admiral. The name of Pliny reminds us
that in the summer of 1899 there were some excavations
that seemed to throw a new light upon his death—light
obviously illusive when compared with the precious
details left to us in the Letters of Pliny the younger.
“In July 1899 certain desultory excavations were
undertaken on the farm of Signor Matrone, between
the river Sarno and the Stabiaen gate of Pompeii, near
the Molino Fienzo, not for any archaeological or scientific
purpose, but in quest of valuables and marketable
objects. The results brought to light include a set of
shops, built in the reticulated style, opening into a
porch or veranda which runs parallel with the high
115