DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61617#0074
40
POMPEII
Characteristic as the construction of the limestone atriums is,
it is difficult to determine to what age they belong. The be-
ginning of the period cannot be determined even approxi-
mately. The end, however, is fixed by the earlier limit of the
next period, the Second Punic War. We may, therefore,
assign the houses with the limestone atriums to a period just
preceding this war; reckoning in round numbers, they were
built before 200 b.c.
In the third, or Tufa Period, came the climax of the develop-
ment of Pompeian architecture prior to the Roman domination.
The favorite building material was the gray tufa.
With the exception of the Greek temple mentioned above,
all the public buildings of Pompeii that do not belong to the
time of the Roman colony have a homogeneous character; a
list of them would include the colonnade about the Forum, the
Basilica, the temples of Apollo and of Jupiter, the Large
Theatre with the colonnades of the Forum Triangulare and
the Barracks of the Gladiators, the Stabian Baths, the Palaestra,
and the outer part of the Porta Marina with the inner parts
of the other gates. Closely associated with these public edifices
is a large number of private houses; as a specially character-
istic example, we may mention the house of the Faun.
All these buildings are similar in style and construction;
they evidently date from a period of great building activity.
It must also have been a period of peace and prosperity; for
the whole city, from the artistic and monumental point of view,
underwent a transformation. Certain Oscan inscriptions, an
early Latin monumental inscription, and a few words, dating
from 78 b.c., scratched upon the plaster of the Basilica, oblige
us to place the Tufa Period before the time of the Roman
colony ; yet not long before, for the next oldest buildings date
from the first years of the colony. The time of peace that
furnished the background for the period can only have been
that between the Second Punic War and the Social War, about
200 to 90 b.c. ; the Tufa Period was approximately the second
century before Christ.
In marked contrast with the Period of the Limestone Atriums,
the Tufa Period has a pronounced artistic character. It is
POMPEII
Characteristic as the construction of the limestone atriums is,
it is difficult to determine to what age they belong. The be-
ginning of the period cannot be determined even approxi-
mately. The end, however, is fixed by the earlier limit of the
next period, the Second Punic War. We may, therefore,
assign the houses with the limestone atriums to a period just
preceding this war; reckoning in round numbers, they were
built before 200 b.c.
In the third, or Tufa Period, came the climax of the develop-
ment of Pompeian architecture prior to the Roman domination.
The favorite building material was the gray tufa.
With the exception of the Greek temple mentioned above,
all the public buildings of Pompeii that do not belong to the
time of the Roman colony have a homogeneous character; a
list of them would include the colonnade about the Forum, the
Basilica, the temples of Apollo and of Jupiter, the Large
Theatre with the colonnades of the Forum Triangulare and
the Barracks of the Gladiators, the Stabian Baths, the Palaestra,
and the outer part of the Porta Marina with the inner parts
of the other gates. Closely associated with these public edifices
is a large number of private houses; as a specially character-
istic example, we may mention the house of the Faun.
All these buildings are similar in style and construction;
they evidently date from a period of great building activity.
It must also have been a period of peace and prosperity; for
the whole city, from the artistic and monumental point of view,
underwent a transformation. Certain Oscan inscriptions, an
early Latin monumental inscription, and a few words, dating
from 78 b.c., scratched upon the plaster of the Basilica, oblige
us to place the Tufa Period before the time of the Roman
colony ; yet not long before, for the next oldest buildings date
from the first years of the colony. The time of peace that
furnished the background for the period can only have been
that between the Second Punic War and the Social War, about
200 to 90 b.c. ; the Tufa Period was approximately the second
century before Christ.
In marked contrast with the Period of the Limestone Atriums,
the Tufa Period has a pronounced artistic character. It is