Recounts the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which buried the city of Pompeii under volcanic ash, describes what daily life was like in the city, and discusses the excavation of the archaeological site

Pompeii, a necropolis created by the eruption of Vesuvius. In 79 AD, the game-rich forested volcano had not erupted in more than 1000 years.[17] When it did, it piled lapilli 8 feet high over the city, then choked off the remaining inhabitants with hot ash and gases. Rain fell and cemented the ash. In a final spasm of violence, the volcano submerged Pompeii up to 25 deep in magma, and burying sea-side Herculaneum (the suburb of Neopolis/Naples 3 miles to its north) in a stone matrix in places 65 feet thick.[11]

The rediscovery of Pompeii and the nearby ruins provide a uniquely detailed narrative of the disaster and of private and public life in the classical period. Archeologists have chipped away the reveal, where none of the inhabitants had the time to put up false fronts or make political choices. "It was the destiny of Pompeii and Herculaneum to speak to the future with unsurpassed clarity--a destiny that required a terrible doom."[11]

Few places are more bountifully endowed than the Bay of Naples. It is among the most fertile regions of the Peninsula, and bears three or more crops a year. Pompeii sits half a mile from the coast on the Sarno River, which serves as a highway to the interior. By 91 BC, the town filled 160 acres, and its feisty middle class inhabitants were remarkably independent. They fought Sulla's dictatorship, and Spartacus led a great rebellion from the summit of Vesuvius.[12] The sparkling bay and hillsides became playgrounds, and the wealthiest families of Rome built 50 room showrooms of luxury. The hum of commerce was audible -- scores of artisans lived among vestiges of earlier cultures from around the worlds of the Mediterranean Sea. The city had a numerous public fountains, a large amphi-theatre, and four public baths. The streets were paved, fresh water was piped in and gutters carried away sewage.

The science of archeology was virtually born on these same slopes in 1762 with the work of the Prussian scholar, Joachim Winckelmann. His writings provide the first systematic attempts to understand an ancient culture through its artifacts. By 1860, the director of excavations, Giuseppe Fiorelli, mapped the city and ushered in modern practices. Fiorelli developed the technique of filling small cavities with plaster of paris and recovering the figures of those taking their last refuge.[33] This book reveals much of that last hour of death.

The hum of life is resurrected. We find emperors, queens, prisoners chained to the walls, slaves, gladiators, debtors, craftsman, weavers and dyers. One bakery sold its own brand of dog biscuits for pets.[55] Graffiti, and common signage attests to public education. How these people governed themselves, how they worshiped, how they raised families. Food being prepared. Time-stopped.

The instant volume includes the first photographs taken by archeologists anywhere documenting the phases of excavation, undertaken by Vittorio Spinazzola in 1923 as he uncovered the main shopping street, Via del l'Abbondanza.[31]

The spectacles performed in large and small theatres were varied. From Greek tragedy to skilled dance and pantomimes. Farces were popular. One actor was so popular he was elected magistrate of a Pompeian suburb.[59] The mosaics reflect a variety of skin colors from white to black. The places of worship were integral to the Forum, the public spaces bedecked in bright reds, yellows, and greens with borders of black. Columns and friezes were decorated.

A Temple to Apollo graced with boundary of the Forum. An imposing Temple to Jupiter was actually being used as a workshop to make repairs of public buildings.[60] Markets were among the temples. A large guild-hall for cloth-makers and dyers is next to the huge Basilica, the ancestor of a modern court of law.[60] The manner of decoration and multiple-use suggests that religion was not taken out of the context of secular life and activities, and the middle class guilds were respected and powerful. Businesses were licensed by the city council, which numbered about 100, and which met in a trio of small halls in the Forum area. Campaign posters and public notices dominated the Forum's south end.

The city's primary market, behind the guild-halls, was the Macellum, a collonaded court bordering the Forum. The wealth of the city came from agricultural production--wine and oil, the processing of grapes and olives. Produce was also raised in garden plots within the city. The civic officials operated an office for monitoring weights and measures, for both dry and wet goods, near the Temple of Apollo.[64]

About 10% of the land within Pompeii was dedicated to public sports and entertainment. In addition, the city was lousy with intimate taverns, garden restaurants, bath-house inns, massage parlors, and gambling hotels which extended credit as well as cubicles for short-term occupancy.[65]

In the baths, slaves served as masseurs, rubbing citizens with olive oil before their exercises and swimming, or after visiting the caldarium, then scraping oil and dirt off with a curved strigil. The ablutions were performed without soap.[66] A final refreshment included a dip in the frigidarium.

Admission to the Great Palaestra, the oldest surviving amphitheater of its type, was always free to the upper tiers. The Palaestra was large enough to hold the entire estimated population of Pompeii--20,000.[68-69]

Gladiators specialized in modes of battle--bareheaded retarius with trident, dagger, and net; helmeted thrax with short sword and shield. Equites on horseback, and the andabatae blindfolded.[69] Gladiators entered with a musical parade. The crowd would adjudicate the contest with thumb gestures, and the winners were crowned with ribbons and handed a purse. If a gladiator survived three years (~50 bouts), he was released from his service. [70]

"The practice of gladiatorial combat was ancient--probably once a funeral ritual of the Etruscans..." [I question this; not corroborated by archeology/artifacts, although Etruria may have had a fresh blood sacrifice required for afterlife--cf Christianity] "The Romans did it for their own pleasure; death fascinated and thrilled them. Gladiatorial battle was for them a kind of performance art." [70]

Tombs were sited along busy roads leading into the city, as though to mingle life and death. Cemeteries were covered with graphiti, much of it honoring the decedents' "resting place".

RELIGION

This work includes a chapter on the divinities invoked by the people in their doom.[71] They paid homage to the official gods of the state, especially Jupiter. But frankly, it appears "perfunctory". Clearly the people preferred the goddess Fortuna, the goddess of abundance, associated with the poor.[72] And Pompeiians were building a Temple to Venus, the goddess of love and nature, at the heart of the city. Her images are everywhere.[74]

The "little gods"--the household Lares and Penates--were worshiped with daily seriousness. Pompeians feared it was the neglect of the daily ritual devotions which caused the earthquake which preceded the eruption.[75] As they fled, many victims were holding these little statutes.

Pompeii was also the seat of Mystery Religions, cults whose exotic rites were often conducted behind high walls. They would parade to the sea with pipe-players and sistrum-wielding priests dressed in fantastic costume. The ankh, Egyptian symbol of life, is found.[79]

When the Allies bombed Nazi lookout and command centers in the area, some of the most prized reconstructions of Pompeii were damaged. Fortuitously, the explosions also unearthed the ruins of the Temple of Facchus, a lost sanctum of the only mystery cult to seriously rival that of Isis.[80]

After fasting, acolytes in goatskins poured wine for celebrants reclined on two vast pillow-covered triclinia. The priest, naked but for a crown of grapes, performed a sacrifice. And then the dancing, drinking and feasting would begin, in earnest and in the belief of release from mortality. Scenes of Bacchanalia are abundant, and reflect the pursuit of communion with the mysteries of fertility, death and rebirth.[Cf Christianity 80] The celebration was orgiastic. "The line between the sacred and the secular was thin" and between the carnal, was nonexistent.
Every garden, and their were many, was a temple to Bacchus.

The panoply of gods found in Pompeii includes the Hindu fertility goddess, Lakshmi.[82] The Iranian sun god Mithras, and the mother goddess Cybele, had cross-dressing practitioners. Under Rome's tolerant yoke, the tradesmen, lords and slaves practiced various religions with impunity.

AT HOME

Space in a Pompeian home was always at a preimum, yet there was room enough for the latrines, slave quarters, dining rooms, workshops, and private bathing rooms.[92] The leisure class occupied a quarter of their waking time in convivial dining punctuated by games and performances. In some circles, lectures and literary pursuits were common.[92] The wall of one dining room is inscribed with a Code of Etiquette--"Do not be coarse in your conversation...Do not cast lustful glances or make eyes at another man's wife"[93].

Curiously, dinner guests could include a variety of classes and ranks, with nine considered the ideal number, allowing three people to three adjacent couches. Portable braziers would reheat the food. Diluted wine accompanied most meals. Jars of garum (fish sauce) bottled in Pompeii have been found exported to France.

The house of Jucundus revealed the upward mobility of the son of a former slave who became a banker for many of the leading citizens.[97] The largest house so far excavated belonged to Julia Felix; she rented property in her massive villa and was clearly an independent and prosperous businesswoman.

THE NATURAL WORLD

The final chapter focuses on the Roman "eye for nature". The mosaics and paintings clearly surrounded the Romans with the wonders of nature -- sea creatures, botanically accurate garden scenes, all with almost photographic realism. The squid, bass, eel and marine life of the Bay of Naples, all swarm around a lobster, assembled in a figure mosaic. A mosaic from the House of the Faun depicts the Nile River with hippopotamus, mongoose, cobra, birds, and crocodile.

Interesting how many Egyptian images and themes appear in Roman art. A temple to Isis was richly endowed near a fountain on the main highway.[71]

Two fighting cocks spar before a table with a betting purse set on top. "Images of nature's cruelty figure heavily among Roman depictions of animals and sea life".[156] ( )

Some of the photos in this volume are stunning - "The Hour of Death" and the aerial shot of the ruins with Vesuvius looming in the background - but the written material doesn't stand up for 150 pages. ( )