Naples, Pompeii

Landing in Naples, the excursion to Pompeii by ourselves is very simple. Just have to get off the boat and in around 100 metres there is a newspaper kiosk.

 There we buy a ticket of return valid for bus and train. We take the first passing towards Corso Garbaldi and got on the CIRCUMVESUVIANA train station and  to the first  train which proceed to Pompeii. In approximately 40 minutes we will be in the Pompeii  Scavi station, which is this:

And we started the visit, without guides, but with the guidance of my friend Nekko.The city offers a picture of Roman life during the 1st century. The moment "immortalized" by the eruption evidences literally even the smallest detail of everyday life.

 In the year of the eruption,  the estimated population of Pompeii was 20,000 people. The city was located in an area where many vacation villas were built, and was plenty of services.

 Venus Temple, dedicated to the protective goddess of Lucio Cornelio Sulla. It was built after 80 b.c., when it became a Roman colony. It was probably the most splendid and magnificent of all temples. After the eruption, the temple was plundered.

 The Forum. Apolo Temple. One of the most ancient temples of Pompeii. The current structure dates from the 2nd century. On the side we see the statues of Apollo and Diana.

 The building combines Greek and italic elements and the colonnade surrounding the cella, with a high podium with access only by the front staircase.

 It also highlights the sundial of augustal times. The pavement of the cella had a motive of rhombuses of colors that mimicked cubes in perspective. The Forum was the civic centre and the heart of the commercial life of Pompeii. It was a wide open space with rectangular shape surrounded on three sides by a colonnade and the other by the Temple of Jupiter, with several important public buildings around it. It consisted on an free area of 143 m long by 38 width, it was paved in stone. It had powerful commemorative statues of the Emperor, members of his family or local citizens of any importance.
 The Basilica is the seat of the administration of Justice, and along with the Forum constituted the most important building in the city.It had five doors that opened up to the Forum, which gave way to internal aisles. The time of the Foundation is estimated in 120 a. C.

 


 It was typical to see in the Forum tables or sidewalks where vendors displayed their products to the public, that were placed at the edges of the free zone, next to the colonnades and when it rained  were moved to the corridors where there  were spaces where people walked and used to negotiate.

 In the Forum were shingles exposed to the public where important news of the era were published, such as the outcome of the elections or the date of any show, and even had people that  took the opportunity to expose their grievances or for advertising their establishment. Found some of them would be: "Macerior urges the Mayor to prohibit people making noise on the street and disturb the decent people who are sleeping".

 Immediately after the Temple of Vespasian, was a marble altar sculpted, depicting the scene of a slaughter.

The Temple of Jupiter closes the square of the Forum on the north side. Although originally it was only dedicated to Jupiter, after the year 80 b.c. were also venerated Juno and Minerva. The temple was built in the 2nd century BC, it was badly damaged by the earthquake of  year 62 d. C. and was being restored at the time of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

 Next to the market a broad construction of the same era, identified as the Temple of the public Lares, i.e. of the divinities tutelary of the city, which had been engaged after the earthquake that had terrified the pompeians.

Pictures of the victims of the eruption.

 So many remains and finds...Ultimately, in such cases there must be thousands of stories...

 Figure showing the picture corresponds to one of the last inhabitants of Pompeii. One of the many who, ignorant of the true strength of the Vesuvius, committed themselves and did not flee. On August 24 in 79 a.d. a tidal wave of pyroclastic flow, a gaseous mass of high density than come to some degree of concentration is dropped over the land like a bath of hot magma.Thus, Pompeii was buried and its remains were preserved until today. Also the remains of its inhabitants. Under that mantle of magma, the bodies of the victims when decomposed left hollow moulds in the solidified rock. A few decades ago, the archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli devised a system to obtain the figures of those last pompeians. Holes in the rock or moulds are filled of liquid plaster, that dries, solidifying and after removing the rock remains grim sculpture, which can today be seen as a tourist attraction over the city.

 Securely attached by its collar and chain, this dog not escaped when a shower of rocks fell through the open roof of the atrium as the sand in a watch which has been given the turn...As to burning pumice was piling up, the dog climbed as high as he could. When the chain did not already for more, ash engulfed him.

Another view of Jupiter Temple

Like a traffic signal?

 Courtyard entrance to the thermal baths of the Forum.

 The thermal baths of the Forum, even though they are not the largest in the city, are of great interest due to the elegant decoration and the excellent state of conservation of the calidarium and the tepidarium of the male section.

 Two corridors allow, in the case of the thermal baths for men, the pass to the apodypterium where is the frigidarium, whose center is a circular tube for the cold baths; and the tepidarium, decorated with fine stucco from the 1st century a. C.

 There remains a big brazier that was used to heat the atmosphere, donated by Marcus Nigidius Vaccula

From the tepidarium we get directly to the environment of warm baths, Caldarium, heated with hot air passing through the double walls.

 This room is equipped with two bathtubs: the alveus, of rectangular shape, for warm baths, and the labrum, with cold water.

Temple of Fortuna Augusta.

 The House of the Faun is one of the most luxurious buildings in Pompeii. The House has its origins in the samnitica age, when it was broad but modest. At the end of the 2nd century b.c. grows to an apple size and receives a sumptuous decoration based on plaster and mosaics. In the back part of the entrance we find HAVE greeting, which in latin means wellcome.

 Income is provided with double door and  in the lobby are two atriums, one of them, the main, contains a small fountain with a small statue of a Faun dancing that gave the name to the House. (The original is in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples).

  Supposedly it was the abode of P. Sila, nephew of the dictator Sulla, who had the mission of organizing the Roman colony and reconcile the interests of the settlers with the ancient inhabitants.

 In one of the floors of the House was one of the largest and most beautiful scenes done in Mosaic: the battle of Issus, between Alexander the great and Darío III Codomano, which is currently at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples.

 

This is the backyard 

 Also there where found remains of earlier burials.

Taking again the route by Vicolo of Mercury, we find this curious fountain of water, that still works.

 The House of the Small Fountain with the classical scheme of the Roman house. In the tablinium the owner received clients or guests, and it should be very sumptuous because it was the reflection of the wealth of the owner. The walls of the peristyle of the garden were sumptuously decorated with frescos with motives of sailors and rural.

The nymphaeum covered on mosaic and adorned with sculptures.

 The truth is that restorations have made progress since last time that I was there.

 House of Meleager. The name comes from the paintings that were found, representing Meleager and Atalanta. The House consists of two juxtaposed nuclei, one around the toscanic atrium and another around the peristyle. Also shines the reception room, decorated with Corinthian columns, uncommon style in Pompeii.

Apolo house. Atrium

 The owner was Hernnelius Communis according to a ring found in 1830.

Several paintings of the myth of God Apollo decorates this domus. The cubiculum is located at the bottom of the garden, retaining much of its original decoration.

The House of the Tragic Poet owes its name to a mosaic depicting an instructor of actors of Theatre (today in the national anthropological Museum of Naples), and its reputation to a series of frescoes of heroic and mythical themes. Illustrations include one about the sacrifice of Iphigenia. It's a house of modest dimensions but decorated with much elegance, probably a sign of a class average enriched during the last years of the city.

To the sides of the door were two counters (indicating that the owner of the house was also engaged in trade), and on the floor the inscription Cave Canem (beware of the dog) was next to the image of a dog kept with a chain.

 The House of Pansa.Dated in 120-140 BC by the Ionian columns found in the garden. According to the edict that can be seen in the adjacent alley, the owner leased a part to third parties.

Another view of the house.

Fast food restaurants found everywhere.

When we reach this fork we got left.

And we arrived to the House of the Oven.

 The ground floor was dedicated to trade and the first for living

And we went to the Villa of the Mysteries. In the photo, the semicircular tomb of the Priestess Mamia of the sepulchral complex in the Herculaneum gate.

Further south lies the village of Diomedes, which closes the Necropolis, the looting and the excavations do not prevent of watching the indoor and outdoor grandeur of this complex. Oriented to the West and arranged in two overlapping planes, the room is concentrated around the atrium-peristilum, and is projected into a large garden of the lower level. On the porches that surround it spreads a terrace or "solarium" and a "ambulatio" for outdoor walks.

 Villa of the Mysteries. We see represented a "Dionysian Rite" interpreted for us by 29 figures in a continuous, solemn, silent and full of profound mystery scene.

 The scene depicted in a frieze of 3 m high and 17 in length, is the initiation of a wife in the Dionysian mysteries (spreaded in Etruria and Campania which reached great boom in all Italy, despite sanctions from the Roman Senate). Assumes that these paintings and the antechamber, were commissioned to a campanian artist in I BC by the owner of the Villa, initiated to worship.

 All decorations on the ground floor are second style, except the studio belonging to the third. The series of paintings consist on  painted architectures in the neighboring room at the Atrium, quite beautiful. Other decorations series built for unsurpassed figurative paintings that open in two adjacent rooms. In the first we see seven panels with beautiful isolated figures.


 Under the porticos, galleries aimed to wine amphorae, the last owner was a wine merchant. In the center of the garden is a masive pool, and on the other side the agricultural dependencies. On the outskirts of the city would be a good place to build a mansion that would not have anything to envy to a summer residence of today. The owner rich merchants would pass by its dependencies without skimping on luxuries. Below, detail of wooden window of 2 thousand years in a room of the Villa of the mysteries.

 The Villa of the mysteries, was as well known for the paintings in its interior, which made the complex one of the most important monuments of antiquity. In s.II BC had a simpler scheme, then it was enriched with extensions. After the earthquake the owners intended it for agricultural management.

 

One of the courtyards

And before leaving we saw an oil mill in a very peculiar way.

 House of the Cherubs.

Castellum Aquae in the highest place of the city, supplied Pompeii with the water that brought the Serino aqueduct.

Later and advancing to the Forum by the Nola street we find more houses, the Silver Weddings, of Centennial, with several paintings and mosaics.

 We have ventured into the oldest and worst reputation neighborhood  in the Pompeii of that age, right is Spurius Mesor House with paintings of the third style, on the other side House Gavius Rufo, C. Vibio and Popidio Prisco in whose corner is the "Pistrinum" of the Twisted Alley.It is one of the more characteristic bakeries in the area, with perfectly preserved furnaces and grinders. Apparently the bread business was important also in Pompeii along with the tissues. Judging by the number of these bakeries, it seems that they had supply more cities. The complete work in a mill-oven or "Pistrinum" can be reconstructed from the paintings of two thousand years ago.The milling of  the grain helped with animals in the windlass, from above, at the top that served as a deposit. Then in another "grinder", two men make the grain flour, which is then kneaded and passes to the oven to make bread. Next to the oven had a merchant, to sell already steamed bread to passers-by. Still can be seen these wheels and the Pompeii oven-bakery of 2000 years ago, that they had not only services in the city, but so advanced that they even exported to other countries at the time.

 The Lupanar.
From "lupa", which is latin for she-Wolf, as prostitutes were known. The Lupanar was the most important of the many bordellos that were found in Pompeii, and the only one built for this precise purpose.

 The prostitutes were slaves, Greek or Oriental; its price ranged from two to eight aces (the glass of wine was one), but the collection was for the owner of the brothel.

 The Lupanar was a small building situated at the junction of two secondary streets, consisted on a floor at ground level and a first floor. The ground floor was destined to the access of slaves or the poorer classes; It had a corridor and five rooms with bed, the walls were covered with paintings expressing different erotic positions.

The upper floor is accessed by a separate entrance giving a staircase and a balcony. The balcony leads to different rooms, bigger and more decorated than the ground floor. This floor was reserved to a more well-to-do clientele.

 The building belongs to the last period of the city. The walls are covered in erotic motives from its main entrance, showing a Priapus with two penises supported by hands.

Forum Triangular.
Named thus by the shape of the land, occupies only the third part of the second great city center of Pompeii.

 The Northern entrance has its own portico with six Ionic elegant columns, at the sides are two tables for the night lights. It is bordered by a portico of 95 Doric columns and it communicates with the forum, the large theatre and a long Gallery.

 The Doric Temple, which occupies the area at the South was built in s. VI B.c, when Pompeii was under Greek influence of the powerful State of Cuma. Devoted to Hercules, legendary founder of the city and also joined to the Minerva cult, recovered in the samnitic period and forgotten in the Roman Era. The Temple of Paestum style, had strong columns with capitals and ribbed width ring. In the front of the temple still are the remains of the Sanctum dedicated to Hercules with two altars on the right.

Cuadriporticus of the theatres. The enclosure was used so that the public should meet before and during the intervals of the plays. In the time of Nero, it was transformed into barracks for Gladiators, more and more they received training or "Iudus Gladiatoius" to the amphitheatre. On the sides were dependencies of the refectory and the kitchen, were there found numerous weapons, now in the Naples Museum.

 Beside the Doric Temple, the Samnitic Palestra, built by the "duunviro" Vibio Vinicio, for young Samnios. It has a porticus on three sides and an offering table where the crowns of winners of tournaments were offered to Mercury, protector of sports games. Young athletes disputed annual competitions.

 Beside the Samnitica Palestra is the Temple of Isis, for the consecration of the goddess and the Zeus Meiliquios, pre-Roman temple to the worship of this God, in the Greek Sicily. After the destruction of the Temple of Jupiter during the earthquake, it was used to replace it during its reconstruction.

 The small theatre is logically smaller, but is one of the most perfect exponents of covered theatre or "Theatrum Tectum", i.e. an Odeon, formerly used for music and comedy. Otherwise it is equal to the Grand Theatre.

I am not really very much excited about tath reconstruction fever..

 By the Way of Wealth, the great noble houses come one after another, away from the hustle and bustle of the Forum. The House of the Ceii presents this scene of hunting with a strong realism.

The House of the sitarist. Its name comes from the statue of Apollo with a zither that was found in the peristyle. The building belonged to the Popidii, according to the found graffiti and electoral registration. Along the Via della Abondanza forty-five programs were found with his candidacy.

 Other businesses and important houses complete the street that does honor to its name, among which we find the "Fullo Stephani" or laundry.The delicate laundry was in the old courtyard, and the others in the "Impluvium" adapted for this new feature. Whitening clothes used vapors of sulphur and different ingredients in the water. The triclinium gathered clean clothes, where it was laundered and is patched. The togas and robes were pressed by the nut or "Thorcular", and beside the impluvium, clean clothes were given or sold to the the new customers (as seen in the picture below the laundry had two floors).

It surprises us today that in many homes and on public roads obscenity and chains, principles and erect penises with the legend "hic habitat felicitas" were so natural.

There are also small busts surrounded by frescoes. If you notice it, everything is covered by an acrylic wall.

There is also other businesses of bronze objects and public sites for sales of hot drinks or "Termopolium" (detail of Termopolium of Pompeii), time bars (pictured below detail of the places where the vesselsof winw got  heat and in front a "Larario" or typical Pompeian art box) and right on the same street was a shop with different vases and objects for the tasting of the excellent wine.

This is the home of the famous Julio Polibio, one of the main characters of the novel "The last days of Pompeii".

 The House of the Garden of Hercules has about five independent houses and varied species of plants for the production of perfumes that were cultivated in the hortus.

Leaving the place by the Nuceria gate, we find its corresponding Necropolis as the other gates of the city. Among important graves is the one of L. Cellius, Tribune of the city and the mausoleum of Veia Barquilla constructed for herself and her husband. Also pre-existing family cemeteries. After the great tomb of Eumaquia. The reconstruction of the mausoleum of the Priestess would be awesome.

 Two large buildings complete the impressive city developed by the Samnios along with the Romans, the amphitheatre and the great arena. Located in the third city complex, to the right of the Nuceria gate, dedicated to shows and sports respectively. The Amphitheater was built in the year in which Pompeii became a Roman colony, 80 BC; measures 135 by 104 meters and housed up to 20000 people.

 An view of the Way of Wealth

 House of the Venus of the Shell.
One of 1943 bombs fell in this house. The city was under the protection of Venus.

. Imagine the city with all his works of art in all its splendour is wonderful...

 Pompeian trucks were sufficiently shaft widths to fit by "pedestrian crossings" of the city, which kept an exact distance between its stones. For that reason if a shipment from abroad came and did not kept this rule would be forced to rent trucks from entrance doors. So clever were these pompeians!The time had passed fast. Almost five o'clock. Pompeii closed the doors of its wonders and our boat was waiting in the port. We leave Pompeii in silence.