POMPEI
campania
Pompei is one of the most significant proofs of Roman civilization and, like an open book, provides outstanding information on the art, customs, trades and everyday life of the past. The city has re-emerged from the darkness of centuries precisely as it would have been when it was unexpectedly buried in the thick layer of ash and lava which poured down from the devastating eruption of Vesuvius. It was the year 79 AD. The scale of the tragedy was appalling: in what had been one of the most active and splendid Roman centres, life came to a permanent standstill. The thick layer of volcanic material which submerged it, made up to a large extent of ash and "lapilli" - non-hard material, unlike that which covered Herculaneum and which solidified into extremely hard stone - has meant that the city has remained intact until the present day, not only as far as its buildings are concerned, but also as regards the contents inside the houses and shops, providing an absolutely fascinating picture of "daily" life. The walls of the houses are covered with electoral propaganda messages or risque jokes aimed at particular citizens. The signs on the shop doorways indicate the activity carried out there or the name of the owner. Alongside the elegant villas belonging to the nobility and the luxurious residences of the middle class, stand modest houses where several families lived. The peasant dwellings on the other hand are situated around vegetable gardens or small plots of land. On the edge of the city stood the brothels, squalid rooms intended as places of pleasure for sailors and travellers passing through, in the narrow lanes, the workshops and utility room provide further evidence of the daily routine performed by workmen and slaves as well as the women of the house. The houses still contain furniture, ornaments, gold and silverware, work tools, kitchenware, bronze and terracotta lamps, foodstuffs of all kinds, counters for serving drinks, grain mills and grindstones, workshops for manufacturing cloth, smithies and outlets selling groceries, fruit and vegetables. There is a remarkable record of Roman painting, of which, without the finds made in Pompeii, virtually nothing would be known. The architecture and development of the various types of houses is also amply documented. Thus the excavated city provides outstanding historical evidence of Roman civilization: these reminders of the past, which are so vivid and tangible in the remains brought to light, contribute to the fascination of the present.
THE HISTORY OF THE RUINS
After the eruption of 79 AD, that buried the entire city, about other seventy have followed, up to the last one of 1944. The look of the mountain changed during the big eruption; by the mountain Somma, breaking itself, born the mountain Vesuvius, that with the following eruptions triplicated the greatness of its crater. For centuries nothing was known about Pompeii, neither the location. For the first signs of the recoveries that would have came, we had to wait the 1628: during some works in the valley of Sarno emerged different ruins that roused scientists' interest. But only a century after began in Herculaneum, and about ten years later in Pompeii, the regular excavations with the order of Charles III Borbone, King of the Two Sicilies. In Pompeii works began around 1748, in the zone of the Civita, that was considered Stabia, the other city buried during the eruption, alternating with breaks due to other recoveries in Herculaneum, and continuing without a determined project and without a precise method, effected from slaves and from teen-agers. The documentation was limited to the graphic reproduction of the dug objects, without some interest for the data of excavation. The research aimed only at the finding of material for museums or at the decoration of real palaces, while the dug up buildings, once despoiled of the masterpieces, were left without any care. At the outbreak of the revolution in France, also began in Naples the first revolutionary motions and the activity of the excavations decreased sensitively and only with Giuseppe Bonaparte first and Gioacchino Murat after, took back with great emphasis and with a great employment of manpower. It has been tried to individualise the perimeter of the whole city to know its extension, and the interest moved from the mere recovery of precious objects to the knowledge of the architecture and the urbanism.
With the birth of the Kingdom of Italy, in 1861, the Savoia immediately showed not to underestimate the prestige coming from the Pompeian recoveries. With the order of the new king begun systematic excavations: Giuseppe Fiorelli, teacher of archaeology at the university of Naples from 1860 at 1863, was named at the direction, therefore general manager of the Antiquities and Fine Arts of the Kingdom of Italy; he divided the city in regions and islands numbering all the houses and this system is in use still today. Fiorelli adopted a scientific method, with diary of excavation, surveys, catalogues of the objects, and he employed over five hundred workers in the job. Belongs to him the invention of the method of pouring plaster of Paris into the spaces left by the victims, obtaining some casts of the bodies, caught in the same moment of death, a dramatic example of the tragedy which hit Pompeii and its people. Even the system of taking away all the objects from the area of excavation was abandoned: the paintings and the mosaics were left on their place; the dug houses were covered with roofs that reproduced the ancient disposition and constituted a shelter against the inclemency of the weather. The years that followed were the best: the researches widen toward east and toward Nola Gate, numerous houses come to light, the structures are consolidated and the paintings are restored on the place. From 1924 at 1961 the management of the researches is entrusted to Amedeo Maiuri to whose figure is tied the historical study of the city; he, first, wants to know the previous phases of the city, deepening the exploration of the most ancient layers in the most lively zones, as the Forum, the temples, the boundaries. In the last thirty years, has gone alternating to a modest exploration, the activity of maintenance and safeguard, things of primary importance in this place unique in the world.
THE ORIGINS
Pompei was built on a highland at a middle height of around 30 ms. on the sea-level formed from a prehistoric lava casting. At the mouth of the Sarno river (at that time navigable), the city was destined to become the harbour of some countries far from the sea. The name may derive from the Oscan "pompe" (five), to mean a community of five villages, or from the Greek "pempo" that means "to send", to underline the fact that it was a huge commercial harbour able to supply of agricultural products (oil and wine) different points of the Mediterranean. Soon Pompeii was influenced by two populations of superior civilization, established in Campania since the VII century BC: the Greeks of Cuma and the Etruscans of Capua. These last succeeded to the Greeks between 530 and 474 BC when they conquered the coast and they became a big power of the Mediterranean. The Greeks, defeated the Etruscans with the help of the Syracusans, held Pompeii up to 438, when some Samnite populations belonging to the same log of the ancient Oscans, invaded the whole Campania. It goes up again this period the expansion of the city from 9,3 to 63,5 hectares of territory, extending itself till the whole lava casting. In the IV century BC the Samnite populations that lived on the Apennines did new invasions to damage the same Samnites of the lowland and of the coast, by now totally urbanized. For the occasion (300 BC) they were forced to restructure the urban boundaries made by Sarno limestone. Even Rome, in help of the Samnites of Capua, took part to these events (Samnite wars: 343-290 BC), going out of it victorious and becoming the mistress of the whole territory. Pompeii drew from this situation a notable positive push in the commerce and in the art. It goes up again in fact to this period the frequently employment of Nuceria tufa, above all for the public buildings that were partly restructured, partly built ex-novo.
THE COLONY
In the 80 BC Silla sent his nephew to Pompeii to transform the municipium in colony, attributing it the name of "Colonia Cornelia Veneria Pompeianorum" and counting it in the Menenia tribe. With the advent of Augustus, in the 27 BC, Pompeii gained progressively a Roman spirit; in fact new Augustan gentes arrived here and they made promoting of the Roman cult. Luckily for the city, it was made the lacing to the aqueduct of Serino, built by Agrippa, son-in-law of Augustus, for its fleet placed at Capo Miseno. Towards the end of the empire of Caligula, in 40 AD it verified a crisis in Pompeii, that finished with the advent of Nero and the life of the city proceeded quietly up to 59 AD, when in the Amphitheatre it burst the bloody batlle between Nucerian and Pompeians, that brought Nero to suspend the games for ten years. In 62 AD a catastrophic earthquake struck Pompeii and other cities of Campania (Herculaneum). Pompeii suffered many damages; in fact, at the moment of the volcanic eruption that buried it completely, some restaurations and reconstructions were still in progress. Afterwards midday of August, the 24th of 79 AD, the Pompeians saw a pineshaped cloud fluttering on the Vesuvius; immediately after the gigantic stratum of solidified lava that obstructed the mouth of the crater exploded under the push of the gases and it flew in air shattering and transforming itself in "lapilli" that deposited on the city at a varying height of 2 or 6 metres and for a ray of 70 kms.
THE HOUSE
Thank to Pompeii we can follow the evolution of the Italic and Roman houses beginning from the IV-III century BC; its more typical scheme is in the so-called House of the Surgeon where it is underlined, between few remarkings, an original nucleus constituted by covered environments around the atrium (atrium or cavum aedium), an inner courtyard illuminated by a central opening in the roof. The inclination of the tiles looks towards the inside of the house to carry, through the central opening (compluvium), rainwaters in an underlying basin (impluvium), provided of two holes: one connected, through a small channel, with a cistern for the hoarding of waters, the other with the outside for the disposal of surplus waters. The atrium of the ancient Italic house, surrounded by tall boundaries like a fortitude, was the irradiation center of domestic life, the place where the pater familias had the meals sat around the table with the family and the slaves and where the domina sat to spin with the handmaids and provided to the family jobs. In the atrium, in fact, was the kitchen, that's why it is supposed that from the smoke that blackened the walls of this environment it was called atrium (from "ater", black). The enter to the atrium was through a hallway (vestibulum) and, behind the entry door, a sloping narrow corridor (fauces). The door of the entrance (ianua) was made of wood with two or more leaves (fores or valvae) rotating on hinges on the threshold and on the lintel. At the sides of the fauce and the atrium there were small environments as bedrooms (cubicola) and two open spaces (alae); diametrically opposite to the entry there was the tablinum, flanked by a narrow corridor (andron) that brought to the hortus and to one or two side spaces, with function of dining room, of store room or of kitchen. The triclinium appears in the Italic house together with the Greek custom of dining laid down; it was put usually in one of the side rooms of the tablinum. The triclinium table (cartibulum) was set at the center of three beds (medius, summus, imus lectus) to allow the stretched out guests to pose the dishes and to take the foods. The peristyle (peristylium) is the main element imported by the new Greek-Hellenistic architectural fashion; around it some environments developed: the exedra and the oeci.
The increasing of population during the empire and the lacking of lodgings, consequent to the damages provoked by the earthquake of 62 AD, determined a vertical development of the house; though Pompeii was a small town (but always knot of important commercial traffics), the Pompeian house continued to be perceived as a housing unity for only one family nucleus. The inside of the Pompeian house was furnished with a few furniture; besides different types of chairs and stools we find many beds with different functions: a kind of sofa on which it was possible to lay down for studying (lectus lucubratorius), the bed for the triclinium table (lectus tricliniaris), and the one to spleep (lectus cubicularis). The heavy wardrobes (armaria) were leaned to earth, they had the shape of ours and were provided of keys and locks. For any object however, Pompeii offers such a conspicuous example and various like the one we have for heating and illumination: braziers, oil lamps, lampstands, candelabra, worked with notable artistic fancy in which it shined an Alexandrine style. Largely used for kitchen furnishing were materials like the terracotta, the glass, the bronze: the employment of the metal was above all for casseroles, ladles, cups, strainers, while the terracotta was used for amphoras, mortars, funnels, buckets. There are even examples of silver plate: wine glass, cups, trunk of cone cups, glasses, course trays, bowls, spoons. The day was divided in twelve day-time hours (hora prima, secunda, tertia, etc) and twelve night-time; these last were divided in four periods said vigilae of three hours each, according with the turns of the sentinels. The three principal dates were: the Calends (the first day of the month), the Nones (the 5th of the month) and the Ides (the 15th of the month). The arrangement of the days in the weeks spreaded during the imperial age: the days took the name from the stars.
THE MUNICIPIUM
During the Roman empire, Italy was leaned on two types of city: the Municipium and the Colony. The Municipium was a free city, that afterwards was won by Rome; it kept a sufficient autonomy and its inhabitants were compared in everything or partly to the Romans. The Colony was a direct derivation of Rome, governed by Roman citizens. Colony and Municipium came unifying in everything, especially civil code and city life, but not the juridical plan. For this reason we speak about municipal arrangements in Pompeii even though the city wasn't a Municipium but a Colony, disciplinated by a statute on the public and administrative life. The law was promulgated by a Magistrate entrusted by the Senate of Rome and it was engraved on bronze tablets exposed to the public. The inhabitants of the whole territory formed the populus that had the assignment to elect the town magistrates. An interesting relief had the budget of the Municipium: the ordinary entrances originated from incomes of town good (fields, buildings, pastures, woods), of services (water, public baths), of roads and bridges' tools, of duties. The extraordinary entrances were constituted by donations and legacies. But if the entrances were modest, they were modest the expenses that concerned the maintenance of public buildings, aqueducts, etc, all the same. The Council (Ordo Decurionum) was the supreme body of the city, it held political and administrative power and the function of control on all the other sectors of public life. It was composed by a number, established by the statute, generally oscillating in the varied cities between 80 and 100 members, and was presided by two "Duoviri". The members of the Council (decurioni) continued in office all life long and enjoyed lots of privileges and honours, for example wearing a toga adorned with a purple band, or the right to occupy the best places in the shows and to sit on the bisellium. After the duoviri, there were the aediles (an inferior degree), that is two duoviri with building power: they had to provide for the control of city life, of the streets, of the public buildings, of the market, of the weights and they organised shows and public games; they had some collaborators that assisted them in their functions. One of the most important office was the priesthood. Very often it was the first step to enter to the public offices and to the real magistracy. In fact, in Pompeii there has not been a priest that has not become magistrate. The official centre of the Council was the "Curia", situated in the "Forum", but the sessions can also be taken in other places, summoned by the supreme magistrates that presided it. For their validity they owed being 2/3 of the members with the right to vote; this could be open or, rarely, secret.
THE FORUM
The Roman Forum was, like the Greek "Agora", the center of public life. Not just an open space between buildings, the forum was the locus of Senate and Imperial proclamations, the place where the augurs were read and the auspices pronounced, and a central area for ostentatious display of grief and gratitude. The forum was typical in its plan: at far end of a long open square was a temple set upon a high podium, the processional axis of which formed the formal axis and focal point of the forum. Colonnades along the other three perimeters of the space established a visually unified setting and provided covered walkways between the buildings on both sides. Pompeii, one of the Roman companion towns that were buried by the Vesuvian eruption of 79 AD and brought back to life during the last two centuries, has provided fundamental knowledge of the domestic life of the ancients. It has become one of the most fascinating archaeological sites in the world.
Open: November - March Every day 08:30 am to 05:00 pm (last entry allowed 03:30 pm)
April - October Every day 08:30 am to 07:30 pm (last entry allowed 06:00 pm)
Closed: 1st January, 1st May, 25th December
Entrance Fee: € 10,00
Reduced: € 5,00 from 18 to 25 age and school teachers from the UE
Admittance free: Under 18 years and over 65 from the UE
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