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Our Suggested Guide of Pompeii, Part 4

Excerpts from “POMPEII: ITS LIFE AND ART”, by German archeologist August Mau

By August Mau


Amalfi Coasting selected excerpts from “POMPEII: ITS LIFE AND ART”, by German archeologist August Mau, which is considered one of the best books ever written about Pompeii in terms of historical narrative and archeological facts and explanation. This is Part 4 of our excerpts.

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TEMPLE OF ISIS/TEMPIO DI ISIDE (#47)

The loftiest and purest religious conceptions of the ancient Egyptians were embodied in the myth of Isis and Osiris, which in the third millennium B.C. had already become the basis of a firmly established cult.

These conceptions approached the monotheistic idea of an omnipresent god, and with them was associated a belief in a blessed immortality.

Isis was the goddess of heaven, and Osiris was the Sun-god, her brother and husband, who is slain at evening by his brother Set,—the Greek Typhon,—ruler of darkness. Their child Horus, also called Harpocrates, born after the father's death, is the fresh sun of the new day, the successor and avenger of his father, the conqueror of Set; he becomes a new Osiris, while the father, ever blessed, rules in the realm of the dead, the kingdom of the West. Man, the followers of Isis taught, is an incarnation of deity, whose destiny is also his. He is himself an Osiris, and will enter upon a better state of existence beyond the grave if a favorable judgment is passed upon him in the trial given to the dead.

In its new Alexandrian form the worship of Isis and Osiris, or Serapis, as the latter divinity was now called, spread, not only over all Egypt, but also over the other countries in the East into which Greek culture had penetrated, and soon made its way to Italy and the West.

A college of the Servants of Isis, Pastophori, was founded in Rome in the time of Sulla, about 80 B.C. In vain the authorities tried to drive out the worship of the Egyptian gods. Three times their temple, in the midst of the city, was destroyed by order of the consuls, in 58, 50, and 48 B.C. But after Caesar's death, in 44 B.C., the triumvirs built a temple in honor of Isis and Osiris; and a few decades later, perhaps in the reign of Caligula, their festival was recognized in the public Calendar.

In Campania the Alexandrian cult gained a foothold earlier than in Rome. An inscription of the year 105 B.C., found at Puteoli, proves that a temple of Serapis was then standing in that enterprising city, which had close commercial relations with Egypt and the East. Soon after this date the earlier temple of Isis at Pompeii must have been built.

The entrance to the court of the temple is from the north. Above the door is an inscription which informs us that after an earthquake (that of the year 63) Numerius Popidius Celsinus, at his own expense, rebuilt the temple of Isis from the foundation, and that in recognition of his generosity, though he was only six years of age, the members of the city council, the decurions, admitted him without cost to their rank.

Other inscriptions give information in regard to the family of the child Celsinus. His father was Numerius Popidius Ampliatus, his mother Corelia Celsa. The real rebuilders were of course the parents; by associating their munificence with the name of their son, they opened the way for him to the city offices, for which the father, a freedman, was not eligible.

Though the rebuilding of Celsinus was 'from the foundation,' remains of the old temple were utilized, as shafts of columns and Corinthian capitals coated with white stucco; and the plan of the new building was very nearly the same as that of the old.

The architectural forms and the workmanship of these remains point to a time just after the founding of the Roman colony; nevertheless the dimensions of the colonnade, approximately fifty by sixty Oscan feet, reduce to the pre-Roman standard of measurement, and the building may have been commenced earlier.

In later times the increasing number of the worshippers of Isis made necessary an enlargement of the sanctuary.

The two rooms at the west end were added at the expense of the palaestra, probably at the time of the rebuilding.

In the middle of the court, which is surrounded by the colonnade, is the temple, consisting of an oblong cella, the east side of which is treated as a front, with a portico borne by six columns.

A pit for the refuse of sacrifices, enclosed by a wall stands in the corner of the court near the entrance from the street; in the opposite corner there is a larger enclosure having the appearance of a small temple. Near this are two altars; a third altar stood close to the temple, and there are five others, somewhat smaller, between the columns.

The walls of the colonnade were painted in bright colors on a deep red ground. The lower part of the columns was red, but above they were white; the temple also was white, the purpose obviously being to give the appearance of marble.

Opposite the entrance of the temple the colonnade presents an interesting peculiarity of construction, which is found also in other buildings at Pompeii, as the Stabian Baths.

The place of the three middle columns on that side is taken by two large pillars, higher than the rest of the colonnade, each of which is backed by an attached half-column. This arrangement made the approach to the temple more imposing, and also furnished an appropriate setting for the shrine of Harpocrates against the wall.

The principal altar, on which sacrifice was offered to the divinities worshipped in the temple, is that near the foot of the steps in front. The officiating priest stood on a block of stone at the side of it, with the temple at his right; on this altar were found ashes and fragments of calcined bones.

At the left of the steps leading up to the temple, and facing the large altar, is a small pillar of masonry fifteen inches square and nearly two and a half feet high.

A similar pillar, which formerly stood at the right, had thin slabs of stone on three sides. One of these, that on the front of the pillar (now in the Naples Museum), was covered with hieroglyphics. It is a memorial tablet, which Hat, 'the writer of the divine word’, hierogrammateus, set up in honor of his parents and grandparents; it contains symbolic representations in three divisions, one above the other.

In the upper division Hat, his brother and colleague Meran, their father and grandfather, are praying to Osiris, 'Lord of the Kingdom of the Dead'; below, Hat is bringing to his parents and grandparents offerings for the dead, while in the lower division Meran and two sisters unite with him in prayer to Osiris.

The presence of a statue of Bacchus in the niche in the rear wall of the cella is easily explained; this divinity was identified with Osiris.

While the Greek and Roman gods were honored chiefly at their festivals, the Egyptian divinities demanded worship every day, indeed several times a day.

The early service, the 'opening of the temple,' is described by Apuleius, who was probably admitted to the college of the Servants of Isis in Rome in the time of the Antonines, and wrote about 160 A.D.

Before daybreak the priest went into the temple by the side entrance and threw back the great doors, which were fastened on the inside. White linen curtains were hung across the doorway, shielding the interior from view.

Now the street gate of the court was opened; the thronging multitude of the devout streamed in and took their places in front of the temple. The curtains were drawn aside and the image of the goddess was presented to the gaze of her worshippers, who greeted her with prayers and shaking of the sistrum, a musical rattle, the use of which was characteristic of the worship of the Egyptian gods.

For a time they remained sitting, engaged in prayer and in the contemplation of the divinity; an hour after daybreak the service was closed with an invocation to the newly risen sun.

This description throws light on the purpose of the bench in front of the shrine of Harpocrates.

The second service was held at two o'clock in the afternoon. It is, perhaps, depicted in a fresco painting from Herculaneum, the subject of which is a solemn act in the worship of Isis, the adoration of the holy water.

In the portico of the temple, above the steps, two priests and a priestess are standing. The priest in the middle holds in front of him, in the folds of his robe, a vessel containing the holy water, which was supposed to be from the Nile.

There is an altar at the foot of the steps; a priest is fanning the fire into flame.

On the right and the left of the altar are the worshippers, with other priests, part of whom are shaking the sistrum, while a flute player sits in the foreground at the right.

AMPHITHEATER/ANFITEATRO (#60)

In the southeast corner of the city, lies the Amphitheater, the scene of gladiatorial combats.

The Pompeians called it 'the show,' spectacula, as in the inscription, preserved in two copies, that gives us the names of the builders: “C. Quinctius C. f. Valgus, M. Porcius M. f[ilius] duo vir[i] quinq[uennales] coloniai honoris caussa spectacula de sua peq[unia] fac[iunda] coer[arunt] et coloneis locum in perpetuom deder[unt]”.

According to this, the Amphitheater was built by the same men, Valgus and Porcius, who are already known to us as the builders of the Small Theater; and they presented it to the city in recognition of the honor conferred upon them by their reelection as duumvirs.

The Amphitheater may thus have been finished half a decade later than the Theater, but in any case it belongs to the earliest years of the Roman colony,—as might be inferred, in default of other evidence, from the archaic spelling of the inscription, and the character of the masonry, which is like that of the Small Theater and the baths north of the Forum.

The colonists, however, did not receive from Rome their impulse to erect such a building.

The passion for gladiatorial combats was developed in Campania earlier, and manifested itself more strongly, than in Latium. Strabo's statement that gladiators were brought forward at Campanian banquets, in larger or smaller numbers according to the rank of the guests, has reference to the period before the Second Punic War; but it was considered a noteworthy event in Rome when, in 264 B.C., gladiators engaged in combat in the Forum Boarium in celebration of funeral rites, as also when, on a similar occasion in 216 B.C., twenty-two pairs fought in the Forum.

Buildings were erected for gladiatorial shows in Campanian towns earlier than at the Capital. As late as the year 46 B.C. the spectators who witnessed the games given by Julius Caesar sat on wooden seats supported by temporary staging; and the first stone amphitheater in Rome was built by Statilius Taurus in 29 B.C., almost half a century after the quinquennial duumvirate of Valgus and Porcius.

The Amphitheater at Pompeii is the oldest known to us from either literary or monumental sources. In comparison with later and more imposing structures, our Amphitheater seems indeed unpretentious. The dimensions (length 460 feet, breadth 345) are small when compared with those of the Coliseum (615 and 510 feet, respectively) or even the amphitheaters at Capua or Pozzuoli; and the lack of artistic form is noteworthy.

The exhibitions held here must also have been on a modest scale.

There were no underground chambers, below the arena, with devices by means of which wild beasts could be lifted up into view and the sand suddenly covered with new combatants. The limited means of this small city were not adequate to make provision for the elaborate equipment and costly decoration found in the amphitheaters of larger towns.

The arena is surrounded by a wall about 6½ feet high. This wall was covered with frescoes which, still fresh at the time of excavation, are now known to us only from copies in the Naples Museum. They consisted of alternate broad and narrow panels. One of the scenes gives an interesting glimpse of the preparations for the combat. In the middle we see the overseer marking out with a long staff the ring within which the combatants must fight. At the right a gladiator stands, partly armed; two attendants are bringing him a helmet and a sword. A horn blower, also partly armed, stands at the left; and behind him two companions, squatting on the ground, make ready his helmet and shield. At either end of the scene, in the background, is an image of a Winged Victory with a wreath and palm.

The limestone coping of the wall about the arena shows traces of iron in the joints between the blocks, apparently remains of a grating designed to protect the spectators from attacks by the infuriated wild beasts.

Two broad corridors connect the ends of the arena with the outside of the building. The one at the north end, toward Vesuvius, follows a straight line; the other bends sharply to the right in order to avoid the city wall, which bounds the structure on the south and east sides. By these corridors the gladiators entered the arena, first in festal array, passing in stately procession across the sand from one entrance to the other, then coming forth in pairs as they were summoned to mortal combat.

At the middle of the west side there is a third passage, narrow and low; this is the gruesome corridor through which the bodies of the dead were dragged by means of hooks, its entrance being the Porta Libitinensis, 'Death Gate.'

The seats, of which there are thirty-five rows, have the same form as those in the Small Theater, and are of the same material, gray tufa. They are arranged in three divisions,—the lowest, ima cavea, having five rows; the middle division, media cavea, twelve; and the highest, summa cavea, eighteen.

In the middle section of the ima cavea on each side the place of the seats is taken by four low, broad ledges, set aside for members of the city council, who could place upon them the seats of honor, bisellia, to the use of which they were entitled.

At the middle of the east side the second ledge is interrupted for a distance of ten feet, a double width being thus given to the lowest. This place was designed for seats of special honor, and was, no doubt, reserved for the official who provided the games, and his associates.

On the same side the ledges are extended into the next section on the south. This supplementary section was, perhaps, intended for certain freedmen, as the Augustales, who had the right to use bisellia, but who nevertheless could not become members of the city council, and were not ranked on a social equality with the occupants of the middle section.

The seats of the ima cavea and media cavea were reached through a vaulted. It ran under the first seats of the second range, and stairs led from it to both divisions.

The Amphitheater had a seating capacity of about twenty thousand persons.

The north entrance to the arena was adorned with two portrait statues of Gaius Cuspius Pansa, father and son, placed in niches in the walls facing each other. The statues have disappeared, but the inscriptions underneath are still in place. What services the Pansas had rendered in connection with the Amphitheater to merit this distinction, we do not know; but the father, as the inscription indicates, was 'prefect in accordance with the law of Petronius'; that is, he was appointed by the city council to exercise the functions of the two duumvirs when no valid election occurred.

The attraction of the gladiatorial exhibitions, together with the ample seating capacity of the building, stimulated attendance from neighboring cities, and on one occasion unfortunate results followed.

In the year 59 A.D. a Roman senator, Livineius Regulus, who had been expelled from the Senate, and had apparently taken up his residence at Pompeii, gave an exhibition that attracted a great concourse.

That the sports of the Amphitheater had at all times the keenest interest for the Pompeians is evident, not only from the number of notices having to do with the games, which we see painted in red on walls along the streets or on tombs by the roadside, but also from the countless graffiti in both houses and public places having reference to combats and favorite gladiators.

The limits of space do not permit us to describe the gladiatorial exhibitions as they took place at Pompeii and other Roman cities; but the inscriptions bring so near to us the scenes and excitement of those days that it seems worth while to quote and interpret a few typical examples.

On a tomb near the Nuceria Gate, excavated in 1886, is the following notice, painted in red letters: “Glad[iatorum] par[ia] XX Q. Monni Rufi pug[nabunt] Nola K[alendis] Mais, VI. V. Nonas Maias, et venatio erit”. 'Twenty pairs of gladiators, furnished by Quintus Monnius Rufus, will fight at Nola May 1, and 3, and there will be a hunt.' The forms of the letters and the numerous ligatures point to a comparatively early period, perhaps antedating the reign of Augustus. The 'hunt,' venatio, was an exhibition of wild beasts, which sometimes were pitted against one another, sometimes fought with men.

Another tomb close by bears a notice of a gladiatorial combat to take place at Nuceria.

A still larger number of gladiators is announced in this notice: “Cn. Allei Nigidi Mai quinq[uennalis] gl[adiatorum] par[ia] et eor[um] supp[ositicii] pugn[abunt] Pompeis VIII VII VI K[alendas] Dec[embres]. Ven[atio] erit. Maio quin[quennali] feliciter. Paris va[le]”. 'Thirty pairs of gladiators furnished by Cn. Alleius Nigidius Maius, quinquennial duumvir, together with their substitutes, will fight at Pompeii November 24, 25, 26. There will be a hunt. Hurrah for Maius the quinquennial! Bravo, Paris!' The substitutes were to take the place of the killed or wounded, that the sport might not suffer interruption.

Nigidius Maius appears to have been a rich Pompeian of the time of Claudius. Besides the general announcement of a gladiatorial exhibition, a detailed program, libellus, was prepared in advance, of which copies were sold. No such copy has come down to us, but the character of the contents of a program may be inferred from the order of events which a Pompeian with waste time on his hands scratched on a wall; the memorandum covers two exhibitions, which came near together in the early part of May, the result of each combat being carefully noted.

In the first pair of gladiators Pugnax, equipped with Thracian weapons—a small, round shield and short, curved sword or dagger—was matched with the Myrmillo Murranus, who bore arms of the Gallic fashion, with the image of a fish on his helmet. Both were Neroniani; that is, from the training school for gladiators founded by Nero, apparently at Capua.

Pugnax and Murranus had both been through three contests previously. In the second pair Cycnus, in heavy armor, was pitted against Atticus, who had the Thracian arms. Both were from the training school founded by Julius Caesar, probably at Capua, and hence are called Iuliani. Cycnus won, but the audience had compassion on Atticus, and his life was spared.

The same term was applied to a defeated gladiator permitted to leave the arena as to a soldier having an honorable discharge—missus, 'let go.' The third pair fought in chariots, being dressed in British costume. Scylax was from the Julian school. Such establishments let out gladiators to those who gave exhibitions, and obtained in this way a considerable income. But Publius Ostorius, as his name implies, was a freeman; presumably he was a gladiator, who, having served a full term, had secured his freedom, and was now fighting on his own account. Though beaten, he was permitted to live, perhaps on account of his creditable record; he had engaged in fifty-one combats.

The combatants from the schools of Caesar and Nero were especially popular, and were generally victorious; but gladiators belonging to other proprietors are mentioned, as in the inscriptions of a house on Nola Street, which will be mentioned again presently. Here we find gladiators who were evidently freemen named with others who were slaves of different masters.

Occasionally the individual who provided the combats would erect a monument to the fallen, by way of perpetuating the memory of his munificence.

A familiar example is the memorial set up by Gaius Salvius Capito at Venosa, of which the inscription is extant. The names are given of the gladiators who were killed, together with the number of their previous combats and victories.

PALAESTRA/ PALESTRA GRANDE (#61)

The oblong court north of the Large Theater, between the entrance of the Forum Triangulare and the temple of Isis, is the Palaestra.

Originally, the enclosed area was entirely surrounded by a colonnade, with ten columns on the sides and five at each end; but at a comparatively late period, probably after the earthquake of 63, the columns at the east end were removed and the space thus gained was added to the temple of Isis. The building clearly dates from the pre-Roman period.

 

The columns are of tufa coated with stucco, the dimensions of the colonnade (90 by 36 Oscan feet) reduce to the early standard of measurement; and an Oscan inscription was found here which says that the building was erected by the Quaestor Vibius Vinicius, with money which Vibius Adiranus had left by will to the Pompeian youth.

The translation of the word vereiiai, 'to the youth,' otherwise doubtful, is confirmed by various facts which indicate that the building was intended as a small palaestra or open-air gymnasium for boys.

At the west end of the court were dressing rooms where the boys, before exercising, could anoint themselves and afterwards could remove the oil and dirt with the strigil; such a dressing room in connection with a bath was called a destrictarium.

Water was brought into the court by a lead pipe, which passed through one of the columns at the right of the entrance and threw a jet either into a basin standing below or into the gutter in front of the colonnade.

VILLA RUSTICA OF BOSCOREALE

Less than two miles north of Pompeii, near the village of Boscoreale, a farmhouse was excavated in 1893-94.

Two classes of villas were distinguished by the Romans,—the country seat, villa urbana, and the farmhouse, villa rustica. The former was a city house, adapted to rural conditions; the arrangements of the latter were determined by the requirements of farm life.

The country seats manifested a greater diversity of plan than the city residences. They were relatively larger, containing spacious colonnades and gardens; as the proprietor was unrestricted in regard to space, not being confined to the limits of a lot, fuller opportunity was afforded for the display of individual taste in the arrangement of rooms.

We can understand from the letters of Pliny the Younger, describing his two villas at Laurentum and Tifernum Tiberinum (now Città di Castello), and from the remains of the villa of Hadrian at Tivoli, how far individuality might assert itself in the planning and building of a country home.

The main entrance of a country seat, according to Vitruvius, should lead directly to a peristyle; one or more atriums might be placed further back.

The living rooms would be grouped about the central spaces in the way that would best suit the configuration of the ground and meet the wishes of the owner.

In most parts of Italy a large farmhouse would contain appliances for making wine and oil.

Special importance attaches to the Boscoreale villa rustica, both on account of the extreme rarity of examples of the type and because of the character of the remains, which makes it possible to determine the arrangements with certainty. The living rooms, the stable, and the rooms used for the making of wine and oil were all under one roof.

The size of the building is not so great as might have been assumed from the variety of purposes which it served; the enclosed area, exclusive of the threshing floor, measures about 130 by 82 feet.

The plan (see image) is regular, the principal entrance being near the middle of the southwest side.

The entrance was wide enough for carts and wagons, which were kept in the court (A).

Along three sides of the court ran a colonnade, over which at the front were upper rooms; the roof on the left side and the rear rested on columns connected by a parapet.

Under the colonnade at the further corner is a cistern curb (1), on one side of which is a large wash basin of masonry (2); on the other is a pillar supporting a small reservoir of lead (3).

The reservoir, reached by means of steps (4), was filled from the cistern.

In a Roman farmhouse the kitchen was the large, central room.

Vitruvius recommends that it be placed on the warmest side of the court; and in our villa rustica it lies at the north corner where, in winter, it would receive the full benefit of the sunshine.

The hearth, on which remains of fire were found, stands in the middle of the room; in the wall at the rear is a niche, ornamented to resemble the façade of a diminutive temple, in which were placed the images of the household gods.

A large door in the right wall of the kitchen opened into the stable (H). Near it was a stairway (3) leading to upper rooms; in the corner was a pit (4) affording access to a small cellar in which the standard of the press beam in the adjoining room (P, 4) was made fast.

In the opposite corner was a reservoir of lead (2) standing on a foundation of masonry; it received water from the reservoir in the court (A, 3) and supplied the bath. On the same side of the room is the entrance to the bath and to the closet (G).

The arrangements of this bath are in a better state of preservation than those of most other Roman bath; the tank and reservoir with the connecting pipes may now be seen at Pompeii in the little Museum near the Forum fitted up for the exhibition of the objects found in this villa.

The bathrooms comprised an apodyterium (D), a tepidarium (E), and a caldarium (F) with a bath basin at one end and a labrum in a semicircular recess at the other. The bath was heated from a small furnace room (C). Over the hot air flue leading from the furnace into the hollow space under the floor of the caldarium was a water heater in the form of a half cylinder similar to the one found in Pompeii’s Stabian Baths.

The tepidarium, as well as the caldarium, had a hollow floor and walls.

Over the furnace stood a round lead tank, the lower part of which was encased in masonry; the pipes connecting it with the reservoir in the corner of the kitchen and with the bathrooms were found in place. The middle pipe supplied the tank with cold water; the flow could be regulated by means of a stopcock. The lower pipe started from the reservoir, but before reaching the tank was divided, the left arm leading into the tank, the other into the bath basin.

In the public baths there was a separate tank for lukewarm water; here a moderate temperature was obtained by mixing hot and cold water. At the bottom of the tank is a short bibcock used when the water was drawn off.

On the side of the reservoir we see the end of the feed pipe leading from the reservoir in the court; at the right is a supply pipe which conducted to the stable (H) water not needed for the bath.

On the same side of the court is a room (J), in which were found remains of tools; several sickles were hanging on the walls. Next are two sleeping rooms (K, L); a passage between them leads to the bakery, with a single mill (1) and oven (2). In the corner is a dining room (N) in which the remains of three couches were found; it was separated from the court by an anteroom (M).

Over the colonnade on the front side of the court was a sleeping room with a large room adjoining, perhaps the bedroom of the overseer, villicus, which, according to Varro should be near the entrance.

The oblong room at the northeast side of the court contained appliances for making wine. At each end was a large press with a raised floor.

By means of a pulley and a rope passed around the windlass, the outer end of the press beam could be raised or lowered. When it was lowered in order to increase the pressure on the grapes, both standard and windlass posts would be pulled out of the ground unless firmly braced. Under the rear of each press was a small cellar, in which was placed a framework for holding the standard in place.

One was entered from a pit in the corner of the kitchen (B, 4), the other from a similar depression in a small separate room (W); at 6 was a pit for fastening the windlass posts.

The grape juice ran into round vats sunk in the ground. In front of the first press are two, in front of the second only one; a cistern of which the curb (3) is indicated on the plan, here takes the place of the other vat.

The cistern could be filled also from the first press by means of a lead pipe under the floor.

The round vats were for the pure juice of the first pressing. Into the other was conducted the product of the second pressing; the remains of the grapes, after the juice had ceased to flow, were drenched with water and again subjected to pressure.

In Pliny's "Natural History" we read that in Campania the best wine underwent fermentation in the open air, exposed to sun, rain, and wind. This villa supplies an interesting confirmation of the statement; the round fermentation vats fill a large court (R), the walls of which are pierced with openings in order to give readier access to the wind.

Along one side runs a channel of masonry about three feet above the ground (1), protected by a narrow roof; thence the grape juice was distributed through lead pipes to the vats.

During the vintage season, the inner end of the channel was connected with the press room by means of a temporary pipe or channel entering the wall above the cistern (P, 3). Three of the small rooms toward the rear were sleeping rooms (V-V).

In another (X) was found a hand mill.

At the end of the passageway was a double room containing the appliances for making oil, a press (in Y) and a crusher (in Z). The press was like the wine press described above, only much smaller, with a raised floor, a standard for the press beam, a pit for bracing the standard of the press beam (3), two posts at the ends of the windlass (4, 4), a pit from which a crosspiece connecting these posts could be reached, and a vat (6) at one side for receiving the oil.

The olive crusher, trapetum, is now in the Museum at Pompeii. It was designed to separate the pulp of the olives from the stones, which were thought to impair the flavor of the oil. It consists of a deep circular basin of lava, so hollowed out as to leave in the center a strong standard of the stone, miliarium.

In the top of this standard was set an iron pin, on which was fitted a revolving wooden crosspiece. This carried two wheels of lava, having the shape of half a lens, which travelled in the basin. The wheels were carefully balanced so that they would not press against the side of the basin and crush the stones of the olives. In the long room S remains of bean straw and parts of a wagon were found.

South of it is the threshing floor (T), the surface of which is raised above the ground and covered with Signia pavement. The water that fell upon the threshing floor was conducted to a small open cistern (U). For at least a part of the year the proprietor of the villa probably lived in it.

So elaborate a bath would not have been built for the use of slaves; and in the second story was a modest but comfortable series of apartments (over V, W, X, and part of Q), apparently designed for the master's use, as was also the dining room (N) with K and L.

In a place where such a find would least have been anticipated—the cistern in the room of the wine presses—was made a remarkable discovery of treasure. Here a man had taken refuge, and with his skeleton were found about a thousand gold coins, four gold bracelets, ear-rings, a gold chain, and the beautiful collection of silver ware afterwards presented by Baron Rothschild to the Louvre.

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Our Suggested Guide of Pompeii, Part 1

Excerpts "“POMPEII: ITS LIFE AND ART”, by German archeologist August Mau

Our Suggested Guide of Pompeii, Part 2

Our Suggested Guide of Pompeii, Part 3

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