Pompeii

We are mad.  When we travel, we travel, and overdo it in the extreme.  Today we took the train to Pompeii and walked for about nine hours.  The ruined Roman town is fabulous and we loved every minute of it.  We had to re-charge at one point so we went for a cappuccino, which is a lot less of a jolt than caffe, which is espresso, you get about a thimble full of rocket fuel when you order a caffe.  Italian coffee is really, really good.  We only have cappuccino in the morning, we were already aware that if you order one in the afternoon, the Italians will think you are an idiot.

A local specialty is buffalo mozzarella, which refers to water buffalo.  It comes in a brine in a sealed bag and is astonishingly good, it has a soft texture and the taste is something else.  This is nothing like the rubberized North American version.  We are in a state of food bliss, we walk into a shop and go crazy over the cheese and salami.  The Mediterranean spices are particularly good, we grow oregano but ours just does not have the flavour of the oregano that we get here.

Pompeii is a tourist mecca.  Our first clue was the good signage, we didn’t have to guess, signs directed us right to the site.  The autogrill (cafeteria-type place) is staffed with Italians who speak English.  There were large groups of Japanese tourists and we heard a lot of English.  Even some French people asked our advice on what was good to see.

Okay, about Pompeii.  It was founded in the 8th century BC and overrun by the Oscans, then the Samnites took over.  Pompeii fell to Rome in 89 BC, it was made a Roman colony in 80 BC by General Sulla.  The Samnite property was confiscated and given to Roman veterans.

Pompeii is southwest of Vesuvius, when the volcano erupted the wind was blowing toward the southwest; therefore, Pompeii received a mass of falling ash and pumice which buried the city under 17 feet of ash.

There was warning to flee as tremors led up to the eruption.  Many residents did flee, approximately 1,100 remains have been found, it is unlikely that no more than 2,000 perished in the disaster as only one quarter of the city is not excavated.

There is evidence of looters tunneling through the ash and pumice, then Pompeii was forgotten and discovered in the18th century when Europeans scavenged the city.  Allied bombing in 1943 did a lot of damage, parts of the Large Theatre, the Forum and some of the houses were rebuilt after the war.

John took 485 photos of the Pompeii ruins today, there is just too much to cover so I will only deal with the public buildings in this post.  I could write a book about it but don’t have the time to really do the site justice on this blog.  I am really interested in the domestic architecture as well; however, I will have to write about that tomorrow if there is time.

Streets have high sidewalks and stepping stones are positioned to allow cart wheels through.  The height of the sidewalks and stepping stones is likely due to the rotting debris that filled the streets.  After a rain, torrents of water would rush down the streets as there was not a lot of underground drainage.

Notice the cart tracks, the stones are low enough to provide clearance for carts.

Amphitheatre  80 - 70 BC
The Romans started building the amphitheatre immediately after taking Pompeii.  The oval arena was excavated and earth was piled to support the stone seats.  The entrances and exits are termed vomitoria, the patricians used these while the plebs had to climb the steps and sit further to the back.  Roman society was all about wealth and status.  Women had to sit at the back, while the patricians sat in their own section at the front.

The Pompeii amphitheatre seated 20,000 and it had an awning which was supported by poles.  The amphitheatre held gladiator games and wild beast hunts.  The gladiators were at the bottom of society, they were condemned criminals or slaves.

One thing you notice is how steep and how huge the amphitheatre is, a tremendous amount of earth had to be moved to support the seats.  The amphitheatre is an annular vault, the concrete is faced with opus incertum, which is randomly placed uncut stone.

Basilica - 120 BC
The Basilica was always situated near the forum in a Roman town.  It was the seat of the judiciary and a gathering place.  The Basilica in Pompeii had a colonnade inside and the axial focus was on the tribunal, that was where the official handed down his rulings.

Ancient Romans believed in gods and goddesses, atheism would have been incomprehensible to them.  The number of gods and goddesses were not fixed, emperors were deified and they imported gods from other areas.  There was no religious text to adhere to, adherence was demonstrated through actions rather than words.  Vows were made to the gods, if the desired outcome was achieved, an offering or sacrifice would be paid to the god.  The state religion was that the gods protected and supported Rome as long as the people worshiped them, if the worship was neglected, disaster would strike. The people of Pompeii would have believed that the eruption of Vesuvius was a sign that they did not properly worship the gods.

Temple of Apollo - Notice that the Romans were not as particular as the Greeks.

Temple of Jupiter started 150 BC

Triple cella added by the Romans in 80 BC for the Roman deities Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva.  The temple is an Etruscan plan with Greek elements, the Romans borrowed design principles from both the Etruscans and the Greeks.  The temple was made out of tufa stone.  Notice the really high podium.

Temple of Isis

Isis was an Egyptian goddess, the temple was not open to public view, only initiates were welcomed.  The temple had assembly space and may have had resident priests.  It is said that Mozart visited the temple in 1769 and it supposedly gave him the inspiration for the Magic Flute.

There was no time to blog about the Roman baths.  The baths could take up an entire post.  We will try to blog about the baths tomorrow.  Stay tuned.