What miracle is taking place?
We asked you for springs, O earth, and what is this that is sent up from your depths?
Do a new people live beneath the lava?
Is the past coming back to life?
Romans and Greeks, O come and see, Ancient Pompeii has returned to life.
Two centuries ago, the ancient city of Pompeii began to be brought to light.
Scholars and visitors arrived from all over Europe, and they all left a record of those
memorable discoveries in their travel diaries. To read through those pages is to relive that
memory and to set off for a new and extraordinary adventure.
In the last streets, as the city comes to an end, near to the great amphitheater, where
the countryside begins, stands one of Pompeii's most beautiful houses. It is not large, but
has a rare beauty, and its high walls fondly shelter a flourishing garden.
The main entrance of the house of the Reius Tiburtinus is situated at the far west of
Via dell'Abbondanza, Pompeii's main high street. The house has a large entrance around
which, in keeping with the classical Roman model, are situated both the private and reception
rooms. Major work was being carried out to repair damage done by the previous earthquake.
From the entrance, we gain access to the small kitchen. Here the pots and crockery are those
of that day, and on the fire, the fish and fowl were being cooked together with rich
wine. The large courtyard on the right prepares
one for the splendid frescoes of the other rooms. The small bedrooms give onto a tiny
The last room, with its imaginative architectural miniatures painted on a white or gold background,
From here, one went out onto a small peristyle surrounding the various rooms that protected
them from extreme weather changes in the large garden.
This is the great tablinium for the sumptuous official meals. Internally, it was decorated
with classical scenes of Hercules and the Trojan War that celebrated the great origins
of Rome. All these rooms gave onto the architecture
of the finest of all the gardens of Pompeii. A long colonnade runs along the entire length
of the rear of the house. Beneath the pergola there lies a deep water
churnal with a blue bottom at the end of which is situated a beclinium for summer meals.
Along the walls of the house there are frescoes of Venus, Orpheus and hunting scenes.
From the great hall of Hercules, from the small rooms that gave onto the peristyle,
from the beclinius and the terrace, one's eye ranged freely over the ample garden and
one would hear the play of water and smell the scent of nature.
From the centre of the terrace, the water flowed into a longer channel which was interrupted
by fountains, water lilies and flanked by pergolas which rammed the whole length of
the garden. We now leave the villa of Loraeus and down
via dell'Abondanza we quickly reach a house in a completely different style.
From a large terrace one goes down a steep stairway to a portico which is almost completely
underground. Unexpected wealth of decorations completely covers the walls.
In the large underground triclinium the pillars seem to become a crowd of living busts the
colour of apophritic red.
Surprisingly, a small thermal bath is concealed down here. As in the big public thermal baths,
here there were dressing rooms, rooms for the various types of hot and cold baths and
for massages. The fine frescoes, the silver taps, everything indicates luxury and the
new pleasures to be enjoyed with one's friends while discussing politics or business.
Let us move now to an area behind the Forum where there are some of the oldest houses
of the city. Through this narrow but intensely frescoed
corridor one reaches the atrium of the house of the tragic poet which is perhaps one of
the most beautiful in the whole of Pompeii. At the back of the great reception room there
is the tablinium that joins the atrium to the garden. The entire house possesses a rich
refinement that is accentuated by its modest size. Here, when there is only the noise of
your footsteps, you can still hear the echo of the sweet verses of Ovid singing of the
love and heroism of all women. Around the atrium open the rooms of the members
of the family. In one of these by the bed there is a tray on which a young girl has
left her jewels. On the floor of the tablinium we see the fine
mosaic of the old tragic poet among the actors before the play.
Onto the little concealed garden open the triclinium for meals and the little chambers full of
treasures where the family and their guests would sleep.
At the end of the garden we see the terrible scene of Iphigenia who is being led to the
sacrifice by Ulysses and Achilles. Her father, Agamemnon, who has not resisted the will of
the gods, shields his eyes from the terror of his daughter. Each figure seems to be acting
out a part as though in a sacred and inviolable play. But their expressions betray all their
doubts. Full of fear they seek support from one another and they hang suspended in a time
without end waiting for a merciful angel to stop them before the horror is acted out.
In Pompeii can one find such a celebration of culture and poetry in such a small house.
Half way down via della Fortuna as the sun begins to set we enter the large house of
the form. The sides of the narrow corridor in two temple shaped shrines are kept the
gods that protected the house.
In the middle of the impluvium the small statue of a dancing fawn welcomes the visitor.
At the end we have the tablinium and the great banqueting hall. At the side two tricliniums
with splendid mosaic floors. First peristyle with its pool of water in the middle was the
center of the house.
Between the two gardens there is the great exedra with the celebrated mosaic of the battle
of Issus. One and a half million colored tiles represent the famous victory of Alexander
the Great over Darius of Persia. We are in the noblest house of Pompeii perhaps the best
known from the whole of classical antiquity. The style of the house is still that of the
older houses of the city. The austere original beauty is preserved intact despite the succession
of many new styles in order to remind those entering of the noble origins of the family.
Between the two gardens is yet another large exedra and its entrance also decorated by
a splendid mosaic floor points towards the second garden. From the back of the last peristyle
as from the atrium a single prospect offers an uninterrupted view of striking beauty over
the entire house. It is an extraordinary sequence produced by the light made up of closed rooms
and open spaces that are flooded with sunlight.
What I want says drunken Trimalchonius is all kinds of fruit to be placed round my ashes
and huge vineyards. Nothing is more useless than having splendid houses when we are alive
and not to think about the one that we are going to spend so much longer in.
The mausoleum of the priestess Eumachia is of grand proportions. The monument is in the
form of an exedra and is like a majestic theatrical scene at the back of a large terrace that
rises above the road.
In the cemeteries among the freshness of the trees the shadow of death is not a chilling
one. The orchards around the tombs are in blossom and the inscriptions and reliefs
sing in the sun of the glory of magistrates and citizens.
The tombs, like the houses of the living, cannot be without their gardens and orchards,
their irrigation wells, walls or seats where on anniversaries friends and relations can
hold banquets.
Nothing evokes sadness along these streets and death becomes an extension of life in
which the love of the living, their company and their conversations are not left behind.
As we go along the road out of the city we arrive at a small farm in the area of Regina.
A large vineyard surrounded the house and ensured an abundant supply of wine.
At the centre of the villa there was a large courtyard for agricultural work and in an
area enclosed by a low wall there were buried 18 vats that contained up to 10,000 litres
of wine.
In a large pressing room there is a painting of Bacchus that protects the vats into which
ran the wine produced by the pressing which is done today as it was then.
The kitchen, unlike the city houses, occupied an entire room.
In addition to a stove there was an oven for baking bread.
The reception part of the house was constituted by a small triclinium with frescoes.
There was no sleeping accommodation for the owner who at sunset would return home to the
city much as we do today.
It is evening.
The houses are lighting up with torches and braziers.
The smell of incense announces the freshness of the night.
And, one day in August 79 AD, as in a flash, the great volcano annihilated everything.
The great volcano annihilated everything.