Pompeii

Pompeii  was an ancient Roman city located in Campania, on the shores of the Gulf of Naples, near present-day Naples. It is mainly known for having been destroyed during the eruption of Vesuvius in the year 79.

Its origins are not well known. It is assumed to have been an Oscan foundation, a people who occupied the Campania region after the Greek colonization of the southern Tyrrhenian coast in the 8th and 7th centuries BC. C. It is possible that the Etruscans took over the city in the 6th century BC. C. and built the first stone walls around 570 B.C. C. Later, around the year 450 a. C., was conquered by the Samnites, as evidenced by the many inscriptions in the Oscan language discovered in the excavations of the city. It definitively entered the Roman orbit as an allied city at the beginning of the 3rd century BC. C., and obtained full Roman citizenship after the Social War. Later Sulla modified the statute of the city, making it go from municipium to a Roman colony to settle two thousand veterans of his armies. This fact increased the Romanization of Pompeii and the gradual replacement of Osco by Latin.

Being in an area of notable seismic and volcanic activity, Pompeii suffered several natural disasters throughout its history. Among them, the intense earthquake of the year 62, which affected the running water network and ruined several public buildings and areas of the forum that were still inactive in the year 79. On August 24 of that last year, a violent eruption of the Mount Vesuvius buried it under tons of sediment. Many of its inhabitants died due to the pyroclastic flow. Based on archaeological work carried out in 2018, it was postulated that the eruption could have occurred on October 24, although there was already previous evidence indicating a dating in the autumn or winter of the same year.

Already in Antiquity it was the object of looting, especially in the time of Titus, shortly after its destruction. However, the large amount of sediments that covered it made it impossible for continued looting of the place, which ended up protecting it from the plundering to which other ancient enclaves were subjected in the Middle Ages. Despite some mentions in Statius and Martial, the city sank into relative oblivion for centuries. It was in 1592, during the construction of the Sarno canal, that Pompeii came to light again, although the actual rediscovery did not occur until the following century. Systematic excavations began in 1748 thanks to Roque Joaquin de Alcubierre's ten-year studies of nearby Herculaneum. The ancient Roman city was found to be in an excellent state of preservation, which has made it possible to unearth a precious testimony of the urbanism and civilization of Ancient Rome. In 1997, together with Herculaneum and Oplontis (Torre Annunziata), Unesco declared the site a World Heritage Site.

In its vicinity stands the current city of Pompeii.

Toponymy

The last day of Pompeiiby Karl Briulov between 1830 and 1833. Oil on fabric 456,5 x 651 cmexhibited at the Russian State Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.

The origin of the place name Pompeii lends itself to different interpretations. One of the main ones is the one that would derive from the Greek term pémpo (to send), due to its important role of commercial articulation between the coast and the interior within the context of Magna Graecia, another is the one that would see The name of Pompeii derives from the exploits of its mythological founder, Hercules, who returned from his twelve labors a pompa Herculis (that is, "from the triumph of Hercules"), an expression from which the name would derive. name of the city.

Another classical theory derives the name from the Oscan pumpe (five), deducing that the city would have been formed from five villages. The geographer Strabo, for his part, proposed another etymology mentioning that Pompeii was located near a river that served to "receive merchandise and dispatch it" (in Greek, εκπεμπέιν, ekpempein).

History

Origins

Portrait of Terencio Neo and his wife, fresh found in Pompeii and today at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. It is a good example of the fourth Roman style of painting.

The origins of Pompeii are disputed. The oldest remains found in the city date from the 9th century BC. C., although these are of such a nature that they do not prove that a settlement already existed there. However, most experts agree that the city must have already existed in the 6th century BC. C. with the dimensions it had in historical times  and being occupied by the Osci, one of the Italic peoples of central-southern Italy, as confirmed by Strabo in his Geography.

Greek Mastery

From the 8th century B.C. C. there had been Greek colonies in the region, highlighting the important city of Cumae, on the other side of the Gulf of Naples. The Etruscans settled in the region around the 7th century BC. C. and for more than one hundred and fifty years they competed with the Greeks for control of the area. However, the real influence of these peoples on the origin and subsequent development of the city is unknown, since the archaeological data are not conclusive.

Samnite Domain

At the end of the 5th century B.C. C. the Samnites, another Italic people with an Oscan language, invaded and conquered all of Campania. At this historical moment there is a drastic decrease in the amount of materials found in the city, which leads some archaeologists to think that the city could have been temporarily abandoned. If it was abandoned, it was briefly, because until the middle of the 4th century BC. C. the city was part of the so-called Samnite confederation and served as a port for the towns located upriver.

The new rulers imposed their architecture and expanded the city. It is believed that during the Samnite domination, the Romans conquered the city for a short period, but these theories have never been verified. Be that as it may, it is known that during the Samnite period the city was governed by a magistrate (possibly also with powers of justice administrator) who received the name Medix Tuticus (in Oscan, medís túvtiks).

Romanization

Safo Fresco. The well preserved frescoes of Pompeii are an excellent sample of the city culture.

Pompeii, as well as much of the surrounding areas of Campania, finally entered the Roman orbit as an allied city in the early 3rd century BC. C., after the Samnite wars. The city became an important transit point for merchandise, which arrived by sea and was sent to Rome or to the rest of southern Italy following the nearby Via Appia.

Abundant accounts of public life in Pompeii date back to the 2nd century BC. C., when the increase in preserved written documentation reveals that the city was governed by a magistrate elected annually and a council made up of former magistrates. This form of government changed following the involvement of the city, between 91 and 89 BC. C., in the Allied War, launched against the Romans by their Italian socii for not granting them Roman citizenship. In the course of the war, Sulla besieged and took the city in the spring of 89 BC. C. After the Social War, the Pompeians, like all other Italics, managed to obtain full Roman citizenship by the lex Plautia Papiria, definitively becoming an integral part of Roman Italy  with the statute of municipium.

Another significant political event for Pompeii occurred in 80 B.C. C. when Sulla changed the status of the city, making it go from a municipium to a colony to be able to settle its veterans of the Greek wars. The city was officially renamed Colonia Cornelia Veneria Pompeiana, where " Cornelia" alludes to the nomen of Sulla and "Veneria" to Venus, her protective divinity.

After the administrative reorganization of Italy promoted by Augustus, Pompeii was included in Regio I Latium et Campania until its destruction.

Previous volcanic events

Via degli Augustali, a paved street

In the year 59 there were serious riots in the city's amphitheater between the Pompeians and some visitors from Nuceria, which resulted in several deaths and injuries. The confrontation was of such magnitude that it reached the ears of the Emperor Nero, who banned gladiator exhibitions in the city for ten years  and exiled the promoters of the show, including Livineyo Regulus.

In AD 62, a strong earthquake seriously damaged the city. According to Tacitus, "it was largely destroyed by an earthquake". erupted. There were temples and public places in ruins and various crews of workmen repairing damage to private houses. This situation could be due to the fact that the earthquake of the year 62 left, in effect, the city almost destroyed or to the repair work of the damages caused by the small earthquakes prior to the eruption. Several buildings preserve plaques in honor of the wealthy citizens who they offered their own money to repair them.

Destruction and historical disappearance

August 24, 79, the traditional date for the eruption and pyroclastic avalanche that destroyed Pompeii, appears in Pliny the Younger's account. However, this date may be due to a transcription error during the Middle Ages, when Roman numerals were likely to be confused. Therefore, some experts believe that it actually took place in autumn or winter, given the large number of autumn fruits found among the ruins and the discovery of a coin among those carried by a lady in her bag, whose earliest minting date must not have been earlier than September 79. In fact, some excavations suggest that the harvest had already finished, which took place in October. Some bodies also show tunics and thick cloaks, typical of a colder month, although it is not a good indication of the season of the year.

In 2018, a team of archaeologists discovered an inscription dated sixteen days before the Kalends of November in the ancient Roman calendar, that is, October 17, so, according to their theory, the eruption would have taken place on the 24th October.

Discovery

Aerial view of the Roman amphitheater of Pompeya.

Due to the thick layers of ash that covered the two cities at the base of the mountain, their names and exact locations were forgotten over the centuries. In 1710, the prince of Elboeuf, aware of the discovery of marble worked in the vicinity, proceeded to explore, through shafts and tunnels, what we know today as Herculaneum. He was lucky enough to discover the ancient theater - the first complete Roman specimen ever found - but he was interested, above all, in works of art for his collection. He extracted them without keeping any kind of record of their location. In imitation of Elboeuf, the search for Herculaneum continued somewhat more systematically in 1738 by Roque Joaquin de Alcubierre, and Pompeii in 1748, under the patronage of the King and Queen of Naples, but they did little more than extract ancient masterpieces. with which to beautify the royal palace. Herculaneum is partially buried between 15 and 18 m deep in a layer of ash and pyroclastic material and only 4% of the city has been discovered, while Pompeii was under a layer of ash an average depth of 6-7 m. After the cataclysm, attempts were made to locate the cities without much success, but gradually they fell into oblivion over the centuries until 1592.

History of archaeological works

From the rediscovery to World War II

The discovery took place in the year 1592, when the architect Fontana was excavating a new course for the Sarno River. But it took a hundred and fifty years to wait before a first campaign to unearth the cities began. Until that date, it was assumed that Pompeii and Herculaneum had been lost forever.

It has been theorized (unproven) that Fontana initially found some of the famous erotic frescoes and, shocked by the strict morality of his day, reburied them in an attempt at archaeological censorship. Subsequent excavators reported in their reports that the sites they were working on had been previously dug up and reburied. King Carlos VII of Naples, better known as Carlos III of Spain, intervened as patron and frequent visitor to the first works, between 1759 and 1788. The first activities were not of archaeological interest but with the desire to search for valued pieces and supposedly treasures. hidden.

Subsequently, the Aragonese Roque Joaquín de Alcubierre was the directing engineer for the first works on Pompeii and Herculaneum. During thirty years he searched for sculptures and artistic objects for the royal collections, today preserved in the great museums of Madrid, Rome and Naples.

Since then, both villas were excavated with increasingly scientific criteria and no longer as mere treasure chests, revealing numerous intact buildings, as well as wall paintings. The forum, the baths, many houses and some villas remained in a surprisingly good state of preservation. A short distance from the city a 1000 m² hostel was discovered that today is known as "Gran Hotel Murecino".

The ruins were the object of several bombing campaigns by the Allies in 1943, which destroyed a good part of the Teatro Grande and the forum, as well as some houses (such as the house of Trebio Valente), which were conveniently restored after the end of World War II. Several bombs dropped by the allies remain unexploded in the archaeological site.

Effects of the cataclysm on the city

The ruins of a pompeyana bakery.

An important area of investigations focuses on the structures that were being restored during the eruption, presumably damaged in the earthquake of AD 62. Some of the damaged ancient paintings could be covered with new frescoes, and modern instruments are used to Analyze the hidden paintings. The most likely reason why these structures were still being repaired seventeen years after the earthquake was the increasing frequency of small tremors that preceded the eruption, as can be gleaned from the words of Pliny the Younger, the only witness whose news has come down to us.: "For many days before there were earthquakes."

Proof of the tremendous seismic activity in the Pompeii area is that, in the vicinity of the current Porta Marina, remains of a jetty have been found, although somewhat further down towards the sea more Roman buildings have been found. Thus, the coastline had to change considerably in the last centuries of the city, although it is not known exactly where the port would be in its last years of history.

Although the city of Pompeii has been preserved in an enviable state under the layer of ash, it must be borne in mind that during the eruption the buildings experienced a phenomenon very similar to a bombardment, which is why most of the roofs they collapsed and many large buildings were found badly ruined.

During excavations, hollows were occasionally found in the ash that had contained human remains. Some physiological studies of the death process in the petrified remains indicate that most of the victims died instantly from sudden temperature shocks of between three hundred and six hundred degrees and not by long agony. This discovery based on scientifically proven facts suggests that the cataclysm was of greater magnitude than previously believed.

In 1860, the Italian archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli suggested filling these holes with plaster, thus obtaining molds that showed with great precision the last moment of life of the citizens who could not escape the eruption. In some of them the expression of terror is clearly visible. Others strive to cover their mouths or those of their loved ones with handkerchiefs or dresses trying not to inhale the toxic gases, and some cling tightly to their jewelry and savings. Nor is there a lack of those who preferred to save themselves the torment by taking their own life, keeping his body next to small bottles containing poison. The guard dogs are still chained to the walls of their masters' houses, as are the gladiators in the amphitheater, in the latter case, accompanied by a mysterious woman loaded with all her gala jewelry.

The current number of detected victims is around 2,000 individuals, with many more expected to turn up in the parts of the city that have not yet been excavated.

Pompeii today

Pompeii has become a popular tourist destination in Italy. It is currently part of the larger Vesuvius National Park and was declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1997. The "Archaeological Zones of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Torre Annunziata" were registered under the joint code 829 and the following locations, all of them in the Metropolitan City of Naples, Campania region:

To combat problems related to tourism, Pompeii's governing body, the Soprintendenza Archaeological di Pompei has started issuing new tickets to allow tourists to also visit cities such as Herculaneum and Stabia as well as the Villa Poppaea, in order to to encourage visitors to see these places and reduce the pressure on Pompeii. The ruins of Pompeii received 2,571,725 visitors in 2007.

Pompeii is also a driving force behind the economy of the neighboring city of Pompeii. Many residents have jobs in the tourism and hospitality business, serving as bus or taxi drivers, or waiters. The ruins can be reached simply by walking from the modern city through several entrances, there are car parks and the entrances are also accessible to tourists via a railway line from the modern city, or on a private railway line, the Circumvesuviana, which goes directly to the old place.

Excavations at the site have generally ceased due to a moratorium imposed by the site's superintendent, Professor Pietro Giovanni Guzzo. In addition, the site is less accessible to tourists, with less than a third of the buildings opened in the 1960s now available for public viewing. This is due to the incessant maintenance work to avoid the deterioration of the already uncovered part. Apart from collapses and misuse, every year at least 150 m² of frescoes and plastering work are lost due to lack of maintenance.

As of August 2018, a palace has been found in the "Regio V" area. the palace is decorated with frescoes characteristic of the first ornamental style of the city.

A unique testimony

Garden of fugitives

The city offers a picture of Roman life during the 1st century. The moment immortalized by the eruption reveals literally every detail of everyday life. For example, on the floor of one of the houses (Sirico's), a famous inscription Salve, lucrum ('Welcome, money'), perhaps humorously, shows us a business company belonging to two partners, Sirico and Numiano, although the latter could well be a nickname, since nummus means "coin". In other houses, details about various trades abound, such as laundry workers (fullones). Likewise, the graffiti engraved on the walls are samples of the colloquial Latin used in the street.

One must not assume, however, that the city currently being excavated was frozen at the time of the eruption. The population of Pompeii in AD 79 was estimated to be between ten and fifteen thousand people, while so far only about two thousand bodies have been found. Furthermore, many of the buildings are destroyed but strangely empty, which suggests that a large part of the population would have already fled during the earthquakes and explosions that they preceded the great eruption, recalling, perhaps, the great earthquake of the year 62 and, therefore, it is presumable that they would have taken with them a part of their valuables. This also explains the location of some treasures that have been found in the city, presuming that some citizens from whom they fled hid them to recover them when the problems passed. Finally, there is ample evidence that the city was looted, either by its former inhabitants or by others, during the months and even years that followed, in order to recover their belongings or take away valuable materials, for which they dug tunnels. among the hardened ashes.

In the year of the eruption, it is estimated that the population of Pompeii was no more than fifteen thousand people. The city was located in an area where holiday villas abounded, and had numerous services: the macellum (large food market), the pistrinum (mill), the i>thermopolia (a kind of tavern serving hot and cold drinks), cauponae (small restaurants), and an amphitheatre. Campania was a fertile agricultural region since ancient times. In the city's small but busy port, agricultural surpluses were loaded and shipped to Rome and other large cities, and its wines were especially prized.

In 2002, a major discovery at the mouth of the Sarno River revealed that the port also contained dwellings, many of them stilt houses with a system of canals, suggesting a certain similarity to Venice.

Urbanism

The development phases of the city Fundación osca 1. expansion 2. expansion 3. expansion

Pompeii is the only ancient city whose topographical structure is known precisely, without further modifications. It was not distributed in a regular plan as it used to be with Roman cities, due to the irregularities of the terrain. But its streets were straight and formed a grid in the purest Roman style, with its thistle and two decumans. The southwestern sector, however, has a very irregular layout, and is the original nucleus of the Oscan settlement, to which the various extensions were added with a much more regular layout. The layout of the wall was already defined in the 6th century BC. C. and probably also that of the main streets, although even in the year 79 there remained in the city, especially in the eastern sector, numerous open fields and crops, which show that the intramural space was never very densely populated.

The current names of the streets and gates of the city date mostly from the 18th and 19th centuries, since that the original names have not been preserved if they came to have in Roman times. From an inscription it can be deduced that the current Via Stabiana must have been called Via Pompeiana. The same inscription alludes to a Via Iovia and Via Dequviaris that have not been identified. As for the gates, the current Porta Herculanensis (Puerta de Herculano) bore the name Porta Salis or Saliniensis (Puerta de la Sal, due to the salt flats near the door) and Porta Marina (Sea Gate) was probably called Porta Forensis (Forum Gate), as it was the closest to the city forum.

Currently, to locate the buildings on the map, the system devised by Giuseppe Fiorelli is used, who divided the city into nine regions, each with an identifying number for each block and, within each block, for each door.

Archaeological remains

Forum

Entrance to the Basilica at the Pompei Forum

The forum, as in any Roman city, was the civic center and the heart of commercial life in Pompeii. It was a large, rectangular-shaped open space surrounded on three sides by a colonnade and on the other by the Temple of Jupiter, with several important public buildings around it.

It consisted of a free area 145 m long by 38 m wide, it was paved with stone. In it were erected commemorative statues of the emperor, members of his family, or important local citizens.

It was typical to see tables or stools in the forum where the vendors exhibited their products to the public; They were placed on the edges of the free zone, next to the colonnades and when it rained they moved to the corridors, some corridors that were covered where people walked and used to negotiate.

The forum was accessed through a large bronze door, carriages were not allowed inside the forum.

In the forum there were tablets exposed to the public where important news of the time was written, such as the result of the last elections or the date of a show, and there were even people who took the opportunity to express their complaints or to advertise their establishment. An example found of them would be: "Macerior begs the mayor to prohibit people from making noise in the street and disturbing decent people who are sleeping".

Jupiter Temple

Jupiter Temple

The Temple of Jupiter closes the Forum Square on the north side. Although originally it was only dedicated to Jupiter, after the year 80 B.C. C. the goddesses Juno and Minerva were also venerated in it, thus forming the so-called Capitoline triad that was the protector of Rome and the empire. The temple was built in the II century BC. C., was seriously damaged by the earthquake of the year 62 d. C. and was being restored at the time of the eruption of Vesuvius.

Macellum

Entrance columns to the Pompeii Macellum, a city food market.

The Macellum was the great food market, equipped with a water fountain in the center where the fish were washed. It was built already in the time of the Empire.

Eumaquía Building

Portico of the building of Eumaquía, which housed the guild of tintoreros and lavenders.

This building housed the guild of dyers and washers, it takes its name from the priestess Eumaquía who sponsored its construction and was dedicated to Concordia and Augustic Mercy, as well as to Livia, wife of Emperor Augustus, as an inscription on the architrave of the portico reads.

Unfortunately, this construction suffered extensive damage during the earthquake of AD 62, and the restoration work was not very advanced when the eruption of Vesuvius occurred.

The statue of Eumachia was found in the courtyard, which is now in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples.

Basilica

The Basilica

The Basilica of Pompeii was the seat of the administration of justice and, together with the Forum, was the most important building in the city. It had five doors that opened towards the Forum, which gave way to three internal naves. The time of the foundation is calculated around 120 BC. c.

Temple of Apollo

Temple of Apollo

Opposite the basilica is the temple of Apollo, within a wide area delimited by a quadriportico with 48 columns. The cella is located on a typically Italic podium surrounded by a Corinthian colonnade with six columns at the front. At the foot of the steps is an altar made of travertine, whose inscription dates back to the time of Sulla, when Pompeii passed directly under the rule of Rome. To the left, as you look at the cella, there is an Ionic column in gray marble and above it is a sundial.

The cult of the god Apollo, imported from Greece, was widespread in the Campania region. In Pompeii, as research conducted in the area of this temple has shown, it dates back to the VI century BC. C., although its current appearance is due to a remodeling of the II century a. C. and a restoration after the 62 earthquake, which at the time of the eruption had not yet been completed.

It is assumed that in addition to Apollo, of whom a statue was found in the act of shooting an arrow, other divinities were venerated in this enclosure: Diana the huntress and Mercury.

Temple of the Lares

Next to the macellum was a large building from the same period, identified as the temple of the Lares Públicos, that is, of the tutelary divinities of the city, to which it had been dedicated after the earthquake that had terrified the Pompeians.

Vespasian Temple

Vespasian Temple

Immediately after the Temple of the Lares was the Temple of Vespasian, with a sculpted marble altar representing the scene of a sacrifice.

Other temples and places of worship

Religious buildings
Temple of Venus Temple of Apollo Jupiter Temple Macellum Temple of the Lares Vespasian Temple Eumaquia Building Triangular Forum Temple of Isis Temple of Jupiter Meliquios No information

triangular forum

This is an ancient triangular-shaped sacred area, located on a small hill from which you can appreciate a panoramic view of the coast. The plaza is accessed through the northern vertex of the triangle through an elegant portico preceded by six Ionic columns.

In the front part of the portico is the base on which an honorary statue of M. Claudio Marcelo, grandson of Augusto, was placed. The building that determined the creation of this sacred area is a very old temple, from the VI century BC. C. Originally dedicated to Hercules, considered by the inhabitants of Pompeii as the founder of their city, it was also later dedicated to the cult of Minerva.

Temple of Isis

Temple of Isis

Raised at the end of the century II a. C. and almost completely destroyed by the earthquake of the year 62 d. C., was quickly rebuilt. Embedded in the central part of a quadriportico with stuccoed columns and decorated with paintings, the temple rises on a high podium according to the scheme of the Italic temple with a lateral staircase. Next to the cella there are two niches for two statues of Anubis and Harpocrates, the son of Isis, respectively.

At the back of the temple there are small buildings, including the room for Isiac meetings or Ecclesasterion; Next to the altar is the Purgatorium with an underground hole that kept Nile water used in purification ceremonies.

Temple of Venus

The temple of Venus was located to the southwest of the forum, overlooking the sea. At the time of the eruption the building was under construction, although it seems that the new construction was going to be considerably larger than the previous one.

Spas

Stobian Thermal

The apoditery (vestuary) of the Stobian Termas

The Stabiana Baths are located at the crossroads of the Via Stabiana (Via Stabiana) and the Abundance (Via dell'Abbondanza) and are the most city, from the IV century BC. C. The baths show signs of successive restorations, the last of which took place after the earthquake of the year 62. It was made up of a male and a female section. It had a sophisticated heating system: warm air circulated under the floor and between the walls.

Both the male and female sections consisted of a dressing room (apodyterium), a room with a cold-water pool (frigidarium), a warm room (tepidarium) and a room (calidarium), equipped with a bathtub for hot water and a fountain for ablutions with warm water. There were also other rooms, some annexes to the gym and a large pool for outdoor swimming.

In the arena of the baths there was a sundial that was more than two hundred years old at the time of the eruption and kept an inscription in Oscan that reminded that the city council had paid for it with the money obtained from the fines.

Thermal Forum

The forum hot springs, although 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 baths for men, passage to the apodypterium from where one goes to the frigidarium, in the center of which is a circular bathtub for the cold baths; and the tepidarium, decorated with fine stucco from the mid-century I a. C. There is a large brazier that served to heat the environment, donated by Marco Nigidio Vaccula (Marcus Nigidius Vaccula). From the tepidarium there is direct access to the environment for warm baths, the calidarium with hot air passing through the interior of the double walls.

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

Central hot springs

The central baths were enlarged after the earthquake of the year 62 and by 79 they were not yet completely finished. They were exclusively for men, they lacked a frigidarium, but they had a service that the other baths lacked: the laconicum, an environment for steam baths with hot, dry air. This complex, due to the luminosity and spaciousness of the rooms, its large gymnasium and the excellent quality of the construction material, had nothing to envy to the baths of the big cities, including Rome.

suburban hot springs

Pompeii - Thermos suburbanas

Erotic frescos in the apoditerio de las Termas Suburbanas.

The so-called suburban baths are a private construction from the 1st century that were under a building of premises and homes. They are outside the city walls, near the Porta Marina, and are famous for their wardrobe paintings that show various sexual scenes.

Sports and leisure facilities

Palestra Samnita

The Samnita arena is located behind the Teatro Grande. It is surrounded by a Doric portico, in which a copy of Polykleitos' Doryphoros was found in a good state of preservation.

Palestra Grande

The Palaestra Grande is a large rectangular building, measuring 141 x 107 m, located next to the amphitheatre. It was dedicated to gymnastic activities and was built in imperial times.

In the center there is a swimming pool (natatio) measuring 34.55 x 22.25 m, with a sloping bottom (from one meter to 2.60) in order to offer swimmers the possibility of enjoying different depths of water.

Buildings for performances

Teatro Grande

Large theater

Adjacent to the triangular Forum is the large theatre, from the first half of the II century a. C., built in the manner of the Hellenistic Greek world, taking advantage of the natural slope of a hill and remarkably restored and expanded in Roman times. The space reserved for spectators was divided into three orders of marble steps. The stage had the three classic doors.

The theater had a fairly well-preserved large quadrangular portico, where spectators could be entertained before the show and during intervals. After the earthquake of the year 62, this portico was transformed into a gladiator barracks.

Little theater

The Small Theater or Odeon was built in the early Roman period (80 BC) next to the Big Theater. It had a stable roof, essential for the acoustics of the building; The presence of this element, together with the other constructive characteristics, has led to the identification of the building as an odeon, intended for musical and mime performances and poetry recitations.

Amphitheater

At the end of the Via dell'Abbondanza (Via dell'Abbondanza), a cross street leads to the square before which rises the mass of the amphitheatre, built around the year 80 BC. C. by Gayo Quinto Valgo and Marco Porcio, five-year duumvirs. It constitutes the oldest known example of a stone amphitheatre; in Rome, for example, the first amphitheater was that of Statilius Taurus, from 29 BC. C. The Pompeii amphitheatre, unlike similar constructions from the imperial period, did not have galleries under the arena, which is much lower than the level of the square. The cavea is divided into three series of stands, the last of which was reserved for women. In the upper part of the amphitheater, the holes used to house the fastenings of the velario, the giant awning that was extended to protect spectators from the sun and rain, are still visible. The amphitheater was the scene of a concert by the rock group Pink Floyd in 1971, without an audience, and 45 years later, guitarist David Gilmour (Pink Floyd guitarist and singer) played again at the amphitheater in 2016, where there was an audience live, becoming the first live performance with an audience in the amphitheatre, 1937 years after the eruption of Vesuvius.^{[citation needed]}

Brewhouse

Erotic french

From lupa, which in Latin means wolf, which is how prostitutes were known, the brothel was the most important of the numerous brothels found in Pompeii and the only one built for this precise purpose.

The prostitutes were Greek or Oriental slaves and the price of their services ranged from two to eight aces, taking into account that a glass of wine cost one, but the collection was from the boss or the owner of the brothel.

The brothel was a small building located at the crossroads of two secondary streets and was built with two floors, one at ground level and a first floor. The ground floor was intended for access by slaves or the poorest classes. It had a corridor and five rooms with beds and the walls were covered with paintings that expressed different erotic positions.

The upper floor was accessed through a separate entrance that led to a staircase and then to a balcony, which opened onto the different rooms, larger and more decorated than those on the ground floor. This upper floor was reserved for a more affluent clientele.

The construction is from the last period of the city. The walls are covered with erotic motifs from its main entrance, which shows Priapus with two penises held in his hands.

Private residences

House of the Faun

Fauno's house. The original of the central statue is at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples.

The House of the Faun is one of the most luxurious buildings in the city. The main entrance faces the Via della Fortuna (Via della Fortuna) and occupies an entire block of Region VI. The house has its origins in the Samnitic age, when it was spacious but modest. Late II century a. C. it came to occupy an entire block and received a sumptuous decoration based on stucco and mosaics that were restored and preserved with hardly any modifications during the following two hundred years, maintaining a style that must have seemed very old-fashioned to the inhabitants of the year 79.

In the front part of the entrance is the greeting "HAVE", which is the Vulgar Latin form of ave (welcome). In the lobby there are two atriums, one of them, the main one, contains a small fountain with a statue of a dancing faun that has given the house its name.

It is assumed that in the early 1st century B.C. C. was the home of Publio Cornelio Sulla, nephew of the dictator Sulla, who had the mission of organizing the Roman colony and reconciling the interests of the colonists with those of the ancient inhabitants. The most complex ancient mosaic ever discovered was found on the pavement of one of the main reception rooms, the so-called Alexander Mosaic, which represents the battle of Issus, between Alexander the Great and Darius III Codomano.. It is made up of between a million and a half and five million tiles.

House of the Tragic Poet

Mosaic representing a dog with registration Cave Canem (I take care of the dog)

The House of the Tragic Poet owes its name to a mosaic depicting an instructor for theater actors (today in the National Anthropological Museum of Naples), and its fame to a series of frescoes with heroic and mythical themes. Among the illustrations is one about the sacrifice of Iphigenia. It is a house of modest dimensions but very elegantly decorated, probably a sample of a middle class enriched during the last years of the city.

On the sides of the door were two counters (indicating that the owner of the house was also engaged in trade), and on the floor was the inscription Cave Canem ( Watch out for the dog) next to an image of a dog on a chain.

Throughout the rest of the house, more frescoes and mosaics can be found, including images of Admetus and Alcestis, Venus, Ariadne, Theseus, and Narcissus.

Amaranth House

The house of Amaranto consists of two joined houses, a traditional house with an atrium (I.9.12) and a tavern with a wide peristyle at the rear (I.9.11). In both, piles of amphoras were found, especially in the atrium of house 12 and in the garden attached to the tavern of house 11. More than thirty of the amphorae found were of Cretan origin. They were all face up and it has been proposed that they were all the origin of a single cargo prior to the eruption. Those in the garden were mostly stored upside down, and include Campanian, Aegean and Cretan types. The tavern itself was under repair in AD 79. C. so it could not be found serving food and drinks on a regular basis. In addition, vines were not cultivated in Amaranto. It appears that the owners were just running an import/export business.

In the last years of the city's life, both houses had been joined and were in a deplorable state. The tavern counter was in ruins and the garden abandoned. Apparently the complex of the two houses was then used only as a store for wine jars (amphorae). The skeleton of the mule that had been used to transport them was found among the ruins, along with the guard dog at its feet. Two of the amphoras bore the name "Sexto Pompeyo Amaranto" or simply "Sexto Pompeyo." The name of Amaranto also appears in a couple of other graffiti found in other places in the neighborhood, as well as in an advertisement on the wall of the house located on Via dell'Abbondanza, where a certain "Amaranto Pompeyano" invites his fellow citizens to vote for their preferred candidate.

Villa of Mysteries

Details of the frescoes of the villa of the mysteries

Interior of the Villa of the Mysteries, in Pompeii

The Villa of the Mysteries is one of the suburban buildings of Pompeii, located about two hundred meters from the Herculaneum Gate, outside the city limits. It is a construction that presents a harmonious and singular disposition of its environments and a superlative pictorial collection. It was built in the first half of the II century BC. C. and was many times remodeled and enlarged. It is presented as a four-sided construction surrounded by a panoramic terrace. After the earthquake of the year 62, the Villa changed owners and uses: from a stately home it became an agricultural establishment.

The final uses of this House are an example of a luxury home attached to a livestock farm. Integrated into the landscape through large porticos and galleries that overlook hanging gardens, the Villa de los Misterios appears very different from the houses found in the city.

Although almost all of its walls are decorated with paintings, a series of large frescoes stand out that are supposed to represent the initiation of wives into the Dionysiac Mysteries. In the so-called Great Painting Room, there are a series of frescoes dating from the I a. C., which would represent the successive moments of a ritual that Rome tried to limit without much success.

The images are very eloquent: a child reading the ritual under the supervision of a midwife, a young woman carrying a tray with offerings, a group of ladies in a sacramental celebration, a silen playing a lyre while a young woman offers her breast to a goat, another old silenus offers a drink to a little satyr while a younger one hands him a theatrical mask, among many others. The wedding of Dionysus and Ariadne are also represented.

House of the Etruscan Column

The house of the Etruscan Column is a small and modest building located in Region VI. It owes its name to a typically Etruscan faction column that is embedded between two rooms of the house and dates from the 6th century BC. C. The column was part of an open-air sanctuary, since Greek ceramics (corresponding to offerings) and remains of a beech grove have been found around it, as befits the sanctuaries of that time. In the 3rd century B.C. C., due to the growth of the city, the house was built around the column, which however was preserved and left visible, probably out of respect for its ancient religious significance.

Other houses

Other significant houses in Pompeii are the House of the Surgeon and the House of the Vettii.

Defensive Constructions

Marina Gate

Marina door with double opening

This is the main door to the excavations, so called because it overlooked the sea. In ancient times it was known as Gate of Neptune or of the Forum. It is formed by two openings covered by a stone vault. One of them was for pedestrians, the other, somewhat wider, allowed the passage of carts and horses. It was not, originally, an important entrance due to the steep slope of the street that at first made it inaccessible to carriage traffic.

Antiquarium

The Antiquarium is the museum space of the ruins of Pompeii. It was built in 1861 and destroyed in 1943 due to heavy bombing during World War II. It was rebuilt in 1948 according to modern museological criteria, in order to offer a complete picture of the city's history.

It has four rooms: the first contains testimonies from Pre-Samnite Pompeii, especially material from the Iron Age necropolis (11th to 7th centuries BC) in the Sarno Valley. The second preserves material from the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C. C., especially terracotta, Etruscan ceramics and tuff sculptures. The third and fourth rooms contain items from the Roman period of Pompeii, including plaster casts of people and animals surprised by the eruption, as well as domestic and representative items of daily and commercial life in the city.

Epigraphy and inscriptions

Pompeii is notable for the number of inscriptions found and the materials on which they were found. About eleven thousand were listed in the late 1980s of the XX century. The texts are written in Oscan, Greek, and Latin. Various types of inscriptions, such as graffiti and graffiti, are unique throughout the Roman world. Most of the graffiti is from the last period of the city, while the graffiti is mainly electoral posters or announcements of gladiatorial competitions. However, the stone inscriptions are still the most abundant, among which the tombstones and the dedications. Other epigraphic elements are the receipts of the banker Lucio Cecilio Jucundo or the wax seals.

Political institutions

Like the rest of the colonies, the Roman authorities had to endow Pompeii with a colonial law that, despite the numerous archaeological remains, has not been discovered. This law would specify the political-administrative functioning and the three institutions that governed the city: the magistrates, the comitium and the ordo decurionum.

The former had judicial and administrative functions. They were divided into two magistracies, the duovirate and the mayor, each held by two collegiate magistrates who held office for one year. The aedility was the lower magistracy and dealt with urban planning, local commerce and public lands. Sometimes they appear in the sources with the name duumviri vaspp whose meaning is obscure. The duoviri, officially called duumviri iure dicundo, had the administration of justice as their main responsibility, although they also presided over the elections, were in charge of the city Treasury and enforced the provisions of the ordo. Every five years, instead of the duoviros, the quinquennial duoviros (duumviri iure dicundo quinquennials) were elected, who made the citizen census. Although there was no legal distinction between the ordinary and the five-year duovirate, most of the latter had previously been ordinary, so it was in practice the culmination of a political career.

The comitium was the assembly of citizens, divided into curiae. Its only function was to choose the magistrates. Candidates had to be men over 25 years of age in possession of a fortune of more than one hundred thousand sesterces.

The ordo decurionum was made up of former magistrates and its number, which was around one hundred members, was made up by the five-year duoviri. Its function was legislative and administrative and it decided the election of extraordinary magistrates, the offer of local positions to members of the imperial family and the selection of the patrons of the colony. Sometimes, if they met the requirements, citizens who had not held any public office were admitted to the ordo by adlectio, with the same rights as a former magistrate, or as ordo i>pedarius, with the right to vote, but not to speak. The praetextati were the sons of prominent decurions who accessed the assembly and who were supernumerary members. Although it could happen that a decurion lost his position by failing to meet the minimum requirements, the position was normally for life.