Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 07.djvu/368

LEFT POMPEII 302 POMPEY grim from every clime. Pompeii as now exposed formed an irregular ellipse, ex- tending from E. to W., in circumference about 2,843 yards; it had eight gates. Its most important part — not quite one- half, including the Forum, adjacent tem- ples, and public buildings, two theaters with colonnades, amphitheater, and many private houses — has already been ex- humed, and five main streets made out. The streets, which are straight and nar- row — the broader 24 feet wide, the nar- rower 14 feet only — -are admirably paved with polygonal blocks of lava. The street corners are provided with fountains, or- namented usually with the head of a god or a mask. Notices painted in red let- ters, and referring to municipal elections for which some particular candidate is recommended, occur frequently on the street walls, while trade-signs are few and far between. An occasional "phal- lus," to avert the evil eye, projects from over a doorway, and, much more com- mon, one or two large snakes, emblems of the Lares, are to be seen. The stuccoed walls, to judge from the Graffiti or roughly scratched drawings on them, were as tempting to the Pompeian gamin, as to our own. House construc- tion consists mainly of concrete (rubble held together by cement) or brick, and sometimes of stone blocks, especially at the corners. Two-storied, sometmies three-storied houses are numerous, though the upper floors, built of wood, have been consumed by the eruption. Shops usually occupied the ground floors of dwelling-houses, on their street as- pect, let out to merchants or dealers as at the present day, but not connected with the back part of the house. They could be separated from the street by large wooden doors, while inside they had tables covered with marble, in which earthen vessels for vdne or oil were in- serted. The shopkeeper had sometimes a second room at the back, when he did not live on an upper floor or in another part of the town. Only a personal visit can convey an idea of the indoor life of the Pompeians, among whom the absence of glass, the fewness of the openings in the street aspect of the house wall, and the protection of these with iron grat- ings are among the points noted by the most casual visitor. The feature that most strikes the Northerner being the smallness of the rooms, particularly the bedrooms — quite intelligible, however, when he realizes that the Pompeians led an open-air life, and performed their toilets at the bath, public or private. As rebuilt after 68, Pompeii shows little marble, the columns being of tufa or brick cemented by mortar. A coating of stucco was laid over wall or column, and presented an ample field for ornamental painting. This must have g:iven to Pompeii its bright, gay coloring. On the center of the interior walls is generally seen a painting unconnected with the others — often of a nymph, or a genius, when not distinctly erotic in tiieme — typ- ifying faithfully the voluptuous sensual life of this pleasure-haunt of paganism. POMPEY, C N E I U S POMPEIUS MAGNUS, son of Pompeius Strabo, a Roman general; born in 106 B.C. He distinguished himself against the ene- mies of the Roman senate, both within the state and without, and at last fell in the struggle against Caesar for absolute power. Like his father, serving against Marius, Pompey ranged himself with the aristocratic party of the republic. He was in his 23d year only when he raised three complete legions, 60,000 men, at his own expense, and took the field in behalf of Sylla. By his 26th year Pom- pey had defeated the remains of the Marian party in Cisalpine Gaul, Sicily, POMPEY THE GREAT and Africa, and on his return to Rome, 83 B. c, was hailed Magnus — the great —-by Sylla. On the death of Sylla, in 78 B. c, Pompey went as proconsul to Spain, where the plebeian war was con- tinued by Sertorius, and after a four years' arduous struggle, he remained master of the field, his opponent having been betrayed and assassinated. He re- turned to Italy in time to give the fin-