Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/757

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1em  HERCULANEUM. The ruins of the buried city of Herculineum are situated about two-thirds of a from the Portici station of the railway from Naples to Pompeii. They are less frequently visited than the ruins of the latter city, not only because they are smaller in extent and of less obvious interest, but also because they are more difficult of access. The history of their discovery and exploration, and the artistic and literary relics which they have yielded, are worthy, however, of particular notice. The small part of the city which has been restored to the light of day in the spot called Gli scavi nuovi (the new excavations) was discovered in the present century. But the more important works were executed in the last century ; and of the buildings then explored at a great depth, by means of tunnels, none are visible except the theatre, the orchestra of which lies 85 below the surface of the soil. The brief notices of the classical writers inform us that Herculaneum was a small city of Campania between Neapolis and Pompeii, that it was situated between two streams at the foot of Vesuvius on a hill overlooking the sea, and that its harbour was at all seasons safe. With regard to its earlier history nothing is known. The account given by Dionysius repeats a tradition which was most natural for a city bearing the name of Hercules. Strabo follows up the topographical data with a few brief historical statements—Ocxot clyov Kat tavTyv Kal tiv epeEjs Tlopmayiay era Tuppyvot cat Wedaoyoi, pera ratta Zavira. But leaving the questions suggested by these names, such as that of the domination of the Etruscans in Campania, as well as the other questions recently discussed in regard to the origin of Pompeii, which might have an intimate relation with our subject, it is sufficient here to say that the first historical record about Herculaneum has been handed down by Livy (viii. 25), where he relates in what manuer the city fell under the power of Rome during the Samnite wars. It remained faithful to Rome for a long time, but it joined the Italian allies in the Social War. Having submitted anew in June of , it appears to have been less severely treated than Pompeii, and to have escaped the imposition of a colony of Sulla’s veterins, although Zumpt has suspected the contrary (Comm. Epigr., i. 259). It afterwards became a munvicipium, and enjoyed great prosperity towards the close of the republic and in the earlier times of the empire, since many noble families of tome selected this pleasant spot for the construction of splendid villas, one of which indeed belonged to the imperial house (Seneca, De Jra, iii). By means of the Via Campana it had easy communication north-westward with Neapolis, Puteoli, and Capua, and thence by the Via Appia with Rome; and southwards with Pompeii and Nuceria, and thence with Lucania and the Bruttii. In  it suffered terribly from the earthquake which, according to Seneca, “‘Campaniam nunquam securam hujus mali, indemnem tamen, et toties defunctam metu magna strage vastavit. Nam et Herculanensis oppidi pars ruit dubieque stant etiam que relicta sunt” (Vat. Queest., vi. 1). Hardly had Herculaneum completed the restoration of some of its principal buildings (cf Mommsen, J. X,, n. 2384; Catalogo del Museo Nazionale di Napoli, n. 1151) when it fell beneath the great eruption of, described by Pliny the younger (Zp. vi. 16, 20), in which Pompeii also was destroyed with other flourishing cities of Campania. According to the commonest account, on the 23d August of Pliny the elder, who had com- mand of the Roman fleet at Misenum, set out to render assistance to the soldiers stationed at Retina, near Her- culaneum, as there was no escape except by sea, but, the little harbour having been on a sudden filled up so as to be inaccessible, he was obliged to abandon to their fate those people of Herculaneum and Retina who had managed to flee from their houses, overwhelmed in a moment by the material poured forth by Vesuvius. But the text of Pliny the younger, where this account is given, has been subjected to various interpretations ; and from the com- parison of other classical testimonies and the study of the excavations it has been concluded that it is impossible to determine the date of the catastrophe, though there are satisfactory arguments to justify the statement that the event took place in the autumn. The opinion that immedi- ately after the first outbreak of Vesuvius a torrent of lava was ejected over Herculaneum was refuted by the scholars of the last century, and their refutation has been recently confirmed by Beulé (Le Drame du Vésuve, p. 240 g.). And if the last recensions of the passage quoted from TPliny are to be accepted, Retina is not the name cf the harbour described by Beulé (2b., p. 122, 247), but the name of a lady who had implored succour, the wife of Cesius Bassus, or rather Tascius (cf. Pliny, ed. Keil, Leipsic, 1870 ; Aulus Persius, ed. Jalin, Sat. vi.). The shore, moreover, accord- ing to the new and accurate studies of the engineer Michele Ruggiero, director of the excavations, was not altered by the causes adduced by Benlé (p. 125), but by a simpler event. “It is certain,” he says (Pompei e la Regione Sotterrata dal Vesuvio Vanno 79, Naples, 1879, p. 21 sq.), “that the districts between the south and west, and those between the south and east, were overwhelmed in two quite different modes. From Torre Annunziata (which is believed to be the site of the ancient Oplontii) to San Giovanni a Teduccio, for a distance of about 9 miles, there flowed a muddy eruption which in Herculaneum and the neighbouring places, where it was most abundant, raised the level of the country more than 65 feet. The matter transported consisted of soil of various kinds,— sand, ashes, fragments of lava, pozzolana, and whitish pumice, enclosing grains of uncalcined lime, similar in every respect to those of Pompeii. In the part of Herculaneum already excavated, the corridors in the upper portions of the theatre are compactly filled, up to the head of the arches, with pozzolana and pumice transformed into tuff (which proves that the formation of this stone may take place in a comparatively short time). Tuff is alsu