Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/470

Rh 450 P M P M adjoined it, were composed in the ordinary manner of volcanic tuff. Marble appears to have been scarce, and was sparingly employed. In some instances where it had been freely introduced, as in the great theatre, it would seem that the slabs must have been removed at a period subsequent to the entombment of the city. Outside the gate leading to Herculaneum is found a house of a different character from all the others, which from its extent and arrangements was undoubtedly a suburban villa, belonging to a person of considerable fortune. It is called as usual without any authority the villa of Arrius Diomedes; but its remains are of peculiar interest to us, not only for comparison with the numerous ruins of similar buildings which occur elsewhere, often of greater extent, but in a much less perfect state of preservation, but as assisting us in understanding the description of ancient authors, such as Vitruvius and Pliny, of the numerous appurtenances frequently annexed to houses of this description. The remains of a still more extensive suburban house which were discovered in 1764, and to which the name was given, without the slightest foundation, of the villa of Cicero, are no longer visible, having been covered up again with earth (as was fre quently done in the last century) after the works of art had been removed. In the vaulted corridors of the first villa were discovered no less than seventeen skeletons of the unfortunate in habitants, who had evidently fled thither for protection. Almost all the skeletons and remains of bodies found in the city were discovered in similar situations, in cellars or underground apartments, those who had sought refuge in flight having apparently for the most part escaped from destruction, or having perished under circumstances where their bodies were easily recovered by the survivors. Ac cording to Dion Cassius, a large number of the inhabitants were assembled in the theatre at the time of the catas trophe, but no bodies have been found there, and they were probably sought for and removed shortly afterwards. Hence the whole number of such remains discovered is not so large as might at first be supposed. It cannot indeed be accurately estimated, the records of the excavations in the last century having been very imperfectly kept ; but the total number as yet discovered can scarcely exceed three hundred. Of late years it has been found possible iu many cases to take casts of the bodies found a com plete mould having been formed around them by the fine white ashes, partially consolidated by water. The road leading from the gate of Herculaneum towards that city is bordered on both sides for a considerable extent by rows of tombs, as was the case with all the great roads leading into Rome, and indeed in all large Roman towns. Without of course approximating to the stately structures that adorned the Via Appia or Latina, these tombs are in many instances monuments of considerable pretension, and of a highly ornamental character, and naturally present in the highest degree the peculiar advantage common to all that remains of Pompeii, in their perfect preservation. Hardly any scene even in this extraordinary city is more striking than the coup d oeil of this long street of tombs, preserving uninjured the records of successive generations eighteen centuries ago. Unfortunately the names are all otherwise unknown; but we learn from the inscriptions that they are for the most part those of local magistrates and municipal dignitaries of Pompeii. There appears to have been in the same quarter a con siderable suburb, outside the gate, extending on each side of the road towards Herculaneum, apparently much resembling those which are now found throughout almost the whole distance from thence to Naples. It appears to have been known by the name of Pagus Augustus Felix. No manuscripts have been discovered in Pompeii. In scriptions have naturally been found in considerable num bers, and we are indebted to them for much information concerning the municipal arrangements of the town, as well as the construction of various edifices and other public- works. The most interesting of these are such as are written in the Oscan dialect, which appears to have con tinued in official use down to the time when the Roman colony was introduced by Sulla. From that time the Latin language was certainly the only one officially employed, though Oscan may have still been spoken by a portion at least of the population. Still more curious, and almost peculiar to Pompeii, are the numerous writings scratched or rudely painted upon the walls, which have in some instances a semi-public character, such as recommendations of candi dates for municipal offices, but more frequently are the mere expression of individual impulse and feeling, not un commonly conveyed in rude and imperfect verses. In one house also a whole box was found filled with written tablets diptychs and triptychs containing the record of the accounts of a banker named L. Csecilius Jucundus. The inscriptions of a more formal character have been published by Mommsen, first in his Inscriptiones Reyni Neapolitani Latinse. (fol., Leipsic, 1852) and again in the tenth volume of the great Corpus Inscriptionwn Latinarum, published at Berlin (1883). The fourth volume of the same work published in 1871 contains all the scratched and written inscriptions discovered up to that date, edited by Zangemeister (under the title Inscriptiones Peirietarix Pompeiame, Ilerculanenses, ct Stabutnae) ; but the number has been since greatly increased, and a supplementary volume is in the press. The Oscan inscriptions, which are not comprised in the above collections, have been published by Fiorelli. Most of the movable objects from Pompeii are now in the Museo Borbonico at Naples (see vol. xvii. p. 189). Of the numerous works devoted to the antiquities and description of Pompeii generally it must suffice to mention a few. The earlier works, especially that of Mazois (Les Ruincs de I oirqjcii, with its continuation by Gau, 4 vols. fol., Paris, 1812-38), and the two well-known works of Sir W. Gell (Pompeiana, 1st series, 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1824, 2d series, 1830), are still valuable for reference, though necessarily very imperfect. The popular treatise published by the Society for Useful Knowledge (Pompeii, 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1831) gives a good account of what had been then discovered, and the light thrown by it on ancient manners and customs. The more recent works of Breton (Pompcia, 8vo, Paris, 1855) and of Mr Dyer (Pompeii: its History, Buildings, and Antiquities, 8vo, London, 1867) bring down the record to a later period ; and the successive editions of Overbeck s Pompeii (first published in 1856) have been kept continually on a par with the progress of discovery and research. The last edition of this valuable treatise (1884) is much the most complete and useful compendium of the whole subject that has yet appeared, and will supply all the wants of the ordinary reader. More special students will find there detailed references to the official records of the later discoveries that have been made under the direction of Signor Fiorelli, and to the numerous dissertations to which they have given rise. The great illustrated works of Zahn (Berlin, 1827-29) and Presuhn (fol., Leipsie, 1882) will furnish more elaborate representations of the decorative works with which almost all the buildings are adorned, while the student of ancient art may have recourse to the less am bitious collection of the ancient paintings by Ilelbig ( Wandgc- mdldedcrvon Vesuv rerschiitteten Stddtc Campaniens, Leipsic, 1868), with a supplementary volume published by Sogliano at Naples. A complete catalogue of all the works concerning Pompeii and Hercnlaneum will be found in a little book published at Milan in 1879 under the title of Bibliotheca Pompeiana. Unfortunately all works are rendered imperfect within a few years by the continued progress of the explorations and discoveries on the site. (E. H. B. ) POMPEY is the common English form of the Roman name Pompeius. I. CNEIUS POMPEIUS MAGNUS (106-48 B.C.), the great triumvir, whose name we always associate with Caesar and Crassus, may be said to have led a soldier s life fr,om his boyhood to his death. Born in 106 B.C., he fought