Sunbury American and Shamokin journal. [volume] (Sunbury, Northumberland Co., Pa.) 1840-1848, 1843-08-05
THE RUINS OF POMPElr,

or A correspondent Of the NJ N. Tribune. who
is travelling in Italy, thus describes his visit to the
ruins Of the city OF Pompe -
We at length reached the gate of the ancient
city, where we leh our carriage, and commen-
ced the strangest city promenade ever made
We first entered the house of Diomed, one of
the aristocrats ofthe city. We descended into
the damp, dark wine cellar, where the bones Of
his family were found, whittier they had fed
for safety from the storm Of the ashes and FIRE
that overwhelmed them. There, against the
sides Of the WALL amid the earthen wine-,ars
that still stood as they did on the last day of
that wild tempest, was the shape Of the out
stretched arms aud the breast an6 head of her
who had fallen against it in her death.agony.
Nothing remained but the bones and Jewels to
tell the sad story of her torture and suffocation
in that dread hour. But cannot 20 into de-
tails. They have been written over hun
dred times. There were baths, and dressing
and dining rooms, and workshops, and Wheel
worn streets, where the living multitude had
moved and uxurated and toled. We saw
tombs that were themselves entombcd We
saw the room for washing the dead, where the
living were suddenly buried unwashed and un-
coffined; the beer-shops, with the mark of the
tumblers still fresh in the smooth marble the
mills-stones that still turned to the hand in the
self-same way they turned nearly two thousand
years ago.-There too vas the brothel, and
theatre, and dancing-!.aIl. The secret
orifce through which the priest sent his
voice to the statue, to deudc the people into the
belief that God had spoken, was now disclosed
| walked through the house of poet, into his
garnished sleeping apartments, forming, in their
silence, part in a greater drama than he had
ever conceived stood before the tavern with
the rings yet entire to which the horses were
fastened, and where the bones Of a mother and
her three children were found locked in each
others arms. Temples were overthrown with
their affairs. The inches in which stood the
them, on which smoked the sacrifice, were 81.
lent and lonely. Columns fallen across each
| other in the courts just as that wild hurricane
had left them, pieces ofthe archtrnve blocking.
up the entrances they had surmounted, told
how fierce the shock and overthrow had been.
One house was evidently that of n remarkably
rich man. Mosaic floors representing battle
scenes, precious stones still embedded in the
pavements of his corridors, long colonnades,
and all the appurtenances Of luxury. attested
the unbounded wealth of the owner. But no
bodies were found in it. The rich man had
fled with his portable wealth before the storm
came. We passed through the temple Of Ju-
piter, the court Of justice, the forum, the lnar-
ket-place, and emerged into the country.
I mounted an old wall, covered with earth,
and looked back on the disentombed city. and
beyond on Vesuvius. There il stood, solemn,
grand and lonely, sending up its steady column
OF smoke. perpetual and living tombstone o.
yer the dead at its feet could see the track
of the lava on its wild and fiery march for the
sea, and could imagine jus. how the cloud ol
ashes and cindcrs rose from the summit and
came flying toward the deserted city. Foo,
|
thresholds, above the windows, and so on till il
reached 20 or 80 feet above the tops Of the hou
ses I could behold the sea where the young
er Piny came, and, impelcd by fatal curios.
ity, would land, till, blinded and suffocated, he
too fell with the victims that perished.
From this we went to the amphitheatre
| uhaya tho ul lad in torial shows were held IL II
a magnificent area of an oval form, and suffi
cienty capacious to hold Is or 10000 specta
tors. There were the dens where the lion
were kept and there the very area in whicl
men fought and fell. stood at one end ant
shouted, and the answering echo came bac
clear and distinct as second voice. 1t en-
hanced the solitude. Some have imagined ,ha
spectators were assembled here at the time G
the overthrow of the city, and as they felt tn
: first step of the mighty earthquake that herald
ed its doom, they rushed in dismay from thei
seats. But this could not be, for Pompei di
I not fall by an earthquake, and the mounta'
long before the eruption, gave omlnous soun
E nf the coming blow. Dio relates that spectre
[ lined the summit of the mountain, and unear., i
c ly shapes fitted around its trembling side
}. This was doubtless the mist boil. ;.ng up from i
(. confinement through the c.racks and shootir
d into the upper air. r.liny himsel: says in h
Il epistle that he saw from Misenus, Is or
2, miles diSi,an, from Naples on the other side.
% el1ud rising from the mountain in the shope