The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-09-02

|
ment, or school of gladiators. A painting
of one boy horsed OH another's bach, anu
undergoing hagellatiOn, is an ominous lnul-
cation that the schoolmaster was theIe at
home. An inn in the newly -disooVeTeo yta
| del IpDaaare bore the sign of an elephant
enveloped by a large serpent, and tended
! by pigmy. This no longer exists. On
! the door.posts of another tavern were painted
! some checkers. Into the ediice of ill-repute
which gave its name to that street, the
writer, for obvious reasons, forbears to
conduct his readers. That a similar degree
of caution was not unknown at the time
when the golden youth of POmpei might
plead the authority of Cato for venturing
within those dangerous precincts, we have
a highly curious proof. On the walls of a
villa hard by the forum Bodriun, or cattle
market, was found an inscription, by way of
advertisement, to the effect that "on the
estate of Julia Felix, daughter of Spurius, are
to let bath, venereum, nine hundred shops,
with booths and garrets, for term of five con
tinuous years from the first to the sixth of the
ides of August" The notice concludes with
the formula S. Q. D. l.. L. N. c., which is
taken by Romanelli to stand for s5 qujs domi
tenoctnium erercedt ne coRducito-'let no one
apply who keeps brothel." We get many a
curious insight into the common or lower life
Of Pompeians from the numerous grafit, or
rude scratchings and soribblings in chalk or
paint, with which the walls abound. Many a
party cry or political dislike, or even the rough
Fesoennine chaff of the streets, has here
come down to us in expressive, though often
very dubious, Latinity, or is embodied in
outlines of a rude but often highly grotesque
art. A more than common refinement of
taste is met with when, in the back-room of a
therm opolium, is scrawled the first line of the
Hneid. Perhaps, of all the relics of eighteen
centuries here laid BARE what most touches
the feelings is the reproduction in plaster of
the group of bodies found in the year 1868.
By the skill of Sgnor Fiorelli in filling up the
cavity left in the soft iGpit6 by the decay of
these human forms, the figures are moulded
in all the ghastly reality of the death-struggle.
In the pair engraved by DIR. Dyer, which is
probably familiar to many of our readers as
stereoscOpic group, the profile of the young
girl is plainly to be traced. Her little
hands clench her veil round her head in
the last struggle to keep the mouth free,
while her feet are drawn up in agony. The
smooth young skin looks in the plaster like
polished marble. The woman, probably the
mother who lies feet to feet with her. lies
quietly on her side. Her arms hung loosely
down. Her finger still bears her coarse iron
ring. Besides this group, NicOlini gives the
figure of man of the lower classes, perhaps
a soldier, of colossal size, who has laid him
self down calmly on his back to await death.
ellis dress consists of short coat or ierkin,
and tight-ftting breeches of some coarse stuff,
perhaps leather. Heavy sandals, with soles
studded with nails, are laced tightly round
his ankles" On one finger is seen his iron
ring. His features are strongly marked, the
mouth open as in death. Some of the teeth
still remain, and even part of the moustache
adheres to the plaster" We are sorry to
find the affecting story of the sentry found
erect in his box, still grasping his lance
dismissed as fable. Much doubt has been
o44o I,ol 30 I,o nf
of stone having been met with, closely sealed,
half full of water. 1t may be remarked, how
ever. that the bronze cock of water-pipe was
found at Capri in which the metal joints had
been Theoretically closed by rust for seventeen
or eighteen centuries, yet which, on being
shaken, gives audible proof of the water being
still unabsorbed within. 1t may be added that
the numerous metal pipes met with in Pom
peii, together with the general arrangements
of the fountains, place beyond doubt the fact,
which has so frequently been questioned, that
the property of water to find its level was well
known at that epoch.
| 1t has naturally been throughout ques-
| ton of the liveliest interest whether Pom
! peii might be found to yield any trace OF
the new religion pushing its way among the
| inmates of the classical Pantheon. On this
important point the ruins have heretofore been
silent. The only indication of Christianity
upon an unsatisfactory story told by Mazos.
In one of the row of small shops extending
along one side of the so-called house of Pansa,
when newly discovered, there was found on
the wall of the passage leading to the poStic1m
a Latin cross marked in bas-reGef upon panel
of white stucco. This wall, being at the end
of the passage, and directly facing the street
was in full view of the passers-by On this
symbol Mazois founded the conjecture that the
owner of the shop was a Christian. No vestige
of the cross now remains, and we find il
difficult, with DIR. Dyer, to conceive, ever
were the cross in use at that time among
tured to exhibit that sign of the religion Sc
publicly as this. Mazois himself, too, was
puzzled to account for the iuXtaposition Of
this symbol with the ordinary Pagan emblems
Could the same man at once bow before the
cross of Christ, and pay homage to Janus
Ferculus, Limentinus, Cardia the deities OF
the thresholds and the hinges of doors Still
more, could he adore it in combination with
the guardian serpents of Esculapius, or with
the obscene emblem of an incOmprehensible
worship, possibly Orphic or Mithraic which is
over the hearth. The Commentators Fiorell
explicitly denies that any Christian symbols
have been discovered at POmpeii. "It is said
indeed" writes DR.. Dyer, "that in house in
this Vla del LupanGre may be traced written in
charcoal a gra6ito with the letters, M
GAUDU. HRISTIANI; which have
with so slight probability been supplemented
igai gaude, ChriSSiane ("reioice in the
fire, Christian''). DIR. Dyer has clearly mo-