Middletown transcript., 1868-04-18
Discovery of Polnpeii.

The London Quarterly ReuieW has the
following interesting article on the discov-
cry of this ancient city, and the progress
made in its exhuamtion
During period of sixteen hundred and
sixty-nine years Pompeii remained buried
and forgotten. In the year 1892 an ar
chitect, named Dominica Fontana cut a
subtorrancan canal under the sight of the
city for the purpose of conveying water
from the river Sarno to the town of Tore
del Annunziatta. In constructing this
canal the workmen came often upon the
Easements of buildings; no curiosity ap-
pears to have been excited, and no steps
taken to prosecute further researches.
Nearly hundred years later fresh ruins
were discovered, and an inscription with
the word Pompeii. But even this failed
to awaken any practical interest. AT
length, when the accidental discovery of
HerculQneum had drawn the attention of
learned and scientific men to the subject,
Alcubierre, Spanish colonel of engineers,
who had been employed to examine the
subterranean canal, was led, by the dis
covcry of a house, with statues and other
objects, "to conjecture that some ancient
city lay buried there, overwhelmed by the
great eruption of Vesuvius in 76. Having
obtained permission of Charles III. the
king of Naples, he commenced early in the
year 1748 the excavations of the street
called the Strada della Fortuna. His la
bors were soon rewarded, for in few days
he discovered ga picture eleven palms
high, containing fcstoons of eggs, fruits,
and flowers, the head of a man, large, and
in good style, helmet, an owl, various
small birds, and other Objects The next
discovery of importance was the skeleton
of man, covered with the lava mud. By
his side were found eighteen brass coins,
and one of silver. Before the end of the
first year of the excavations, the amphi-
theatre, which is capable of holding ten
thousand persons, was laid bare. The op-
erations, however, were carried on with
dcplorable dilatoriness and the royal ex-
chequer was by no means liberal. The ex-
cavators, who worked in chains, were
chiefly condemned felons, or Mohammedan
slaves. No stranger was permitted in the
ruins. Accurate records of the discoveries
were kept; the most important pictures
were detached from the walls, after copies
of them had been taken and the buildings
in which they were found were again COW
cred with rubbish. Then some progress
had been made in the excavations, stran-
gers were admitted on the payment of an
exorbitant fee; but all attempts to take
copies of frescoes were discouraged.
The short period during which the
French occupied Naples was distinguished
by more liberal and enlightened policy.
Under the patronage of Caroline, the wife
of Murat, the works were carried on with
great vigor, and many remarkable discov-
cries were made. The amphitheatre,
which had been filled up again, was re-
cleared the forum was laid open and the
greater portion of the Street of Tombs was
uncovered. The return of the Bourbons
to favor was not conducive to the progress
of the excavations. The revolution which
drove them finally from Naples gave Pom
peii another chance Garibaldi was ap-
pointed dictator. But, however brave
and patriotic as a general, he was scarcely
fitted for the functions of administration
He gave the dictatorship of museums
and excavations to Alexandra Dumas, the
French novelist! The new director was
quite alive to the dignity of his position,
and kept it up with princely magnifcence.
But he had no notion of its responsible
stieY. 1t is said that he paid but one visit
to, the ruins. His rule was happily short
lived; for on the accession of Victor
Emanuel to the throne of Italy, Giuseppe
Fiorella, a distinguished antiquarian schol-
ar, was appointed director general of the
works. The appointment has. proved most
judicious. Pursuing regular system,
noting "every appearance or fragment
which might afford or suggest restora-
tion of any part of the buried edifce, repla-
cling with fresh timber every charred beam
propping every tottering wall or portion of
brick work." the new commentators has
succeeded in exhibiting not confused and
underlined mass of crumbling ruins, but q
town, in the integrity of its outlines and
the order of its arrangements. Street af-
ter street has been uncovered. Temples,
baths, markets, tombs, stand out Just as
they stood eighteen hundred years ago.
The villa of the poet, the forum, the coun-
ting-house, the bakers shop, the school
room, and the kitchen, carry us into the
very heart of Roman life in the brightest
days of the empire. The jewelry of beau
ty, the spade of the laborer, the fetter OF
the prisoner, and the weapons of the sol
! dier, are all there, reproducing and reali.