Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1897-03-06
SECRETS OF POMPEll.
Buried City Vow Nearly Cleared of the
Debris of Seventeen Centuries.


At last, after perhaps century of
more or less intermittent work, Pom
peii the city of ancient Roman pleas
ure, has been practically cleared OF the
volcanic debris of seventeen centuries.
Now, for the first time since that fatal
day whose awful happenings Bulwer de-
picts so graphically-and doubtless SO
truly-in his famous romance, the TO-
rum, which was the central feature Of
the place, and the Strada del Sepolcri,
the principal suburb, can be realized IN
their mutual relations.
The early work of clearing the his
toric city, pursued with vigor under
Murat when he found himself tempo
rarily installed as king of Naples, was
set back from time to time by new erup-
lions of Vesuvius. As late as 1923 Miss
Berry records in her journal:
eve set out, large party, for Pom
peii. The drive of II miles is very dis
agreeable, Notwithstanding the view OF
the bay and the mountains around. The
cinders and lava of the eruptions last
October (1S22) have scarcely yet been
swept to each side of the streets, but
are left on the road. Outside Pompeii it
is half way up the horses legs"
No such impediments now await the
traveller, and very prosaic and dis
tinctly dilatory train deposits him at an
unpretentious and not very clearly rail
way station.
Except to the highly classical and Ill
ira enthusiastic eye the first impressions
of Pompeii are disappointing. The first
place of interest which is passed is the
so called basilica, supposed to have been
used as law court, but distinct from
the tribunals, which were at the farther
side of the forum, of which the con-
struction was not completed when the
city was covered up. The most striking
feature of this crcn space is the ruins Of
the temple of Venus.
A main street of Pompeii leading
from the STATEN is that known as the
Strada dell AbcDdaya, at the corner Of
which is to he seen the chalcidicum, or
exchange, che of the most beautiful
buildings as yet revealed, its central
hall having been surrounded by columns
of Parian marble.
In the street of tombs, however, we
are upon more solid ground, for not a
few Of the monuments bear the names
and the busts of those to whose memory
they were erected. At the extreme end
of the strada is the so called Villa of
Diomede, which has attractions alike
for the lover of fact and fiction, for here
were found the bodies of II women and
children who had sought refuge under
the portico, but were apparently suffo-
Gated.
The amphitheater is even farther
away from the center Of the town than
the Sepolcri, and it is on this point that
recent excavations have been chiefly di-
rected, with very important results.
1t must be remembered that Bulwer
Lytton was quite accurate in describing
the games which were in progress at the
time of the fatal eruption Of Vesuvius
which swallowed up both Pompeii and
Herculaneum, and one of the results Of
the works carried out here is to show
that the loss of life OH that occasion was
less than formerly supposed. The people
assembled at the amphitheater had time
to make their escape to the open country
beyond.
Scarcely more than 700 bodies have
been discovered, and the perfect state in
which many Of them were found is at
least negative evidence that time would
not have reduced others to impalpable
dust. The activity, however, of the
present italian government will not be
relaxed until Pompeii has been forced
to give up all its secrets, and in the
meanwhile it is giving up its treasures
of marble, bronze and gold and bringing
to light, among other facts, that portrait
painting, for mural decoration, was
..cticed probably by Greek artists for
their Roman patrons.-New York Her