The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-04-14
SECRETS OF POMPEII.
Buried City Now Nearly Cleared o
Debris of Seventeen Centuries.

At last, after perhaps a century ol
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
depicts so graphically-and doubtless
80 truly-in his famous romance, the
forum, which was The central feature
of the place, and the Strada del Sepol-
cri, the principal suburb, can be real
lied in their mutual relations.
The early work of clearing the his
toric city, pursued with vigor under
Murat when he found himself tempo
,arily installed as king of Naples, was
set back from time to time by new
eruptions of Vesuvius. AS late as 1923
Miss Berry records in her journal:
ave 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 POM
peii it is half way up the horses legs"
No such impediments now await the
traveller, and a very prosaic and dis
tinctly dilatory train deposits him at an
unpretentiOus and not very cleanly
railway station.
Except to the highly classical and ul-
ira enthusiastic eye the first impress
sions of Pompii 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
construction was not completed when
the city was covered up. The most
striking feature of this open space is
the ruins Of the temple of Venus.
A main street of Pompeii leading
from the station is that known as the
Strada DELI Abondava, at the corner of
which is to be seen the chalcidicum, or
exchange, one 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 wo-
men and children who had sought re-
fuge under the portico, but were ap-
parently Sufocated.
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
directed, with very important results.
It 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 on
that occasion was less than formerly
supposed. The people assembled at
the amphitheater had time to make
their escape to the open country be-
yond.
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 inn
palpable 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
facSs, that portrait painting, for mural
decoration, was practiced probably by
Greek artists for their Roman patrons.