New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-12-10

4
n melancholy interest to the collections /,
little museum at Pompeii The extraors,.
freshness Of these figures. without any sr.-
ton Of the wasting away after death. il owl
bic only on the suppostion that the envsi,..
ashes were damp, and so commenced inn
ately TO harden into permanent shane 70
askes had been dry and had packed down
hardened afterward, we should be Ali,
trace at least the beginnings Of decay
has been estimated from the number q, al.
tons discovered in recent times that abop, =
thousand persons persisted in the destructio, i
Pompeii The city is believed 10 have h,
population Of at least twenty thousand Va.
must, therefore, have escaped. though /,
noted that numbers may have started n 4.
when 1t was too late, and may therefore h,
been oVertaken by the eruption outside tho A.,
We make no excuse for traycrsing these s.
der details concerning Pompei. They ar. .
miliar enough, but they are Of deathes. /,
terest
The uncoyering Of the city-at present ine,,.
plete-has proceeded by slow stages The p
peror Titus took steps to send State assist,,,
into Campania, and the survivors Of the I'll,
made large excavations. But these were aba,
dOned after everything valuable that could N,
sibly be recovered had been removed. Thogn
there we're htful operations In succeeding o.,
turies, Pompeii was quite forgotten in the Mi5,,
Ages, says Professor Mau and it was not ur-
1893 that systematic endeayors were made !,
expose the buried city 10 the light. The diflcL
ties have always been enormous, the resv,
often unimportant. and hence il is not surpris,i
that while the Herculaneum Academy Q0u1ls
in 1750 did much to keep interest in the wot
alive the present century had daWned belon
serious strides in the enterprise were TAKE.
Early in the sixties Giuseppe Fioreln tn
charge Of the excavations, and under his adn.s
istration great advances were made Up 70 IA
present time about half II Pompei Ia
been eXcavated. The aspect u the ruils 3
known to thousands Of travellers who are az
acquainted with the collections iu the grea, NJ
scum at Naples and in the small building L
Pompeii. The early searches for yaiuablas na,t
rally left comparatively few articles Of furlr
ture. household utensils or movable works q
art for modern investigators to find. but enogg.
has been discovered 20 enable MS 70 form a goo.
picture of POmpei.an civilization especially
when we have the assistance Of an AUTHORITY
like Professor Mau He does more than sta,
facts. Whenever possible ne links speed:
point in the POmpeiian economy TO the genera
drift Of ancient social life and codes, thus help
ing us to understand not merely what the inhab'
itants did. but what relation they bore 10 The
great Roman fabric. An interesting example OK
this procedure is found in the chapter on the
Forum. 1t is evident from the ruins that We
hicles could not gain access 70 this part Of tn.
city Professor Mau takes this as suggesting q
significant point of difference between the fesa
Of the colony and those Of the CAP
ital." In Rome the official giving the game; I.
the Circus entered the edi6ce with his retinus Z
chariots, but the regulations Of the city pn-
hbited the use Of carriages 10 any extent By d.
people at large; they were considered luxury
Says Professor Mau:
In Pompeii, and without doubt also in oths
cities of Italy and the provinces, the closing o.
the Forum to vehicles made II necessary WG
religious and other professions should procei
on foot We have no evidence Of any exceplO;
to this rule. We ought perhaps TO recognize
1t one Of those devices by means Of which Ron'
maintained a position of dgnihed superoTI
over the provincial towns; % her process )n
was allowed an element Of display whicn %
theirs was denied 1t was not permitted y
name the two chief executive Officers OF d ih''
cOnsuls though their functions. NtAa
limits, corresponded with those of the consus a.
Rome; nor could the city council be caHe1
though the Roman writer's did mol h,N,
tate TO apply this term To COUuSp uling p9i'
in States and cities outside OF Eomes JurS'..
tion. For like reasons. il would seem thd1 W
public occasions officials and plitsis Oh pr
Vincial town were not permitted, as were '"'~
I'm Rome. to ride Was this hum.ating resu...
ton laid upon the Pompeiians when the ko'.l-
colony came or previously when the cty NdS n, -
name the ally OF Rome, but in realty a.. .a -.
subject? The evidence is aimos, concushs ~ ~
the latter alternative; for the colonnaae Oh /.
pidus which as We have seen was eie''.1 -. d,
the period of autonomy left no enlIa'Ne ~,
though in other ways IL add'u :, -, ~.
to the attractiyeucss and convenience % -
Forum as a place for civic and religious OeN