Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-15


10 AID, in the first year OF the reign
of Titus the Imperator, son OF YES
pasian
The place was a handsome villa No. Via
delrAbbondanza, in PompeI the smart resort
of 10000 inhabitants, lying above the gorgeous
Bay of Naples on the slope Of Vesuvius
well are you satisfied now, my dear?" one
imagines him asking the wife
The patrcian's name may never be known,
but Claudus Sabinus is as good as any other,
and as he was a fesh-and-blood man exactly
like men living today, the name doesn't matter
much.
was Mrs Claudius Sabinus satisfied with her
new villa? If she was like her sisters of all
time she probably smiled inwardly, though
holding out for something more-perhaps
vestal virgin to keep the sacred fire burning on
the household altar day and night, as in all the
tiptop families. But what greater hearts desire
could a woman of her rank have than a hne
new house with all modern conveniences in
the most fashionable quarter of Pompel?
OF course, Rome was wonderful in a way. 1t
was the seat of the Caesars, the capital of
the greatest empire the universe had ever seen
before or since, the center of a marvellous pagan
civilization when all the remainder of the West
was in utter darkness.
It's legions ruled the barbarans all the way
, from what is England to Palestine, from North
Africa to the heart of Germany and Flanders,
and its administrators were building roads,
arenas temples, baths, baSilicas villas, bridges,
forums, theaters, circuses and aqueducts that
architects and engineers would still marvel at
20. perhaps even 40, centuries later. In all the
world of which it undisputed mistress, no
city could boast of such magnificent public
buildings and even today it is questionable II
there is a city on the face Of the earth that can
rival Imperial Rome in this respect. Indeed,
the other peoples lived in miserable caves and
huts.
Life there was a dazzling kaleidoscope of mill
.tary spectaces gladiator contests, chariot races,
luxurious fetas, picturesque orgies The skilled
craftsmen-goldsmiths silversmiths, weavers-
worked only for the great city on the Tiber.
Merchants came there by every route over land
and sea until the bazaars fairly cracked under
the piles of rich merchandise. Poets and
dramatists wrote of glorious fetes of arms.
Literature hourished. Law was exalted In
spite of the appearance of a few pestilential
reformers called Christians, the heather gods
and goddesses were still very real and
worshped daily in the splendid temples. The
apostles Paul and Peter had been obscurely
martyred there few years before.
Exciting, stirring times! Titus was finishing
the great arena called the Coliseum, with its
10000 seats, that would be the symbol of
Rome's might and power. Even the blase
Romans were dazed by its grandeur.
But as for living there, Imperial Rome was
a maelstrom of intrigue and violence noisy,
blatant. maddening vortex, where men talked
only of politics, military affairs and trade,
were throngs of Legionnaires on leave from the
far flung frontiers insoently jostled one in the
narrow streets. Art? Culture? Nature? Beauty?
Restfulness? Blue skies and blue seas? What
did the capital know of the finer things of life?
Besides, being an inland city in a semi-tropical
climate it was unbearably stuffy in the Sum-
ner months.
wealthy Roman who wished to get away
from this hectic city and live quietly elegantly,
comfortably and near the sea had only one
thought-Fompeii
There had been a vogue for Pompeii for many
years really since Cicero had gone there to live
a hundred years before. view over the
beautiful Bay of Naples, with Capri in the
distance and towering, majestic Vesuvius in
the background. Cooling breezes and skies that
were always blue made the place almost an
earthly paradise. The temples to Isis Venus,
Minerva and the other favorite gods and god
desSes were particularly fine. After a severe
earthquake in &c. during Nero's reign, the
Senate had ordered the town to be rapidly re-
built along ultra-modern lines, and thousands
Of artisans sent there to hasten the work.
Some Of the streets we're to be "a feet wide and
others even 80 feet, which was positively rev.
1olutionary. No one thought of Vesuvius going
on a rampage. The big cone let of a bit of
steam and smoke occasionally, but there was
no historical record of an eruption.
It was the smart resort of the Roman
Watrfetans and In the middle of the first century