Ancient Pompeii
by Wendy AronPompeii was the one ancient city in Southern Italy that epitomized the commerce, prosperity and vitality enjoyed at the heart of Roman Empire. Its streets were alive into the night. 20,000 Romans lived here, some in mansions with 50 rooms or more. By day, the homes of merchants rang with the chatter of families, happy and secure, protected by the most powerful Empire on earth. Then, on August 24 AD, molten rock shot 17 miles into the sky at twice the speed of sound. It was the killer Volcano Vesuvius and its victim was ancient Pompeii.
Pliny the Younger, an eyewitness to Pompeii Vesuvius wrote this chilling account: “Darkness overspread us, not like that of a moonless or cloudy night, but of a room when it is shut up and the lamp put out. You would hear the shrieks of women and children crying and the shouts of men some were seeking their children, others their parents, some praying to die from the very fear of dying. Many lifted their hands to the Gods, but for greater part they imagined that there were no Gods left anywhere and that the last and eternal night was come upon the world.”
Ironically, the wrath of Vesuvius destroyed and preserved ancient Pompeii. Over the past century and a half, the blanket of volcanic ash has been lifted away. Once more, the Mediterranean Sun warms the rooftops of ancient Pompeii. Within the mansions of the dead, the sounds of life can be heard again and remind us of the days of Pompeii.
Through the efforts of dedicated archeologists, a surprising mosaic of everyday life has been revealed. In 1860, Giuseppe Fiorelli made the first systematic excavation of Pompeii. On a hunch, Fiorelli poured plaster into cavities he suspected were made by human remains and from earthen moulds the victims emerged. Life ended in a second, the people died in the place they usually occupied and the homes are crowed with objects, which were there in that very moment. As ancient Pompeii awoke from its long sleep, a portrait of the sensuous lives of the Roman people emerged. There were erotic frescos rescued from the walls of the homes, as well as love crazed fonds raised from the ashes and graffiti galore. The excavation of Pompeii revealed that beneath the once quiet Vesuvius, Pompeii enjoyed the fruits of imperial expansion. It was a time when Mediterranean cities mimicked the urban plan of Rome. From her temples, priests gave thanks to Isis, a God adopted from conquered Egypt. Along shop lined streets, the rich browsed through silks from China, incense and perfumes from Petra and a lavish array of exotic foods.
Scholars have come from around the world to study the days of Pompeii. They have found that the extent of the Roman Empire introduced a wide variety of foods that the Romans did not have access to before. They got cherries from the Black Sea. They got pepper from the Far East. The Romans got the finest mackerel from Cartagena in Spain, which they had taken over from Carthage during their war with Hannibal. Romans didn’t eat very much during the day. They would start the day with a piece of bread and at lunch they would have more bread, maybe a little piece of cheese and some salad.
But at day’s end, the lean diets of the wealthy could suddenly expand along with their waistlines. Lavish dinner banquets brought friends together. With plenty of slaves to feed them and clean up the mess, Romans would become notorious for their indulgent feasts.
The bars in ancient Pompeii stayed open all night. The cuisine was best described as fatty, soft and slightly rotten. Wild boar and stuffed dormice were preferred when aged to the point of smelling slightly rank. While fresh fruit was available, apples ran a poor third behind milk fed snails. Accounts of wild orgies for dessert remained a point of pure speculation.
What is known about Ancient Pompeii is that this male dominated society lived by a familiar double standard. Women who committed adultery could be exiled, but it was perfectly legal for their husbands to visit the local houses of prostitution. In Pompeii’s most notorious bordello, the stalls of ancient prostitutes have been uncovered. Above each door is a cartoon of the vendor’s specialty. They weren’t an awful lot of jobs for women, but two of the most common were working in the cloth trade and working in the prostitution trade. There was a rumor that the Empress of Rome, the wife of Claudius, also chose to work in a brothel; she is one of the few women in ancient Rome rumored to have worked for what we would call today, personal fulfillment. The story was that she would sneak out of the Imperial Quarters at night and go to a brothel where she set up a stall under the name of Lycisca, the Wolf Girl. It was rumored that she enjoyed her work so very much that when the owner of the establishment dismissed the girls at the end of the night, she preferred to stay on and left only with the greatest regret.
Seen through windows like Pompeii, Roman values are not as distant as we might have imagined. Romans were fascinated by death and violence. Their leaders were capable of greatness but far from infallible, and the Roman people faced both joys and hardships in everyday life. As the first wave of ash fell on Pompeii, a doomed Roman wrote this on his bedroom wall, “Nothing in the world can endure forever.” By the end of the 3rd Century AD, the same could be said of the Roman Empire. Corruption in high places and military disasters abroad began to erode the foundation of Roman Society. But we can still relive moments in the days of Pompeii by pulling away the ashes. This is what could best be called emotional archaeology.
