Post 1 of the Pompeii Series
Pompeii.
I wrote a song about it (for my Mark Twain musical) long before I finally visited it this April.
And now finally I am posting my blog piece about the visit – blog pieces, because there is just too much to show to fit in one blog piece alone.
In this post I will focus on the streets of Pompeii, including the main public spaces. The Forum, temples and baths, the amphitheatres and Coliseum. And the victims.
Further posts will take us into the homes of Pompeii, show off more of its art, and also take us to Herculaneum, the other city buried by the devastating volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in October, 79AD.
A panoramic view of Pompeii and environs, concluding with the culprit who did her in all those years ago…
Pompeii today is the largest museum in the world, a museum encompassing all of the ancient city limits as well as some of its old suburban areas. Since the late 18th century more and more parts of Pompeii (and Herculaneum) have been unearthed. What has been laid bare so far is overwhelming (like I said, far too much for just one blog post). It took us a whole day to explore all of Pompeii that’s available for viewing on site. That said I would estimate that about a third of the city’s ruins still lie buried under volcanic earth.
Mount Vesuvius, the ancient killer.
The tower from which these first photos and the video were taken.
The ancient road road leading from the tower.
That same road, with much of Pompeii, and in the background modern Italy.
However, modern day museum visitors first enter Pompeii through this tunnel, which back in the day led directly to the ocean – the ocean nowadays is a kilometer or more to the southwest.
A main thoroughfare.
Below, you can see the deep grooves centuries of chariot wheels made in the stone roads, specifically where they maneuvered between the stepping stones. The stepping stones were there for ancient Roman pedestrians to safely step across the roads during their daily wash – apparently the roads were flooded with water daily to get rid of dirt (all those chariots, all those horses, all that … muck…). Romans wore sandals, not galoshes…
The roads and the stepping stones were precisely measured out. Main thoroughfares would be three stepping stones wide – other roads would be two stepping stones wide. The narrowest roads – one way streets for chariots – would have only one stepping stone between the sidewalks. Chariots were regulated to make sure their wheels were always the same width apart, which in turn determined the width of the streets and the size and placement of the stepping stones.
The Forum
Jupiter’s Temple. One of the few structures where any part of an upper story is still standing. When Vesuvius first erupted the prevailing winds sent so much ash towards Pompeii over the course of a day that the roofs collapsed. That is why very little above the first floor is recoverable in Pompeii – unlike in Herculaneum which was spared that first day-long ash cloud but not the pyroclastic flow, a fast-moving current of hot gas and matter, that followed it. That deadly explosion swiftly killed whoever was still in both cities. It was quickly followed by massive amounts of ash that completely covered – and preserved – what was left of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
Notes from a Composer 