Pompeii: Imagining life in a city frozen in time
From nearly 2000 years ago: A petrified figure in Pompeii
The Pompeii railway station was crowded with tourists. As we walked, in the scorching sun I was thinking, history is all around us, but, nowhere more than in the spaces where people had lived. We can only begin to understand the shape of lives in the past from what they have left us. Sometimes entire narratives can be sparked by the most insignificant of details; a dandelion pushing itself up between two cobblestones, a cartwheel mark on the stone-paved road or a faint square or a triangle mark on a wall where a fresco had been painted centuries ago.
Walking through the streets of Pompeii gave me the feeling of walking among ancient Romans. I envisioned the Romans walking with me in their togas and sandals, talking and laughing with their friends while walking towards the theatre. I was well aware of the destruction caused by the eruption of Vesuvius on a terrible day, nearly 2000 years ago. Yet, it is a marvel that the city buried in ash and rock is preserved almost in its entirety. Walking hurriedly to keep pace with the others, on the stone-paved streets, I couldn’t help imagining the screams and cries of terror of the citizens when the glowing red lava and ash sprouting out of the mouth of the volcano- twenty miles away- engulfed them mercilessly. The few petrified figures left on the sheltered sites- most have been shifted to the Naples Museum- gave us an idea what the Romans must have felt. One seated with hands covering his face perhaps to keep the hot ashes away, another wriggling with pain- the heat of the falling volcanic debris burying them alive.
We stopped at almost every building, observing how much of the building has been preserved. Behind some of the larger houses there were beautiful gardens with flowering trees. In the evenings their residents must have sat in the back patio, with a glass of wine talking about the events of the day.
The Romans had walked on roads paved with rock; it must have been very hard on their feet especially as they wore just thin-soled sandals. As we walked along we observed deep cartwheel marks on the road. Carts heavy with goods, drawn by horses must have gone on these roads leaving scratch marks on the way. Roman generals used chariots and the rich were carried in palanquins.
Built on a grand scale: An open air theatre. Pix by Ruwan de Silva
Pompeii was a city-state conqured by Romans in the first century BC. Pompeians had built a wall around their city to protect it against their enemies, but the wall did not deter the Romans from besieging the city and making Pompeii into one of their own colourful settlements. The wall with no further use fell into decay and Roman influence in art and architecture as well as political, social and economic life came to dominate the life of the inhabitants. The Forum was in rubble, but, at its heyday, it must have been an awe-inspiring building with Dorian columns and 50 marble steps leading to its entrance. Here, the important people in their pure white togas and leather sandals, must have read books on philosophy and politics, and discussed issues of the day.
We walked to the open-air theatre- what a magnificent piece of dramatic architecture! We sat on the topmost row of seats and looked down at the circular stage. It looked small from where we sat. The steps leading down to the stage were steep. The University of Peradeniya, where we were students years ago has an open-air theatre built on the fashion of a Greek theatre. We used to crowd the theatre on nights when they performed Sinhala drama there and were awe-struck at the very idea of an open-air theatre; and that was not even one-fourth the size of that at Pompeii; neither did it have all those facilities. The ancient Romans had thought of everything. The dressing rooms for the actors on either side of the stage and the special seating arrangements for the dignitaries were special features. There is even an entrance for gladiators to perform on stage when the aristocrats wished them to do so. We sat there for a few minutes and took in the view of the tree-covered mountains surrounding the theatre.
Adjacent to saunas and bathhouses nearby were the brothels. We walked through the baths and entered the brothel houses. There were about six small rooms separated from the main hall. The walls were painted with the most lurid pictures of human intimacy I have ever seen. The colours used were deep red and brown for figures with blue and yellow for garments. After all what this place had gone through, it was amazing to see colours on the frescoes remain so vivid.
The sports complex with its large training fields and the stadium was very impressive. Present day sports stadiums, with the playing field surrounded by seating for spectators must have had their origins in the sports arenas of the Romans where the gladiators entertained the citizens. The ancient Romans perfected many aspects of their day-to-day life but one significant aspect they neglected was garbage disposal. The stone-paved roads in between the rows of houses and commercial establishments where we walked served as the dumping grounds for their domestic garbage. Left-over food, human waste and animal droppings were on the roads until the rains came and washed them away. I cannot imagine the stench that would have entrenched the whole neighbourhoods!
A view of Herculaneum from the present-day ground level
We continued walking, until my feet couldn’t carry me anymore. The next day we went to Herculaneum. Present-day Neapolitans call it Herculano. This city was also buried in 79 AD but unlike Pompeii, here we found the buildings well preserved. Herculano is much smaller than Pompeii and the town had been covered by flows of pyroclastic rock that had solidified to an average height of sixteen metres. A new settlement had come up over the buried town. We could see the depth of the excavations done to reach the buried town. The pyroclastic rock that covered the ancient town seems to have preserved the buildings and statues, even wooden frames of some houses were intact. The upper floors of some large houses are well preserved which gave us some idea of building techniques of the time. We walked towards the bath complex that had been built between the walls of the town and the sea. There had been many petrified bodies of humans lying at the waters-edge. The bath complex, however, is one of the best preserved. It consisted of a frigidarium (cold baths), a trepidarium (mild water baths) and a coldarium (hot baths).
Walking along we even saw a pub house; I thought it looked more like a fast-food place. The Romans may have come here for their own variety of ‘burger and coke.’ The pub house has a marble counter top into which deep jars had been inserted. Along the walls are shelves, also covered with marble tops where food and drinks must have been stored. These are commercial establishments scattered in the theatre district. It was interesting to see painted walls on the opposite side of the road. They were covered with frescoes with their deep colours still visible. There are two bakeries nearby, both with two millstones, which indicated that the townspeople had ground their own flour to bake their bread.
We took a train ride and walked to Villa de Poppea in Oplantis, which was close by. Emperor Nero had got the Villa built for his second wife. The Villa was deserted when we walked in. Few tourists seemed to be coming here, may be because it is out of the way. Entering through the Villa’s main doorway, we found ourselves in the vast space of the mansion inside of which was the great courtyard filled with fruit trees and flowering plants. I imagined the hall teeming with life on days when Nero arrived here to see his second wife; the clatter of horse hoofs on the cobblestones, the stench of the dung and the grooms helping the nobles from their horses. Walking along its corridors and through its large rooms whose walls were covered with wonderful frescoes- pictures of birds, fish, animals, flowers and humans and standing by the tree-lined quadrangle gave me an idea of the opulence enjoyed by the patricians and hard labour enforced on the ordinary people and the slaves.