Frontispiece: The Public Buildings OF Pompeii

RESTORATION OF POMPEII.

Vignette from Mazois' view of the city at the gate of Herculaneum.

HISTORY OF VESUVIUS

BEFORE commencing in the, account of Pompeii itself, it will not be out of place to give a short description of the ancient state of the neighbourhood in which it stood, together with a sketch of the history of Vesuvius.

The Bay of Naples, anciently called Crater (the Cup), was known to the ancients at an early period. The remarkable appearance of its shores struck their fancy; and they named them Phlegra, or Phlegr i Campi, Burnt fields, from the traces of igneous action everywhere visible, and accounted for these natural appearances by the fabled battle between the giants and the gods, assisted by Hercules, in which the giants were cast down and destroyed by Jupiter's thunderbolts. The earth, riven, scorched, and thunder-stained, bore enduring witness to the destructive power of these weapons. Here was the celebrated lake Avernus, the mouth of hell, according to the Italian poets, over which no bird could complete its flight, but dropped, overcome by the sulphureous exhalations. This is one, probably, of that numerous tribe of legends which have been framed to fit or to explain a name. Its Greek name is Aornos, literally Birdless; its dreary and terror-striking appearance, when its precipitous sides were thickly clothed with wood, suggested the notion that it was the opening of the nether world; hence the story of the foetid atmosphere and its deadly effects Yet even here there may be some foundation of truth; for we have the authority of Sir William Hamilton for stating, that while wild fowl abound in other pools and lakes in this quarter, they shun Avernus, or pay it but a passing visit. Diodorus derives the name of Phlegra from Vesuvius, which, he says, like tna, used to vomit fire, and still retains traces of its former eruptions. He spoke from observation of the mountain, not from tradition, for tradition recorded no eruption previous to the Christian era; but he probably erred in the derivation of the name. Traces of volcanic action were as evident round Baiae; and Puteoli as on Vesuvius; and the ancients appear to havehadsome record of eruptions in this quarter, since they fabled that the giant Typhon, who threw stones to heaven with a loud noise, and from whose eyes and mouth faro proceeded, lay buried under the neighbouring island of Inarime or Pithecusa, now called Ischia. A similar fable accounted for the eruptions of tna.

By turns a pitchy cloud she rolls on high,

By turns hot embers from her entrails fly,

And flakes of mounting flames, that lick the sky.

Oft from her bowels massy rocks are thrown,

And, shivered by the force, come piecemeal down.

Oft liquid lakes of burning sulphur flow,

Fed from the fiery springs that boil below.

Enceladus, they say, transfixed by Jove..

With blasted limbs came trembling from above;

And where he fell the avenging father drew This blasted hill, and on his body threw.

As often as he turns his weary sides He shakes the solid isle, and smoke the heavens hides. DRYDEN, lib. iii. 572.

We need hardly say that the poets vary in these stories: Ovid places Typhon under Etna. In the superstitions of the middle ages Vesuvius assumed the character which had before been given to Avernus, and was regarded as the mouth of hell. Cardinal Damian relates the following stories, in a letter addressed to Pope Nicholas II. "A servant of God dwelt alone, near Naples, on a lofty rock hard by the highway. As this man was singing hymns by night, he opened the window of his cell to observe the hour; when, lo! he saw passing many men, black as Ethiopians, driving a large troop of packhorses laden with hay; and he was anxious to ask who they were, and why they carried with them this fodder for cattle ? And they answered, We are evil spirits; and this food which we prepare is not for flocks or herds, but to foment those fires which are kindled against men's souls; for we wait, first for Pandulphus, Prince of Capua, who now lies sick; and then for John, the captain of the garrison of Naples, who as yet is alive and well. Then went that man of God to John, and related faithfully that which he had seen and heard. At that time the Emperor Otho II., being about to wage war on the Saracens, was journeying toward Calabria. John therefore answered, I must first go reverently and meet the Emperor, and take counsel with him concerning the state of this land. But after he is gone I promise to forsake the world, and to assume the monastic habit.' Moreover, to prove whether the priest's story were true, he sent one to Capua, who found Pandulphus dead; and John himself lived scarce fifteen days, dying before the Emperor reached those parts; upon whose death the mountain Vesuvius, from which bell often belches forth, broke out into flames, as might clearly be proved, because the bay which those demons got ready was nothing else than the fire of that fell conflagration prepared for these reprobate and wicked men; for as often as a reprobate rich man dies in those parts, the fire is seen to burst from the above-named mountain, and such a mass of sulphureous resin flows from it as makes a torrent which by its downward impulse descends even to the sea. And in verity a former prince of Palermo once saw from a distance sulphureous pitchy flames burst out from Vesuvius, and said that surely some rich man was just about to die, and go down to hell. Alas for the blinded minds of evil men! That very night, as be lay regardless in bed, he breathed his last. There was also a Neapolitan priest, who wished to know more of things not lawful to be known, who, when that infernal pit belched flames more fiercely than usual, with presumptuous boldness resolved to visit it. So having solemnized the mass, he went on his way, armed, as it were, with the sacred vestments; but this rash inquirer, approaching nearer than men use to go, never reappeared; being unable to return. Another priest, who had left his mother sick at Beneventum, as he traveled through the bounds of Naples, and was intent upon the upstreaming flames, heard a voice of one bewailing, which he perceived evidently to be the voice of his mother. He marked the time, and found it to have been the hour of her death.- This passage is taken from a letter from Cardinal Damian, to Pope Nicholas II., written about the year 1060. The superstition was natural enough; and similar ones were entertained at a much later date concerning tna and the, island of Stromboli, in which there is a volcano in almost constant activity.