On Day 4 we went to visit the Naples Archaeological Museum, an excellent follow-up to the things we had seen in Pompeii the day before. The building itself was once an 18th century palace, and the list of previous directors includes such prestigious names as Alexandre Dumas, author of “The Three Musketeers” and “The Count of Monte Cristo.” It is one of the most important archaeological museums in the world.
Inside we were free to roam on our own to check out the collections. The museum is quite large, with multiple floors and a maze of rooms, so the map I picked up at the entrance got a lot of use by the end of the day.
The first place I went was to the exhibit on the Villa of the Papyri. This Villa was located in Herculaneum, and contained a library with over 1,800 papyrus scrolls. On the day of the eruption in AD 79 the scrolls were carbonized and buried, and thus they were preserved until they were discovered around 1750. Since the rolled-up scrolls were very fragile, a special machine had to be developed to unroll them. Once they were unrolled, spectral imaging could be used to read the nearly 2,000 year-old text. This is the only paper library from the Ancient World to have survived in its entirety, and it was hoped that long-lost secrets of history, astronomy, and mathematics would be revealed. Unfortunately we have had no such luck, so far there have been only copies of philosophical texts that we already knew about. That said, some of the scrolls are still undeciphered, and some of the Villa itself remains unexcavated, so perhaps great discoveries still wait for us here.
One of the scrolls, still on the machine, is seen here:
The Villa was also filled with sculptures of famous Greeks and Romans. This large statue, found at the center of the Villa, is of Athena:
Here is a bust of Pyrrhus, a Greek general who was once a formidable enemy of Rome. He invaded Italy during the 3rd century BC. During one of the battles he suffered tremendous losses, and although he emerged victorious his army was nearly destroyed. When someone congratulated Pyrrhus on the victory, he retorted with the now-famous line, “One more victory like that, and we’re done for!” Even now, 23 centuries later, we still use the phrase “Pyrrhic Victory” to refer to a victory that was so expensive that it was not worth winning:
In a room nearby is an impressive collection of Roman silver, including the homeowner’s face on one of the plates:
There is also a model of the Temple of Isis in Pompeii, showing what the temple would have looked like in Roman times. The rear of the theater is visible at left:
The next thing I went to look at was a cork model of the ruins of Pompeii, made in 1879. The model shows everything that was known about Pompeii up to that time. The workmanship on this model is extremely impressive. The walls include miniature frescoes that are exact scale copies of the originals, and in some cases the original frescoes were later destroyed, so this model provides us with the only surviving record of what they looked like:
My next stop was the famous Alexander Mosaic. This was located between the two outdoor gardens in the House of the Faun, the largest and most luxurious house in Pompeii. The one in Day 3’s post is a replica, this one is original.
The mosaic is a copy of a Greek painting that no longer survives. The painting depicted a scene from a battle between Alexander the Great and Darius III, King of the Persian Empire. It is one of history’s most famous images, and one of the only surviving likenesses of Alexander the Great:
Of course I had to have my picture taken with it:
The mosaic is massive, I was extremely impressed with the size of it when I saw it in person:
Darius III is depicted in the mosaic as well, leaning out from his chariot and shouting orders to his retreating troops. His charioteer is seen behind him, whipping the horse to beat a hasty retreat:
On the ground, one of Darius’ soldiers takes shelter beneath his shield, which is so well-polished that he can see his reflection in it:
Nearby is the top of the table once owned by Publius Casca Longus, one of the co-conspirators in the assassination of Julius Caesar. The legs were seen in a house in Pompeii in Day 3’s post, so the legs here are replicas but the top is original:
The famous “fish mosaic” is also here:
There is also a portrait of a Roman woman, so lifelike that I felt like I could recognize her if I bumped into her on the street:
As I made my way to the basement I passed a hallway with busts and statues of famous Romans. This one is Commodus, a name that fans of the Russell Crowe film “Gladiator” will be very familiar with:
His father, Marcus Aurelius, also familiar to “Gladiator” fans, is here too:
Julius Caesar:
Caracalla, whose nickname was “The Beast.” The expression on his portrait leaves little wonder as to why:
In the basement of the museum is a very large Egyptian collection. It includes quite a few statues, including this one which is thought to be Hatshepsut:
This one is for a Chief and his family, with the name and office of each person under their face:
There is also an elaborately painted wooden box:
The museum also contains a mummy of a 25-year-old woman, still in her wooden coffin. I decided not to publish photos of the body, but here is the image on the lid of the coffin:
In the same room are jars that would have contained the internal organs of the deceased. The organs were removed during the mummification process:
Back upstairs, I headed back through the hall of busts and statues. Here is Tiberius, who served as Emperor during the time of Christ:
One of the last things I saw in the museum, and a fitting end to the visit, was Farnese Hercules. This is a magnificent larger-than-life statue of the famous Greek hero resting against his club. The statue has a very long and storied history, including several failed attempts by Napoleon to take it back to France:
After the museum we got back on the bus and started on our way to the Amphitheater at Pozzuoli. Along the way we stopped for lunch at a restaurant that served us authentic Neapolitan pizza. This is the city where pizza was invented, and it tastes magnificent!
After lunch we went to Pozzuoli. The amphitheater at Pozzuoli is the 3rd largest and best preserved Roman amphitheater in the world. Only Capua and the Roman Colosseum are larger. It could hold over 30,000 spectators.
The open space in the center was a moving floor that could be raised and lowered, typically to change the scenery. Animal hunts took place in the morning, with exotic animals caught in far corners of the Empire. The center would have location-correct scenery. A band might play some exciting music while the audience watched a hunter track down and slay the beast. At least one species of lion is known to have gone extinct due to excessive use in Roman amphitheaters.
Executions would take place at lunch. At least two Saints are known to have been martyred here. Gladiatorial fights would take place in the afternoon. The squares scattered around the floor could be used to pop-up animals or other fighters, so the gladiator inside the arena never knew what would pop up, or where.
Underneath the arena, grooves for the doors are still easily identifiable:
There is plenty of room down here to prepare for the events above:
And even though the marble lining is long since gone, the brick structure still stretches towards the sky:
As we walked around the outside of the arena, we found this small monument commemorating funeral games that were held here:
We also stopped to visit the Piscina Mirabilis, a large cistern that was once connected to the Roman aqueduct. Photography was not permitted in this area, so I do not have any pictures to share. But the inside consisted of typical Roman bricks covered with concrete, which still had readily-identifiable limescale on it from years of storing water. It was a very large and impressive structure, and provided the citizens of nearby cities with fresh water for many years.
That was the end of Day 4! Tomorrow we will go to Villas at Stabiae, incredibly luxurious Roman houses overlooking Vesuvius and the ruined towns below. Check back soon!