Video: Secrets of the life and death of the ancient city: why the gods punished Pompeii
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
268 years ago, on April 6, 1748, archaeologists discovered ruins of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii … In 79, the metropolis was buried under a layer of ash after the eruption of Vesuvius. Began in the XVIII century. excavations continue to this day. Since then, many curious artifacts have been found that testify in favor of the mythological version that the gods punished Pompeii for the licentious nature of the townspeople. What secrets were hidden under the ashes of the ancient city?
The fact that the city had an active social and political life is evidenced by campaign inscriptions on the walls of houses, urging to vote for some candidates and throwing mud at others. Political unrest took place here quite often. The social and economic center of the city was the Forum - a trading square, which over time turned into a place for popular gatherings.
The houses of Pompeii are well preserved. There were no pointers to them - on each house they simply wrote the name of its owner. During the excavations, many structures intended for leisure were discovered: in Pompeii there were 2 theaters, an amphitheater for gladiatorial battles for 20 thousand people, 3 public baths and more than 100 taverns and shops. But the main entertainment in the city was the lupanaria, or brothels. Their inhabitants were called the most beautiful women in the whole country.
Even during the first excavations, archaeologists discovered many frescoes of frank content on the walls of some structures and decided that they were Lupanaria. Then they counted 35. Subsequently, scientists came to the conclusion that such frescoes also adorned the walls of ordinary houses, although there were really enough brothels in the city - about 10. They were housed in rooms above the wine shops, and one lupanarium was in a separate two-story building with 10 rooms. At the moment, this is one of the most popular tourist sites, near the entrance of which, even in winter, many visitors are crowded.
The name "lupanarium" presumably comes from lat. Lupa - "she-wolf" as prostitutes were called in Rome. According to another version, the inhabitants of brothels beckoned customers with sounds reminiscent of a wolf's howl. Brothel visitors left indecent notes on the walls about how and with whom they spent their time here. The inhabitants of Pompeii were called some of the most dissolute in the entire Roman Empire. During the excavations, many objects of an erotic nature were discovered, confirming this fact: "Inconvenient" exhibits from the ancient lupanarium
The harbinger of the death of the city was a powerful earthquake, which happened in February 62, the eruption took place on August 24, 79. Within a day, three cities disappeared from the face of the earth - Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabia. Many residents of Pompeii managed to leave the city before the disaster, but the death toll was still quite large - about 2 thousand people (according to other sources - up to 20 thousand).
Under a thick layer of ash, everything was preserved as it was before the eruption. During excavations, voids were found in the ash layer. By filling them with plaster, scientists were able to reconstruct the bodies of people and animals in deathbed poses.
Today, in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, you can see a shocking exhibition of the bodies of the victims of the volcanic eruption in Pompeii
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