Thus the designs of this style at first comprised only simple elements, a wall made up of painted blocks or panels with a dado painted in projection supporting columns that seemed to carry an architrave on which the ceiling rested; there is an excellent example in the house of the Labyrinth, on the walls of a room at the rear of the garden. But the designs gradually became more complex, partly through the differentiation of the simple elements, partly through the introduction of new motives, until a complete architectural system was developed. This system differs from that of the fourth style, which is also architectural, in that it adheres in the main to actual or possible structural forms, while those of the fourth style are fantastic in their proportions and arrangement.

In this process of development two clearly defined tendencies become manifest, one affecting the treatment of the upper division of the wall, the other the elaboration of a characteristic motive which now first appears, a framework for the principal painting; for architectural designs are well adapted for the display of pictures, and wall paintings now begin to have a prominent place in Pompeian decoration.

The upper division tends more and more to be represented as an open space, behind the plane of projection in which the main part appears. Thus in Plate XII we see on either side a silver vase with fruits and vine leaves, standing on the cornice of the main wall, in the open. Often the upper space is painted blue, as if one caught a glimpse of the sky above the wall; sometimes the outline of a wall further beyond is seen, or columns in the rear connected with those in front by a decorative framework; and not infrequently small architectural designs, in perspective, rest upon the cornice where the vases are shown in our plate. But in all the designs of this style, complex as well as simple, the threefold division of the wall carried over from the first style is retained; very often the distinction between the base, main wall, and upper portion is emphasized by painting them so that they seem to be in three planes of projection.

The ornamental framework for the painting, consistently with the architectural character of the decoration as a whole, is generally conceived as a pavilion projecting from the wall; so in Plate XII, where we see two columns sustaining a roof, upon the front of which winged figures stand, each with a hand extended upward to the entablature of the large pillars at the sides. The design of the pavilion is suggested by that of a shrine, such a shrine as the one in the apse of the sanctuary of the City Lares (Fig. 41).

This conception is here borne out by the subject of the painting, which represents a statue of Dionysus resting, ivy-crowned, with a thyrsus in his left hand; the right hand is thrown gracefully over the head, and at the feet of the god the lifelike figure of a panther is seen. The round high pedestal supporting the group is in the open, and the background affords a charming vista among the trees.

This framing of the principal painting led further to the division of the body of the wall vertically into three sections, a broad central section, included within the outline of the pavilion, and two panels, one at each side. The arrangement is well illustrated in our plate, the side panels of which are adorned with painted statues of tastefully draped figures, one of them holding a lyre. The later styles of decoration retained this symmetrical division of the wall space, which made prominent the picture of greatest interest without detracting from the finish of the decorative setting; but in the fourth style it is often obscured by the intricacy of the designs.

The third style came into vogue during the reign of Augustus, and was prevalent until about 50 A.D.; we shall call it the Ornate Style, from its free use of ornament. It was developed out of the second style in the same way that the second style was developed out of the first; but the transition was not accomplished at Pompeii, which, like the provincial cities of our day, received its fashions from the great centres.

The characteristics of the Ornate Style, as regards both the main design and the ornamentation, may easily be perceived from the example presented in Fig. 263, especially if this is viewed in contrast with the specimen of the preceding style shown in Plate XII. The architectural design has now lost all semblance of real construction. Columns, entablatures, and other members are treated conventionally, as subordinate parts of a decorative scheme; they are, with few exceptions, reduced to narrow bands or stripes of color dividing the surface of the wall. The elaborate border of the central painting suggests a pavilion, yet the projecting base, which in the second style gave this design its significance, is lacking. Hardly less noteworthy is the treatment of the upper portion of the wall. Fanciful architectural forms and various ornaments stand out against a white background, suggestive of the open sky; yet in our example, as often in this style, there is no organic connection between the decoration of the main part of the wall and that of the ceiling.

Every part of the framework of the third style is profusely ornamented. The ornamental system is seen to have a certain affinity with that of Egypt, and Egyptian figures occasionally appear; whence we infer that it was developed in Alexandria. Early in the reign of Augustus, in consequence of the relations with Egypt following the battle of Actium, a new impulse may well have been given to the introduction into Italy of Alexandrian art.

The specimen of the third style shown in Fig. 263 is from the beautiful decoration of the house of Spurius Mesor, portions of which are well preserved. The base of our specimen consists of two parts, a lower border and a broad stripe of black divided into sections of different shapes and sizes by lines of light color. In the small sections ornaments are seen painted in delicate shades, two of them being faces.

The large painting presents a mythological scene, but the subject is not clear. The priestess seems to be performing a ceremony of expiation in order to free from the taint of some crime the young man who, with a wreath on his head and a sword, pointed downward, in his right hand, bends over the hind just slain as a sacrifice. The colors are subdued and effective; the painting from the technical point of view is among the best found at Pompeii.

Around the painting are narrow black stripes separated by white lines; in the broader stripe underneath, between the columns, are two light blue birds upon a dull red ground. The small squares in the flat cornice above are of many colors, shades of green, pink, and brown predominating. The broad panels on either side of the painting are of the color often called Pompeian red; they have an ornamented border, and a small winged figure in the centre. The stripe below these shows vases and other ornaments on an orange-yellow ground; that above, interrupted by the cornice over the painting, is black, with various ornaments, as baskets of fruit, sistrums, and geese, painted in neutral colors. Among the ornaments of the upper part of the wall, festoons of leaves, vines, vases, parrots, and griffins can be distinguished, painted in light shades of brown, blue, green, and yellow.

The effect of the Ornate Style, with its symmetrical forms and variety of detail, is pleasing; but the free use of neutral tones gives the walls a somewhat cold and formal appearance when we bring into contrast the warm coloring of the next period.

The fourth or Intricate Style first appears about the middle of the first century A.D. It started, as did the third, with the symmetrical division of the wall developed in the second style; it differs from the third in that it always retained a sense of architectural form. The columns are often fluted, as in a specimen in the Naples Museum (Fig. 264). The entablatures and coffered ceilings, light and airy as they often seem, have nevertheless a suggestion of reality; we know that architectural forms are presented, and not mere stripes of color. Yet the difference between the fourth and the second style is no less apparent. In the latter the architectural designs are not inconsistent with real construction; in the former the imagination of the designer had free scope, producing patterns so fantastic and intricate that the fundamental idea at the basis of the wall divisions seems entirely lost sight of at times.

The preference for architectural forms was carried so far that between the large panels of black, red, or yellow, vertical sections of wall were left which were filled with airy structures on a white background; the parts represented as nearest the beholder were painted yellow, those further back were adorned with all the colors of the rainbow, thus forming a kind of color perspective (Fig. 265). The designs of the main part were extended into the upper division, and frequently the whole wall appears as an intricate scaffolding, partially concealed by the large panels; these sometimes have the appearance of tapestries hanging suspended from the scaffolding, and are so treated, as in the case of the curtains shown in Plate XIII. The fundamental conception of the decorative system is lost when the background of the upper part and of the airy scaffoldings is no longer left white, but painted the same color as the rest of the wall, so that the effect of distance and perspective is obscured. Occasionally, also, the architectural framework of the upper portion of the wall has no connection with that of the main part.

The ornaments of the fourth style were taken largely from the domain of plastic art. Groups of statuary as well as single figures appear either upon projecting portions of the architectural framework, as in Fig. 264, or in the background. They are frequently painted yellow, suggesting the gilding applied to ancient statues, particularly those of bronze, and present a striking contrast to the masses of strong color in the large panels and the brilliant shades of the architectural designs. They are in harmony with the taste of the period, which, as we have seen, manifested a fondness for ornamentation in stucco relief, the effect of which was heightened by the free use of color.

The large panels contained paintings of various sizes, sometimes copies of masterpieces, more often a simple floating figure or a Cupid; groups are also found, as Cupid and Pysche, or a satyr with a bacchante. The appearance of a picture worked in tapestry is given by a border just inside the framework of the panel, as often in the decoration of the fourth style.

The fourth style cannot have been derived from the third. It is organically related with the second, out of which it was developed by laying stress on precisely that element, the architectural, the suppression of which gave rise to the third style of decoration. The most reasonable explanation of the relations of the four styles, briefly stated, is this:—

The Incrustation Style, a direct offshoot of Hellenistic art, was prevalent in eastern cities, where it was naturally followed by the Architectural Style; this may have been developed at one centre or, in different phases, at different centres contemporaneously.

Meanwhile, at some other centre of culture, possibly Antioch, the Architectural Style, by an equally natural course of development, had passed over into the Intricate Style, which was first brought to Pompeii about 50 A.D. and remained in fashion till the destruction of the city.

The earthquake of the year 63 threw down some buildings and made necessary the thorough-going repair of many others. Between that year and 79, more walls were freshly decorated, probably, than in any previous period of equal length in the history of the city. For this reason, examples of decoration in the Intricate Style are much more numerous than might have been expected from the length of time that it was in vogue; they give the prevailing cast to the remains of painting in the ruins, and this style is ordinarily thought of when Pompeian wall decoration is referred to. The complex designs and brilliant colors form a decorative scheme which is often most effective, although the system of the third style reveals a finer and more correct taste.

If no remains of the two earlier styles had survived to modern times, the antecedents and relations of the other two could not possibly be understood. But with the first two in mind, we are able to see clearly how the most complex forms of the later decoration may be reduced, in last analysis, to simple elements. Even in the example of the Intricate Style given in Plate XIII, we find a suggestion of the threefold division of the wall into base, main part, and upper part, which was so prominent in the Incrustation Style; and also an elaborate structural form at the middle of the wall recalling the pavilion framework of the second style, with a symmetrical arrangement of the architectural designs on either side, suggesting the panels at the sides of the principal painting.

The slabs of colored marble in the Incrustation Style are represented by panels for pictures or ornamental forms of all shapes and sizes; and the architectural designs, so simple at the beginning, have by almost imperceptible changes and additions become decorative patterns so varied and intricate that taken by themselves they give no hint of their origin.

CHAPTER LV
THE PAINTINGS

The hanging of pictures upon the walls seems not to have been in vogue at Pompeii during the period to which the remains belong. The system of decoration left no room for framed paintings, and no traces of any such have been discovered. The paintings which have been preserved at Pompeii, not merely the small groups and single figures introduced to enliven the design, but the large compositions as well, all formed a part of the wall decoration.

The number is relatively large. In the catalogue by Helbig, published in 1868, there are nearly two thousand entries, including a few paintings from Herculaneum and other Campanian sites. The supplement compiled by Sogliano in 1879 records more than eight hundred pictures brought to light in the preceding decade. We are probably safe in estimating the whole number of Pompeian paintings still in existence, or known from description, as about thirty-five hundred.

In all this wealth of examples, however, it is not possible to find any evidence of a progressive development either in composition or in technique. There are indeed slight differences, mainly in regard to technical handling and color scheme, which distinguish the paintings found in the decoration of the third style from those of the other two styles in which paintings appear; but, on the other hand, the distinction between those of the second and those of the fourth style is much less marked.

The period from 80 B.C. to 79 A.D. was as little creative in the field of painting as in that of sculpture. No new types appear, no improvements are worked out; the painter, as the sculptor, was an eclectic, who drew upon the creations of the past as suited his fancy, and contented himself with copying or imitating. In the adaptation of paintings to decorative use the artist reproduced either entire compositions or single motives which seemed to answer his purpose. The general preference was for paintings of the Hellenistic age, after the death of Alexander; yet examples of earlier styles are occasionally found, as the Sacrifice of Iphigenia (Fig. 156) and the dramatic scene in which Orestes and Pylades appear before King Thoas (Fig. 182).

New discoveries and the progress of research will sometime, perhaps, make it possible to present a general survey of the Pompeian paintings from the historical and critical point of view. No such comprehensive treatment is yet possible, however, and we must content ourselves with offering a few observations in regard to the distribution of the paintings among the different decorative styles and the classes of subjects represented.

The Incrustation Style, as previously remarked, left no place for paintings upon the walls. Nevertheless, in isolated cases, we find a simple pictorial representation upon the surface of one of the blocks painted in imitation of marble, as if the veins of the stone had run into a shape suggestive of an object, as a vase or a bird; in one instance, curiously enough, a wrestling match is outlined, between Hercules and Antaeus. In the Tufa Period the desire for paintings was satisfied by the mosaic pictures upon the floor.

The earlier walls of the second style in this respect resemble those of the first; the examples in the house of the Labyrinth have no paintings. The later walls, however, are rich in pictures, but those of Pompeii are not so abundantly adorned as those in Rome (p. 462). The elaborate painting shown in the pavilion frame in Plate XII is exceptional among the Pompeian remains of this style.

The great majority of the paintings are found upon walls of the third and fourth styles. On the older walls of the third style, as we have seen, the principal painting appears in a frame, the design of which is taken from that of the conventional pavilion of the second style. In later examples the close relation between the picture and the frame is no longer maintained; the frame simply encloses a large panel of uniform color, in the middle of which a relatively small picture is seen. This arrangement was carried over into the fourth style, but the conception of a pavilion frame is entirely lost sight of; the painting is in the middle of a large panel of brilliant color, around which the architectural framework is extended. A Pompeian room well decorated in either of the later styles contained four of these prominent paintings, in case there was no door at the middle of one of the sides; if a door interfered, there were only three.

Paintings were also placed in the divisions of the wall at the right and the left of the central panel. In Plate XII we noticed a single figure on either side of the pavilion, but such additions are rare in the second style. In the third style the side panels are uniformly adorned with paintings. In Fig. 263 the small figure in the middle of the panel at the left is a Cupid; frequently a flying swan is seen, or a landscape lightly sketched in monochrome on the ground of the panel. Sometimes the painting is set off by a separate frame; if this is round, a bust is usually represented. Groups of two figures were preferred for the side panels of the fourth style, the favorite subject being a satyr and a bacchante, as in Fig. 265; these sometimes appear as busts, but are more often represented as floating figures.

Characteristic of the fourth style, in respect to the distribution of paintings, is the use of single figures and simple compositions to add life to the fantastic architectural designs in the upper part of the wall and in the divisions between the large panels. Here we may see satyrs and bacchantes, young girls and solemn-visaged men with implements of sacrifice; the figures appear in great variety of type and subject. Sometimes groups are broken up, and the elements of a mythological scene, as that of Admetus and Alcestis, are distributed as single figures in the architectural framework.

At the time of the eruption the fondness for pictorial representations was increasing, and they were being introduced into every part of the decoration, including the frieze of the main part of the wall, the use of which in this way commenced in the time of the third style (Fig. 263), and the stripe below, between the main part of the wall and the base (Fig. 265); how elaborate this intermediate decoration might become we have already seen in the case of the house of the Vettii.

Frequently in the fourth style the lower part of the architectural framework separating two large panels appears to be closed, as in Plate XIII, by a narrow panel, above which a painting is seen. The pictures found in these places often represent still life. Seafights are also a favorite subject; such may be seen in the temple of Isis, the Macellum, and one of the rooms in the house of the Vettii. Generally on the walls of the fourth style, wherever there is available space, we find small pictures in great variety, the most common being landscapes, simply painted, with the use of few colors.

It is by no means easy to make a satisfactory classification of Pompeian paintings according to subject. Nevertheless, with a few exceptions, they may be roughly grouped in four general classes, mythological paintings, genre paintings, landscapes, and still life. Most of the large and important pictures belong to the first class. The mythological paintings will therefore be discussed at somewhat greater length; the other three classes will require only a brief characterization.

The still-life paintings represent all kinds of meat, fish, fowl, and fruits. According to Vitruvius, this kind of picture was called Xenion. The reason given for the name recalls a curious custom of ancient Greece. When a guest, xenos, was received into a Greek home, says this writer, he was invited to sit at the table for one day. After that provisions were furnished to him uncooked, and he prepared his own meals. A portion of unprepared victuals thus came to be called xenion, 'the stranger's portion,' and the name was afterwards transferred to pictures in which such provisions appear. A fruit piece, now in the Naples Museum, is shown in Fig. 266.

Landscapes are numerous and of all sizes. Occasionally a garden wall of the fourth style is covered with a single large painting, in which villas, gardens, roads, and harbors are realistically presented. Such pictures are of Italian origin; the name of the artist who first painted them is probably Sextus Tadius, but the reading of the passage in which the name occurs (Plin. N. H. XXXV. x. 116) is uncertain.

Common to the third and fourth styles are garden scenes, in which, behind a light barrier, the plants of a garden appear, with birds, statues, and fountains. The finest extant example is in the villa of Livia, at Prima Porta, near Rome.

The great majority of the landscapes, however, are introduced into various parts of the decoration outside of the large panels, and are quite small. In them we see little shrines or villas by the seaside; a river with a bridge on which a traveller appears crossing the stream; or buildings on an island or peninsula in the edge of a body of water, as in Fig. 267. Often they are simply light sketches; now and then one of these small landscapes is painted in a peculiar tint, as if the scene were represented by moonlight.

The genre paintings are of special importance on account of the light they shed on the life and customs of the ancients. A number have already been described or illustrated in the chapter on the house of the Vettii, and in the part devoted to the trades and occupations. To these we should add the picture of an artist in the house of the Surgeon (Fig. 133), and the scenes from the life of the Forum (Figs. 16, 17).

Here belong also the groups in which figures are seen with a roll of papyrus or a writing tablet, suggestive of literary pursuits, and figures with musical instruments. A group of musicians is shown in Fig. 268, in which are four women, one of whom is tuning a couple of stringed instruments to sound in unison.

In the same class are included two small painted busts not infrequently met with, that of a girl with a writing tablet in her left hand holding the end of a stylus against her lips, as if pondering what to write, and that of a young man with one end of a roll of papyrus, in which he has been reading, under his chin. A Pompeian baker, Publius Paquius Proculus, brought these two ideal busts into one painting, substituting for the faces of the youth and maiden those of himself and his wife (Fig. 269). The portraits are realistic, but the faces are not unattractive; that of Proculus seems more kindly and ingenuous than the face of Caecilius Jucundus (Fig. 256).

Two ideal painted busts have recently been found, each of a youth with a roll of papyrus. Their chief interest lies in the fact that each roll is provided with a narrow tag or label, of the sort that the Romans called index, on which the names Plato and Homerus can be plainly read. The two types of face well correspond with the trend of taste suggested by the titles: the delicate features and upturned gaze of the one indicate a poetic temperament; the other has a high forehead and an air of meditation, appropriate for a student of philosophy.

The mythological paintings rarely present rapid movement. To the few exceptions belong the two familiar pictures placed opposite each other in the tablinum of the house of Castor and Pollux, Achilles among the daughters of Lycomedes on the island of Scyros, and the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon. Only part of the latter painting is preserved, but both are strong compositions, and are repeated on other walls.

Scenes of combat, the interest of which lies in the display of physical force, are still more infrequently met with, and seem out of harmony with the prevailing taste. Two pictures from Herculaneum represent Hercules putting forth his strength; in one he is struggling with the Nemean lion, in the other carrying the Erymanthian boar. The few paintings of this kind at Pompeii are badly preserved. In two of them Meleager appears, engaged in combat with the boar; in another we see Achilles before the walls of Troy with drawn sword in one hand, with the other grasping by the hair Troilus, an effeminate Trojan youth, attired in Oriental fashion, who mounted on his horse is vainly trying to escape; a fourth represents a combat between a heavy-armed warrior and an Amazon. But such paintings are the more conspicuous by reason of their rarity, and those that have thus far been discovered are all found upon walls of the third style.

A much larger number of mythological compositions represent a moment of dramatic interest, the artist relying for his effect upon the bearing and facial expression of the persons appearing in the scene. The interest is purely psychological, and several of the pictures that have been preserved give us an exceedingly favorable idea of the ability of ancient painters to express emotion, especially when we remember that these paintings are merely decorative copies of masterpieces the originals of which in most cases had probably never been seen by the workmen who painted the copies on the walls.

Among the more familiar examples is the face of Orestes in the painting found in the house of the Citharist (Fig. 182), and that of Io, watched by Argus, in the Macellum. Emotion is expressed with even greater skill in the face of Io in a painting of the temple of Isis. The goddess welcomes the wanderer to Egypt after her long season of suffering; the traces of the suffering are clearly seen, yet are illumined by the ineffable and serene joy of final deliverance.

One of the most beautiful specimens of ancient painting is a fragment, badly preserved, in the tablinum of the house of Caecilius Jucundus. The composition probably represented Priam turning back toward Troy with the body of Hector, which he had just ransomed. In the fragment, shown in Fig. 270, we see the aged Hecuba, together with a daughter or maidservant, looking with unutterable anguish from an upper window down upon the scene. The gray-haired queen, whose features still retain much of their youthful beauty, gazes upon the dust-stained body of her son with grief too deep for tears.

In the majority of paintings the subjects of which are taken from myths the characters are represented either in a relation of rest, not suggestive of intense emotion, or in a lasting situation of dramatic interest, which is devoid of momentary excitement and does not suggest the display of evanescent feeling. The situation is sometimes cheerful, sometimes calculated to arouse sympathy; if the characters were not mythological, the scenes might pass for those of everyday life. Thus we see Narcissus looking at the reflection of his face in a clear spring in the forest; Polyphemus, on the seashore, receiving from the hands of a Cupid a letter sent by Galatea; and Apollo playing on the lyre for Admetus, while the herd grazes around him.

To the same series of cheerful or idyllic pictures belong the Selene hovering over the sleeping Endymion; Paris and Oenone on Mt. Ida, Paris cutting the name of his sweetheart in the bark of a tree; and Perseus with Andromeda looking at the reflection of the head of Medusa in a pool. With these we may class also the representations of Bacchus as he moves along with his rollicking band and suddenly comes upon the sleeping Ariadne; and Hercules with Omphale, sometimes sitting in woman's attire beside her and spinning, sometimes staggering in his cups or lying drunk upon the ground while she stands or sits near him.

Examples of a pathetic situation are equally abundant. We find Aphrodite caring for the wounded Adonis, and Cyparissus grieving over the dead stag. The pathos of the scene, however, is not always so obviously suggested. The familiar painting of Europa represents the maiden playfully sitting upon the bull, which one of her girlish companions is caressing. The situation, from one point of view, is idyllic, yet it brings to mind the unhappy fate of the girl, borne far away from home over the sea to a distant land, and the effect is heightened by giving her a wonderfully beautiful form.

Not infrequently a similar result is produced by placing figures of incongruous type in sharp contrast; so in the oft-repeated composition in which the beautiful Thetis in elegant attire sits in the workshop of Hephaestus, looking at the shield which the rough and grimy smith is finishing for Achilles. In another composition Pasiphaë is seen in the shop of Daedalus, who points out the wooden cow; and a similar idea of contrast must have been present in the mind of the artist who painted Danaë after she had been cast ashore in a chest on the island of Seriphus, sitting on the beach with little Perseus in her lap, while two fishermen standing near make inquiry concerning her strange fate.

The symmetrical arrangement of the paintings in a Pompeian room can hardly have failed to influence the choice of compositions for the principal panels, especially in cases in which mythological scenes were to be represented. Sometimes, though not so frequently as might have been expected, pictures were grouped according to subject. We have already noticed the relation of two paintings, in the house of Castor and Pollux, in which Achilles is the principal figure. The first of these, Achilles among the daughters of Lycomedes, is found in a room of another house in a group of three; one of the companion pieces represents Thetis in the smithy of Hephaestus looking at the weapons which are being made for Achilles, while in the other she is seen riding over the sea on a Triton, bringing them to her son. There is another group of three pictures related by subject in a room in the house of the Vettii; they belong to the Theban cycle, and represent the infant Hercules strangling the serpents, the death of Pentheus, and the binding of Dirce.

Similarity of scene and of treatment influenced the selection of paintings for a room much more often than unity of subject. A good illustration is the pair of pictures several times found together, one of which represents Polyphemus on the beach receiving from a Cupid a letter written by Galatea; in the other Aphrodite is seen on the seashore fishing, with Cupids all about her. The suggestion of Love is common to both paintings, but the juxtaposition of the two as counterparts is due to the similarity of scene. Opposite the picture of Europa referred to above, is a Pan playing on his pipe, with nymphs around him; the two pictures, which appear in a room of the third style, from the decorative point of view form an effective pair.

A sleeping room of the same style—though in respect to grouping no difference between the styles is apparent—offers an interesting example of a double group. The four principal paintings form two pairs. In one pair we see, on one side, Hercules in the garden of the Hesperides approaching an altar around which three maidens are standing; on the other, a shrine of Artemis in a forest with three worshippers drawing near, one of whom brings a garland. The two pictures harmonize in the character of the scenery and in the arrangement of the figures.

The effectiveness of the other pair as a decorative counterpart can be seen in our illustrations; the subject of one of the paintings is the fate of the pipes which Athena cast aside (Fig. 271), and of the other the fall of Icarus (Fig. 272).

In the first of the two pictures we have one of the few extant examples of a kind of painting associated with the name of Philostratus, in which different scenes representing the successive stages of an action are united in one composition.

In the foreground at the left sits Athena, with her shield on the ground beside her, playing the double pipe; a nymph in front rising from the surface of a stream holds up a mirror in which the goddess may see her face reflected as she plays.

The next two scenes lie just across the brook. At the foot of the cliff sits the divinity of the country, Phrygia, in which the story of Marsyas is localized. Above, at the left, we see the satyr with a shepherd's crook in his left hand blowing a Pan's pipe; he has not yet espied the pipes thrown away by Athena.

At the right he appears again, near the tree, having found the pipes discarded by the goddess and picked them up. Lastly, in the middle of the background, we see him playing the pipes in the presence of the Muses, who are serving as judges in the contest of skill between the satyr and Apollo.

The final scene with the flaying of Marsyas, which was sometimes represented in sculpture, and appears also in several Pompeian paintings, is here omitted.

The inner connection of the other picture is not so clear. It is perhaps a confused form of a composition in which Icarus, lying on the ground after his fall, was the central figure; the local divinities and natives of the region were looking upon the body of the hapless youth with pity; while Daedalus, hovering in the air above, was trying to find the spot where he had fallen.

Our artist, however, thinking to heighten the effect, represented Icarus as plunging headlong through the air, with the result shown in the illustration; neither Daedalus nor the figures in the foreground seem yet to have become aware of the catastrophe.

We can in no way more appropriately bring to a close our brief survey of the Pompeian paintings than by presenting a reproduction of the scene in which Zeus and Hera appear on Mt. Ida (Fig. 273). This painting has been sufficiently discussed in another connection (pp. 316-317); though preserved in a damaged condition, it clearly represents an original of no slight merit.

PART VI
THE INSCRIPTIONS OF POMPEII

CHAPTER LVI
IMPORTANCE OF THE INSCRIPTIONS.—MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS AND PUBLIC NOTICES

The inscriptions discovered at Pompeii number more than six thousand. They cover a wide field, ranging from commemorative tablets put up at public expense to the scribblings of idlers upon the plastered walls. It would be an exaggeration to say that they contribute to our knowledge of antiquity much that is new; their value lies rather in the insight which they give into the life of the city and its people.

In one respect the evidence derived from inscriptions, though often of the most fragmentary character, is especially satisfactory. We feel that we are handling original documents, without the intervention of that succession of copyists which stands between the author of a Greek or Roman masterpiece and the modern reader. The shapes of the letters and the spelling are just as they were left by the stonecutter or the scribbler; the various handwritings can still be as plainly distinguished on the charred tablets of Caecilius Jucundus as though the signatures were witnessed only yesterday. Through the inscriptions we are brought into contact with the personality of the Pompeians as in no other way.

The inscriptions may be classified either according to the subject matter or according to the form in which they appear, whether cut in stone, or painted, or scratched upon a smooth surface with a stylus. No detailed classification need be given here; it will be sufficient for our purposes to discuss the main divisions briefly under four heads,—monumental inscriptions and public notices, graffiti, and inscriptions relating to business affairs.

Monumental inscriptions include those which are cut in hard material and are intended to be read by all who see them. They are found at Pompeii chiefly in or upon public buildings, on pedestals of statues and on sepulchral monuments. They are characterized by extreme brevity. A few are in the Oscan language, the rest are in Latin. The more important examples have been presented in the preceding pages in connection with the monuments to which they belong. A list of them is given in the Index under "Inscriptions."

The public notices are painted upon the walls along the sides of the streets, ordinarily in a bright red color; a few are in black. The most important are the election notices, in which a candidate is recommended for a public office. These are about sixteen hundred in number, and the names of more than a hundred different candidates appear in them.

The election notices fall into two classes, distinguished both by the style of writing and by the manner of expression,—earlier, from the time of the Republic, and later, belonging to the Imperial period. The shapes of the letters in those of the former class are irregular, and bear the mark of an unpractised hand. The later notices, on the contrary, have a more finished appearance; they are executed in a kind of calligraphic style that suggests the employment of skilled clerks who made the painting of electoral recommendations a part of their business. We have already met with the name of one painter of notices who signed his work, Aemilius Celer (p. 223). His house has been discovered, near the northeast corner of the ninth Region; it was identified by means of an inscription painted on the outside: Aemilius Celer hic habitat,—'Aemilius Celer lives here.'

The language of the earlier recommendations is of the simplest. We find the name of the candidate with no suggestion of praise excepting occasionally the letters v. b., for virum bonum, 'good man.' The name of the office is given in an abbreviated form, but that of the person who makes the recommendation nowhere appears. In one example the elements of the common formula o. v. f., for oro vos, facite, are given almost in full: M. Marium aed. faci., oro vos,—'Make Marcus Marius aedile, I beg of you.' The following notice appears on Stabian Street in letters nearly 8 inches high: P · FVR · II · V · \B · O · \F, that is Publium Furium duumvirum, virum bonum, oro vos, facite,—'Make Publius Furius duumvir, I beg of you; he's a good man.'

Some of the later election notices are almost equally brief, presenting merely the name of the candidate, the office for which he is recommended, and the formula o. v. f., as in this instance: Herennium Celsum aed[ilem] o. v. f.,—'Make Herennius Celsus aedile, I beg of you.' Occasionally even the formula is omitted, and we have simply the name of the candidate and of the office, both invariably in the accusative case, as Casellium aed., which appears in several places, and M. Holconium Priscum II. vir. i. d.

More frequently the recommendation includes a reference to the good qualities of the candidate. Sometimes he is simply styled 'a good man,' as in the earlier notices; but the most common formula in this connection is d. r. p., for dignum re publica, 'worthy of public office.' In some instances the characterization is more definite. More than one candidate is affirmed to be 'an upright young man' (iuvenem probum), or 'a youth of singular modesty' (verecundissimum iuvenem). In regard to one aspirant for office we are informed that 'he will be the watch-dog of the treasury'—hic aerarium conservabit.

The names of those who make the recommendations often appear in the later notices. Now and then individuals assume the responsibility, as Vesonius Primus (p. 396), and Acceptus and Euhodia (p. 341), who were undoubtedly owners of the property on which the notices appear. Thus the candidate's neighbors are sometimes represented as favoring his election, as in the case of Claudius Verus: Ti. Claudium Verum II. vir. vicini rogant,—'His neighbors request the election of Tiberius Claudius Verus as duumvir.' Electoral recommendations are painted on all sides of the house of Verus—the extensive establishment in the ninth Region known as the house of the Centenary.

The class of election notices in which we find the members of a craft united in the support of a candidate has been sufficiently illustrated in another connection (p. 384). To these we may add a recommendation found on a wall facing the temple of Isis: Cn. Helvium Sabinum aed. Isiaci universi rog[ant],—'The worshippers of Isis, as a body, request the election of Gnaeus Helvius Sabinus as aedile.' A suburb also might have a candidate, as in the following instance: M. Epidium Sabinum aed. Campanienses rog.,—'The inhabitants of the Pagus Campanus ask for the election of Marcus Epidius Sabinus as aedile.'

Sometimes all those who are engaged in an occupation are urged to support a candidate. 'Innkeepers, make Sallustius Capito aedile,' we read in one notice. In others, various classes of citizens having a common bond, as the ballplayers, and the dealers in perfumes, are exhorted to work for the election of a candidate presumably favorable to their interests. In one instance there is a direct appeal to an individual, involving a pledge of future support: Sabinum aed[ilem], Procule, fac, et ille te faciet,—'Proculus, make Sabinus aedile, and he will do as much for you.'

In view of the deep interest in the municipal elections, revealed by these notices, it is not surprising to find that the support of a candidate by a man of unusual prominence was extensively advertised. In three different parts of the city the attention of voters was directed to the fact that Suedius Clemens, the commissioner sent by Vespasian to decide the ownership of certain plots of ground (p. 407), favored the election of Epidius Sabinus as duumvir. One of the notices reads: M. Epidium Sabinum II. vir. iur. dic. o. v. f., dignum iuvenem, Suedius Clemens sanctissimus iudex facit vicinis rogantibus,—'At the request of the neighbors, Suedius Clemens, most upright judge, is working for the election of Marcus Epidius Sabinus, a worthy young man, as duumvir with judiciary authority. He begs of you to elect this candidate.'

So public a method of pressing a candidacy put a formidable weapon into the hands of the candidate's enemies, and the form of a recommendation was sometimes used against an office seeker with telling effect. Vatiam aed. furunculi rog.,—'The sneak thieves request the election of Vatia as aedile,' we find conspicuously painted on a wall on Augustales Street. According to other notices near by, 'The whole company of late drinkers' (seribibi universi) and 'all the people who are asleep' (dormientes universi) favored the candidacy of the same unhappy Vatia. The last notice which we shall present in this connection may have been painted on the order of the girl who appears in it: Claudium II. vir. animula facit,—'His little sweetheart is working for the election of Claudius as duumvir.' The reference is probably to the Tiberius Claudius Verus mentioned above.

The other kinds of public notices are represented by relatively few examples. Of special interest are the announcements of gladiatorial combats, which were discussed in a previous chapter (p. 221). Next in importance are perhaps the advertisements of buildings to rent. One of these, relating to the Elephant Inn, has already been mentioned (p. 400). We present here two others, which have to do with large properties. The first, which has now disappeared, was painted on a wall in the sixth Region, at the south end of the third Insula. It reads as follows:—

INSULA ARRIANA
POLLIANA CN. ALLEI NIGIDI MAI
LOCANTUR EX K[alendis] IULIS PRIMIS TABERNAE
CUM PERGULIS SUIS ET CENACULA
EQUESTRIA ET DOMUS. CONDUCTOR
CONVENITO PRIMUM, CN. ALLEI
NIGIDI MAI SER[vum].

'To rent, from the first day of next July, shops with the floors over them, fine upper chambers, and a house, in the Arrius Pollio block owned by Gnaeus Alleius Nigidius Maius. Prospective lessees may apply to Primus, slave of Gnaeus Alleius Nigidius Maius.'

The word equestria, translated 'fine,' is used colloquially with cenacula, in the sense 'fit for a knight.' The Insula named after Arrius Pollio was thought by Fiorelli to be the so-called house of Pansa, across the street from the block on which the advertisement was found. The identification may be correct, but a notice painted in so prominent a place might refer to a block in any part of the city.

The following inscription was found in the last century near the Amphitheatre, on a wall of the extensive establishment named from it the villa of Julia Felix:—

IN PRAEDIS IULIAE SP. F. FELICIS
LOCANTUR
BALNEUM VENERIUM ET NONGENTUM, TABERNAE, PERGULAE,
CENÁCULA EX IDIBUS AUG. PRIMIS IN IDUS AUG. SEXTÁS, ANNÓS
CONTINUOS QUINQUE S. Q. D. L. E. N. C.

'To let, for the space of five years, from the thirteenth day of next August to the thirteenth day of the sixth August thereafter, the Venus bath, fitted up for the best people, shops, rooms over shops, and second story apartments in the property owned by Julia Felix, daughter of Spurius.'

The bath may have received its name from Venus Pompeiana. The word nongentum is difficult to understand. The interpretation given is based upon a passage of Pliny the Elder, from which we understand that in colloquial language the knights were known as 'the nine hundred.' A bath 'of the nine hundred' would then be one designed to attract the patronage of the best people. The seven letters at the end of the inscription have not yet been satisfactorily explained.

Advertisements of articles lost or found are also met with. A notice in regard to a stray horse, painted on one of the tombs east of the Amphitheatre, is given on p. 436. On the east side of Insula VIII. v.-vi. we read:—

VRNA AENIA PEREIT · DE · TABERNA
SEIQVIS · RETTVLERIT DABVNTVR
HS LXV · SEI · FVREM
DABIT · VND ...

'A copper pot has been taken from this shop. Whoever brings it back will receive 65 sesterces. If any one shall hand over the thief' ... (the rest of the inscription is illegible).

CHAPTER LVII
THE GRAFFITI

The graffiti form the largest division of the Pompeian inscriptions, comprising about three thousand examples, or one half of the entire number; the name is Italian, being derived from a verb meaning 'to scratch.' Writing upon walls was a prevalent habit in antiquity, as shown by the remains of graffiti at Rome and other places besides Pompeii, a habit which may be accounted for in part by the use of the sharp-pointed stylus with wax tablets; the temptation to use such an instrument upon the polished stucco was much greater than in the case of pens and lead pencils upon the less carefully finished wall surfaces of our time. Pillars or sections of wall are covered with scratches of all kinds,—names, catchwords of favorite lines from the poets, amatory couplets, and rough sketches, such as a ship, or the profile of a face. The skit, occasionally found on walls to-day,