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HERCULANEUM

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 344 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HERCULANEUM , an See also:

ancient See also:city of See also:Italy, situated about two-thirds of a mile from the See also:Portici station of the railway from See also:Naples to See also:Pompeii. The ruins are less frequently visited than those of Pompeii, not only because they are smaller in extent and of less obvious See also:interest, but also because they are more difficult of See also:access. The See also:history of their See also:discovery and exploration, and the See also:artistic and See also:literary See also:relics which they have yielded, are worthy, however, of particular See also:notice. The small See also:part of the city, which was investigated at the spot called Gli scavi nuovi (the new excavations) was discovered in the 19th See also:century. But the more important See also:works were executed in the 18th century; and of the buildings then explored at a See also:great See also:depth, by means of tunnels, none is visible except the See also:theatre, the See also:orchestra of which lies 85 ft. below the See also:surface. The brief notices of the classical writers inform us that Herculaneum) was a small city of See also:Campania between Neapolis and Pompeii, that it was situated between two streams at the See also:foot of See also:Vesuvius on a See also:hill overlooking the See also:sea, and that its See also:harbour was at all seasons safe. With regard to its earlier history nothing is known. The See also:account given by See also:Dionysius repeats a tradition which was most natural for a city bearing the name of See also:Hercules. See also:Strabo follows up the topographical data with a few brief See also:historical statements—"OoKo See also:civil) Kai See also:rain-7)v Kai Tiiv icbE i I HOttir7LLav . . . See also:elm TUpj of Kai HeXac yoi, µEra TaiTa Zauv1Tat. But leaving the questions suggested by these names (see See also:ETRURIA, &c.),2 as well as those which relate to the origin of Pompeii (q.v.), it is sufficient here to say that the first historical See also:record about Herculaneum has been handed down by See also:Livy (viii. 25), where he relates how the city See also:fell under the See also:power of See also:Rome during the Samnite See also:wars.

It remained faithful to Rome for a See also:

long See also:time, but it joined the See also:Italian See also:allies in the Social See also:War. Having submitted anew in See also:June of the See also:year 665 (88 B.C.), it appears to have been less severely treated than Pompeii, and to have escaped the See also:imposition of a See also:colony of See also:Sulla's veterans, although See also:Zumpt has suspected the contrary (See also:Comm. epigr. i. 2S9). It afterwards became a See also:municipium, and enjoyed great prosperity towards the See also:close of the See also:republic and in the earlier times of the See also:empire, since many See also:noble families of Rome selected this pleasant spot for the construction of splendid villas, one of which indeed belonged to the imperial See also:house( See also:Seneca, De ire, iii.), and another to the 1 A fragment of L. Sisenna calls it " Oppidum tumulo in excelso loco propter See also:mare, See also:parvis moenibus, inter duas fluvias, infra Vesuvium collocatum " (See also:lib. iv., fragm. 53, See also:Peters). Of one of these See also:rivers this historian again makes mention in the passage where probably he related the See also:capture of Herculaneum by Minatius Magius and T. Didius (Velleius Paterculus ii. 16). Further topographical details are sup-plied by Strabo, who, after speaking about Naples, continues Ex6aevov bi 4povpt6v EOT iv 'Hp6 cX Lov EKKELO1,17v EIS T'hv 96.X See also:array &Kpav ixov, Kara,rvedµevov AL/3L Oav,uavrws woe' uycetViv lroteiv T7)v Karouciay. Dionysius of See also:Halicarnassus relates that Heracles, in the See also:place where he stopped with his See also:fleet on the return voyage from Iberia, founded a little city (1roXLXv7v), to which he gave his own name; and he adds that this city was in his time inhabited by the See also:Romans, and that, situated between Neapolis and Pompeii, it had XLµevas iv aavrl Katp(ii ~Et3aLcus (i. 44).

2 See also See also:

Niebuhr, Hist. of Rome, i. 76, and See also:Mommsen, See also:Die unteritalisehen Dialekte (185o), p. 314; for later discussions see OSCA LINGUA,See also:PELASGIANS. HERCULANEUM See also:family of See also:Calpurnius See also:Piso. By means of the Via Campana it had easy communication See also:north-westward with Neapolis, See also:Puteoli and See also:Capua,- and thence by the Via See also:Appia with Rome; and southwards with Pompeii and Nuceria, and thence with Lucania and the See also:Bruttii. In the year A.D. 63 it suffered terribly from the See also:earthquake which, according to Seneca, " Campaniam nunquam securam huius mali, indemnem tamen, et toties defunctam metu magna strage vastavit. Nam et Herculanensis oppidi pars ruit dubieque stant etiam quae relicta sunt " (Nat. quaest. vi. I). Hardly had Herculaneum completed the restoration of some of its See also:principal buildings (cf. Mommsen, I.N. n. 2384; Catalogo del Museo Nazionale di Napoli, n.

1151) when it fell beneath the great eruption of the year 79, described by See also:

Pliny the younger (Ep. vi. 16, 20), in which Pompeii also was destroyed, with other flourishing cities of Campania. According to the commonest account, on the 23rd of See also:August of that year Pliny the See also:elder, who had command of the See also:Roman fleet at See also:Misenum, set out to render assistance to a See also:young See also:lady of noble family named Rectina and others dwelling on that See also:coast, but, as there was no See also:escape by sea, the little harbour having been on a sudden filled up so as to be inaccessible, he was obliged to abandon to their See also:fate those See also:people of Herculaneum who had managed to flee from their houses, overwhelmed in a moment by the material poured forth by Vesuvius. But the See also:text of Pliny the younger, where this account is given, has been subjected to various interpretations; and from the comparison of other classical testimonies and the study of the excavations it has been concluded that it is impossible to determine the date of the See also:catastrophe, though there are satisfactory arguments to justify the statement that the event took place in the autumn. The See also:opinion that immediately after the first outbreak of Vesuvius a torrent of See also:lava was ejected over Herculaneum was refuted by the scholars of the 18th century, and their refutation is confirmed by Beule (Le Drame du Vesuve, p. 240 seq.). And the last recensions of the passage quoted from Pliny, aided by an inscription,3 prove that Rectina cannot have been the name of the harbour described by Beule (ib. pp. 122, 247), but the name of a lady who had implored succour, the wife of Caesius See also:Bassus, or rather Tascius (cf. Pliny, ed. Keil, See also:Leipzig, 187o; Aulus See also:Persius, ed. See also:Jahn, Sat. vi.). The See also:shore, moreover, according to the accurate studies of the engineer Michele Ruggiero, director of the excavations, was not altered by the causes adduced by Beule (p.

125), but by a simpler event. " It is certain," he says (Pompei e la regione sotterrata dal Vesuvio l'See also:

anno 79, Naples, 1879, p. 21 seq.), " that the districts between the See also:south and See also:west, and those between the south and See also:east, were overwhelmed in two quite different ways. From Torre Annunziata (which is believed to be the site of the ancient Oplontii) to See also:San Giovanni a Teduccio, for a distance of about 9 m., there flowed a muddy eruption which in Herculaneum and the neighbouring places, where it was most abundant, raised the level of the See also:country more than 65 ft. The See also:matter transported consisted of See also:soil of various kinds—See also:sand, ashes, fragments of lava, pozzolana and whitish See also:pumice, enclosing grains of uncalcined See also:lime, similar in every respect to those of Pompeii. In the part of Herculaneum already excavated the corridors in the upper portions of the theatre are compactly filled, up to the See also:head of the See also:arches, with pozzolana and pumice transformed into tufa (which proves that the formation of this See also:stone may take place in a comparatively See also:short time). Tufa is also found in the lowest part of the city towards the sea in front of the few houses that have been discovered; and in the very high See also:banks that surround them, as also in the lowest part of the theatre, there are plainly. to be seen See also:earth, sand, ashes, fragments C.I.L. ii. No. 3866. This See also:Spanish inscription refers to a Rectina who died at the See also:age of 18 and was the wife of Voconius See also:Romanus. It is quite possible that she was the Rectina whom Pliny the elder wished to assist during the disaster of Vesuvius, for her See also:husband; Voconius Romanus, was an intimate friend of Pliny the younger. The latter addressed four letters to Voconius (i.

5, ii. 1, iii. 13, ix. 28), in another See also:

letter commended him to the See also:emperor See also:Trajan (x. 3), and in another (ii. 13) says of him: " Hunc ego cum simul studere, See also:mus arte familiariterque dilexi; ille meus in urbe, ille in secessti contubernalis; cum hoc seria et jocos miscui." of lava and pumice, with little distinction of strata, almost always confused and mingled together, and varying from spot to spot in degree of compactness. It is clear that this immense congeries of earth and stones could not flow in a dry See also:state over those 5 M. of country (in the beginning very steep, and at intervals almost level), where certainly it would have been arrested and all accumulated in a See also:mound; but it must have been See also:borne along by a great quantity of See also:water, the effects of which may be distinctly recognized, not only in the filling and choking up even of the most narrow, intricate and remote parts of the buildings, but also in the formation of the tufa, in which water has so great a See also:share; for it cannot be supposed that enough of it has filtered through so great a depth of earth. The torrent ran in a few See also:hours to the sea, and formed that shallow or See also:lagoon called by Pliny Subitum Vadum, which prevented the See also:ships approaching the shores." Hence it is that, while many made their escape from Pompeii (which was overwhelmed by the fall of the small stones and afterwards by the rain of ashes), comparatively few can have managed to escape from Herculaneum, and these, according to the See also:interpretation given to the inscription preserved in the See also:National Museum (Mommsen, I.N. n. 2455), found shelter in the neighbouring city of Neapolis, where they inhabited a See also:quarter called that of the buried city (Suetonius, See also:Titus, 8; C.I.L. x. No. I492, in Naples: " Regio primaria splendidissima Herculanensium "). The name of Herculaneum, which for some time remained attached to the site of the disaster, is mentioned in the later itineraries; but in the course of the See also:middle ages all recollection of it perished.

In 1719, while See also:

Prince See also:Elbeuf of the house of See also:Lorraine, in command of the armies of See also:Charles VI., was seeking crushed See also:marble to make See also:plaster for his new See also:villa near Portici, he learned from the peasants that there were in the vicinity some pits from which they not only quarried excellent marble, but had extracted many statues in the course of years (see Jorio, Notizia degli scavi d' Ercolano, Naples, 1827). In 1738, while See also:Colonel D. Rocco de Alcubierre was directing the works for the construction of the " Reali Delizie " at Portici, he received orders from Charles IV. (later, Charles III. of See also:Spain) to begin excavations on the spot where it had been reported to the See also:king that the Elbeuf statues had been found. At first it was believed that a See also:temple was being explored, but afterwards the See also:inscriptions proved that the See also:building was a theatre. This discovery excited the greatest commotion among the scholars of all nations; and many of them hastened to Naples to see the marvellous statues of the See also:Balbi and the paintings on the walls. But everything was kept private, as the See also:government wished to reserve to itself the right of Illustrating the monuments. First of all See also:Monsignor Bayardi was brought from Rome and commissioned to write about the antiquities which were being collected in the museum at Portici under the care of Camillo Paderni, and when it was recognized that the See also:prelate had not sufficient learning, and by the progress of the excavations other most abundant material was accumulated, about which at once scholars and courtiers were anxious to be informed, Bernardo Tanucci, having become secretary of state in 1755, founded the Accademia Ercolanese, which published the principal works on Herculaneum (Le Pitture ed i bronzi d' Ercolano, 8 vols., 1757, 1792; Dissertationis isagogicae ad Herculanensium voluminum explanationem pars prima, 1797). The criterion which guided the studies of the academicians was far from being worthy of unqualified praise, and consequently their See also:work did not always meet the approval of the best scholars who had the opportunity of seeing the monuments. Among these was See also:Winckelmann, who in his letters gave ample notices of the excavations and the antiquities which he was able to visit on several occasions. Other notices were furnished by See also:Gori, Symbolae litterariae Florentine (1748, 1751), by See also:Marcello Venuti, Descrizione delle See also:prime scoperte d' Ercolano (Rome, 1748), and Scipione See also:Maffei, Tre lettere intorno alle scoperte d' Ercolano (See also:Verona, 1748). The excavations, which continued for more than See also:forty years (1738 1780), were executed at first under the immediate direction of Alcubierre (1738–1741), and then with the assistance of the See also:engineers Rorro and Bardet (1741–1745), Carl See also:Weber (1750–1764), and See also:Francesco La See also:Vega.

After the See also:

death of Alcubierre (1780) the last-named was appointed director-in-See also:chief of the excavations; but from that time the investigations at Herculaneum were intermitted, and the researches at Pompeii were vigorously carried on. Resumed in 1827, the excavations at Herculaneum were shortly after See also:sus- pended, nor were the new attempts made in 1866 with the See also:money bestowed by King See also:Victor See also:Emmanuel attended with success, being impeded by the many dangers arising from the houses built overhead. The meagreness of the results obtained by the occasional works executed in the last century, and the fact that the investigators were unfortunate enough to strike upon places already explored, gave rise to the opinion that the whole See also:area of the city had been crossed by tunnels in the time of Charles III. and in the beginning of thereign of See also:Ferdinand IV. And although it is recognized that the works had not been prosecuted with the caution that they required, yet in view of the serious difficulties that would attend the collection of the little that had been See also:left by the first excavators, every proposal for new investigations has been abandoned. But in a memoir which See also:Professor Barnabei read in the Reale Accademia dei Lincei (Atli Bella R. Ac. See also:series iii. vol. ii. p. 751) he undertook to prove that the researches made by the government in the 18th century did not See also:cover any great area. The antiquities excavated at Herculaneum in that century (i.e. the 18th) See also:form a collection of the highest scientific and artistic value. They come partly from the buildings of the ancient city (theatre, See also:basilica, houses and See also:forum), and partly from the private villa of a great Roman family (cf. See also:Comparetti and de See also:Petra, La Villa Ercolanese dei See also:Pisani, See also:Turin, 1883). From the city come, among many other marble statues, the two equestrian statues of the Balbi (Museo Borbonico, vol. ii. pl. xxxviii.-xxxix.), and the great imperial and municipal See also:bronze statues. Mural paintings of extra-See also:ordinary beauty were also discovered here, such as those that represent See also:Theseus after the slaughter of the See also:Minotaur (Helbig, Wandgemalde, Leipzig, 1878, No.

1214), See also:

Chiron teaching See also:Achilles the See also:art of playing on the See also:lyre (ibid. No. 1291), and Hercules finding Telephus who is being suckled by the See also:hind (ibid. No. 1143). Notwithstanding subsequent discoveries of stupendous paintings in the gardens of the Villa Farnesina on the banks of the See also:Tiber, the monochromes of Herculaneum remain among the finest specimens of the exquisite See also:taste and consummate skill displayed by the ancient artists. Among the best preserved is Leto and See also:Niobe, which has been the subject of so many studies and so many publications (ibid. No. 1706). There is also a considerable number of See also:lapidary inscriptions edited in vol. ii. of the epigraphic collection of the See also:Cat. del Mus. Naz. di Napoli. The Villa Suburbana has given us a See also:good number of marble busts, and the so-called statue of See also:Aristides, but above all that splendid collection of bronze statues and busts mostly reproductions of famous-See also:Greek works now to be found in the Naples Museum.

It is thence that we have obtained the reposing See also:

Hermes, the drunken See also:Silenus, the sleeping See also:Faunus, the dancing girls, the bust called See also:Plato's, that believed to be Seneca's, the two quoit-throwers or discoboli, and so many masterpieces more, figured by the academicians in their See also:volume on the bronzes. But a still further discovery made in the Villa Suburban contributed to magnify the greatness of Herculaneum; within its walls was found the famous library, of which, counting both entire and fragmentary volumes, 1803 papyri are preserved. Among the nations which took the greatest interest in the discovery of the Herculaneum library, the most See also:honourable See also:rank belongs to See also:England, which sent See also:Hayter and other scholars to Naples to solicit the publication of the volumes. Of the 341 papyri which have been unrolled, 195 have been published (Herculanensium voluminum quae supersunt (Naples, 1793–1809) ; Collectio altera, 1862–1876). They contain works by See also:Epicurus, See also:Demetrius, Polystratus, Colotes, See also:Chrysippus, Carniscus and See also:Philodemus. The names of the authors are in themselves sufficient to show that the library belonged to a See also:person whose principal study was the Epicurean See also:philosophy. But of the great See also:master of this school only a few works have been found. Of his See also:treatise IIepl Ousw,, divided into 37 books, it is known that there were three copies in the library (See also:Coll. alt. vi.). Professor Comparetti, studying the first fasciculus of volume xi. of the same new collection, recognized most important fragments of the See also:Ethics of Epicurus, and these he published in 1879 in Nos. ix. and xi. of the Rivista di filologia e d' istruzione classica (Turin). Even the other authors above mentioned are but poorly represented, with the exception of Philodemus, of whom 26 different See also:treatises have been recognized. But all these philosophic discussions, belonging for the most part to an author less than secondary among the Epicureans, fall short of the high expectations excited by the first discovery of the library. Among the many volumes unrolled only a few are of historical importance—that edited by See also:Bucheler, which treats of the philosophers of the See also:academy (Acad. phil. See also:index Hercul., Greifswald, 1859), and that edited by Comparetti, which deals with the See also:Stoics ("Papiro ercolanese inedito," in Rivista di fil. e d' ist. class. anno iii. fasc. x.-xii.).

To appreciate the value of the volumes unrolled but not yet published (for 146 vols. were only copied and not printed) the student must read Comparetti's See also:

paper, " Relazione sui papiri ercolanesi." Contributions of some value have been made to the study of Herculaneum fragments by Spengel (" Die hercul. Rollen," in Philologus, 1863, suppl. vol.), and See also:Gomperz (Hercul. Studien, Leipzig, 1865–1866, cf. Zeitschr. f. osterr. Gymn., 1867–1872). There are in the library some voluines written in Latin, which, according to See also:Boot (Notice sur See also:les manuscrits trouves d Herculaneum, See also:Amsterdam, 1845), were found tied up in a bundle apart. Of these we know 18, but they are all so damaged that hardly any of them can be deciphered. One with verses See also:relating to the See also:battle of See also:Actium is believed to belong to a poem of See also:Rabirius. The numerical preponderance of the works of Philodemus led some people to believe that this had been the library of that philosopher. Professor Comparetti has thrown out a conjecture (cf. Comparetti and de Petra, op. cit.) that the library was collected by See also:Lucius Piso Caesoninus (see Regione sotterrata dal Vesuvio, Naples, 1879, p. 159 sq.), but this conjecture has not found many supporters.

Professor de Petra (in the same work) has also published the See also:

official notices upon the antiquities unearthed in the sumptuous villa, giving the See also:plan executed by Weber and recovered by See also:chance by the director of excavations, Michele Ruggiero. This plan, which is here reproduced from de Petra 1 is the only satisfactory document for the See also:topography of Herculaneum; for the plan of the theatre published in the Bullettino archeologico italiano (Naples, 1861, i. p. 53, tab. iii.) was executed in 1747, when the excavations were not completed. And even for the history of the " finds " made in the Villa Suburbana the See also:necessity for further studies makes itself See also:felt, since there is a lack of agreement between the accounts given by Alcubierre and Weber and those communicated to the Philosophical Transactions (See also:London, vol. x.) by Camillo Paderni, See also:conservator of the Portici Museum. Among the older works relating to Herculaneum, in addition to those already quoted, may be mentioned de See also:Brosses, Lettre sur l'etat actuel de la ville souterraine d'See also:Heraclea (See also:Paris, 1750) ; Seigneux de Correvon, Lettre sur la decouverte de l'ancienne ville d'Herculane (Yverdon, 1770) ; See also:David, Les An/ignites d'Herculaneum (Paris, 178o) ; D' Ancora Gaetano, Prospetto storico-fisico degli scavi d' Ercolano e di Pompei (Naples, 1803) ; Venuti, Prime Scoverte di Ercolano (Rome, 1748) and Romanelli, Viaggio ad Ercolano (Naples, 1811). A full See also:list will be found in vol. i. of Museo Borbonico (Naples, 1824), pp. 1-11. The most important reference work is C. Waldstein and L. Shoo-See also:bridge, Herculaneum, Past, See also:Present and Future (London, 19o8); it contains full references to the history and the explorations, and to the buildings and See also:objects found (with illustrations). See also:Miss E. R.

See also:

Barker's Buried Herculaneum (1908) is exceedingly useful. In 1904 Professor Waldstein expounded both in See also:Europe and in See also:America an See also:international See also:scheme for thorough investigation of the site. Negotiations of a highly complex See also:character ensued with the Italian government, which ultimately in 1908 decided that the work should be undertaken by Italian scholars with Italian funds. The work was begun in the autumn of 1908, but See also:financial difficulties with See also:property owners in Resina immediately arose with the result that progress was practically stopped. (F.

End of Article: HERCULANEUM

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