Pompeii, Its Life and Art. August 1840-1909 Mau
He can best form an idea of this bustling, ceaseless, varied activity who knows what the piazza means in the life of a modern Italian city, and stops to consider how much has been taken from the life of the piazza by the cafés and similar places of resort; modern squares, moreover, are usually not provided, as were the ancient, with inviting colonnades, affording protection against both sun and rain.
The life of the Forum seemed so interesting to one of the citizens of Pompeii that he devoted to the portrayal of it a series of paintings on the walls of a room. The pictures are light and sketchy, but they give a vivid representation of ancient life in a small city. First, in front of the equestrian statues near the colonnade we see dealers of every kind and description. There sits a seller of copper vessels and iron utensils (Fig. 16), so lost in thought that a friend is calling his attention to a possible purchaser who is just coming up. Next come two shoemakers, one waiting on women, another on men; then two cloth dealers. Further on a man is selling portions of warm food from a kettle; then we see a woman with fruit and vegetables, and a man selling bread. Another dealer in utensils is engaged in eager bargaining, while his son, squatting on the ground, mends a pot.
Fig. 16.—Scene in the Forum.
In the foreground, at the left, dealer in utensils; at the right, shoemaker waiting on four ladies. Wall painting.
The scenes now change. A man sitting with a writing tablet and stylus listens closely to the words of another who stands near by; he reminds us of the scribes who, under the portico of the theatre of San Carlo, at Naples, write letters for those that have been denied the privilege of an education.
Then come men wearing tunics, engaged in some transaction, in the course of which they seem to pass judgment on the contents of bottles which they hold in their hands; their business perhaps involves the testing of wine. Beyond these, some men are taking a walk; a woman is giving alms to a beggar; and two children play hide and seek around a column. The following scene is not easy to understand, but apparently has reference to some legal process; a woman leads a little girl with a small tablet before her breast into the presence of two seated men who wear the toga.
Fig. 17.—Scene in the Forum.
Citizens reading a public notice. Wall painting.
In the next scene (Fig. 17) four men are reading a notice posted on a long board, which is fastened to the pedestals of three equestrian statues. The sketchy character of the painting is especially obvious in the representations of the horses, which are nevertheless lifelike. It is also interesting to note that the heads of the men in these scenes are uncovered; in stormy weather pointed hoods (shown in a tavern scene, Fig. 234) were sometimes worn. The festoons suggest a trimming of the colonnade for some festal occasion.
The last scene is from school life. A pupil is to receive a flogging. He is mounted on the back of one of his schoolmates, while another holds him by the legs; a slave is about to lay on the lash, and the teacher stands near by with an air of composure. It would not be safe to infer from this, however, that there was a school in the Forum; the columns in this scene are different from those in the others and are further apart. Possibly a part of the small portico north of the court of the temple of Apollo was at one time let to a schoolmaster.
The most important religious festivals were celebrated in the Forum. Here naturally festal honors were paid to the highest of the gods—the whole area enclosed by the colonnade was the court of his temple; but we learn from an inscription, mentioned below, that celebrations were held here in honor of Apollo also, whose temple adjoined the Forum, and was at first even more closely connected with it than in later times.
Vitruvius informs us that in Greek towns the market place, agora, was laid out in the form of a square (a statement which is not confirmed by modern excavations), but that in the cities of Italy, on account of the gladiatorial combats, the Forum should have an oblong shape, the breadth being two thirds of the length. The purpose in giving a lengthened form to the Forum, as also to the Amphitheatre, was no doubt to secure, at the middle of the sides, a greater number of good seats, from which a spectacle could be witnessed. In the Pompeian Forum, as may be seen from the dimensions given at the beginning of this chapter, the breadth is less than one third of the length. However, there can be little doubt that gladiatorial exhibitions were frequently held there before the building of the Amphitheatre, which dates from the earlier years of the Roman colony. After this time the Forum was still used for games and contests of a less dangerous character. The epitaph of a certain A. Clodius Flaccus, which is now lost, but was copied by a scholar in the seventeenth century, tells us at length how in his first, and again in his second, duumvirate (he was duumvir for the third time in 3 B.C.), in connection with the festival of Apollo, he not only gave gladiatorial exhibitions in the Amphitheatre, but also provided bullfights and other spectacles, as well as musical entertainments and pantomimes, in the Forum.
Speaking of the Forum as a place for gladiatorial combats, Vitruvius adds that the spaces between the columns should be wide—that the view of spectators might be as little as possible impeded—and that the upper story of the colonnade should be arranged with reference to the collection of an admission fee. The latter suggestion is of special interest. As we know from other sources, at public games certain places were reserved for the officials and for the friends of him who gave the spectacle; others were free to the public, while for still others an admission fee was charged. If the exhibition was held in a market place, with lower and upper colonnades, the former would be open to the people; the latter in part reserved, in part accessible on payment of the price of admission.
It would be interesting to know whether on such occasions at Pompeii the gates of the Forum itself were shut, so that admission even to the free space could be regulated; perhaps they were in earlier times when, as at Rome, slaves were forbidden to witness the games. However, Cicero speaks of this time-honored regulation as in his day already a thing of the past; and so in Roman Pompeii the gates of the Forum may have remained open even on the days of the games. Their most important use was probably in connection with the voting.
The Forum had a part also in spectacles which were not presented there. We are safe in assuming that, at least in the earlier times, whenever a gladiatorial combat was given in the Amphitheatre, or a play in the Theatre, the city officials, including especially the official providing the entertainment, formed in procession with their retinue and proceeded in festal attire to the place of amusement. These processions could scarcely have formed anywhere else than in the Forum, and thence they must have started out.
The fact that the Forum was not accessible for vehicles suggests a significant point of difference between the festal processions of the colony and those of the capital. In the latter, vehicles had a prominent place. Thus at Rome the official who gave the games in the Circus entered the edifice with his retinue in chariots in the imposing circus parade, pompa circensis, and a similar usage prevailed in the case of other processions; priests, too, and priestesses were on many occasions allowed to ride. But even in Rome carriages were always considered a matter of luxury; and the municipal regulations promulgated by Caesar prohibited the use of vehicles, except those required for religious and civic processions, on the streets of the city from sunrise till the tenth hour, that is, till four o'clock in the afternoon.
In Pompeii, and without doubt also in other cities of Italy and the provinces, the closing of the Forum to vehicles made it necessary that religious and other processions should proceed on foot. We have no evidence of any exception to this rule. We ought perhaps to recognize in it one of those devices by means of which Rome maintained a position of dignified superiority over the provincial towns; to her processions was allowed an element of display which to theirs was denied. It was not permitted to name the two chief executive officers of a municipality consuls, though their functions, within limits, corresponded with those of the consuls at Rome; nor could the city council be called