Being a History major, the prospect of seeing the ruins of structures built more than two thousand years ago was extremely exciting. As I looked over the list of sites the group would be visiting, two of them really stood out to me: The Roman Forum, and Pompeii. Upon arriving in Castel Gandolfo and receiving a brief orientation about our activities for the following eight weeks, I was interested to learn that the Roman Forum would be our first site visit, and Pompeii would be one of the last. “How fitting,” I thought at the time, “to begin and end with the most exciting and interesting sites.”
At first, walking through the Roman Forum was like walking through a dream. It just didn’t seem real that I could brush my hand against a column that had been standing centuries before the founding of Christianity! However, it was difficult to visualize what the Forum would have looked like in ancient times. What was left of these buildings was only a pile of rubble, or a single broken column still left standing. Also, the Forum has been built, torn down, and rebuilt several times throughout history. The task of separating each of the layers is nearly impossible. I could not tell the difference between a Republic-era building from an Imperial one. The difficulty is doubled when, as it happened quite often, a pile of rubble would be made up of column fragments from BOTH eras. After the second or third building of this sort, the tourist loses interest and tunes out, no longer listening to the guide going on about Emperor X who came before Emperor Y, who later tore down Emperor X’s temple to build his own, which was torn down centuries later by Pope Such-and-Such to be the site of a grand Catholic church, which would be torn down even more centuries later by Napoleon! And somewhere in the middle of all that, the Forum was flooded and the buildings were all buried under sewage! By the time our tour was over, my mind was spinning with all of the different names and dates of eras, Emperors, and Popes that had just been thrown at me. Although I loved the Forum for what it was, I was disappointed by what it is today.
Now nearing the end of my journey to Italy, we’ve just recently traveled to Pompeii. Today, Pompeii is an excavation. Over two thousand years ago, it was a great city in the Roman Empire. In 79 A.D., nearby Mount Vesuvius erupted, burying the entire city of Pompeii under this layers of ash, dust, and volcanic rock. While this was an unthinkable tragedy, the disaster has served a good purpose. The city of Pompeii was so well preserved by the ash, that even Pompeii’s ancient residents can be seen today. The ash and dust enveloped the people as they attempted to hide or flee the eruption, making a sort of cast around their bodies. When they were discovered, these casts were filled in, revealing perfect human forms. Even the body of a dog was found among them, writhing in agony as it struggles to breathe. The expression of pain can still be seen on its face. More than this, walking through the streets of Pompeii, one can enter houses and shops, see the pots where food was cooked and served to the residents, see the colorful frescoes that decorated ceilings and walls, and walk on the gorgeous marble tile that adorned their floors. In my mind, Pompeii was still alive, and can be seen today for what it was in ancient times.
The Ancient Rome that I came to see is gone. All that’s left is what I can imagine out of a few columns and a pile of rubble. Pompeii still exists. I can see how large the houses were, how small the beds were—thereby knowing the height of most ancient people. I learned more about ancient Roman culture is the single day that I was in Pompeii than I believe I did during the time I spent within sites in Rome. Where the Roman Forum was a disappointment, Pompeii renewed my passion and interest. In Rome, I saw the Rome of the upper class and the royal families. In Pompeii, I saw the lives of the common man. I could walk into restaurants, bars, and brothels. I saw small tenements and large villas. In Rome, I only saw Imperial Palaces and places of government. There was nothing to give me an insight to what life was like for the common Roman man. But this is what I found in Pompeii. All in all, Pompeii gave me back what I had lost in Rome. I am so happy for the chance to be able to travel there and walk through the excavations.
