The Last Days of Pompeii Volume 1

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1899 edition. Excerpt: ... BOOK II. Lucus tremiscit. Tota succusso solo Nutavit aula, dubia quo pondua daret, Ac fluctuanti similis.--Seneca: Thyesla, v. 696. Trembled the grove. Earth quivered; with the shock Quaked all the nodding hall, as doubtful where Ponderous to fall, --and heaving like a wave. CHAPTER I. "A FLASH HOUSE" IN POMPEII--AKD THE GENTLEMEN OF THE CLASSIC RING. To one of those parts of Pompeii, which were tenanted not by the lords of pleasure, but by its minions and its victims; the haunt of gladiators and prize-fighters; of the vicious and the penniless; of the savage and obscene; the Alsatia of an ancient city--we are now transported. It was a large room that opened at once on the confined and crowded lane. Before the threshold was a group of men, whose iron and well-strung muscles, whose short and Herculean necks, whose hardy and reckless countenances, indicated the champions of the arena. On a shelf, without the shop, were ranged jars of wine and oil; and right over this was inserted in the wall a coarse painting which exhibited gladiators drinking, --so ancient and so venerable is the custom of signs! Within the room were placed several small tables, arranged somewhat in the modern fashion of "boxes," and round these were seated several knots of men, some drinking, some playing at dice, some at that more skilful game called " duodecim script " which certain of the blundering learned have mistaken for chess, though it rather, perhaps, resembled backgammon of the two, and was usually, though not always, played by the assistance of dice. The hour was in the early forenoon, and nothing better, perhaps, than that unseasonable time itself denoted the habitual indolence of these tavern loungers. Yet, despite the situation of the house and the...