This city was, together with Pompeii and Stabiæ, involved in the common ruin occasioned by the dreadful eruption of Vesuvius, in the reign of Titus, which has already been described in our previous pages.
It was situated on a point of land stretching into the gulf of Naples, about two miles distant from that city, near where the modern towns of Portici and Resini, and the royal palace, by which they are separated, now stand. The neck of land on which it was built, and which has since disappeared, formed a small harbor. Hence the appellation of Herculis Porticum, (the small haven of Hercules,) sometimes given to Herculaneum, and thence in all probability, the modern name of Portici.
The latter being situated immediately above some of the excavations of Herculaneum, the just fear of endangering its safety, by undermining it, is given as a principal reason why so little progress has been made in the Herculanean researches.
The discovery of Herculaneum is thus explained. At an inconsiderable distance from the royal palace of Portici, and close to the seaside, Prince Elbeuf, in the beginning of the last century, inhabited an elegant villa. To obtain a supply of water a well was dug, in the year 1730, through the deep crust of lava on which the mansion itself had been reared. The laborers, after having completely pierced through the lava, which was of considerable depth, came to a stratum of dry mud. This event precisely agrees with the tradition relative to Herculaneum, that it was in the first instance overwhelmed by a stratum of hot mud, which was immediately followed by a wide stream of lava. Whether this mud was thrown up from Vesuvius, or formed by torrents of rain, does not appear to have been decided. Within the stratum the workmen found three female statues, which were sent to Vienna.
It was not until some years after this, that the researches at Herculaneum were seriously and systematically pursued. By continuing Elbeuf’s well, the excavators at once came to the theater, and from that spot carried on their further subterraneous investigation. The condition of Herculaneum was at that time much more interesting, and more worthy the notice of the traveler, than it is at present. The object of its excavation having unfortunately been confined to the discovery of statues, paintings, and other curiosities, and not carried on with a view to lay open the city, and thus to ascertain the features of its buildings and streets, most of the latter were again filled up with rubbish as soon as they were divested of everything movable. The marble even was torn from the walls of the temples. Herculaneum may therefore be said to have been overwhelmed a second time by its modern discoverers; and the appearance it previously presented, can now only be ascertained from the accounts of those who saw it in a more perfect state. Agreeably to them, it must at that time have afforded a most interesting spectacle.
The theater was one of the most perfect specimens of ancient architecture. It had, from the floor upward, eighteen rows of seats, and above these, three other rows, which, being covered with a portico, seem to have been intended for the female part of the audience, to screen them from the rays of the sun. It was capable of containing between three and four thousand persons. Nearly the whole of its surface, as well as the arched walls which led to its seats, was cased with marble. The area, or pit, was floored with thick squares of giallo antico, a beautiful marble of a yellowish hue. On the top stood a group of four bronze horses, drawing a car, with a charioteer, all of exquisite workmanship. The pedestal of white marble is still to be seen in its place; but the group itself had been crushed and broken in pieces by the immense weight of lava which fell on it. The fragments having been collected, might easily have been brought together again, but having been carelessly thrown into a corner, a part of them were stolen, and another portion fused, and converted into busts of their Neapolitan majesties. At length, it was resolved to make the best use of what remained, that is, to convert the four horses into one, by taking a fore leg of one of them, a hinder leg of another, the head of a third, &c., and, where the breach was irremediable, to cast a new piece. To this contrivance the bronze horse now shown in the museum of Naples owes its existence; and, considering its patchwork origin, it still conveys a high idea of the skill of the ancient artist.
In the forum, which was contiguous to the theater, beside a number of inscriptions, columns, &c., two beautiful equestrian statues of the Balbi family were found. These were of white marble, and were deposited in the hall of the left wing of the palace at Portici. Adjoining to the forum stood the temple of Hercules, an elegant rotunda, the interior of which was decorated with a variety of paintings, such as Theseus returning from his Cretan adventure with the Minotaur, Telephus’s birth, Chiron, the centaur, instructing Achilles, &c. These were carefully separated from the walls, and are deposited in the museum at Naples.
The most important discovery, however, was that of a villa, at a small distance from the forum; not only on account of the peculiarity of its plan, but because the greater number of the works of art were dug out of its precinct; and more especially because it contained a library consisting of more than fifteen hundred volumes, which are likewise safely deposited in the museum, and which, were they legible, would form a great classic treasure. These have been mentioned in the account of the museum at Naples, which will be found on a previous page. The villa is conjectured to have belonged to one of the Balbi family. Although elegant, it was small, and consisted of a ground-floor only, like those of Pompeii. Beside a number of small closets round an interior hall, it contained a bathing-room, curiously fitted up with marble and water-pipes, and a chapel of a diminutive size, without any window or aperture for daylight, the walls of which were painted with serpents, and within which a bronze tripod, filled with cinders and ashes, was found standing on the floor. The apartment which contained the library was fitted up with wooden presses around the walls, about six feet in hight: a double row of presses stood insulated in the middle of the room, so as to admit a free passage on every side. The wood of which the presses had been made, was burned to a cinder, and gave way at the first touch; but the volumes, composed of a much more perishable substance, the Egyptian or Syracusan papyrus, were, although completely carbonized through the effect of the heat, still so far preserved as to admit of their removal to a similar set of modern presses, (provided, however, with glass doors,) in the museum.
In the middle of the garden belonging to this villa, was a large basin, having its edges faced with stone, and the two narrow ends rounded off in a semicircular form. This piece of water was surrounded by beds or parterres of various shapes; and the garden was on every side inclosed by a covered walk supported by columns. Of these columns there were sixty-four, ten for each of the shorter, and twenty-two for each of the longer sides of the quadrangle: they were made of brick, neatly stuccoed over, exactly similar to those in the Pompeian barracks. Each pillar supported one end of a wooden beam, the other extremity of which rested on the garden wall, thus forming an arbor, in all probability planted with vines around the whole garden. Under this covered walk, several semicircular recesses, which appear to have served as bathing-places, were built. The spaces between the pillars were decorated with marble busts and bronze statues, alternately arranged. This garden was surrounded by a narrow ditch; and another covered walk, of a considerable length, led to a circular balcony, or platform, the ascent to which was by four steps, but which overhung the sea about fifteen feet. The floor of the balcony consisted of a very beautiful tesselated pavement. From this charming spot the prospect over the whole bay of Naples, including the mountains of Sorrento, the island of Capri, and Mount Posilipo, must have been delightful.