Herculanum

For the Italian commune, to see Ercolano

Herculanum (in Italian modern, formerly Resined, Ercolano since 1969) was a Roman city ancient located geographically at, in the Italian area of Campanie.

Origin and history

As its name reveals it clearly, the origin of Herculanum is related to the mythical figure of the demigod Hercules. According to the legend, it is him which founded the city. VIIe with the Ve century, the city was populated of Osque S, Étrusque S and Greek. Indeed of recent historical research result in allotting to Herculanum, as with Pompéi, an Etruscan origin. The history of these cities followed parallel destinies until the end of the social war and with their occupation by the Roman army of Sylla, between 89 and 80 before JC.

Herculanum developed like Seaside resort very appreciated by the rich person Romains and like residential city of the big families patricians, attracted by the splendid panoramic position of the headland on which it is built, by its climate and the typical products of the surrounding countryside. On the other hand, Pompéi was also a productive and commercial city, with more diversity in the field of the social life and the models of architecture. One and the other knew a phase of remarkable urban development under Auguste, but suffered serious damage at the time of the Earthquake of 62 after JC, before being striped like Stabies and Oplontis of the chart by the eruption of 79, in a different way but quite as radical. flow pyroclastic has preceded eruption principal, killing much of residents, with which the bodies “were coated” by ashes, which preserved (solidified) their last moments, transforming them into “statues”. The relatively fine and coherent layer of the eruptive materials which covered Pompéi left its free ruins of any posterior construction. The hard crust of tuff which covered the Herculanum antique made it possible to build the new city of Resined on the surface. Herculanum was buried under a layer of more than fifteen meters thickness of lava, ashes and of mud which was transformed into hard stone, making the conditions of excavations extremely difficult. However, in 1969, this city took again its ancient name.

The excavation started in modern Ercolano, suburbs of Naples, in 1738. The publication of Antichità di Ercolano ( antiquities of Herculanum ) under the patronage of Charles II of Spain, king of Both Siciles, had an effect on the Néoclassicisme incipient in Europe, out of proportion with its rather limited diffusion. At the end of the 18th century, the reasons suitable for Herculanum made their appearance on furnishing, the tapestries, the tables and the cups with the.

Public edifices

Thermal baths of the forum

; Male section

The entry, of the frontage in opus reticulatum, gives on a flanked corridor of latrines public, envisaged according to the Roman habit for a collective use. On the conduit of draining, which one can still see, was placed a file of marble seats perforated, carried at the time of the first excavations (XVIIIe century). The corridor led to the interior court with gantry of the palestre from where one passes to the Apodyterium or cloakroom, with clothing and a niche intended to shelter a small fountain. The regular succession of the thermal rooms is partly modified: the Frigidarium is insulated, on the left of the cloakrooms. It round, is highly coloured of blue on the level of the basin and the vault, decorated with marine animals, and red on the walls where four niches are decorated with yellow to the angles.
On the right of the first place, one finds on the other hand the Tepidarium, with the ground with double thickness rather undulating, decorated of a white and black mosaic similar to that of the female thermal baths, representative Triton surrounded by Dauphin S.

; Female section

As usual the part of the thermal baths intended for the women, moreover sometimes absent, is of less dimensions and less neat than the male section, even if it has in our eyes the incomparable advantage of a better state of conservation. The current entry is not that of the time. The preserved cloakrooms or apodyteirum, goods, have a barrel vault with strigiles (parallel grooves) in stucco, a ground in white and black mosaic representing Triton with dolphins, octopuses and murenes and large racks to deposit clothing there. The tepidarium presents similar characters; its ground is decorated with a band with geometrical reasons, while the caldarium is recognizable with its ground with double thickness, visible thanks to an opening protected by a grid, inside whose the hot air circulated. In addition to the large basin for the immersions, the part is provided with a circular base intended to support the labrum for ablutions and two beautiful marble seats, one out of white marble, the other out of ancient red marble.

The college of Oberau

On the external wall in opus reticulatum and brick, is the side entry of this singular building of an private interest since it is about one of the rare buildings of Herculanum which can be qualified of public and to which a graffiti inside gives the name of Curia augustana. This character seems underlined by the site, on two still visible bases beside the columns which border the entry, of the statues of César and Auguste, now lost.

The interior is presented in the form of a rectangular big room, in the center of which four columns are drawn up, located at the angles of a quadrangular opening supported by an entablature made up of large spans out of wooden, obviously carbonized. The two posterior columns were included in two partitions which, being based on the bottom of the room, constituted a small square part, with the bottom of the room, with a base intended to accommodate the statue of Auguste, as the column of bay-tree indicates it clearly painted on the wall, crowns typically imperial.

The walls are decorated with fresco of IVe style, with two central scenes dedicated to the mythological hero who gave his name to the city: Herculanum and respectively representing the Introduction of Hercules into Olympe and the combat of Hercules against the Acheloo river.

Houses and villas of Herculanum

The villa of the papyruses

The House of Neptune and Amphitrite and its shop

The entry opens beside a shop of foodstuffs whose furniture out of wooden is preserved. The amphoras which are presented do not come from this commercial space. However, there is not any doubt that this bouique constituted a restaurant where one ate on the inch of the mets préaprés on one of the two cooking surfaces. Above the laraire located in the angle of the atrium were found two monochromic tables on the marble, exposed to the archaeological Musée of Naples. The most significant part is the triclinium of summer with one nymphée, decorated with a beautiful panel in mosaics, framed shells and of foam of lava, representing the weddings of Neptune and Amphitrite, which gave its name to the house.

The house of the wood partition

It owes its name with the partition out of wooden separating the large atrium and the tablinum, decorated nails out of bronze, and arrived to us in excellent conditions, although carbonized, thanks to the absence of oxygen when the rock in fusion with covered Herculanum. One is struck by the state of conservation of the white frontage of the building, with his large gate surrounded by blocks of tuff, between small windows which recall us that in the Roman houses light and air came especially court interior. It is an good example of aristocratic residence able to accommodate several families

The imposing atrium of the Tuscan type, already mentioned for the partition out of wooden which separates it from the tablinum, is worthy of interest one and the other testifies to a rather antiquated nature, even if the pictorial decoration of IVéme style goes back to the last phase of the life of Herculanum.

Several rooms to be slept (cubicula) give on the atrium. In one of them a bed was found boil about it out of wood, like always carbonized. The tablinum, decorated with beautiful frescos on the red bottom, was used as part of driving passage with the garden, surrounded on three with dimensions of a peristyle with pillars and semi-columns, while the fourth with dimensions was closed by a wall decorated with fresco of sights of garden, surmounted of a very suggestive gallery. Several parts give on the garden: on the right a room of passage leads to the zone of service where we find, one beside the others, kitchen and latrines. This room also communicates with the shop giving on the 3rd cardus, where are visible two dolia intended for the conservation of the food products.

Gallery of images

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