A Graveyard in Pompeii...

"Dinner at Trimalchio's" by Petronius (part of the Satyricon) is a must read. Set in the Bay of Naples, this tale about a wealthy but uncultured freedman who hosts a ridiculously lavish dinner party (Great Gatsby anyone?) offers great insight into the anxieties and cultural tensions of the first century AD. It also provides us with an interesting comparandum for the archaeological remains found in Pompeii and Herculaneum. For instance, the scene where the narrator is frightened by a wall painting of a fierce dog in the front hallway of Trimalchio's house reminds us of the famous "Cave Canem" mosaic in front of the House of the Tragic poet.

Source: Wikipedia Commons

At the dinner, one of the freedmen, Niceros, tells one of the neatest ghost (well, werewolf) stories ever told. I paraphrase it, trying to keep some of the drama:

"I was in love with the master's girl, Melissa, and we became pretty tight. But wouldn't you know it, her partner died out in the country and she went out there to mourn. I couldn't handle being away from her, so when the master went out to Capua to do this and that, I persuaded a soldier staying at our inn to join me on a venture out to the fifth milestone. The soldier was a buff one, strong as hell. So we leave the gates and enter the graveyard while the full moon shines above us. My companion heads off to take a piss among the tombs. I say a few spells to ward off the evil spirits and start counting the tombs. 

"Then I turned around, you know, and what did I see? The soldier had taken his clothes off and was pissing a ring around them. Then he became a wolf. Scared me shitless. He howled and then ran off into the woods. So I go up to his clothes, but they'd turned to stone! So I drew my sword and started hacking at every shadow around me. I bolted out of there and headed to my lady's house. 

"When I got there, lo and behold things were in a bit of chaos. Melissa says, 'I wish you'd gotten here earlier! A wolf got into our folds and killed everything in sight! But he didn't get away scot free. One of the slaves drove a spear through his neck.' Well, I wasn't gonna sleep that night, no siree. So as soon as the sun broke through I hustled back to the inn. When I passed by the tombs, the clothes were gone, nothing but blood. When I reached the inn, there was the soldier, in bed, near death, with a wound in his neck. Right then I knew he was one of those werewolf types."

This story is informative in a number of ways. First, it shows that tombs line the roads going out of town. It also shows that most people feel a bit of superstitious fear when traveling along these tombs. And it tells us that werewolves are nothing new.

Well, this week's big story is that one of the graveyards (or necropoleis, "cities of the dead") outside of Pompeii's Stabian Gate (bottom of map above) may be put up for auction and may fall into the hands of a private citizen. An 82 year old woman, Antonietta Nunziata, has taken legal action to auction off a parcel of her land on which two Roman tombs were recently excavated. Her complaint is as follows: a few years ago, the authorities at Pompeii claimed that the property containing the necropolis was subject to eminent domain and began the process of compensating her for the property. But the Soprintendenza has only paid 2/3 of the over 150,000 Euros it owes her, and on 11 July, the Tar (Tribunale Amministrativo Regionale) della Campania, ruled that the Soprintendenza had not completed the full process of appropriating the land and returned ownership back to Sig.ra. Nunziata, who is now contemplating putting the land up for auction because under the protection of antiquities laws, she is responsible for their upkeep. It has been reported that Sotheby's has been contacted.

An article about this legal battle can be found (in Italian) here and here. For an English summary, see here.

For a short introduction on the excavation on the Stabian Gate and the tombs outside, see this website from University of Cincinnati. For a picture of the tombs leading out of the Stabian Gate, see here.

Weekly Tidbit

An investigation prompted by illegal dumping of asbestos and other prohibited materials in Pompeii found that no case of asbestosis was caused by it. For the original report of the dumping (which included manslaughter, etc.), see this Italian article.

The Colosseum is now significantly covered in scaffolding. Visitors beware!

The Guardia di Finanza has discovered near Foggia a necropolis from the 10th-9th c. BC that contains numerous bronze implements. Again, the discovery is based on information gained from bootleggers and tomb robbers.