2. Via Marina

After having left the bathhouse, we are back on the road to the city gate.

Note the very complex built of the bollards (roadside posts). Not some half-assed approach, that′s for sure.

Several samples of the Roman masonry in one shot.

Finally, the city gate. Porta Marina, "The Seaside Gate", was the entrance to the city from its harbour. This gate was a "service" entrance, more like a back door (as you can see, it′s one-way only). The main gate was up north, on the Vesuvius side, and was called Porta Ercolano, "The Herculaneum Gate". It led to the nearby small town of Herculaneum, a seaside resort for rich Pompeiians (their Santa Barbara), which ultimately shared Pompeii′s fate in the eruption.

Via Marina, a street leading from Porta Marina to Forum, the beating heart of the city.

Typical Roman road paving, which famously still exists pretty much everywhere it had been laid down. Well, sure, it′s hard to wear out or break boulders like this.

Next to Porta Marina, on the right side of the street, the traveler would see Santuario di Venere - "Sanctuary of Venus". It was the city′s biggest temple, which stood on an artificial terrace overlooking the Gulf of Naples (or whatever they called it in the Roman times).

Venus, the goddess of not only beauty and love, but also sailing, was the patron deity of Pompeii, a busy port town. Archeologists once thought that the temple was even built first, and the town eventually grew around it. ⇨

⇨ Now we know that the temple was built after the Romans conquered an existing settlement here, which belonged to the Samnites, one of many Italic peoples who lived on the Apennine peninsula before the Romans decided that it all was theirs. The Samnites themselves conquered a Greek colony on this spot some 350 years earlier. (Ignore the statue, it′s a modern addition).

Not much of the temple left. It was destroyed even before the eruption, during the earthquake of 62 AD. The Pompeiians were busy rebuilding it, when the eruption struck 17 years later.

A view on the houses across Via Marina, on the opposite side of the street from the temple. The street itself is down below that modern fence. The sides of the road were elevated artificially, in order to shield the residents from the noises and dirt of a busy harbour-serving city gate.

I don′t think I will ever get enough of these fascinating ruins...

Back on Via Marina, a sneak-peek into a typical Roman house (domus), or rather its remains, called Casa di Trittolemo. Standing inside fauces (or vestibulum), the entry hallway, we are looking into atrium (the main area of the house, with the family′s quarters usually located around it). The roof above atrium would have a hole in it, for the light and rainwater to enter. The rainwater would get collected in impluvium (that small square pool in the middle, now full of grass). Behind atrium is the courtyard surrounded by columns (peristilium), which makes it a rich house. The middle-class Roman house would start and end with atrium. At best, it would have a little backyard garden, called hortus.

Another example of the Roman masonry, on the wall of Casa di Trittolemo.

Stones on the side of Via Marina, maybe for just sitting and chatting, like street benches nowadays.

Another major stop on Via Marina - Tempio di Apollo ("Temple of Apollo").

It was one of the main Pompeii′s temples, sitting right next to Forum.

The east wall of the temple, behind the colonnade, is the west wall of Forum, which makes Forum literally behind the wall.

The layout of Tempio di Apollo is usual for Roman temples - a white marble altar surrounded by rows of columns, ⇨

⇨ with the stairs behind the altar leading to cella, the walled-off inner sanctuary with its own peristylum (a peristyle, as in "a colonnade surrounding an open area").

All statues that you see under the open sky in Pompeii today are modern additions. All surviving Roman statues are safely tucked away in museums. So, that Apollo is not "real".

Vesuvius, looming ominously behind the temple.

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