lonnades, and in the midst
of the principal apartment, called the _atrium_, was a marble basin sunk
in the mosaic pavement, and through a quadrangular opening in the roof
above the sun and moon looked in and the rain often mingled its drops
with the jets of the constantly playing fountain. When the master of the
house gave an entertainment, tables were carried in by slaves, and the
guests took their luxurious meal lying on long couches. They ate, and
drank, and jested, listening from time to time to the tones of flutes,
harps, and cymbals, and watched the lithe movements of dancers with eyes
dull and heavy with wine.

Happy days were spent in Pompeii in undisturbed peacefulness. People
enjoyed the treasures of the forests, gardens, and sea, transacted their
business or the duties of their posts, and assembled for discussion in
the Forum, where the columns cast cool shadows over the stone flags. No
one thought of Vesuvius. The volcano was supposed to have become for
ever extinct ages ago. On the ancient lava-streams old trees grew, the
most luscious grapes ripened on the flanks of the mountain, and from
their descendants is pressed out at the present day a wine called
Lachryma Christi. A legend relates that when the Saviour once went up
Vesuvius and stood in mute astonishment at the beautiful landscape
surrounding the Bay of Naples, He also wept from grief over this home of
sin and vanity; and where His tears moistened the ground there grew up a
tendril which has not its like on earth.

The year before the burning of Rome, Pompeii was devastated by a fearful
earthquake. The inhabitants soon took heart again, however, and built up
their town better and more beautiful than ever. Sixteen years passed,
and then the blow came, the most crushing and annihilating blow that
ever befell any town since Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire
from heaven.

The elder Pliny, who left to the world an immortal work, was then in
command of a Roman fleet anchored in the Bay of Naples, and lived with
his family in a place not far from Pompeii. His adopted son, the younger
Pliny, a youth of eighteen, spirited, quick, and talented, was also with
him. Vesuvius broke into eruption on August 24 in the year 79, and in a
few hours Pompeii and two other towns were buried under a downpour of
pumice and ashes, and streams of lava and mud. Among the victims was the
elder Pliny.

[Illustration: PLATE XXVII. POMPEII.

The Forum, with Vesuvius