Besides these finds, there were others not so easily explained. In the
two rooms in which the spearhead and the other offensive weapons were
found, there were eighteen skeletons, among them that of a woman
richly adorned with gold jewelry; she had a necklace with emeralds,
earrings, and two armbands, besides rings and other ornaments, and in
a casket a cameo, the elaborate setting of which is in part preserved.
In a room near the southwest corner the bones of a new-born infant
were found in an earthen jar. A number of weights also were
discovered, and vessels of terra cotta and glass; in three rooms there
were more than six dozen small saucers. Were the barracks wholly given
up to gladiators at the time of the eruption, or were some other
persons allowed to have quarters here, perhaps some of those whose
houses had been destroyed by the earthquake of 63 and had not been
rebuilt? A certain conclusion cannot be reached.
CHAPTER XXIV
_THE PALAESTRA_
The oblong court north of the Large Theatre, between the entrance of
the Forum Triangulare and the temple of Isis, is the Palaestra.
Originally, the enclosed area was entirely surrounded by a colonnade,
with ten columns on the sides and five at each end; but at a
comparatively late period, probably after the earthquake of 63, the
columns at the east end were removed and the space thus gained was
added to the temple of Isis.
[Illustration: Fig. 75.--Plan of the Palaestra.
1. Colonnade.
2. Pedestal.
3. Dressing rooms.]
A number of the columns on the other three sides are still standing.
They are Doric but of slender proportions, the height, 10½ feet, being
equal to eight diameters, while the intercolumniations measure about
nine feet. It is doubtful whether the columns carried a complete
entablature; more likely the roof rested directly on a wooden
architrave.
The building clearly dates from the pre-Roman period. The columns are
of tufa coated with stucco, the dimensions of the colonnade (90 by 36
Oscan feet) reduce to the early standard of measurement; and an Oscan
inscription was found here which says that the building was erected by
the Quaestor Vibius Vinicius, with money which Vibius Adiranus had
left by will to the Pompeian youth. The translation of the word
_vereiiai_, 'to the youth,' otherwise doubtful, is confirmed by
various facts which indicate that the building was intended as a small
palaestra or open-air gymnasium for boys.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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