Imagine these people crying out and
running and these columns swaying and falling when Vesuvius bellowed and
shook the earth. And yet we can see the very fruits that men were buying
and the pictures they were enjoying.
The forum with its markets and shops and offices and temples and statues
was the very heart of the city. Many streets led into it. Perhaps you
will walk down one of them, between broken walls, past open doorways.
After several street corners you will come to a large building with high
walls still standing and with tall, arched entrance. This also was one
of the gay places in Pompeii, for it was a bathhouse. Every day all
the ladies and gentlemen of the town came strolling toward it down the
streets. The men went in at the wide doorway. The women turned and
entered their own apartments around the corner. And as they walked
toward the entrance they passed little shops built into the walls of
the bathhouse. At every stall stood the shopkeeper, bowing, smiling,
begging, calling. "Perfumes, sweet lady!"
"Rings, rings, beautiful madam, for your beautiful fingers!"
"Oil for your body, sir, after the bath!"
"A taste of sweets, madam, before you enter! Honey cakes of my own
making!"
"Don't forget to buy my dressing for your hair before you go in! You'll
get nothing like it in there.
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