Studies in Philosophy, Ancient and Modern; Ancient and Modern (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: II. ANCIENT HEDONISM?EPICURUS. In the year 1752, certain workmen, who were excavating the soil of the modern Portici, which covers the ancient Herculaneum, struck upon a small chamber or cell belonging apparently to a country house which in former times looked over the sea. Round the walls of this little chamber were arranged, on a pavement of mosaic, chests and cupboards of marqueterie, and standing on one of these, in the middle of the room, were seen busts of Demosthenes, Epicurus, Zeno, and Her- marchus. It was almost the first discovery of real importance which had rewarded the patience of the explorers.1 Some ancient statues had indeed been unearthed in 1713, during the excavations carried on by the Prince d'Elboeuf, and again in 1737 under the orders of Charles in.: but the discovery of Pompeii in 1748, and the superior facility with which excavations could be carried on in the " passamonte " (light cinders) which covered the ruins of the sister town, had diverted attention for a while from Herculaneum. Yet the soil beneath Portici and Eesina offered relics of far greater value. On the shelves of the cupboards found in theroom of the buried villa lay little rolls, about two or three inches in diameter, and a palm in length, the appearance of which gave the workmen the notion that they were in the shop of a charcoal or coal merchant. An accidental fall revealed the fact that they were covered with decipherable letters, ?that in reality the charcoal-rolls were nothing but rolls of papyrus, charred with the action of fire.1 1 Perhaps the Emperor Titus was anxious to restore the city, which had been ruined in A.d. 79; cf. Suetonius, Tit. 8: " Bona oppressorum in Vesevo, quorum heredes non exstabant, restitution! afflictarum civitatum attribuit." Winckelmann is suppos...