POMPEIANA de William Gell (éd. de 1832)
Plate LVII - Painting of a port |  |  |  |
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 Back to chapter 11 | Plate LVII represents a picture remaining on the south wall of the garden of the House of the second fountain, which would be better distinguished from the first as the House of the Landscapes. The subject seems to be a sea-port, with its mole, boats, temples, villas and other buildings. The mole is constructed with arches, a circumstance only lately noticed, and that by a Neapolitan architect, Signor Fazio, as the method by which the ancients, both Greek and Roman, endeavoured to counteract the natural tendency of artificial ports to fill up by a deposit of sand or earth. It appears, that, along the coast of Italy, there runs a current toward the south-west, and that there is scarcely any coast without some prevailing stream, carrying with it a proportion of sand, mud, or sediment. |
On ancient medals, arches are often observed as forming the curved moles of Roman ports ; and it seems that the Greeks were well avare of the theory of leaving apertures in their marine constructions, as they appear in the mole at Eleusis very evidently, and may be traced in that of Delos, and other islands of the Archipelago.
The arches were left for the exit of all the depositions brought in by the current ; and it being calculated that only the surface to the depth of a few feet was materially agitated by even the most violent tempests, it was found that by certain flood-gates banging from the piers, a sufficient calm was produced to insure the safety of vessels within the mole.
In this picture the sails of boats are seen above the wall on the right. The mole, probably, was defensible, and had a sort of parapet and terrace on the top. The