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The PienontMomn of Ancient Pompeii
Why He Was Like J. Pierpont Morgan
He financed expeditions to other countries for rare products.
He collected wonderful bronzes, paintings and other objects of art.
He collected rare editions of Creek and Roman Books.
He loaned money to the patricians of Rome and had special
laws made for his benefit.
He was not only a patron o',
art and letters but loaned
oortions of his collections to
museums.
His bank was the strongest
in Pompeii.
Naples. May 12.
AMONG the amazing mass at
new discoveries in ancient
Pompeii is that of a banker
who may be fittingly described as
the Pierpont Morgan of the Summer
capital of Roman luxury.
He occupied the most beautiful
palace on the newly excavated, ex
clusive portion of the Street of Abun
dance, which has already been re
ferred to as bearing a resemblance
to the most luxurious part of New
York’s Fifth Avenue. This discov
ery adds, in a highly picturesque
manner, to the resemblances be
tween Pompeii and New York pre
viously noted.
The Pompeiian banker’s name is
believed to have been Lucius Cecillus
Metellus, although there is still some
doubt about the spelling of the name,
on account of the blurs and mutila
tions occurring wherever it has been
found written.
A fine bust of Metellus was found
in the great atrium of his beautiful
house. Strange to say, he had a
large, pendulous nose, with a wart on
it. Otherwise his face Indicated
great intelligence, overbearing de
termination and a keen power tu
enjoy all the good things of the
flesh. Indeed, the furnishings of his
house Indicate that there w.ere tew
forms of enjoyment with which he
was not thoroughly familiar.
ft appears that at the age of fifty
nine Metellus retired- from the act
ive pursuit of tnoney-makiug in or
der to devote himself, like Mr. Mor
gan, to collecting precious objects of
art front all pi SOf the world. The
Roman and Pompeiian spendthrifts,
however, insisted on continuing to
borrow money front hiin at upwarus
of ;hty per cent, on the best of
security, such solid gold vases.
Thus it happened that his tnhome
continues to roll up without any
effort-on his part, and he was able
to evtote unlimited wealth to buying
art treasures, without tioubling
about their cost.
Surrounding the columned court
yard, or peristylium, of his house,
we h must have been beautiful with
birds, flowers, fountains and statu
ary, there stood a series of build
ings housing the millionaire’s arc
treasures.
There vas the library, stocked
with manuscripts from Greece and
and ith the more recent
productions of the poets of Italy.
Many of these manuscripts have
been recovered by the excavators,
and ci istitute the most valuable ot
the latest series ot tads
hen there was a hall set apart
101 - the masterpieces ot Greek sculp
ture Another building was entirely
Sled with arms and armor still
another was given up to damty ere
ations in go- an 1 precious atones- -
crowns, tiaras, necklaces, girdles,
brooches, buckles, and thousands of
jeaut. ’ pieces of jewelry used by
meu and women a ornaments in
ancient times.
yptian papyri and palimpsests,
amphoras and crateras of Etrus
can Trojan and Mycenaean work
manship, Greek drinking cups of
gold, called scyphi and canthari,
Tanagra tigurines ot all periods,
curious statuettes from Chalcedon,
rare examples of sculpture and jew
elry in the Phoenician, Cypriote and
Graecco-Egyptian styles; polychro
mane marble statue of Hercules,
Venus, Bacchus, Silenus and all the
Pagan Pantheon, enriched this won
dertul collection.
The accompanying photographs
6 how a few of the treasures recov
ered fro the halls of Metellus.
These objects represent widely sep
arated periods of Greek art. Here
somewhat archaic fresco repre
senting the Greek hero Theseus kill
ing the tabled Minotaur in the Cre
tan labyrinth, and here is a has re
lief representing a Bacchanalian
procession that is, in the most
advanced style of Greek art. Thia
4s worthy of Phidias.
An exquisitely embossed helmet
with decorations of inlaid gold is
mother example oi the finest Greek
Style, and wa probably produced
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shortly before the time of Pompeii’s
destruction.
A piece of statuary known as a
"Hermes'' Horn Greece is an ex
ample of the many curiosities
collected by Metellus. A hertnes
was . tall square stone pillar with a
bust at the top, placed at the corners
ot it: ets aud in other conspicuous
places by the Greeks. The head
wi originally that of the god
Hermes, but later other gods fre
quently occt: led his place.
Metellus possessed an immense
collection of ancient Greek and Ko
nian paintings. One of them for
example, represents a spirited com-
■n wh
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A Rare Bronze Hermes
from Chalcedon.
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bat between centaurs and men
which was for ages the favorite sub
ject of Greek artists Evidently a
some early period the civilized races
of Greece had a severe experience
1 with some wild race that handled
horses with superb skill. Thereafter
1 they preferred to represent their
’ legendary enemies as half men an 3
half horses.
The ancient Greeks and Italians
probably produced paintings to a far
greater extent than we have hith
erto realized Works of this char
acter have inevitably been more
damaged by the flight of time than
any others. In the vast majority of
cases the paintings must have been
completely effaoed by time aud de
cay, even though the medium on
which they were painted may have
been preserved.
It is only In such places as Pompeii
and Herculaneum, where the relics
of the past have been hermetically
sealed up, that we can expect to find
many paintings preserved. The
Pompeiians were especially fond of
paintings, and he finer houses were
invariably decorated with beautiful
painted frescoes.
In the house of Metellus the
searchers have found not only fres
coed walls, but detached examples of
paintings on wood and stone by
Greeks, Egyptians and Italians—ln
fact, by artists of every country
where the art was understood. Ther«
is little doubt that this will prove the
finest collection of Greek paintings
ever found.
We know that the ancient Greeks
painted their statues in the majority
of cases, and we must believe that
the greatest sculptors who ever lived
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Exquisite Greek Bas-Relief Representing a Bacchanalian Pro-
cession, from the Collection of Metellus.
did not jut inferior painting on their
work. Some critics have argued that
a fine piece of sculpture well painted
should be the highest form of picto
rial art, since it combines the two
kinds.
Modern artists, however, have
never been able to effect this eom-
Dination successfully. A paint <
st t.ue usually has a toy-like air.
Perhaps the collection of Metellus
will tear us how -he ancients solved
this myslery.
The Pompeiian Pierpont Morgan
possessed an immense collection ei
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Collection of
■t| '& Metellus in the.
Finest
sffliFrs, .W'- Athenian
Greek Style.
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Cu rious Fresco Depicting
Theseus Slaying the Minotaur,
Indicating Metellus’s Love for
the Grotesque.
manuscripts Os these the excava
tors have caught only a glimpse
Mi uy of the sheets have adhered t >
one another until they form a solid
block, like a piece of carbon They
wil be separated by a delicate ehem
ical irocess, aud the writing made
legible.
-sere " is likely we shall find orig
in:'. manuscripts by such Latin au
.hora Horace, Virgil and Ovid,
by Greeks like Euripides, Sophocles
Aesehylu., Si ->ph o and a thousa i’
other famous or forgotten classic
authors.
( ompared to these treasures
Coptic manuscripts on which Mr
Morgan has lately been lavishing
large sums in Egypt, are cheap tri
fles. The earliest of the Coptic man
uscripts had not been written in Me
tellus s time. But he possessed the
manuscripts of the illustrious fore
fathers of the Copts, the great. Pha
raohs and their statesmen and gen
erals.
It may be that the investigators
will find in this library some portion
of the Bible older than any yet
known to exist, or If not that, an in
dependent Roman account, of the
Crucifixion and the events leading
up to it. That is a document which
has always been singularly lacking,
for it seems certain that some
Roman must have described that
great world event.
Metellus literally scoured the whole
known world for treasures and
antiquities. His ships traded to the
Levant and Egypt, and even brought
him in communication with the Far
East —India and China. He paid any
The House of Lucius
Caecilius Metellus,
the Richest Banker of
His Day, Who
Ransacked the
Whole Known
A World for Its Art
■A Treasures, Found
B with All Its
Precious Contents
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Pompeii.
price for that which was rare or
beautiful. His captains knew that
they could obtain a greater recom
pense for a Babylonian stela or a
Sanskrit veda than for the richest
cargo of silks they might bring.
He lived at a period when the
priceless accumulations of Greek art
had just been bought or stolen by
the Romans. The choicest of these
things lay within the reach of his
discerning eye and Inexhaustible
purse.
Here probably we have the rich
est storehouse of antiquities ever
found.
Wax tables found In the house
revealed the character of the bank
er's business and his methods of
conducting It. While the methods
were perhaps simpler than modern
ones, the business was of a soun
der character. Metellus ventured
his capital in no enterprise without
good security.
He dealt in tangible things such
as lands, bales of silk, cargoes of
wheat and objects of precious me-
tai. His ships ran to every port est
the Mediterranean and he l*t»
money to other merchants on bill#
of lading of their goods.
Among his business relics are •
large number of receipts, some In
Latin and others In Greek. Many
refer to transactions in -which the
banker acted as auctioneer. He
presided at the sales and made his
profits on them in various way a
He lent the buyers the ready
money they needed for their pur
chases and collected bls debt at ths
end of the month with a high rate
of Interest.
He ran up the bidding at the sale
and received a commission from the
sellers on the price obtained. At
the same time he increased ths
sums which the buyers had to bor
row from him. He was manager of
the communal estates of La.mpu.ria
among numerous sources of profit.
One of the receipts of the banker
recovered reads as follows: “In the
consulate of Nero Caesar, consul for
the second time, and of Cassius
Martialis, on the tenth day before
the Kalends of January, at the re.
quest of Pallia Lampurls, we, Sex.
Pompelus Axiochus, bear witness in
writing that Pullia Lampurls has
received from L. Caecilius Metellus
the sum of eight thousand five hun
dred and sixty sesterces and a duum
pundum, the proceeds of a sale by
auction, in accordance with a signed
and sealed agreement.”
The transactions of Metellus ran
up into the millions. They were
so vast that he used a special sys
tem of numerals not found in other
records of the time. In these nu
merals the thousands were denoted
by a numeral like our “8” lying on
its side.
The accounts of Metellus Indi
cate tl at he rivalled the American
Standard Oil Company as a man.
ipulator of legislators. One of
his entries reads: “To A. Pompelus
Jucundus, in connection with the
Cappadocian ruby mines, 10,000 gold
denarii.”
There is unhappily strong reason
to believe that this sum, a vast one
In the values of that age. was paid
to the Roman Senate for securing
some valuable special privilege to
Metellus in a foreign possession of
Rome.