Another day of rain, another day Pompeii could fall again.
As NewsFeed recently reported, you may not have much time to see the buried Roman city. Heavy rains Tuesday led to the collapse of a wall that stood to protect the House of the Moralist in the 2,000-year-old ruins.
The crumbling prompted some Italian politicians to call for better preservation at archaeological sites, like opposition leader Pier Ferdinando Casini, who said “These collapses are a metaphor for the condition of Italy’s heritage.” (Insert your own Silvio Berlusconi joke here.)
The person largely in charge of that heritage, Culture Minister Sandro Bondi, had a more ‘nothing to see here, move along please!’ approach, arguing the collapsed wall held no “artistic, archaeological or historical worth” and that the cries for protection were nothing but “useless alarmism.” He reminded everyone they’ve been through this before – the same wall was damaged during World War II. They’ll rebuild it the same way they did then, by gathering the rubble and re-constructing the wall to its original state.
(See the Top 10 Famous Volcanoes, including Mount Vesuvius, the volcano that left Pompeii in dust.)
The wall that fell guarded the aptly-named House of the Moralist, a residence in Pompeii whose owner engraved some words to live by on the walls. Translations from Latin vary, but some of the more colorful wordings are:
“Keep your lascivious looks and bedroom eyes away from another man’s wife. Maintain a semblance of decency on your face.”
“Postpone your tiresome quarrels if you can, or leave and take them home with you.”
“Let water wash your feet clean and a slave wipe them dry; let a cloth cover the couch; take care of our linens.”
NewsFeed can’t deny this is some pretty sage advice. But for the record, if you ever have us over as a houseguest, we’d prefer a homemade meal over your judgments on our decency, thank you very much (via AFP).