On seeing the 'House of Julia' at Herculaneum
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Not great Vesuvius, in all his ire,
Nor all the centuries, could hide your shame.
There is the little window where you came,
With eyes that woke the demon of desire,
And lips like rose leaves, fashioned out of fire;
And from the lava leaps the molten flame
Of your old sins. The walls cry out your name -
Your face seems rising from the funeral pyre.
There must have dwelt, within your fated town,
Full many a virtuous dame, and noble wife
Who made your beauty seem as star to sun;
How strange the centuries have handed down
Your name, fair Julia, of immoral life,
And left the others to oblivion.
Herculaneum, along with Pompeii just down the coast, was buried in the great eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. Like Pompeii, some of the old Roman town has now been excavated. A number of the well-preserved buildings in both Herculaneum and Pompeii are decorated with erotic frescoes and graffiti.
Here Ella Wheeler Wilcox appears to be writing about the house of a prostitute. We have not been able to identify the building, so any help gratefully received.
