OPLONTIS - Another Victim Of Vesuvius's Rage - 79AD

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                                                         O P L O N T I S






Villa of Poppaea



In the years of the Roman Empire Oplontis should have been what Portofino and Capri are for us today.

An allurement for VIP's and the nobility. But the volcano eruption (the same as in 79d.C. buried
Ercolano and Pompei) cancelled its traces and its name has been forgotten to be transformed to
Torre Annunziata.

Nevertheless, Oplontis, now amidst condominiums, is still there, beautiful and forgotten, but to whoever visits it they remark on how it must have been when it hosted Rome well. Amongst its frequenters, in fact, enumerated also Poppaea, Nero's wife.

Today, the ruins have brought to light that which the studious retain was her villa, a residential complex, where surroundings of common use alternate to salons destined to give hospitality to feasts and banquets.

The walls of the rooms, moreover, conserve the traces of paintings with scenes of bathers, masks,
birds and baskets of flowers and fruit, all in an explosion of fantasy, colours and luxury.

The second imposing villa, which is still being unearthed, belonged to Lucio Crasso Terzo.

Porches and peristyles, gardens and thermae, an olympic sized pool, statues and jewels: this is the archeological treasure of the villa.

During the unearthing, a wooden box was found that today we will call  a beauty case. Here, the
owner of the house conserved, kept in custody precious vials, her lotions, together with the bone sticks, used to apply rouge to her cheeks, and the small palettes in which creams and beauty masks
were amalgamated.



The ruins (in via Sepolcri, 55 metres from the Circumvesuviana station) can be visited free, everyday except Monday, from nine in the morning to dusk.



http://www.geocities.com/paris/arc/7323/Oplontis/Oplontisengl.html

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http://www.geocities.com/paris/arc/7323/Oplontis/Oplontisengl.html

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