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POMPEI: A DEAD CITY SPEAKS OF LIFE TO THE LIVING

A dish of stone eggs sits on a table in front of me.
I am on a gentle hill in the region of Campania, Italy, and exactly in Pompeii, a city buried by Vesuvius, the volcano that erupted in 79 A.D. The weather is balmy, the surrounding landscape blessed with orange trees and pomegranate groves. The perfume of the orange I picked from a tree down in the valley lingers around me, the scented rind tucked somewhere in my clothes. Yesterday the same grower let me pick a lemon. I ate it whole, the thick peel very sweet, still warm with sunshine. Here the sun shines all the time in the bluest sky. This is the region that gave Italy the name of paese d'o sole, "country of the sun." Vegetation includes palm trees. As a mythical time-travel machine, the excavations in Pompeii bring the tourist into a world as far back in time as 2,000 years ago. The Latin Memento mori , "Remember you are going to die" , was, in a nutshell, the philosophy of that time. Rather than a morbid contemplation of death, it was an invitation to live life to the fullest. Pompeii conveys that philosophy today.

A humble hut, where many people slept in the same little room, speaks about the inequality of a society which rewarded only few.
Passing through the magnificent villas, I see the splendor of affluence: Fresco paintings cover entire walls. Rooms, as many as fifty, enclose the yard, a swimming pool in the center. The Getty mansion in Malibu is a replica of one of these villas.
In stores along the streets, stone tables with wells to keep food hot or cold, look very similar to the ones in modern restaurants.
I can see crafts, public places, stunning jewelry, food; as a dream yes, but also as a reality that has been preserved intact as it was in a night when gods or devils decided to end the lives of all the people here.
Super rich and dismally poor, all made equal by death, lie next to one another in the rooms where archaeologists have patiently dusted them out of their casings. A reminder that rich and poor are equally human and vulnerable. Memento mori.
Founded by the Greeks around 700 B.C. , Pompeii was then controlled by the Samnites until the fourth century B.C. The Romans made many attempts and finally succeeded in subduing Pompeii. Spartacus, a former slave and a gladiator, rebelled against Roman rule and fought the Romans for two years before he died in battle.
Finally Pompeii became a peaceful, flourishing Roman city, bursting with activities and

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