Octavio Cassano's Diary
Octavio Cassano’s Diary: A leather bound folio that is somewhat weathered. It is bound with a leather strap and lock, good grade paper.
May 1, 1858
London, 10:30 AM
I, Octavio Cassano have decided that I will keep a diary of our travels and what we find. I see this book of paper blank with possibility and am like a giddy schoolboy! This trip was called for and funded by the patron of the British Library of London by Anthony Panizzi. May the Lord bless him and keep him, this is amazing work, and I am thankful he picked me to lead it. We have been underway for a few hours. Weather is rough and wet; I look forward to the sun on the Amalfi coast.
May 3,1858
Shipboard, 1 PM
I gathered Edward Gibbons, an Englishman, Henry Baraday, an American, Grimiscos Antolodo, and Paulo Rivagati (both Italian gentlemen like me) in my cabin to coordinate our plans as we approach Italy. Each of them brings with them a wealth of knowledge not only of archeology but also of ancient Italy. I am blessed to work with such talented scholars.
Edward Gibbons I met at the Library, a man of letters and knowledge. We worked together at a dig in Egypt. A smiling, charming man, Edward is quick of mind and keen of eye. He finds many connections that I would otherwise miss. I value his advice, and I look forward to seeing what he finds.
Henry Baraday is a determined researcher. Almost always with his bloody pipe, the Virginian has spent a lot of time in Europe, working on uncovering the parts of our history that have been lost. Panizzi introduced us, he is solitary, and often can be found checking the papers for news of his home country. He studied in Philadelphia, and has shown to be perceptive and intelligent.
Grimiscos Antolodo and Paulo Rivagati…they are a team. At once lively and entertaining, they are sharp and well versed in archeology as we know it. There are those who claim that there is more to their teamwork than meets the eye, but I doubt that. Both are good men, though they heartily dislike working apart. Grimiscos is the doer of the pair, while Paulo seems to be the verbal link. It is the seldom that makes Paolo short for words. Whether speaking or singing, Paolo is seldom silent.
As a team we are going to change the way the world sees Italy on this trip!
May 10, 1858
Pompeii, 8 PM
The ship ride from London was rough, the weather getting better as we approached Italy. Naples is a lovely city, and I am glad to be back in my home country. We made dock by 1 PM this afternoon local time. We spent a while unloading and gathering our supplies. At dinner tonight I met Petrosio Giovanni, he has been instrumental at arranging transport, laborers, and equipment for our dig. Petrosio is a man of medium height and fine featured. He has been blessed with the flawless skin of our kind, and a fine head of dark black hair. He dressed as a Lord of the Manor and seems very wealthy. I don’t believe he is married, though women came and went on his arm tonight. While he was engaging and kind, to be truthful diary he at times exhibited as cold a demeanor as I have seen in some time. I do not mean to impugn his welcome, but whenever we were not looking, he seemed to be watching us as if apart, sniffing us for food and not our kind host. I will be glad to be on the road. The ship has made me unkind.
May 12, 1858
Naples, 8 PM
Weather is warm and moist today. We spent the day loading wagons and mules with supplies. The roads between Naples and Pompeii are cobblestone at best. There is no rail line between Naples and Pompeii. I have hired twenty local men to act as laborers. The Mountain Vesuvius puffs contentedly above us. I am so excited I can barely think of sleep.
May 15, 1858
Herculaeum, 10 PM
Edward is doing many drawings along the way. I think I will give him my diary from time to time to sketch what we see as he has a better hand for it than I. We spent some time here examining the ruins of Herculaeum. Much of this has been excavated by the Italian government, and while they are willing to talk to us, they are not really willing to share findings yet. Damned nationalistic pride getting in the way of research. Travel is slow, we are carrying a lot of equipment. I wish we had been able to set off the ship farther down the coast, but it is unavoidable.
May 17, 1858
Pompeii, 8 PM
Our party arrived in the town of La Civita. Only a few scattered hovels are here that people live in. A parish church, and some scattered businesses, a diner, a black smith. A dry goods market supplies the rural needs of this town. At the same time, the humps and bumps of the old city buried here are evident. Here and there I can see pillars, and the edges of buildings, crumbling parts of walls. As in many places, a town has been built on the bones of a city built beneath it. In the structure of the current town in places I see the parts of the old city in use to build this new habitation. It is very quiet here, and the folk don’t seem to like having a pack of strangers in their city. They like our money though. A hush holds over the town, and I imagine the ghosts of the dead lingering in these empty spaces.
May 19, 1858
Pompeii, 2 PM
Our camp is mostly set up. Henry suggested that we just stay in the hotel, then come to work. I told him no, that doing so would allow the people of the town free reign of our dig, with us too far away to know what was happening. Better as we progress to be close to our work, so we can make sure robbers don’t disturb what we uncover. A squall has come up off the coast and forced us to hunker down in our tents. Henry and Edward are playing cards, Grimiscos and Paolo are sorting tools and preparing for when we can start digging at our first site tomorrow. Paolo is grinning and singing like a fool. He and Grimiscos are a happy team. We plan to open six digs, with men working all of them in groups, only coming together from time to time. The laborers are restless. A small quake woke us in the dark of the morning, a reminder that we are in the shadow of an active volcano.
May 20, 1858
Pompeii, 8:45 PM
The weather is better, with only puffy clouds and wind today. Henry has chosen a building complex that we suspect is the Forum. The tufa and stone seem to indicate more than one eruption has covered the city of Pompeii. Clearing the rock and ash is hard work, but the only way to uncover these hidden mysteries from the past. Edward has chosen some buildings that might be a military camp. Grimiscos and Paolo are cataloguing the standing art for now, and I am trying to clear some rubble from a building that looks promising to me.
May 21, 1858
Pompeii, 1 PM
Lunch was interrupted by the gendarmes of the region. Early this morning Edward found the body of a local man stuffed in a corner of the area he is excavating. It seems that the man has been missing for a few days before our arrival. The man killed was badly mauled by animals after death, though Edward said he thought the man wasn’t dead during the mauling due to blood spatter. Edward has some experience with such things due to time he spent working with Scotland Yard during his early University days. The man died of a broken neck. Edward said it was broken in the jaws of a great dog. The local gendarmes threatened to shut down our dig but relented when I paid them in Sterling. I don’t need things like this interrupting our time in the field. The Capitan seemed anxious for the death to just be an accident. I told Edward to stay out of the investigation as he is not an official here.
May 21, 1858
Pompeii, 9 PM
We were able to access the outside of my building today. I do believe it was some sort of villa prior to the eruption. The ash and stone here appear to have lain undisturbed and I am hoping for a rare find.
May 22, 1858
Pompeii, 9:45 PM
Grimiscos and Poulo both say that they have found the edges of a door. We are working to excise it without damaging it. It appears to be carved and marked. The inscriptions are religious in nature. I have found inscriptions that seem to be about Persephone though surrounded by Roman drawings of the darkened world. The digging was slow going. We had to move a marble slab to get to the door this evening. The slab had ash and stone between it and the iron and wood on the other side, suggesting that between eruptions this slab was laid in place. Paolo went into town to find more laborers. Two of ours went missing in the night.
May 23, 1858
Pompeii, 11:30 PM
Amazing find today! We entered a villa that seems to have been sealed since before the eruption of the volcano. We searched the inside of the villa, finding many amazing frescoes, and a building that looks to have been undisturbed by grave robbers. In the back we found a doorway leading to something that looks like a tomb buried into the original dirt and stone. Once we got into the tomb, We found three statues done in a very unusual stone I have not seen before. There is also a chest with several masks. They are wondrous works of art and seem to be representations of various Roman Gods.
May 24, 1858
Pompeii, 8:45 PM
I have initially catalogued the masks from the chest. Working with Henry and Edward we are confident that almost half of the Dii Consentes are represented here. I have found Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, Vulcan, and Venus. The crafting is exquisite, and I will be fascinated to find out who the makers mark belongs to.
