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PEOPLE & ARTS Saturday 12 January 2019

Restored Pompeii gladiator building open to public

By FRANCES D’EMILIO ble of what was an ancient
Associated Press villa on Pompeii’s outskirts.
ROME (AP) — A 2,000-year- Other excavations have
old building where Ro- found well-preserved fres-
man gladiators in Pompeii co decorations.
trained for combat has Massimo Osanna, director
opened to the public eight of the Pompeii archaeo-
years after its collapse fol- logical site, said the ar-
lowing rainfall. chaeological park would
The Pompeii archaeologi- concentrate on scheduled
cal site said the public can maintenance in hopes of
tour the Schola Armatu- preventing similar collaps-
rarum on Thursdays. Experts es.
will explain their painstaking “The time for extraordinary
restoration of frescoes that maintenance and restora-
decorated the site where tion is over. Now the time for
gladiators trained before scheduled maintenance
combat in the ancient Ro- begins,” Osanna said.
man city. In 2013, Italy’s government
Its opening was hailed by approved the appoint-
Italy’s culture ministry as the ment of a special super-
“symbolic place of Pom- intendent to ensure that
peii’s rebirth,” following millions of euros in govern-
years of dismaying news A woman looks at a fresco at the Schola Armaturarum building in Pompeii, Italy, Thursday, Jan. ment and European Union
that various ruins had crum- 3, 2019. funds for maintenance and
bled amid modern-day Associated Press restoration of the archaeo-
neglect of the sprawling, A park statement said toring and maintenance.” prepare for such banquets, logical marvel and tour-
once-flourishing city that prosecutors investigating Restoration work after the as well as amphorae, or ist site would be properly
was destroyed by the erup- the 2010 collapse didn’t collapse did, however, bol- storage jugs, containing spent.
tion of Mount Vesuvius in 79 pinpoint responsibility. But ster knowledge about the oil, fine wine and fish sauce A rash of collapses of
A.D. it said there were several building’s use, with archae- imported from Crete, Sicily, structures in ancient Pom-
The building, which has “probable” interlaced fac- ologists saying it appears to Spain and Africa, the ar- peii had sparked concern
been previously excavated tors that were aggravated have served as a home to chaeological park said. about Pompeii’s future.
some 100 years ago, had by days of heavy rain. Those an ancient military associa- Several other recent finds Days after the gladiators’
also suffered heavy dam- factors included probable tion, which sometimes host- point to better days for the training facilities crumbled
age from World War II Al- malfunction of a drainage ed banquets there. popular Pompeii tourist site. into fragments, a stretch of
lied bombing. A few years system, the weight of the Excavations carried out in Among the more recent garden wall ringing the an-
later, reinforced concrete postwar addition of ce- part to shore up the struc- discoveries, the remains cient House of the Moralist
was used to build a protec- ment and iron and “lack of ture revealed areas, appar- of a harnessed horse were gave way after days of tor-
tive cover. a planned system of moni- ently used by servants, to found in an excavated sta- rential rain.q

‘The First Conspiracy’ unspools plot on Washington in 1776

By MICHAEL HILL involved in this cloak-and- who was publicly hanged not certain whether plot-
Associated Press dagger tale include a for “mutiny, sedition, and ters planned to assassinate
“The First Conspiracy: The scheming gunsmith, would- treachery.” Washington or capture him
Secret Plot to Kill George be counterfeiters and So the authors extract what (which, arguably, could
Washington” (Flatiron some members of Wash- they can out of the histori- have led to his execution
Books), by Brad Meltzer ington’s elite bodyguard cal record to tell a colorful anyway).
and Josh Mensch detachment, called the story giving the reader a Many believed it was an as-
George Washington faced Life Guards. sense of Revolutionary-era sassination plot ever since
some big problems as he Looming ominously over all Manhattan. The writing is Hickey went to the gal-
tried to fortify New York City the machinations was Gov. punchy and the chap- lows. In one famous story,
against British forces in the William Tyron, the top Brit- ters are short, though the Washington was about to
summer of 1776. ish official in New York. Ris- authors have an annoy- be served poisoned peas
His ragtag army was woe- ing revolutionary sentiment ing habit of ending every before a servant threw the
fully short on weapons and had forced him to retreat chapter with a cliffhanger, plate out the window at
battle experience. The Brit- to a ship in New York Har- even when they have to the last second, saving the
ish were assembling a mas- bor, but he was still able contrive one. future president but killing
sive expeditionary force to to spin his webs of intrigue One big obstacle in telling some chickens outside who
crush his army and snuff out against the rebels. the story is a lack of source ate the deadly vegetables.
the nascent revolution. This cover image released by It’s not a spoiler to point material about the precise That story is almost certainly
And one more thing: some Flatiron Books shows “The First out that the plot failed. nature of the plot against apocryphal. But what was
of his own bodyguards Conspiracy: The Secret Plot Washington, of course, was Washington. It was a se- the most likely plan? Scour-
to Kill George Washington,”
were involved in a traitor- by by Brad Meltzer and Josh just beginning his long, his- cret, after all. Washington ing the existing evidence,
ous plot against him. Mensch. torical run on the world’s and the British understand- the authors come up with
“The First Conspiracy” fol- Associated Press stage. The only person to ably kept mum about their a conclusion that seems as
lows the shadowy plot that ton focused on the com- lose his life after the plot intelligence and counter- good as any that can be
played out in and around ing British attack. The odd was exposed was body- intelligence operations. De- drawn more than two cen-
Manhattan as Washing- assortment of characters guard Thomas Hickey, spite the book’s subtitle, it’s turies later.q