in the Villa of the Papyri, just before the eruption engulfed it. The villa is mentioned as belonging to Roman aristocrat Pedius Cascus and his wife Rectina. (Pliny the Younger mentions Rectina, whom he calls the wife of Tascius, in Letter 16 of book VI of his Letters.) At the start of the eruption Rectina prepares to have the library evacuated and sends urgent word to her old friend, Pliny the Elder, who commands the Roman Navy at Misenum on the other side of the Bay of Naples. Pliny immediately sets out in a warship, and gets in sight of the villa, but the eruption prevents him from landing and taking off Rectina and her library – which is thus left for modern archaeologists to find. Works of art Sculpture from the Villa According to the 1908 publication Buried Herculaneum by Ethel Ross Barker, there were busts of Athene Gorgolopha, Archaistic Pallas, Archaic Apollo, Head of an Amazon, Dionysus or Plato (? Poseidon), Doryphorus, Mercury, Homer, Ptolemy Alexander (Alexander the Great?), Ptolemy Philadelphus, Ptolemy Soter I (Seleucus Nicator I), and the mythological Danaids and others. Busts Statues Illustrations Illustrations included scenes with, Head with the wreathed helmet (Pyrrhus of Epirus?), Archimedes (Archidamus III?), Attilius Regulus (Philetairus of Pergamum?), Pseudo-Seneca (Philetas of Cos?), Berenice, Heraclitus, Ptolemy Lathyrus, Ptolemy Soter II, Sappho, Warrior in a helmet, Scipio Africanus, Head of a Vestal (Woman unknown), Hannibal or Juba, and Head with a headdress. Frescos Frescoes included, Theseus victorious over the Minotaur, Telephus suckled by the hind, Chiron teaching Achilles the lyre, Perseus slaying Medusa, a charioteer, and papyri. See also Oxyrhynchus Friends of Herculaneum Society which encourages interest in the Villa and sponsors further excavation at the site. References Further reading David Sider, (2005), The Library of the Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum. J. Paul Getty Museum. External links Papyri herculanensi online The Friends of Herculaneum Society Bourbon Excavation Excavation of the Villa Philodemus Project website Roman Herculaneum website "Millionaire to fund dig for lost Roman library", The Sunday Times (London) February 13, 2005 American Society of Mechanical Engineers: Henry Baumgartner, "New light on ancient scrolls" 2002 J. Paul Getty Museum In search of Western civilisation's lost classics, The Australian, August 6, 2008 2015 New Yorker article about the villa Papyri Herculaneum (ancient city) Roman sites of Campania Papyri Ancient libraries Archaeological sites in Campania Epicureanism J. Paul Getty Trust Papyrus