ABSTRACT
The Roman drive to improve, change, and create a new environment has proved an enormous boon to archaeologists. Artists or architects might on occasion take note of a surviving Roman building and incorporate its form of design within something of their own. The classical monuments of the city of Rome itself attracted considerable interest during the course of the medieval period, as models for artists and painters, and then later as objects or buildings to study in their own right. Frankish kings modelled many elements of their lifestyle, court practice, and architecture on Roman models from which they were not far removed. The discoveries at both Pompeii and Herculaneum were recognized as being of prime importance, and although secrecy seemed at times to shroud what was being done, efforts were also made to publish the results, and to publicize the collections being built up by Naples Museum.
