Pompeii is located on the Bay of Naples south of the city of Naples (Figure 22.1). The town lay well sited close to the sea at a crossroads point where an important route to the interior branched off from the coast road. The larger region of Campania and the Bay of Naples had already seen much development by the time Pompeii was first settled in the sixth century BC. Greeks had established themselves at the north end of the bay two centuries earlier, first at Pithekoussai on the island of Ischia, then at Kyme (later Cumae) on the mainland opposite. A late sixth-century BC Doric temple in the Triangular Forum records their influence in early Pompeii. Etruscans expanded into Campania in the sixth century BC, only to be expelled by the Greeks in 474 BC; finds of Etruscan pottery in deep soundings excavated below Pompeii’s main forum attest to their contacts with the town. By the fifth century BC, Pompeii was the preserve of the Samnites, a local people related to the Latins. But the Romans were expanding, and in 290 BC they defeated the Samnites and took control of Campania. Pompeii remained ethnically Samnite, however. In
The 80s BC, Pompeii joined other Campanian cities in the “Social War,” an unsuccessful uprising against Roman domination. In the aftermath of his victory, the Roman general Sulla established a veterans’ colony in Pompeii, with his veterans displacing local Samnite notables. The Romaniza-tion of the city was now complete.
During the first century AD Pompeii prospered as a commercial and farming center, with a population of 10,000—20,000. Its chief commodities included wool, flowers and perfume, and garum, a highly prized fish sauce made of fermented sardine entrails. In AD 62 Nature struck a first blow with a damaging earthquake. Then in the year 79, on August 24, Vesuvius erupted without warning, spewing forth pumice, stone, poisonous gases, ash, and mud. Most people escaped, but some were trapped; the forms of their bodies would be preserved in the volcanic matrix long after flesh and bone had disintegrated. A letter written some thirty years later by Pliny the Younger to the historian Tacitus describes the catastrophe, recounting how Pliny’s uncle, Pliny the Elder, met his death. Pompeii and Herculaneum were largely covered, Pompeii by 4m of pumice and ash, Herculaneum by up to 16m of volcanic mud. Salvage and looting went on, and possibly even sporadic occupation at Pompeii, but full-scale reconstruction must have seemed an impossible task. The ruined towns soon fell into oblivion.
World History
