Nice print titled Rue des tombeaux, a Pompei, from wood engraving with fine detail and clear impression, nice hand coloring, approx. page size is 25.5 x 16 cm, image size is approx. 16 x 11 cm. From: Ernest Breton, Monuments de tous les peuples, Paris.

Click here or image for larger version

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Pompeii,

Italian POMPEI, ancient city of Campania, Italy, 14 miles (23 km) southeast of Naples, near Mount Vesuvius. It was built on a spur formed by a prehistoric lava flow to the north of the mouth of the Sarnus (modern Sarno) River. Pompeii was destroyed, together with Herculaneum and Stabiae (qq.v.), by the violent eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79; the circumstances of their preservation make their remains a unique document of Greco-Roman life. The modern town (comune) of Pompei (pop. [1981 prelim.] 22,896) lies to the east; it contains the Basilica of Santa Maria del Rosario, a pilgrimage centre.

History.

It seems certain that Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae were first settled by the Oscans, who were descendants of the Neolithic inhabitants of Campania. Archaeological evidence indicates that the Oscan village of Pompeii, strategically located near the mouth of the Sarnus River, soon came under the influence of the cultured Greeks who had settled across the bay in the 8th century BC. Greek influence was challenged, however, when the Etruscans came into Campania in the 7th century. The Etruscans' influence remained strong until their sea power was destroyed by King Hieron I of Syracuse in a naval battle off Cumae, in 474 BC. A second period of Greek hegemony followed.

Then, toward the end of the 5th century, the warlike Samnites, an Italic tribe, conquered Campania, and Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae became Samnite towns.

Pompeii is first mentioned in history in 310 BC, when, during the Second Samnite War, a Roman fleet landed at the Sarnus port of Pompeii and from there made an unsuccessful attack on the neighbouring city of Nuceria. At the end of the Samnite wars, Campania became a part of the Roman confederation, and the cities became "allies" of Rome. But they were not completely subjugated and Romanized until the time of the Social War. Pompeii joined the Italians in their revolt against Rome in this war and was besieged by the Roman general Lucius Cornelius Sulla in 89 BC. After the war, Pompeii, along with the rest of Italy south of the Po River, received Roman citizenship. As a punishment for Pompeii's part in the war, a colony of Roman veterans was established there under Publius Sulla, the nephew of the Roman general. Latin now replaced Oscan as the official language, and the city soon became Romanized in institutions, architecture, and culture.

A riot in the amphitheatre at Pompeii between the Pompeians and the Nucerians, in AD 59, is reported by the Roman historian Tacitus. An earthquake in AD 62 did great damage in both Pompeii and Herculaneum. The cities had not yet recovered from this catastrophe when final destruction overcame them 17 years later.

Mount Vesuvius erupted on Aug. 24, AD 79. A vivid eyewitness report is preserved in two letters written by Pliny the Younger to the historian Tacitus, who had inquired about the death of Pliny the Elder, commander of the Roman fleet at Misenum. Pliny the Elder had rushed from Misenum to help the stricken population and to get a close view of the volcanic phenomena, and he died at Stabiae. Falling fragments of lava, pumice, and other volcanic debris covered Pompeii to a depth of more than 9 feet (3 m), causing the roofs of the houses to fall in. A rain of ashes followed, reaching a depth of another 9 feet and preserving in a pall of ash the bodies of the inhabitants who perished sheltering in their houses or trying to escape toward the coast or by the roads leading to Stabiae or Nuceria; many were suffocated by the ash. Thus Pompeii remained buried under a layer of pumice stones and ash 19 to 23 feet (6 to 7 m) deep. The city's sudden burial would serve to protect it for the next 17 centuries from vandalism, looting, and the destructive effects of climate and weather.

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