Although best known for its Roman remains visible today, dating from AD 79, it was built upon a substantial city dating from much earlier times. Expansion of the city from an early nucleus (the
old town) accelerated after 450 BC under the Greeks following the
Battle of Cumae.
Early history The first stable settlements on the site date to the 8th century BC when the
Oscans, a population of central Italy, founded five villages in the area. With the arrival of the Greeks in Campania from around 740 BC, Pompeii entered the orbit of the Hellenic people. The most important building of this period is the
Doric Temple, built away from the centre in what would later become the Triangular Forum. At the same time the cult of Apollo was introduced. Greek and
Phoenician sailors used the location as a safe port. In the early 6th century BC, the settlement merged into a single community centred on the important crossroad between
Cumae,
Nola, and
Stabiae and was surrounded by a
tufa city wall (the
pappamonte wall). The first wall (which was also used as a base for the later wall) unusually enclosed a much greater area than the early town together with much agricultural land. That such an impressive wall was built at this time indicates that the settlement was already important and wealthy. The city began to flourish and maritime trade started with the construction of a small port near the mouth of the river. the
Etruscans had settled in the area, including Pompeii, finding in the river Sarno a communication route between the sea and the interior. Like the Greeks, the Etruscans did not conquer the city militarily, but simply controlled it, and Pompeii enjoyed a sort of autonomy. Excavations in 1980–1981 have shown the presence of Etruscan inscriptions and a 6th-century BC
necropolis. Under the Etruscans, a primitive
forum or simple market square was built, as well as the
Temple of Apollo, in both of which objects including fragments of
bucchero were found by
Maiuri. Several houses were built with the so-called Tuscan
atrium, typical of this people. In 474 BC, the Greek city of
Cumae, allied with
Syracuse, defeated the Etruscans at the
Battle of Cumae and gained control of the area.
The Samnite period (2nd century BC) The period between about 450–375 BC witnessed large areas of the city being abandoned while important sanctuaries such as the Temple of Apollo show a sudden lack of votive material remains. The
Samnites, people from the areas of
Abruzzo and
Molise, and allies of the Romans, conquered Greek Cumae between 423 and 420 BC. It is likely that all of the surrounding territory, including Pompeii, was already conquered around 424 BC. The new rulers gradually imposed their architecture and enlarged the town. From 343 to 341 BC in the
Samnite Wars, the first Roman army entered the Campanian plain bringing with it the customs and traditions of Rome, and in the Roman
Latin War from 340 BC, the Samnites were faithful to Rome. Although governed by the Samnites, Pompeii entered the Roman orbit, to which it remained faithful even during the third Samnite war and in the war against
Pyrrhus. In the late 4th century BC, the city began expanding from its nucleus into the open-walled area. The street plan of the new areas was more regular and more conformal to
Hippodamus's street plan. The city walls were reinforced in
Sarno stone in the early 3rd century BC (the limestone
enceinte, or the "first Samnite wall"). It formed the basis for the currently visible walls with an outer wall of rectangular limestone blocks as a terrace wall supporting a large
agger, or earth embankment, behind it. After the
Samnite Wars from 290 BC, Pompeii was forced to accept the status of
socii of Rome, maintaining, however, linguistic and administrative autonomy. From the outbreak of the
Second Punic War (218–201 BC) in which
Hannibal's invasion threatened many cities, Pompeii remained faithful to Rome unlike many of the southern cities. As a result, an additional internal wall was built of
tufa and the internal
agger and outer façade raised, resulting in a double parapet with a wider wall-walk. as well as to intensive agriculture on farms around the city. In the 2nd century BC, Pompeii enriched itself by taking part in Rome's conquest of the east, as shown by a statue of Apollo in the Forum erected by
Lucius Mummius in gratitude for their support in the sack of
Corinth and the eastern campaigns. These riches enabled Pompeii to bloom and expand to its ultimate limits. The Forum and many public and private buildings of high architectural quality were built, including
The Large Theatre, the
Temple of Jupiter, the Basilica, the Comitium, the Stabian Baths, and a new two-story portico.
The Roman period Pompeii was one of the towns of Campania that rebelled against Rome in the
Social Wars and in 89 BC it was besieged by
Sulla, who targeted the strategically vulnerable Porta Ercolano with his artillery as can still be seen by the impact craters of thousands of
ballista shots in the walls. Many nearby buildings inside the walls were also destroyed. Although the battle-hardened troops of the Social League, headed by
Lucius Cluentius, helped in resisting the Romans, Pompeii was forced to surrender after the conquest of Nola. The result was that Pompeii became a
Roman colony named Colonia Cornelia Veneria Pompeianorum. Many of Sulla's veterans were given land and property in and around the city, while many who opposed Rome were dispossessed of their property. Despite this, the Pompeians were granted
Roman citizenship and quickly assimilated into the Roman world. The main language in the city became Latin, and many of Pompeii's old aristocratic families Latinized their names as a sign of assimilation. The area around Pompeii became very prosperous due to the desirability of living on the Bay of Naples for wealthy Romans and due to the rich agricultural land. Many farms and villas were built nearby, outside the city and many have been excavated. These include the
Villa of the Mysteries,
Villa of Diomedes, several at
Boscoreale,
Boscotrecase,
Oplontis,
Terzigno, and Civita Guiliana. The city became an important passage for goods that arrived by sea and had to be sent toward Rome or
Southern Italy along the nearby
Appian Way. Many public buildings were constructed or refurbished and improved under the new order; new buildings included the
Amphitheatre of Pompeii in 70 BC, the Forum Baths, and the
Odeon. In comparison, the Forum was embellished with the colonnade of Popidius before 80 BC. These buildings raised the status of Pompeii as a cultural centre in the region as it outshone its neighbours in the number of places for entertainment which significantly enhanced the social and economic development of the city. Under
Augustus, from about 30 BC, a major expansion in new public buildings, as in the rest of the empire, included the
Eumachia Building, the Sanctuary of Augustus and the
Macellum. From about 20 BC, Pompeii was fed with running water by a spur from the
Serino Aqueduct, built by
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. In AD 59, there was a serious riot and bloodshed in the amphitheatre between Pompeians and
Nucerians (which is recorded in a fresco) and which led the Roman Senate to send the
Praetorian Guard to restore order and to ban further events for ten years.
AD 62–79 ) The inhabitants of Pompeii had long been used to minor earthquakes (indeed, the writer
Pliny the Younger wrote that earth tremors "were not particularly alarming because they are frequent in Campania"), but on 5 February 62 a
severe earthquake did considerable damage around the bay, and particularly to Pompeii. It is believed that the earthquake would have registered between 5 and 6 on the
Richter magnitude scale. On that day in Pompeii, there were to be two sacrifices, as it was the anniversary of
Augustus being named
Pater Patriae ("Father of the Country") and also a feast day to honour the guardian spirits of the city. Chaos followed the earthquake; fires caused by oil lamps that had fallen during the quake added to the panic. The nearby cities of
Herculaneum and
Nuceria were also affected. An important field of current research concerns structures that were restored between the earthquake of 62 and the eruption. It was thought until recently that some of the damage had still not been repaired at the time of the eruption, but this is doubtful as the evidence of missing forum statues and marble wall veneers are most likely due to robbers after the city's burial. The public buildings on the east side of the Forum were largely restored and were enhanced by beautiful marble veneers and other modifications to the architecture. Some buildings like the Central Baths were only started after the earthquake and were built to enhance the city with modern developments in their architecture, as had been done in Rome, in terms of wall-heating and window glass, and with well-lit spacious rooms. The new baths took over a whole
insula by demolishing houses, which may have been made easier by the earthquake that had damaged these houses. This shows that the city was still flourishing rather than struggling to recover from the earthquake. In about 64,
Nero and his wife
Poppaea visited Pompeii and made gifts to the temple of Venus (the city's patron deity), probably when he performed in the theatre of Naples. By 79, Pompeii had a population of 20,000, which had prospered from the region's renowned agricultural fertility and favourable location, although more recent estimates are up to 11,500 based on household counts. The eruption lasted for two days. The first phase was of pumice rain
(lapilli) lasting about 18 hours, allowing most inhabitants to escape. Only approximately 1,150 bodies have been found on site, which seems to confirm this theory, and most escapees probably managed to salvage some of their most valuable belongings; many skeletons were found with jewellery, coins, and silverware. At some time in the night or early the next day,
pyroclastic flows began near the volcano, consisting of high speed, dense, and scorching ash clouds, knocking down wholly or partly all structures in their path, incinerating or suffocating the remaining population and altering the landscape, including the coastline. By the evening of the second day, the eruption was over, leaving only haze in the atmosphere through which the sun shone weakly. A multidisciplinary
volcanological and
bio-anthropological study of the eruption products and victims, merged with numerical simulations and experiments, indicates that at Pompeii and surrounding towns heat was the main cause of death of people, previously believed to have died by ash
suffocation. The results of the study, published in 2010, show that exposure to at least hot pyroclastic flows at a distance of from the vent was sufficient to cause instant death, even if people were sheltered within buildings. The people and buildings of Pompeii were covered in up to twelve different layers of
tephra, in total, up to deep. Archaeology in 2023 showed that some buildings collapsed due to one or more earthquakes during the eruption, killing the occupants.
Pliny the Younger provided a first-hand account of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius from his position across the
Bay of Naples at
Misenum, but it was written approximately 27 or 28 years after the event. His uncle,
Pliny the Elder, with whom he had a close relationship, died while attempting to rescue stranded victims. As admiral of the fleet, Pliny the Elder had ordered the ships of the Imperial Navy stationed at Misenum to cross the bay to assist evacuation attempts. Volcanologists have recognised the importance of Pliny the Younger's account of the eruption by calling similar events "
Plinian". It had long been thought that the eruption was an August event based on one version of the letter, but another version gives a date of the eruption as late as 23 November. A later date is consistent with a charcoal inscription at the site, discovered in 2018, which includes the date of 17 October and which must have been recently written. A collaborative study in 2022 determined a date of 24–25 October. An October or November eruption is supported by many pieces of evidence: the fact that people buried in the ash appear to have been wearing heavier clothing than the light summer clothes typical of August; the fresh fruit and vegetables in the shops are typical of Octoberand conversely the summer fruit typical of August was already being sold in dried, or conserved form; nuts from chestnut trees were found at
Oplontis, which would not have been mature before mid-September; wine fermenting jars had been sealed, which would have happened around the end of October; coins found in the purse of a woman buried in the ash include one with a 15th
imperatorial acclamation among the
emperor's titles, which could not have been minted before the second week of September. He visited Pompeii once after the eruption and again the following year but no work was done on recovery. Soon after the city's burial, survivors and possibly thieves came to salvage valuables, including the marble statues from the Forum and other precious materials from buildings. There is wide evidence of post-eruption
disturbance, including holes made through walls. The city was not completely buried, and the tops of larger buildings would have been visible above the ash, making it obvious where to dig or salvage
building material. The robbers left traces of their passage, as in a house where modern archaeologists found a wall graffito saying "house dug". Archaeological evidence suggests that following the eruption, the site was reoccupied by survivors as a small informal settlement that lasted until the fifth century. Over the following centuries, its name and location were forgotten, though it appeared on the
Tabula Peutingeriana of the 4th century. Further eruptions, particularly in 471–473 and 512, covered the remains more deeply. The area became known as
La Civita (the city) due to the features in the ground. : plaster casts of victims still
in situ; many casts are in the Archaeological Museum of Naples. The next known date that any part was unearthed was in 1592, when architect
Domenico Fontana, while digging an underground aqueduct to the mills of
Torre Annunziata, ran into ancient walls covered with paintings and inscriptions. His aqueduct passed through and underneath a large part of the city and would have had to pass through many buildings and foundations, as they still can be seen in many places today. However, he kept the finding secret. In 1689, Francesco Picchetti saw a wall inscription mentioning
decurio Pompeiis ("town councillor of Pompeii"), but he associated it with a villa of
Pompey. Francesco Bianchini pointed out the true meaning, and he was supported by Giuseppe Macrini, who in 1693 excavated some walls and wrote that Pompeii lay beneath La Civita. Herculaneum was rediscovered in 1738 by workers digging for the foundations of a summer palace for the King of Naples,
Charles of Bourbon. Due to the spectacular quality of the finds, the Spanish military engineer
Roque Joaquín de Alcubierre made excavations to find further remains at the site of Pompeii in 1748, even if the city was not identified. Charles of Bourbon took great interest in the finds, even after leaving to become king of Spain because the display of antiquities reinforced Naples' political and cultural prestige. On 20 August 1763, an inscription
[...] Rei Publicae Pompeianorum [...] was found and the city was identified as Pompeii.
Karl Weber directed the first scientific excavations. He was followed in 1764 by military engineer Franscisco la Vega, who was succeeded by his brother,
Pietro, in 1804. There was much progress in exploration when the French occupied Naples in 1799 and ruled over Italy from 1806 to 1815. The land on which Pompeii lies was confiscated, and up to 700 workers were employed in the excavations. The excavated areas in the north and south were connected. Parts of the Via dell'Abbondanza were also exposed in the west–east direction, and for the first time, an impression of the size and appearance of the ancient town could be appreciated. In the following years, the excavators struggled with a lack of money. Excavations progressed slowly, but with significant finds such as the houses of the
Faun, of
Menandro, of the
Tragic Poet and the
Surgeon.
Giuseppe Fiorelli took charge of the excavations in 1863 and made greater progress. During early excavations of the site, occasional voids in the ash layer had been found that contained human remains. Fiorelli realised these were spaces left by the decomposed bodies, and so devised the technique of injecting
plaster into them to recreate the forms of Vesuvius's victims. This technique is still in use today, with a clear
resin now used instead of plaster because it is more durable and does not destroy the bones, allowing further analysis. Fiorelli also introduced scientific documentation. He divided the city into today's nine areas (
regiones) and blocks (
insulae) and numbered the entrances of the individual houses (
domus). Fiorelli also published the first periodical with excavation reports. Under his successors, the entire west section of the city was exposed.
Modern archaeology After those of Fiorelli, excavations continued in an increasingly more systematic and considered manner under several directors of archaeology though still with the main interest in making spectacular discoveries and uncovering more houses rather than answering the main questions about the city and its long term preservation. In the 1920s,
Amedeo Maiuri excavated older layers beneath those of 79 AD for the first time to learn about the settlement history. Maiuri made the last excavations on a grand scale in the 1950s, and the area south of the Via dell'Abbondanza and the city wall was almost completely uncovered, but they were poorly documented scientifically. Preservation was haphazard, and his reconstructions were difficult to distinguish from the original ruins, which is a great handicap for studying genuine antique remains. Questionable reconstruction was also done after the severe earthquake of 1980, which caused great destruction. Since then, work has been confined to the excavated areas except for targeted soundings and excavations. Further excavations on a large scale are not planned, and today archaeologists are more engaged in reconstructing, documenting and slowing the decay of the ruins. In December 2018, archaeologists discovered the remains of harnessed horses in the
Villa of the Mysteries. Under the 'Great Pompeii Project' over of ancient walls within the city were relieved of danger of collapse by treating the unexcavated areas behind the street fronts in order to increase drainage and reduce the pressure of groundwater and earth on the walls, a problem especially in the rainy season. These excavations resumed on unexcavated areas of
Regio V. In November 2020 the remains of two men, thought to be a rich man and his slave, were found in a layer of ash. They appeared to have escaped the first eruption but were killed by a second blast the next day. A study of the bones showed that the younger one appeared to have done manual labour and hence was likely a slave. In December 2020, a
thermopolium, an inn or snack-bar, was excavated in Regio V. In addition to brightly coloured
frescoes depicting some of the food on offer, archaeologists found eight
dolia (terracotta pots) still containing remnants of meals, including duck, goat, pig, fish, and snails. In January 2021 a well-preserved "large, four-wheel ceremonial chariot" was uncovered in the portico of the luxurious villa in Civita Giuliana, north of Pompeii, where a stable had previously been discovered in 2018. Nearby the bodies of two fugitives had been found using plaster casts, and in a stable the remains of horses, one still in harness. In 2021, an exceptional 1st century AD painted tomb of a freed slave,
Marcus Venerius Secundio, containing mummified human remains, was discovered outside the Porta Sarno gate. Its inscription records he achieved custodianship of the Temple of Venus and membership of the
Sodales Augustales, priests of the Imperial Cult. Also, he organised Greek and Latin performances lasting four days, the first evidence of Greek cultural events in Pompeii. In April 2024, a dining hall lined with rare frescoes was excavated as part of a broader project aimed at shoring up the front of the perimeter between the excavated and unexcavated area of the site. One fresco presents Helen of Troy and Paris, and another depicts Apollo and Princess Cassandra, with Apollo trying to attract the princess's attention. The hall, measuring , was located in a house on Via di Nola—one of the main city streets in the Regio IX area. The room walls were painted black, perhaps to hide the traces of soot from the lighting fixtures. In June 2024, a shrine with rare blue-painted walls covered with paintings of females thought to represent the four seasons (
Horae) was discovered. 15 amphorae, two bronze jugs and two bronze lamps were among the findings. The room is thought to be a sacrarium (the sanctuary of a church).
Conservation Objects buried beneath Pompeii were well-preserved for almost 2,000 years as the lack of air and moisture allowed little to no deterioration. However, Pompeii has been exposed to natural and anthropic deterioration following excavation. Weathering, erosion, light exposure, water damage, poor methods of excavation and reconstruction, introduced plants and animals, tourism, vandalism and theft have all damaged the site in some way. The lack of adequate weather protection for all but the most interesting and important buildings has allowed original interior decoration to fade or be lost. Two-thirds of the city has been excavated, but the remnants of the city are rapidly deteriorating. Furthermore, during
World War II many buildings were badly damaged or destroyed by bombs dropped in several raids by the
Allied forces. The conservation concern has constantly worried archaeologists. The ancient city was included in the
1996 World Monuments Watch by the
World Monuments Fund, and again in
1998 and in
2000. In 1996 the organisation claimed that Pompeii "desperately need[ed] repair" and called for the drafting of a general plan of
restoration and interpretation. The organisation supported conservation at Pompeii with funding from
American Express and the
Samuel H. Kress Foundation. The
Schola Armatorum ('House of the Gladiators') collapsed in 2010 caused by heavy rainfall and lack of proper drainage. The structure was not open to visitors, but the outside was visible to tourists. There was fierce controversy after the collapse, with accusations of neglect. Today, funding is mostly directed into conservation of the site; however, due to the expanse of Pompeii and the scale of the problems, this is inadequate in halting the slow decay of the materials. A 2012 study recommended an improved strategy for interpretation and presentation of the site as a cost-effective method of improving its conservation and preservation in the short term. In June 2013,
UNESCO warned that if restoration and preservation works "fail to deliver substantial progress in the next two years," Pompeii could be placed on the
List of World Heritage in Danger. A "Grande Progetto Pompei" project of about five years had begun in 2012 with the
European Union and included stabilization and conservation of buildings in the highest risk areas. In 2014,
UNESCO headquarters received a new management plan to help integrate the property's management, conservation, and maintenance programs. In 2020 many
domus gardens, orchards and vineyards were carefully recreated using depictions in frescoes and archaeological finds to give better insights into what they were like before the catastrophe. These include the
House of Julia Felix, the House of the Golden Cupids, the
House of Loreius Tiburtinus, the House of Cornelius Rufus and
the Garden of the Fugitives. In 2021 several long-closed
domus were re-opened after restoration including the House of the Ship Europa, House of the Orchard and House of the Lovers. Also the newly excavated House of Leda and the Swan has opened. == Roman city development ==