POMPEII

Italian Pompei, ancient city of Campania, Italy, 14 miles (23 km) southeast of Naples, at the southeastern base of 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, Stabiae, Torre Annunziata, and other communities, 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. Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Torre Annunziata were collectively declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1997. Pompeii supported between 10,000 and 20,000 inhabitants at the time of its destruction. The modern town (comune) of Pompei (pop. [1995 est.] 26,241) lies to the east; it contains the Basilica of Santa Maria del Rosario, a pilgrimage centre. Wilhelmina Feemster Jashemski The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica Additional reading August Mau, Pompeii: Its Life and Art, new ed., rev. and corrected (1902, reprinted 1982; originally published in German, 1900), is a comprehensive though outdated treatment. Amadeo Maiuri, Pompeii, trans. from Italian, 15th ed., enlarged and updated (1978, reissued 1989); and Robert Etienne, Pompeii: The Day a City Died, trans. from French (1992), both guidebooks, are good brief accounts. Pompeii: The Vanishing City (1992), published by Time-Life Books, is well illustrated. Matteo Della Corte, Case ed abitanti di Pompei, 3rd ed. (1965), presents a thorough, scholarly treatment of the houses and places of business and their owners as identified from the inscriptions and the graffiti. Wilhemina F. Jashemski, The Gardens of Pompeii: Herculaneum and the Villas Destroyed by Vesuvius, 2 vol. (1979-93), studies the use of gardens in Roman architecture and inventories their contents, artwork, furniture, flora, and fauna. Willem Jongman, The Economy and Society of Pompeii (1988, reissued 1991), includes an extensive bibliography. Lawrence Richardson, Jr., Pompeii: An Architectural History (1988, reissued 1997), examines the city's development and architecture. Ray Laurence, Roman Pompeii: Space and Society (1994), analyzes urban development. Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum (1994), is a social history. Christopher Charles Parslow, Rediscovering Antiquity: Karl Weber and the Excavation of Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Stabiae (1995), discusses Weber's excavations from 1750 to 1764.