DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61387#0053
THE RUINS OF POMPEII.
25
more regular and improved construction, and therefore probably of a later
date; the stones being more regularly cut, and approaching that style of
masonry which the Greeks call isodomon; that is, constructed of stones of the
same form and size. Some parts, however, are even more recent than this,
consisting of what is called opus incertum; or of small pieces of stone or
lava, cemented together with mortar, and coated over with stucco, in imita-
tion of the ancient parts. These portions are supposed to have been repairs
to make good the damage inflicted by Sulla.
The wall was in fact a double one, the two being bonded together by
cross walls between them, and the interstices filled up with earth, so as to
form a broad agger, or mound, about twenty feet thick. Both the external
and the internal wall were capped with battlements to defend the soldiers
who guarded them, and were provided with embrasures through which they
might hurl their missiles. The external wall, which inclines slightly in-
wards, was about twenty-five feet in height, and was unprotected by a ditch.
The inner wall, which was a few feet higher, could have been of no service
against an external enemy, and seems to have been designed only to give
a more 'imposing appearance to the defences. At intervals, square towers
rose from the walls, which in some parts, as near the Gate of Herculaneum,
are at the distance of about eighty paces from one another; while in other
places they are two or three hundred, and sometimes nearly five hundred
paces apart. They consist of several stories. Each had a sally port and an
archway, through which the troops might pass along the wall. About ten
of these towers may still be counted. They are evidently of more recent
date than the walls, though in a very ruinous state. It is hardly probable
that their condition is the effect of the earthquakes which preceded and
accompanied the eruption of the year 7 9; and it has, therefore, been some-
times not improbably conjectured that their dilapidated state, which is
chiefly observable on their outer face, was the effect of Sulla’s siege at the
end of the Social War.
Pompeii appears to have had eight gates. The principal one, the Gate
of Herculaneum, so called from its spanning the Via Domitiana, a branch of
the Appian Way, which led from Herculaneum, and consequently from Rome
and northern Italy, stood at the north-western extremity of the town. We
shall have occasion to describe this gate further on. Hence, proceeding
round the walls in an easterly direction, the other gates occur in the following
order: the Gate of Vesuvius, the Gate of Capua, the Gate of Nola, the
25
more regular and improved construction, and therefore probably of a later
date; the stones being more regularly cut, and approaching that style of
masonry which the Greeks call isodomon; that is, constructed of stones of the
same form and size. Some parts, however, are even more recent than this,
consisting of what is called opus incertum; or of small pieces of stone or
lava, cemented together with mortar, and coated over with stucco, in imita-
tion of the ancient parts. These portions are supposed to have been repairs
to make good the damage inflicted by Sulla.
The wall was in fact a double one, the two being bonded together by
cross walls between them, and the interstices filled up with earth, so as to
form a broad agger, or mound, about twenty feet thick. Both the external
and the internal wall were capped with battlements to defend the soldiers
who guarded them, and were provided with embrasures through which they
might hurl their missiles. The external wall, which inclines slightly in-
wards, was about twenty-five feet in height, and was unprotected by a ditch.
The inner wall, which was a few feet higher, could have been of no service
against an external enemy, and seems to have been designed only to give
a more 'imposing appearance to the defences. At intervals, square towers
rose from the walls, which in some parts, as near the Gate of Herculaneum,
are at the distance of about eighty paces from one another; while in other
places they are two or three hundred, and sometimes nearly five hundred
paces apart. They consist of several stories. Each had a sally port and an
archway, through which the troops might pass along the wall. About ten
of these towers may still be counted. They are evidently of more recent
date than the walls, though in a very ruinous state. It is hardly probable
that their condition is the effect of the earthquakes which preceded and
accompanied the eruption of the year 7 9; and it has, therefore, been some-
times not improbably conjectured that their dilapidated state, which is
chiefly observable on their outer face, was the effect of Sulla’s siege at the
end of the Social War.
Pompeii appears to have had eight gates. The principal one, the Gate
of Herculaneum, so called from its spanning the Via Domitiana, a branch of
the Appian Way, which led from Herculaneum, and consequently from Rome
and northern Italy, stood at the north-western extremity of the town. We
shall have occasion to describe this gate further on. Hence, proceeding
round the walls in an easterly direction, the other gates occur in the following
order: the Gate of Vesuvius, the Gate of Capua, the Gate of Nola, the