DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1082#0036
2 POMPEIANA.
have only caused an encroachment on the
sea; the walls and habitations of the city
have served to retain within their circuit
all that was discharged upon the spot by the
volcano; so that the extent of the buildings
is very distinctly marked by the hill, formed
of pumice and the gradual accumulation of
vegetable earth which covers it.
Pompeii was however always upon a
height, as the ascent by the street of the
tombs sufficiently proves; and the apparent
elevation of the city above the sea must
have been anciently much the same as at
present; for, as the soil is generally raised
but little higher than the top of the lower
stories of the houses, the upper apartments
and the public buildings might have nearly
equalled the trees which now clothe the
summit: this eminence seems to have
been formed at some very remote period,
and is connected with the foot of Vesuvius,
from which it may be considered as a sort
of promontory stretching into the plain.
have only caused an encroachment on the
sea; the walls and habitations of the city
have served to retain within their circuit
all that was discharged upon the spot by the
volcano; so that the extent of the buildings
is very distinctly marked by the hill, formed
of pumice and the gradual accumulation of
vegetable earth which covers it.
Pompeii was however always upon a
height, as the ascent by the street of the
tombs sufficiently proves; and the apparent
elevation of the city above the sea must
have been anciently much the same as at
present; for, as the soil is generally raised
but little higher than the top of the lower
stories of the houses, the upper apartments
and the public buildings might have nearly
equalled the trees which now clothe the
summit: this eminence seems to have
been formed at some very remote period,
and is connected with the foot of Vesuvius,
from which it may be considered as a sort
of promontory stretching into the plain.