DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61617#0031
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I
THE SITUATION OF POMPEII
From Gaeta, where the south end of the Volscian range
borders abruptly upon the sea, to the peninsula of Sorrento, a
broad gulf stretched in remote ages, cutting its way far into the
land. Its waves dashed upon the base of the mountains which
now, rising with steep slope, mark the eastern boundary of the
Campanian Plain — Mt. Tifata above Capua, Mt. Taburno back
of Nola, and lying across the southeast corner, the huge mass
of Monte Sant’ Angelo, whose sharply defined line of elevation
is continued in the heights of Sorrento.
This gulf was transformed by volcanic agencies into a fertile
plain. Here two fissures in the earth’s crust cross each other,
each marked by a series of extinct or active volcanoes. One
fissure runs in the direction of the Italian Peninsula; along
it lie Monti Berici near Vicenza, Mt. Amiata below Chiusi, the
lakes of Bolsena and Bracciano filling extinct craters, the Alban
Mountains, and finally Stromboli and Aetna. The other runs
from east to west; its direction is indicated by Mt. Vulture
near Venosa, Mt. Epomeo on the island of Ischia, and the
Ponza Islands.
At three places in the old sea basin the subterranean fires
burst forth. Near the 'north shore rose the great volcano of
Rocca Monfina, which added itself to the Volscian Mountains,
and heaping the products of its eruptions upon Mons Massicus,
— once an island, — formed with this the northern boundary of
the plain. Toward the middle the numerous small vents of the
Phlegraean Fields threw up the low heights, to which the north
B I
CHAPTER I
THE SITUATION OF POMPEII
From Gaeta, where the south end of the Volscian range
borders abruptly upon the sea, to the peninsula of Sorrento, a
broad gulf stretched in remote ages, cutting its way far into the
land. Its waves dashed upon the base of the mountains which
now, rising with steep slope, mark the eastern boundary of the
Campanian Plain — Mt. Tifata above Capua, Mt. Taburno back
of Nola, and lying across the southeast corner, the huge mass
of Monte Sant’ Angelo, whose sharply defined line of elevation
is continued in the heights of Sorrento.
This gulf was transformed by volcanic agencies into a fertile
plain. Here two fissures in the earth’s crust cross each other,
each marked by a series of extinct or active volcanoes. One
fissure runs in the direction of the Italian Peninsula; along
it lie Monti Berici near Vicenza, Mt. Amiata below Chiusi, the
lakes of Bolsena and Bracciano filling extinct craters, the Alban
Mountains, and finally Stromboli and Aetna. The other runs
from east to west; its direction is indicated by Mt. Vulture
near Venosa, Mt. Epomeo on the island of Ischia, and the
Ponza Islands.
At three places in the old sea basin the subterranean fires
burst forth. Near the 'north shore rose the great volcano of
Rocca Monfina, which added itself to the Volscian Mountains,
and heaping the products of its eruptions upon Mons Massicus,
— once an island, — formed with this the northern boundary of
the plain. Toward the middle the numerous small vents of the
Phlegraean Fields threw up the low heights, to which the north
B I