DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61617#0288
CHAPTER XXXI
THE DEFENCES OF THE CITY
From the military point of view, Pompeii at the time of the
eruption did not possess a system of defences. For many years
previously the city wall had been kept in repair only as a con-
venience in matters of civil administration, and the gates had
long since lost all appearance of preparedness to resist attack.
The fortifications are not, however, without interest. They
form a massive and conspicuous portion of the ruins, and as
a survival from an earlier period they have recorded many
evidences of the successive changes through which the city
passed.
The relation of the wall to the configuration of the height on
which Pompeii stood was pointed out in connection with our
general survey of the city(p. 31). Along the southwest side, at
the time of the eruption, it had almost completely disappeared.
Here, where the slope was steepest and the city best defended
by nature, the wall had been removed, and its place occupied
by houses, at a comparatively early date, probably in the second
century b.c. ; enough fragments remain, however, to enable us
to determine its location with certainty. Elsewhere the greater
part of the wall is in a fair state of preservation. The towers
did not belong to the original structure, and one of the gates in
its present form is of still more recent origin.
The construction of the wall will be readily understood with
the help of the accompanying illustrations.
First, two parallel stone walls were built, about 15 feet apart
and 28 inches thick; both walls were strengthened on the side
toward the city by numerous buttresses, the inner wall being
further supported by massive abutments projecting into the
space between (Fig. 103). This space was filled with earth.
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THE DEFENCES OF THE CITY
From the military point of view, Pompeii at the time of the
eruption did not possess a system of defences. For many years
previously the city wall had been kept in repair only as a con-
venience in matters of civil administration, and the gates had
long since lost all appearance of preparedness to resist attack.
The fortifications are not, however, without interest. They
form a massive and conspicuous portion of the ruins, and as
a survival from an earlier period they have recorded many
evidences of the successive changes through which the city
passed.
The relation of the wall to the configuration of the height on
which Pompeii stood was pointed out in connection with our
general survey of the city(p. 31). Along the southwest side, at
the time of the eruption, it had almost completely disappeared.
Here, where the slope was steepest and the city best defended
by nature, the wall had been removed, and its place occupied
by houses, at a comparatively early date, probably in the second
century b.c. ; enough fragments remain, however, to enable us
to determine its location with certainty. Elsewhere the greater
part of the wall is in a fair state of preservation. The towers
did not belong to the original structure, and one of the gates in
its present form is of still more recent origin.
The construction of the wall will be readily understood with
the help of the accompanying illustrations.
First, two parallel stone walls were built, about 15 feet apart
and 28 inches thick; both walls were strengthened on the side
toward the city by numerous buttresses, the inner wall being
further supported by massive abutments projecting into the
space between (Fig. 103). This space was filled with earth.
231