DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61617#0289
POMPEII
232
When the desired height, 26 or 28 feet, was reached, a breast-
work of parapets was constructed on the outer wall; the inner
wall was carried up about 16 feet above the broad passageway
on the top (Fig. 105) as a shield against the weapons of the
enemy, preventing the missiles from going over into the town
and causing them to fall where the garrison could easily pick
them up to hurl back again. Rain water falling on the top
flowed toward the outside, and was carried beyond the face of
the masonry by stone waterspouts.
For additional strength there was heaped against the inner
wall an embankment of earth, which still remains on the north
side, between the tenth
and twelfth towers. At
the right of the Her-
culaneum Gate the
place of the embank-
ment and of the inner
wall was taken by a
massive stairway (E
in Fig. 103) leading to
the top. Originally,
the stairs extended east
re demolished for the
greater part of the distance, and houses were built close to
the wall. There is a smaller stairway of the same kind east of
the Stabian Gate (Fig. 106).
In the original structure both outer and inner walls were
built of hewn blocks of tufa and limestone; but we find portions
of the outer wall, and all the towers, of lava rubble, the surface
of which was covered with stucco. The towers were already
standing, as shown by inscriptions, at the time of the Social
War. We are therefore safe in believing that in the period of
peace following the Second Punic War the walls were not kept
in repair, some parts of the outer wall being utilized as a quarry
for building stone; that with the advent of the Social War they
were hastily repaired on the north, east, and south sides, and
strengthened by towers, but that no attempt was made to renew
the fortifications on the steep southwest side, between the Her-
Fig. 103. — Plan of a section of the city wall.
A. Inner wall with buttresses and abutments.
B. Outer wall.
C. Filling of earth between the stone walls.
D. Tower.
E. Stairs leading to the top of the wall.
about 270 feet, but afterwards the
232
When the desired height, 26 or 28 feet, was reached, a breast-
work of parapets was constructed on the outer wall; the inner
wall was carried up about 16 feet above the broad passageway
on the top (Fig. 105) as a shield against the weapons of the
enemy, preventing the missiles from going over into the town
and causing them to fall where the garrison could easily pick
them up to hurl back again. Rain water falling on the top
flowed toward the outside, and was carried beyond the face of
the masonry by stone waterspouts.
For additional strength there was heaped against the inner
wall an embankment of earth, which still remains on the north
side, between the tenth
and twelfth towers. At
the right of the Her-
culaneum Gate the
place of the embank-
ment and of the inner
wall was taken by a
massive stairway (E
in Fig. 103) leading to
the top. Originally,
the stairs extended east
re demolished for the
greater part of the distance, and houses were built close to
the wall. There is a smaller stairway of the same kind east of
the Stabian Gate (Fig. 106).
In the original structure both outer and inner walls were
built of hewn blocks of tufa and limestone; but we find portions
of the outer wall, and all the towers, of lava rubble, the surface
of which was covered with stucco. The towers were already
standing, as shown by inscriptions, at the time of the Social
War. We are therefore safe in believing that in the period of
peace following the Second Punic War the walls were not kept
in repair, some parts of the outer wall being utilized as a quarry
for building stone; that with the advent of the Social War they
were hastily repaired on the north, east, and south sides, and
strengthened by towers, but that no attempt was made to renew
the fortifications on the steep southwest side, between the Her-
Fig. 103. — Plan of a section of the city wall.
A. Inner wall with buttresses and abutments.
B. Outer wall.
C. Filling of earth between the stone walls.
D. Tower.
E. Stairs leading to the top of the wall.
about 270 feet, but afterwards the