CHAPTER XXXII

_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 convenience 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. 108). This space was filled with earth.

When the desired height, 26 or 28 feet, was reached, a breastwork 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. 110) 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.

[Illustration: Fig. 108.--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.]

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 Herculaneum Gate the place of the embankment and of the inner wall was taken by a massive stairway (E in Fig. 108) leading to the top. Originally, the stairs extended east about 270 feet, but afterwards they were 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. 111).

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 Herculaneum Gate and the Forum Triangulare, where the line of the old wall was covered with buildings.

[Illustration: Fig. 109.--View of the city wall, inside, where the embankment has been removed. The door in the tower at the left marks the height of the embankment.]

When the towers were added--probably not long before 90 B.C.--they were not distributed evenly along the wall, but were placed where they seemed to be most needed. The western portion of the ridge between the Herculaneum and Capua Gates was particularly favorable for the approach of an enemy; hence three towers were built near together here, numbered 10, 11, and 12 on Plan I. Another part of the wall especially exposed was on the southeast side, where the height covered by the city slopes gradually down to the plain; and we find five towers within a comparatively short distance, two east of the Amphitheatre, the other three further south. On the north side, between the Capua and Sarno gates, the slope is steeper and two towers were thought to be sufficient.

That there were once two additional towers, besides the ten that have been enumerated, is evident from several Oscan inscriptions, painted in red letters on the street walls of houses. One of them, near the southwest corner of the house of the Faun, reads thus: 'This way leads between Towers 10 and 11, where Titus Fisanius is in command.' The street referred to runs between the tenth and twelfth Insulae of Region VI, direct to the city wall. Two others refer to a 'Tower 12' near the Herculaneum Gate, this part of the fortifications being in charge of Maras Adirius.

In a fourth inscription we read: 'This way leads between the houses of Maras Castricius and of Maras Spurnius, where Vibius Seximbrius is in command.' In 1897, a fifth inscription became visible on the north side of Insula VIII. v-vi, where it had been concealed by a coat of plaster: 'This way leads to the city building (and) to Minerva.' The street referred to is seemingly the blind alley which formerly ran through the insula (Plan I). If this is correct, the sanctuary of Minerva is the Doric temple in the Forum Triangulare; but the 'city building' cannot be identified.

The five inscriptions evidently date from the siege of Sulla; they were intended for the information of the soldiers, belonging to the army of the Allies, who were quartered in the city to assist in its defence. At this time there must have been twelve towers, that near the Herculaneum Gate being reckoned last in the enumeration, as in Plan I; but the location of the two that have disappeared has not been determined. Another suggestive reminder of the same siege is the name L . SVLA, scratched by a soldier in the stucco on the inside of Tower 10, near a loophole.

The towers, which measure approximately 31 by 25 feet, were built in two stories, with strong vaulted ceilings. The floor of the second story was on a level with the top of the wall, and over this story was a terrace with battlements, as shown in Fig. 110; the roof seen on the two towers in Fig. 101 was a later addition, made when the city walls were no longer needed as a means of defence. Stairways on the inside gave ready access to the lower part of the towers, which could be entered from the city by a door (Fig. 109) opening on the embankment. On the outside were loopholes. Below, at the right, was a sally port, placed thus in order that the soldiers when rushing forth might present their shields to the enemy, leaving the right hand free to use with offensive weapons; when returning to the wall they would, if possible, cut their way to the sally port in the next tower to the right, so as to avoid the danger of exposing their right sides to the enemy.

[Illustration: Fig. 110.--Tower of the city wall, restored.]

Four of the gates have been excavated, the Porta Marina and the Stabian, Nola and Herculaneum gates; two others, the Vesuvius and Sarno gates, have been partly exposed to view. The remaining two are still completely covered. All bear evidence of extensive repairs, and one of them, the Herculaneum Gate, was entirely rebuilt at a comparatively late period; with this exception, however, they seem to have assumed their present form in the Tufa Period. Three of them still retain traces of decoration of the first style on the inner parts. The different gateways enter the walls at various angles.

The Stabian Gate may be taken as typical. Entering from the outside, at A, one came through a vaulted passage, B, about twelve feet wide, to a broad middle passage, or vantage court, open to the sky, into which missiles and boiling pitch could be hurled from above upon the heads of an enemy attempting to force the gates; then followed a second vaulted passage, a little wider than the other, in which were hung the heavy double doors, opening outward. The projecting posts of the doors are preserved, as are also the stones on which they rested when they were swung back against the wall; the vaulting has been restored. The gateway was paved throughout, with a raised walk on the right side. On one side of the inner entrance is a well (_a_), the Gorgon's head upon the curb reminding one of the protectress of the gate; on the other, the flight of steps already mentioned (_b_) leads to the top of the wall. Just beyond the steps are the remains of a small building, perhaps the lodge of the gate keeper (_c_).

[Illustration: Fig. 111.--Plan of the Stabian Gate.

B. Outer passage. C. Vantage court. D. Doors. _a._ Well. _b._ Steps leading to the top of the wall. _c._ Gatekeeper's lodge. _d._ Oscan inscription. _e._ Latin inscription.]

The patron divinity of city gates, Minerva, was probably honored with a small statue in the niche still to be seen in the wall of the vantage court. Two inscriptions commemorate the making of repairs on the thoroughfare passing under the gateway. One of them (at _d_) is the Oscan inscription recording the work of the aediles Sittius and Pontius, to which reference has already been made (p. 184). The other (at _e_) is in Latin, and of much later date. It informs us that the duumvirs L. Avianius Flaccus and Q. Spedius Firmus at their own expense paved the road 'from the milestone,' which must have been near the gate, 'to the station of the gig drivers (_cisiarios_), at the limits of the territory of the Pompeians.' The Roman gigs, _cisia_, were very light, and adapted for rapid travelling; they were drawn by horses or mules, and were kept for hire at stations along the highways. The site of the station between Pompeii and Stabiae is not known.

The Nola Gate, and the partially excavated Vesuvius and Sarno gates, follow the plan just described in all essential particulars. The inner keystone of the Nola Gate, facing the city, is ornamented with a helmeted head of Minerva, in high relief, which being of tufa has suffered from exposure to the weather. There was once an Oscan inscription near by, which stated that the chief executive officer of the city, Vibius Popidius, let the contract for building this gate, and accepted the structure from the contractor.

[Illustration: Fig. 112.--Plan of the Herculaneum Gate.

A. Steps leading to the top of the city wall. B. Room belonging to the house at the left of the Gate.]

The front of the Porta Marina has the appearance of a tower projecting from the wall. The gateway consists simply of two vaulted entrances, of unequal width; one for vehicles, the other, at the left, for pedestrians. Both were closed by doors. In the niche at the right of the wider passage the lower part of a terra cotta statue of Minerva was found. There was no vantage court, no inner passage; but in the early years of the Roman colony the steep lower end of the Via Marina for a distance of 70 feet was covered with a vaulted roof, which still remains. Opening into this corridor on the right is a long narrow room, which formed a part of the foundations of the court of the temple of Venus Pompeiana, and is now used as a Museum.

This gate in its present form could hardly have been intended for defence; it was adapted rather for administrative purposes, and must have been built--probably in the place of an earlier structure--in a period when the possibility of war seemed remote. Such a time, as previously remarked, was the second century B.C., particularly the latter half, after the destruction of Carthage.

[Illustration: Fig. 113.--Herculaneum Gate, looking down the Street of Tombs.

The corners of the entrances are opus mixtum, a course of brick-shaped blocks of stone alternating with three courses of bricks.]

A still more peaceful aspect is presented by the Herculaneum Gate. The style of masonry--rubble work with _opus mixtum_ at the corners--points to the end of the Republic, rather than to the Empire, as the period of construction. Here we find three vaulted passages, the middle one for vehicles, those on either side for pedestrians. The vaulting over the middle part of the gate has disappeared; but according to appearances a vantage court was left here, in the middle passage, if not in those at the sides; at the inner end of this court the gates were placed. The greater part of the structure served no purpose of utility; it was obviously designed as a monumental entrance to the city.

## PART II

THE HOUSES

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