POMPEII CITY WALLS – Part 2

In general, however, the ancient Mediterranean populations, in founding the cities, took into account from the outset the prospect of demographic growth and strengthening of the settlement. For example, in Magna Graecia, most of the “poleis”, the cities, developed over the centuries within the limits defined at the time of the foundation – very rare exceptions are Taranto and Syracuse. (9)     Therefore, up until the beginning of the eighties of the last century, Pompeii seemed not to align itself with the most common types of walls at that historical moment. But in 1982 Stefano De Caro, director of the excavations of Pompeii from 1982 to 1984, decided to resume a series of excavations in the Vesuvian city both in the Northern sector of the fortification, near the Tower XI, and in the Southern one, in the stretch between “Porta Nocera” (Nocera Gate) and the Tower IV. The results obtained are one of the most important acquisitions for the reconstruction of the urban history of Pompeii. The Neapolitan archaeologist discovered a primitive city wall in local tufa rock, the so-called “pappamonte”, elaborating the hypothesis that in Pompeii three different wall circuits would have been superimposed: the oldest – precisely discovered by De Caro – dating back to the VI century BC., the second building circuit dating back to the IV century BC, and the third, the one visible today, dating back to the end of the II century BC     However, of particular interest is the fact that, according to De Caro, the first city wall, the one dating back to the VI century B.C. in “pappamonte”, extended almost as much as the whole area included in the subsequent Samnite fortification. In doing so, it contrasted the then more established theories, which hypothesized the existence of a first housing nucleus in a much more restricted area. (10)    Moreover, recent investigations in the courtyard of the “Stabian Baths” in Pompeii confirm that the cultural model of the German scholar Eschebach of 1979 must be completely revised: there is no evidence of remains from the Archaic period (roads, gates, fortifications) (11).

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

9. Gioacchino Francesco La Torre, op. cit., pag.158

10. Marco Fabbri, Difendersi, in Massimo Osanna e Carlo Rescigno, Pompei e i Greci, Electa, 2017, pag. 269

11. Monika Trümper, op. cit., pag. 265

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