Setting

SETTING

  • Campania one of 20 italian ‘regiones’
  • Pompeii and Herculaneum were both situated in the Campanian plain, they were not truly Roman cities, they had only been ‘Roman’ (socially and politically) for a short time – they both still had strong Samnite and Greek influences
  • Campania region was very rich and fertile – area around Mt.Vesuvius was extremely fertile because of the volcanic soil, however people of the time did not fully understand the reasons for the land’s fertility
  • Pompeii’s hinterland provided substantial resources for the city
  • The produce of the region included wine, honey, wheat, oats, variety of fruits, vegetables.
  • The region also had large amounts of pastureland for animals – wool for textiles was an important product of the area
  • Many of the Pompeian wall paintings/mosaics feature the abundant produce (e.g. the scene above the lararium in the House of the Centenerary)
  • Was well-watered, the Sarno River flowed into the bay just south of Pompeii – it was channelled for irrigation
  • Waters around the town were rich with sealife – seafood was one of Pompeii’s biggest exports
  • The present-day coastline is different to that of 79AD, as the eruption changed the coastline
  • The produce of the region allowed the people of the Vesuvius region to engage in widespread trade, which in part explains the multicultural activities and life of the city, through trade Pompeian’s had access to the whole empire and were influenced by it.
  • The summit of Mt. Vesuvius in Strabo’s time was mainly flat – not fertile at all, looked very ashy and had hollows of black rocks. The slopes on the other hand were very fertile and ‘fruitful’ and featured many beautiful farms.
Evidence
  • Pliny The Elder - ‘fertile region so blessed with pleasant scenery’
  • Tacitus -  “a very beautiful bay, before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius changed the region’s appearance”
  • Florus - (On Campania) “Nothing is more temperate than its climate… Nothing is more fertile than its land… Nothing is more welcoming than its sea”
  • Strabo - (Campanian cities) “have as their port Pompeii on the River Sarnus, which transports