. Pompeii : its life and art . e may well say that it divides the Campanian plain intotwo parts, of which the larger, on the northwest side, is drainedby the Volturno; the small southeast section is the plain of theSarno. The Sarno, like the Umbrian Clitumnus, has no upper the foot of Mt. Taburno, bounding the plain on the north- THE SITUATION OF POMPEII 3 east, are five copious springs that soon unite to form a 1843 the river has been drawn off for purposes of irri-gation into three channels, which are graded at different levels;the distribution of water thus assured ma
. Pompeii : its life and art . e may well say that it divides the Campanian plain intotwo parts, of which the larger, on the northwest side, is drainedby the Volturno; the small southeast section is the plain of theSarno. The Sarno, like the Umbrian Clitumnus, has no upper the foot of Mt. Taburno, bounding the plain on the north- THE SITUATION OF POMPEII 3 east, are five copious springs that soon unite to form a 1843 the river has been drawn off for purposes of irri-gation into three channels, which are graded at different levels;the distribution of water thus assured makes this part of Cam-pania one of the most fertile districts in Italy. In antiquity theSarno must have been confined to a single channel; accordingto Strabo it was navigable for ships. In Roman times three cities shared in the possession of theSarno plain Furthest inland, facing the pass in the mountainsthat opens toward the Gulf of Salerno, lay Nuceria, now the seashore, where the coast road to Sorrento branches off. Fig. 2. — Vesuvius as seen from Naples. toward the southwest, was Stabiae, now Castellammare. Northof Stabiae, at the foot of Vesuvius, Pompeii stood, on an eleva-tion overlooking the Sarno, formed by the end of a stream oflava that in some past age had flowed from Vesuvius downtoward the sea. Pompeii thus united the advantages of aneasily fortified hill town with those of a maritime city. Itlies, says Strabo, on the Sarnus, which accommodates atraffic in both imports and exports; it is the seaport of Nola,Nuceria, and Acerrae. A glance at the map will show how conveniently situatedPompeii was to serve as a seaport for Nola and Nuceria;but it seems hardly credible that the inhabitants of Acerrae,which lay much nearer Naples, should have preferred for their 4 POMPEII marine traffic the circuitous route around Vesuvius to the that may have been, Pompeii was beyond doubt themost important town in the Sarno plain. Pompeii formerly lay nearer
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublishernewyorkmacmillan
