Pompeii: The Ages of Pompeii

Pompeii is one of the great legends of the modern world. The name immediately brings to mind the day in 79 AD when the eruption of Vesuvius put an end to the city's life. Tragic skeletons and casts of fleeing inhabitants haunt our image of Pompeii. Pointing out that the city already had a very long history when this occured is therefore not stating the obvious. A select resort for many leading figures of the Roman elite - including Cicero, who had a villa there - and described by Seneca as one of the most populous towns of the Campania region, Pompeii had been under the influence of the Etruscans and of the Samnites, before coming into the Roman sphere and finally being conquered by Sulla in 89 BC. The passing of ages left its imprint on the evolution not only of painting - the four Pompeian styles - but also of architecture and construction techniques. It is fascinating to pick out the resulting variety in a landscape of ruins that appears uniform only at first sight. In addition to recounting the history of Pompeii, this work is designed for the precise purpose of accompanying the reader in the discovery of this variety and these traces, thus transforming their journey into a series of very interesting surprises.