Pompeii biography

Paradoxically perhaps, it is to Mount Vesuvius to which Pompeii and her neighboring towns owed both their livelihood and ultimate destruction.

Pompeii’s history dates to the 7th century BC, when the Opics created an agricultural society in the Sarno Valley, whose soil was made fertile by the presence of volcanic ash from Vesuvius.¹There was a strong Greek influence in the region following cultural and commercial exchange with the Greek colony of Cumae in Campania.² The Etruscans of Southern Italy also influenced Pompeii’s early development, building a walled city on a hill at the mouth of the Sarno River.³ While Pompeii’s location complicated the obtainment of fresh water, it allowed for the control and monitoring of river traffic.

The collapse of Etruscan society followed their defeat by a coalition of Greek colonies in BC during the Battle of Cumae.⁴ A mountain people k