Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/670

 C54 POMPEII PRAESIDIUM. a sepulchre bearing that name was discovered near its entrance; a very sliirht arijument, where ahnost the wliole street is bordered with tombs. In fact, the approach to the gate of Herculaneum is bounded on botli sides by rows of tombs or sepulchral mo- numents, extending with only ocaisional interruptions for above 400 yards. Many of them are on a very considerable scale, both of size and architectural character ; and though they cannot vie with the enormous mausolea which border in a similar manner tiie line of the Via Appia near Rome, they derive addi- tional interest from the perfect state of preservation in which they remain ; and the Street of the Tombs, as it is commonly called, is perhaps one of the most interesting scenes at Pompeii. The monuments are for the most part those of persons who had held magistracies, or other offices, in the city of Pompeii, and in many cases the site was assigned them by public authority. It is therefore probable that this place of sepulture, immediately outside the gate and on one of the principal approaches to the city, was regarded as peculiarly honourable. Besides the tombs and tiie two villas already no- ticed, there have been found the remains of shops and small houses outside the gate of Herculaneum, and there would appear to have been on this side of the city a considerable suburb. This is supposed to be the one designated in the sepulchral inscription of JI. Arrius Diomcdes as the " Pagus Augustus Felix Suburbanus." We have as yet no evidence of the existence of any suburbs outside the other gates. It is evident that any estimate of the po- pulation of Pompeii must be very vague and uncer- tain ; but still from our accurate knowledge of the space it occupied, as well as the character of the houses, we may arrive at something like an approx- imation, and it seems certain that the population of the town itself could not have exceeded about 20,000 persons. This is in accordance with the statements of ancient writers, none of whom would lead us to regard Pompeii as having been more than a second or third rate provincial town. The inscriptions found at Pompeii, which are often incorrectly given in the ordinary works on the sub- ject, are carefully edited by llommsen, in his In- scriptlones Regni NeapoUtani (pp. 112 — 122). These do not, however, include a class of much in- terest, and peculiar to Pompeii, the inscriptions of a temporary kind which were rudely painted on the walls, or scratched on the plaster of the houses and public buildings. It is remarkable that several of these are in the O^can dialect, and seem to prove that the use of that ancient language must have continued down to a much later period than is com- monly supposed. [Osci]. But the public or official use of the Oscan seems to have ceased after the Social War, and the numerous inscriptions of a public character which belong to the age of Au- gustus and his successors are uniformly in the Latin language. [E. H. B.] POMPETI PEAESI'DIUM {Tab. Pent.; Pom- peii, Itin. Ant. p. 1 34 ; Ipompei, Itin. llieros. p. 566), a place in IVIoesia Superior, between Horreum ^largi and Naissus, identihed either with Kaschnia (Rei- chard) or Boulovan (Lapie). PO-MPEIO'POLIS (nop.iTr)io{n7oKis), a town of Paplilagonia, on the southern bank of the river Am- nias, a tributary of the Halys (Strab. xii. p. .562 ; Steph. B. s. I'.). Its name seems to indicate that it was founded by Pompey the Great. In the Itine- raries it is marked as 27 miles from Sinope ; accord- POMPTIXAE PALUDES. ing to which its site may be looked for in the valley of the Ainnias, about the modern Task Kupri, where Captain Kinneir (p. 286) found some ancient re- mains. In the vicinity of the place was a great mine of the mineral called Sandarach. (Strab. I. c.) Pompeiopalis is often referred to by late writers as an episcopal see of Paphlagonia (Socrat. ii. 39, &c. ; Hierocl. p. 695 ; Constant. Porph. de Them. i. 7 ; Justinian, Novell, xxix. 1 ; Tah. Peztting.). The name Pompeiopolis was borne temporarily by several towns, such as Soli in Cilicia, Amis us and EuPATOKiA in Cappadocia, as well as by Pojipei-on in Tarraconensian Spain. [L. S.] PO'iMPELO {UoixTXiwv, Ptol. ii. 6. § 67; Strab. iii. p. 161, who makes the name equivalent to ITo^u- TTTjidTroAis), the chief town of the Vascones in His- pania Tarraconensis, on the road from Asturica to Burdigala {Itin. Ant. p. 455), and a civitas sti- pendiaria in the jurisdiction of Caesaraugusta. (Plin. iii. 3. s. 4.) Now Pamplona. [T. H. D.] POJIPONIA'NA. Pliny (iii. 5) says that Pom- poniana is the same as Mese, the middle island of the Stoechades or Isles d Hieres [Stoechades], which lie close to the French coast east of Tonlon. D'An- ville, following the JIaritime Itinerary, which places Pomponiana between Telo (Toulon) and Heracleia Caccabaria [Heraclei.v], thinks that Pomponiana is the peninsula of Giens, which is opposite to the western point ofProte (Porqtieroles), the most west- ern of the Stoechades. He remarks that the part of Giens which is on the land side is almost covered by a lagune, from which there are channels to the sea on both sides, so that the peninsula may be con- sidered as an island. [G. L.] PO.MPONIA'NIS PORTUS. [Portus Pom- ponianis.] POMPTI'NAE PALU'DES(Ta; no^irrrw eATj: Paludi Pontine}, vfas the name given to the extensive tract of marshy ground in the S. of Latium at the foot of the Volscian mountains, extending from the neighbourhood of Cisterna to the sea at Terrucina. They occupy a space of about 30 miles in length by 7 or 8 in breadth : and are separated from the sea on the W. by a broad tract of sandy plain, covered with forest, which is also perfectly level, and intermixed with marshy spots, and pools or lagoons of stagnant water, so that it is almost as unhealthy as the regular marsh, and the whole tract is often com- prised under the name of the Pontine Marshes. The extremely low level of this whole tract, affording scarcely any natural outfall for the waters which descend into it from the Volscian mountains, to- gether with the accumulation of sand along the sea- shore from Astura to the Circeian promontory, readily accounts for the formation of these extensive marshes; and there can be no doubt that the whole of this low alluvial tract is of very recent origin compared with the rest of the adjoining mainland. Still there is the strongest reason from physical considerations to reject the notion very generally entertained by the Romans, and adopted by Pliny, that the whole of this accumulation had taken place within the period of historical record. This idea seems indeed to have arisen in the first instance from the assumjjtion that the IIons Circcius was the island of Circe mentioned by Homer, and was therefore in the time of that poet really an island in the midst of the open sea. [CiRCEirs Moks.] But it is far more strange that Pliny should assert, on the authority of Theophrastus, that the accu- mulation had taken place in great part since the