(anc. geog.), a town of Campania near Herculaneum, and destroyed along with it by the great eruption of Vesuvius in the time of Titus. See Herculanum. It is about 15 miles from Naples, and six or seven from Portici—So much has been said and written on the discovery of this place, as makes it unnecessary for us to say much: we shall therefore only give a short extract on the subject from an anonymous work lately published, apparently of considerable merit.

"On entering the city (says our author), the first object is a pretty square, with arcades, after the prettiest manner of Italy. This was, as it is imagined, the quarter of the soldiers; numbers of military weapons being found here.

"A narrow, but long street, with several shops on each side, is now perfectly cleaned from its rubbish, and in good preservation. Each house has a court. In some of them are paintings al fresco, principally in chiaroscuro; and their colours not in the least injured by time. The few colours which the ancients knew were extracted only from minerals; and this may be a sufficient reason for their freshness. The street is paved with irregular stones of a foot and half or two feet long, like the Appian way.

"In discovering this city, it was at first doubted whether it were actually Pompeii: but the name inscribed over the gateway put it beyond all doubt. The skeletons..." Pompey skeletons found were innumerable. It is said that many had spades in their hands, endeavouring, probably at first, to clear away the torrent of ashes with which they were deluged. Indeed the satisfaction which is felt at the view of ancient habitations, is much allayed by inevitable reflections on this frightful scene of desolation, though at the distance of so many centuries.

"An ancient villa is also seen entire at a little distance from Pompeii. The house is really elegant and spacious, but only two stories high. The pavement of the chambers is composed of tessellated marble, and, when polished, displays the design perfectly well.—There is some at the museum of Portici brought from this place, which the eye would really mistake for painting. Under the house is a fine triangular cellar, of which each part is 100 feet long, well filled with amphora. The skeletons of 29 persons were found here, supposed to have fled to it for safety. Each house is filled with ashes; they have almost penetrated through every crevice; and it is incredible how such a volume of them could have been thrown out by Vesuvius with sufficient force to have reached so far." See Swinburne's Travels in the Two Sicilies, vol. 2, p. 98, &c.; Lady Miller's Letters, or De La Lande; Captain Sutherland's Tour up the Straits, from Gibraltar to Constantinople, p. 75, &c.; Dr Smith's Sketch of a Tour on the Continent, in 1786 and 1787, vol. 2, p. 118, &c.; and Watkins's Tour through Switzerland, Italy, &c.