The Walls of Pompeii and the Image of the City

Pompeii preserves the most intact fortifications surviving since antiquity. Throughout its 600-year history the city rebuilt its defences three times and continuously invested in their maintenance and development. Each intervention was a pivotal event in the history of the city, signalling dramatic shifts in its urban, social, and architectural framework. Fortifications, whether in terms of money, resources, or the manpower required to build them, represent by far the most copious investment in any ancient city. Although their military character is undisputed, the role of fortifications in the political, social, and urban development of a city remains unclear. This book adopts a new approach, placing fortifications at the centre of the historical development of the city and arguing that Pompeii's walls constituted a dynamic and ideologically freighted monument central to the image of the city and its identity. Drawing on archaeological, social, historical, visual, and literary evidence, this study, the first of its kind, captures the changing multivalent political, religious, and social meanings behind the Pompeian fortifications. The product is a unique insight into how the inhabitants of Pompeii imagined their city throughout its history.

Ivo van der Graaff is Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of New Hampshire, Durham. He earned his MA in Mediterranean Archaeology from the University of Amsterdam and his PhD in Art History from the University of Texas at Austin, with a focus on Greek and Roman Art and Architecture. Dr. van der Graaff has participated in archaeological research projects in the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, and Italy. He co-directs and collaborates on projects examining the ancient Bay of Naples and Etruria.