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Mount Vesuvius, the world-famed volcano of southern Italy, seen as it
is from every part of the city of Naples and its neighborhood, forms
the most prominent feature of that portion of the frightful and
romantic Campanian coast. For many centuries it has been an object of
the greatest interest, and certainly not the least of the many
attractions of one of the most notable cities of Europe. Naples, with
its bay constitutes as grand a panorama as any to be seen in the
world. The mountain is a link in the historical chain which binds us
to the past, which takes us back to the days of the Roman Empire.
Before the days of Titus it seems to have been unknown as a volcano,
and its summit is supposed to have been crowned by a temple of
Jupiter.

In the year 25 A.D., Strabo, an eminent historian of the time, wrote:
"About these places rises Vesuvius, well cultivated and inhabited all
round, except at its top, which is for the most part level, and
entirely barren, ashy to the view, displaying cavernous hollows in
cineritious rocks, which look as if they had been eaten by fire; so
that we may suppose this spot to have been a volcano formerly, with
burning craters, now extinguished for want of fuel."

Though Strabo was a great historian, it is evident that he was not a
prophet. The subsequent history of Vesuvius has shown that at varying
periods the mountain has burst forth in great eruptive activity.

Herculaneum was a city of great antiquity, its origin being ascribed
by Greek tradition to Hercules, the celebrated hero of the
mythological age of Greece; but it is not certain that it was actually
founded by a Greek colony, though in the time of Sulla, who lived a
hundred years before Christ, it was a municipal and fortified town.
Situated on an elevated ground between two rivers, its position could
not but be considered important, its port Retina being one of the best
on the coast of Campania. Many villas of great splendor were owned in
the neighborhood by Roman patricians; Servilia, the mother of Brutus,
and the favorite mistress of Julius Caesar, resided here on an estate
which he had given to her.

Pompeii, too, was a very ancient city, and was probably founded by a
Grecian colony; for what is considered its oldest building, a Greek
temple, from its similarity to the Praestum temples, fixes the date of
construction with some certainty at about 650 B.C. This temple, by
common consent, is stated to have been dedicated