to Hercules, who,
according to Solonus, landed at this spot with a procession of oxen.

The situation of Pompeii possessed many local advantages. Upon the
verge of the sea, at the mouth of the Sarno, with a fertile plain
behind, like many an ancient Italian town, it united the conveniences
of commerce with the security of a military station. According to
Strabo, Pompeii was first occupied by the Oscans, subsequently by the
Tyrrhenians and Pelasgians, and afterwards by the Samnites, in whose
hands it continued until it came into the possession of the Romans.
The delightful position of the city, the genial climate of the
locality, and its many attractions, caused it to become a favorite
retreat of the wealthier Romans, who purchased estates in the
neighborhood; Cicero, among others, having a villa there.

In A.D. 63, during the reign of Nero, an earthquake overthrew a
considerable portion of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Scarcely had the
inhabitants in some measure recovered from their alarm, and begun to
rebuild their shattered edifices, when a still more terrible
catastrophe occurred, and the first recorded eruption of Vesuvius, on
the 23d of August, A.D. 79, completed the ruin of the two cities.

Of this event we fortunately possess a singularly graphic description
by one who was not only an eye-witness, but well qualified to observe
and record its phenomena--Pliny, the Younger, whose narrative is
contained in two letters addressed to the historian Tacitus. These
letters run as follows:

"Your request," he writes, "that I would send you an account of my
uncle's death, in order to transmit a more exact relation of it to
posterity, merits my acknowledgements; for should the calamity be
celebrated by your pen, its memory, I feel assured, will be rendered
imperishable. He was at that time, with the fleet under his command,
at Misenum. On the 24th of August, about one in the afternoon, my
mother desired him to observe a cloud which seemed of unusual shape
and dimensions. He had just returned from taking the benefit of the
sun, and after a cold water bath and a slight repast, had retired to
his study. He immediately arose, and proceeded to a rising ground,
from whence he might more distinctly mark this very uncommon
appearance.

"At that distance it could not be clearly perceived from what mountain
the cloud issued, but it was afterward ascertained to proceed from
Mount Vesuvius. I cannot better describe its figure than by