Herculaneum. A Brief History of the Ancient City

Herculaneum was a small fortified city, located on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius on a plateau of volcanic ash overlooking the sea and enclosed by two torrential waterways. These two streams ran along deep gorges carved over time into the soft volcanic tuff.
The city overlooked the shores of the Bay of Naples and had safe landings at all times. The crater of the volcano, which towers above and dominates the city, lies about 7 km away.

The urban layout, of a regular type, was built along five cardines perpendicular to the coastline and three decumani that intersect them orthogonally. The upper decumanus, not yet excavated in open air, must have coincided with the road connecting Naples and Pompeii. The course of this communication route can be observed thanks to the Tabula Peutingeriana, a 12th–13th-century copy of an ancient Roman map that shows the road system of the Roman Empire.

Fig. 1 – Tabula Peutingeriana

The Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus, in his Roman Antiquities (written at the end of the 1st century BC), recounts that the city was founded by Hercules (in Greek named Herakleion, after the hero Heracles) while he was driving the cattle given by the Sun to the giant Geryon from Spain along the shores of the Bay of Naples. The Augustan geographer Strabo reports that its historical events were similar to those of Pompeii, suggesting a settlement already existing in the archaic period, and notes that the Oscans-Opicans, Etruscans, and Samnites lived here.

How long before the eruption had the site been inhabited, and by whom? The name of the Greek demigod would suggest a Greek foundation. The Greeks knew the coasts of the Italian peninsula well since the Mycenaean age and had founded the first settlement in Campania, Pithecusa (literally meaning “populated by monkeys”), on the island of Ischia around the mid-8th century BC. Shortly after, following events whose causes we do not know, they also founded Cuma on the opposite coast of the island, and later Partenope and Neapolis.

Today Pithecusa is considered by some scholars an emporion, that is, a commercial settlement with a maritime port, inhabited by Greek and foreign craftsmen and merchants, without any form of government, with agricultural production sufficient only for basic needs, and lacking the independence typical of a Greek apoikia (colony). Other scholars, however, consider it a true, self-sufficient colony, though experimental and atypical, as it does not seem to display—based on what has been excavated so far—the typical features of later Greek colonies.

As for Herculaneum, however, neither the name of its mythical Greek founder nor the presence of various Greek settlements in the area finds archaeological confirmation: numerous deep excavation surveys carried out in recent years in various parts of the open-air site have not uncovered ceramic material earlier than the 4th century BC, the period to which the urban layout dates. Even if one may hypothesize an older Greek nucleus, a small fortress with a port, only later did the settlement take on its current appearance, copying the urban layout of nearby Neapolis.
The city extended over an area of 20 hectares and had a population of about 4,000 inhabitants; it entered the Roman sphere at the end of the 4th century BC, during the Second Samnite War, and in 89 BC became a municipium. At the beginning of the 1st century BC the Oscan language (an Italic language) was still used in official documents, but the population must have soon become Latinized.

Fig. 2 – Map of Herculaneum

Its central and scenic position in the Bay of Naples, in a pleasant place appreciated for its healthy air due to the sea winds, made the site particularly attractive. From the mid-1st century BC, many patricians (the wealthy Roman aristocrats) built numerous seaside villas along the Campanian coast, some of which were located right on the Herculaneum shoreline. Thanks to systematic excavations along the ancient coastline, an impressive series of grand seaside villas has been identified.

In the Augustan age, many public buildings in the city were renovated thanks to the arrival of the senator M. Nonius Balbus, a supporter of Octavian, praetor and governor of the province of Crete and Cyrene, mentioned in several inscriptions found in the city and dedicated to him and his family. Several Roman senators chose certain Italic cities as bases for their affairs, becoming evergetai for local communities to increase their personal prestige, the so-called dignitas. It was common practice for these wealthy figures to build or restore public buildings at their own expense, receiving in return statues or inscriptions from the local community commemorating their generosity.
We know that Balbus built the local courthouse, the curia, restored the city walls, contributed to the construction of the gymnasium, and probably donated the suburban baths to the city.

Many freedmen of Balbus lived in the city—former slaves who, once freed, received the nomen of their patron. The city’s forum and theater, still buried, were explored by Bourbon excavators in the 18th century and remained intact. Their decorative level shows great urban wealth, not even found in nearby Pompeii.
The Herculaneum territory was famous for its vineyards and fig orchards and had several villae rusticae, that is, large rural estates used for agricultural production. A wooded area and livestock breeding are also documented.

Herculaneum society, like Roman society in general, displayed great differences in status and wealth, visible in the varying sizes of the city’s houses: 40% were under 50 m², another 40% ranged between 100 and 300 m², and only the remainder consisted of large residences over 300 m². Nevertheless, many houses feature elegant and refined wall decorations that reveal a generally good level of prosperity.

The terrible earthquake of AD 62 (or 63), a precursor to the eruption of AD 79, destroyed or damaged several buildings in the city. A careful eye will notice various repair works, such as brick pillars added to house walls for stability. Like nearby Pompeii, after the earthquake Herculaneum became a huge construction site, never completed due to the eruption: reconstruction works were nearly finished and were financed by Emperor Vespasian. The citizens thanked the emperor by dedicating marble and bronze statues of the Flavian dynasty in the forum.

The city, therefore, seemed to have recovered and was thriving when the great eruption of AD 79 destroyed it, wiping it from the geography of the ancient world.