266. A fruit piece, Xenion. Wall painting. Naples Museum. After _Pitture di Ercolano_, Vol. II, pl. 58 474 267. A landscape. Wall painting. Naples Museum. After _Pitture di Ercolano_, Vol. V, p. 149 475 268. A group of women, one of whom is sounding two-stringed instruments. Wall painting. Naples Museum. From a photograph 476 269. Paquius Proculus and his wife. Wall painting. Naples Museum. From a photograph 477 270. The grief of Hecuba. Fragment of a wall painting. House of Caecilius Jucundus. After _Ann. dell' Inst._, 1877, Tafel P 479 271. Athena's pipes and the fate of Marsyas. Wall painting (V. ii. 10). Naples Museum. From a drawing.* (Cf. _Röm. Mitth._, 1890, p. 267) 482 272. The fall of Icarus. Wall painting (V. ii. 10). From a drawing.* (Cf. _Röm. Mitth._, 1890, p. 264) 483 273. Zeus and Hera on Mt. Ida. Wall painting from the house of the Tragic Poet. Naples Museum. From a photograph 484 274. Tablet with three leaves, opened so as to show the receipt and part of the memorandum, restored. After Overbeck-Mau, pl. facing p. 489 500 275. Tablet restored, with the two leaves containing the receipt tied and sealed. After Overbeck-Mau, pl. facing p. 489 501 FOOTNOTE: [1] The original drawings are based upon sketches by Professor Mau. The drawings marked with an asterisk are in the collection of the German Archaeological Institute in Rome. INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I _THE SITUATION OF POMPEII_ From Gaeta, where the south end of the Volscian range borders abruptly upon the sea, to the peninsula of Sorrento, a broad gulf stretched in remote ages, cutting its way far into the land. Its waves dashed upon the base of the mountains which now, rising with steep slope, mark the eastern boundary of the Campanian Plain--Mt. Tifata above Capua, Mt. Taburno back of Nola, and lying across the southeast corner, the huge mass of Monte Sant' Angelo, whose sharply defined line of elevation is continued in the heights of Sorrento. This gulf was transformed by volcanic agencies into a fertile plain. Here two fissures in the earth's crust cross each other, each marked by a series of extinct or active volcanoes. One fissure runs in the direction of the Italian Peninsula; along it lie Monti Berici near Vicenza, Mt. Amiata below Chiusi, the lakes of Bolsena and Bracciano filling extinct craters, the Alban Mountains, and finally Stromboli and Aetna. The other runs from east to west; its direction is indicated by Mt. Vulture near Venosa, Mt. Epomeo on the island of Ischia, and the Ponza Islands.