Excerpt from the book...Pompeii was in its full glory at the commencement of the Christianera. It was a city of wealth and refinement, with about 35,000inhabitants, and beautifully located at the foot of Mount Vesuvius; itpossessed all local advantages that the most refined taste coulddesire. Upon the verge of the sea, at the entrance of a fertile plain,on the bank of a navigable river, it united the conveniences of acommercial town with the security of a military station, and theromantic beauty of a spot celebrated in all ages for its pre-eminentloveliness. Its environs, even to the heights of Vesuvius, werecovered with villas, and the coast, all the way to Naples, was soornamented with gardens and villages, that the shores of the wholegulf appeared as one city.