Finally, it became Roman; it was refounded in 80 B.C.as a 'colonia' and repeopled by soldiers discharged from the armies of Sulla.

In A.D.79 it reached its end in the disaster to which it owes its fame.

Its life, therefore, was long and full of destruction, re-building, enlargement.

Its architectural history is naturally hard to follow.

Many of its buildings, however, can be dated more or less roughly by the style of their ornament or the character of their material, and the lines of its streets suggest some conjectures as to its growth which deserve to be stated even though they may conflict with the received opinions about Pompeii.