Excavation of Stabiae

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The settlement at Stabiae arose from as early as the 7th century BC due to the favourable climate and its strategic and commercial significance as evocatively documented by materials found in the vast necropolis discovered in 1957 on via Madonna delle Grazie, situated between Gragnano and Santa Maria la Carità. The necropolis of over 300 tombs containing imported pottery of Corinthian, Etruscan, Chalcidian and Attic origin clearly shows that the town had major commercial contacts. The necropolis, covering an area of 15,000 m 2 (160,000 sq ft), was used from the 7th to the end of the 3rd century BC and shows the complex population changes with the arrival of new peoples, such as the Etruscans, which opened up new contacts.

Stabiae had a small port which by the 6th century BC had already been overshadowed by the much larger port at Pompeii. It later became an Oscan settlement and it appears that the Samnites later took over the Oscan town in the 5th century.

With the arrival of the Samnites the city suffered a sudden social and economic slowdown in favor of the development of nearby Pompeii, as shown by the almost total absence of burials: however, when the influence of the Samnites became more marked in the middle of the 4th century BC Stabiae began a slow recovery, so much so that it was necessary to build two new necropoles, one discovered in 1932 near the Mediaeval Castle, the other in Scanzano. A sanctuary, probably dedicated to Athena, was built in the locality of Privati.

It then became part of the Nucerian federation, adopting its political and administrative structure and becoming its military port, although it enjoyed less autonomy than Pompeii, Herculaneum and Sorrento ; in 308 BC, after a long siege, it was forced to surrender in the Samnite Wars against the Romans.

The earliest Roman evidence is coins from Rome and Ebusus found in the sanctuary of Privati dating back to the 3rd century BC probably brought in by merchants. During the Punic Wars Stabiae supported Rome against the Carthaginians with young men in the fleet of Marcus Claudius Marcellus, according to Silius Italicus who wrote:

Irrumpit Cumana ratis, quam Corbulo ducato lectaque complebat Stabiarum litore pubes. The location of the early city of Stabiae is still to be identified but it was most probably a fortified town of some importance, since when conflict with the Romans reached a head during the Social War (91–88 BC), the Roman general Sulla did not simply occupy the town on 30 April 89 BC but destroyed it. Its location is said to be delimited by the Scanzano gorge and the San Marco stream which partly eroded its walls.

The Roman author and admiral Pliny the Elder recorded that the town was rebuilt after the Social Wars and became a popular resort for wealthy Romans. He reported that there were several miles of luxury villas built along the edge of the headland, all enjoying panoramic views out over the bay. The villas that can be visited today come from the time between the destruction of Stabiae by Sulla in 89 BC and the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.

In 1759 Karl Weber identified and described part of the city near the Villa San Marco which extended over about 45,000 m 2. He found five paved streets intersecting at right angles, the forum, a temple on a podium, a gymnasium, tabernae with arcades, pavements and small private houses. [ citation needed ]

In the plain around Stabiae was the Ager Stabianus, the land administered by the city and an agricultural area in which about 60 villae rusticae have been identified: farmhouses that vary from 400 to 800 m 2, from which intensive agriculture took advantage of the fertility of the soil, and which included production and processing of agricultural products with wine and olive presses, threshing floors and storehouses, making the owners wealthy, considering the villas' thermal baths and frescoed rooms.

Stabiae established itself as a luxury residential center, so much so that Cicero wrote in a letter to his friend Marcus Marius Gratidianus :

"For I doubt not that in that study of yours, from which you have opened a window into the Stabian waters of the bay, and obtained a view of Misenum, you have spent the morning hours of those days in light reading" The phenomenon of the construction of the luxury villas along the entire coast of the Gulf of Naples in this period was such that Strabo also wrote:

"The whole gulf is quilted by cities, buildings, plantations, so united to each other, that they seem to be a single metropolis." Stabiae was also well known for the quality of its spring water according to Columella, which was believed to have medicinal properties.

Main article: Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD In 62 AD, the city was hit by a violent earthquake that affected the whole region, causing considerable damage to the buildings and creating the need for restoration work, which was never finished. [ citation needed ]

According to a letter written by his nephew, [ non-primary source needed ] Pliny the Elder was at the other side of the bay in Misenum when the eruption of 79 AD started. He sailed by galley across the bay, partly to observe the eruption more closely, and partly to rescue people from the coast near the volcano. [ citation needed ]

Pliny died at Stabiae the following day. This coincides with the arrival of the sixth and largest pyroclastic surge of the eruption caused by the collapse of the eruption plume. [ full citation needed ] [ verification needed ] The very diluted outer edge of this surge reached Stabiae and left two centimetres of fine ash on top of the immensely thick aerially-deposited tephra which further protected the underlying remains. [ citation needed ] [ verification needed ]

Unlike Pompeii, the eruption did not end human activity, as about 40 years later the road to Nuceria was rebuilt, as its 11th milestone recovered from the cathedral site shows. Also Publius Papinius Statius ( c. 45–96 ) asked in a poem for his wife to join him in what he called "Stabias renatas" (Stabiae reborn). It continued to be an important center for trade as the surrounding agricultural area needed a port and that of Stabiae was restored whilst that of Pompeii had been destroyed. In the 2nd c. AD new necropoles were created at Grotta S.Biagio (below the Villa Arianna ), Santa Maria la Carità and Pimonte.

After the Crisis of the Third Century the city decreased in importance. Between the third and fourth centuries, as demonstrated by the discovery of a sarcophagus, were the first traces of a Christian community. The fifth century saw the formation of the diocese with the first bishops Orso and Catello. In the 5th century it was known as a centre of the Benedictine Order.

The Roman author and admiral Pliny the Elder recorded that the town was rebuilt after the Social Wars and became a popular resort for wealthy Romans. He reported that there were several miles of luxury villas built along the edge of the headland, all enjoying panoramic views out over the bay. The villas that can be visited today come from the time between the destruction of Stabiae by Sulla in 89 BC and the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.

In 1759 Karl Weber identified and described part of the city near the Villa San Marco which extended over about 45,000 m 2. He found five paved streets intersecting at right angles, the forum, a temple on a podium, a gymnasium, tabernae with arcades, pavements and small private houses. [ citation needed ]

In the plain around Stabiae was the Ager Stabianus, the land administered by the city and an agricultural area in which about 60 villae rusticae have been identified: farmhouses that vary from 400 to 800 m 2, from which intensive agriculture took advantage of the fertility of the soil, and which included production and processing of agricultural products with wine and olive presses, threshing floors and storehouses, making the owners wealthy, considering the villas' thermal baths and frescoed rooms.