Pompeii may have had a theatre
already at the time of the arrival of the Samnites in the fourth
century BC, Superintendent Massimo Osanna said Thursday after
the discovery of a concave area next to the second-century BC
theatre that was preserved by the 79 AD eruption of Vesuvius.
The new digs at the famed archaeological site have "raised
this hypothesis", he said.
There are archaeological remains in Pompeii for Greeks,
Etruscans, Samnites, and an unnamed indigenous Italic population
in addition to the Romans.
The foundation of the city, and the exact phases of each
cultural group are a bit murky.
But it is clear from the archaeological record in Pompeii and
in other towns of southern Italy that sometime in the fourth
century BC the people of Samnium moved down from the mountains
and into some of the more urban areas.
Just in Campania, there is evidence of Samnite populations in
Capua and Nola in addition to Pompeii.
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