Tower IV forms part of Pompeii’s fortifications and stands in the south-eastern sector of the city, along the walls immediately south of the Amphitheatre. Its position allowed the stretch between Nocera Gate and the eastern corner of the city to be monitored, in an area where the defences worked together with the natural shape of Pompeii’s plateau.
The tower was one of the twelve towers added to the wall circuit during the final major strengthening of the Samnite fortifications, generally dated to the closing decades of the 2nd century BC. The towers were built mainly in opus incertum and originally covered with plaster, probably intended to harmonise their appearance with the older curtain walls of squared blocks. Shortly afterwards, during the Social War, these defences were tested by the siege conducted by Lucius Cornelius Sulla’s troops in 89 BC.
Like the other towers of this phase, Tower IV probably originally had several levels and gave the defenders access to the wall walk. The structure visible today, however, only partly preserves its ancient appearance, as this sector has undergone extensive alterations and numerous restorations.
Amedeo Maiuri believed that Towers III, IV and V had been severely damaged by the earthquake of AD 62 and that their upper levels had not been rebuilt before the eruption. This interpretation explains the greatly reduced state of the surviving structures, but later studies have shown that the building history of the fortifications is more complex and that not all interventions can be attributed with certainty to a single event.
Caution is particularly necessary in the case of Tower IV, because much of the masonry visible today is modern. Studies of the fortifications indicate that reconstruction encompasses almost the entire structure and a substantial part of the adjacent curtain wall. The ancient remains nevertheless make it possible to identify the tower’s position and its relationship with the wall system.
The walls continue east towards Tower V. The stretch between the two towers runs along the southern side of the Amphitheatre and consists largely of opus incertum. Here too, much of the visible masonry has been restored or rebuilt in modern times, while only some sections retain their ancient fabric.
The construction of the Amphitheatre, shortly after the foundation of the Roman colony in 80 BC, profoundly altered this sector of the fortifications. The building made use of the ancient defensive embankment and walls to support part of its seating, turning structures originally built for military purposes into elements integrated within the new monumental quarter devoted to spectacles.
This reuse clearly illustrates the changes that followed the Roman conquest. As the walls lost their strategic role, some sections of the fortifications were adapted to the city’s new urban needs, incorporated into buildings or used to support new public and private structures.
Tower IV and the city walls therefore offer a particularly significant vantage point for understanding the transition from the fortified Pompeii of the Samnite age to the Roman city. Although numerous modern reconstructions have altered the tower’s appearance, its position beside the Amphitheatre still reveals how the earlier defensive system was gradually absorbed into the city’s monumental development.
View this location on the Pompeii Buildings and Places map