Tower IX forms part of Pompeii’s fortifications and stands along the northern section of the city walls, between Tower VIII and Tower X, immediately north of Regio V. This location is particularly important for studying the development of the city’s defences: excavations here have identified several phases of the walls and substantial changes between the Samnite and Roman periods.
The tower belonged to the extensive defensive system built in opus incertum during the final phases of Samnite Pompeii. The fortifications faced a severe test in 89 BC, when the city, which had sided against Rome in the Social War, was besieged by the troops of Lucius Cornelius Sulla.
Archaeological research indicates that Tower IX underwent particularly extensive reconstruction after the Social War. Studies of the masonry have identified a complete rebuilding of the tower, accompanied by the reconstruction of approximately twenty metres of the curtain wall immediately to its west. This intervention distinguishes Tower IX from many of the other structures in Pompeii’s defensive circuit and demonstrates the scale of the work undertaken here after the conflict.
The rebuilt tower also had unusual features compared with the type generally recognised in Pompeii’s fortifications. Instead of the customary structure rising through several storeys, the remains indicate a large chamber at the lower level, originally covered by a barrel vault. A doorway surmounted by a small window opened on the side facing the city.
The absence of internal stairs and of openings that can confidently be assigned to upper floors has led scholars to suggest that, after its reconstruction, Tower IX no longer functioned as a conventional defensive tower with several levels. The chamber may also have been used as a store or warehouse, while remaining part of the monumental complex of the fortifications.
Despite this change of function, the structure retained a carefully finished appearance. Traces of First Style decoration have been identified, similar to those found on other Pompeian towers. Even after losing much of their military role, the walls and towers therefore continued to contribute to the city’s monumental appearance.
Tower IX is also particularly well known for a long-standing debate concerning the so-called Capua Gate. From the time of the 19th-century excavations, some structures visible here were interpreted as the remains of an additional city entrance between Nola Gate and Vesuvius Gate. The considerable distance between those two gates made an intermediate entrance seem plausible.
Between 1993 and the early 2000s, a team from the Japan Institute of Paleological Studies conducted a series of investigations specifically to test this hypothesis. The excavations showed that the structure previously interpreted as a gateway instead belonged to Tower IX. They did not produce sufficient evidence for a city gate at this point during the latest phase of the fortifications.
The question is more complex, however, for the city’s earlier phases. Elements of the Archaic fortifications have been identified in the area, including blocks of pappamonte belonging to Pompeii’s earliest city walls. Other investigations have also yielded evidence that has kept open the possibility of a much earlier city entrance in this sector. It is therefore essential to distinguish clearly between Tower IX as it survives today and the disputed hypothesis of an earlier gate dating to the Archaic period.
The excavations also revealed how the landscape around the tower changed during the 1st century AD. The internal pomerial road running alongside the walls remained in use for centuries, but in the area of Tower IX it was gradually encroached upon by large accumulations of soil, rubble and refuse.
From the Julio-Claudian period onwards, dumping increased progressively both inside and outside the fortifications. By AD 79, these deposits had raised the level of the internal road by approximately 1.8 metres, eventually blocking the entrance to Tower IX. This provides particularly clear evidence of how far the practical importance of the old defences had declined.
Numerous pottery sherds, animal remains and other materials from everyday life were found in the deposits. The area immediately beside the walls had therefore become, at least in part, a marginal space used for waste disposal—a very different situation from that which prevailed when the towers were built to protect the city.
Investigations around Tower IX have also made a significant contribution to the study of Pompeii’s earliest fortifications. Pappamonte blocks identified on either side of the tower belong to the first phases of the defensive circuit, showing that this northern sector was already protected by city defences many centuries before the Roman conquest.
Tower IX and the city walls thus provide particularly important evidence for the entire history of Pompeii’s fortifications. Traces of the Archaic walls, the Samnite tower, the major reconstruction after the Social War, the gradual loss of military function and the accumulations of refuse from the 1st century AD allow us to trace centuries of change at this single location.
View this location on the Pompeii Buildings and Places map