Campania in the Flavian Poetic Imagination

The volcanic soil of Campania, the region surrounding Vesuvius, was fertile ground for the imaginations of Flavian writers: the looming volcano inspired both fear and awe in the region’s inhabitants, while the Phlegraean Fields evoked the story of the gigantomachy and sulphurous lakes invited entry to the Underworld. After the eruption of Vesuvius in in 79 CE and the destruction of the surrounding cities, authors including Martial, Silius Italicus, Statius, and Valerius Flaccus continued to live and work in Campania, writing about it as an alluring region of luxury and peril.