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POMONA 301 POMPEII breadth, about 15 miles, but at the town of Kirkwall only about 2V2 miles; area, 150 square miles. Pop. 17,165. The surface is covered in great part by moor and heath, but good pasture is also to be found and in the valleys a good loamy soil occurs. The principal towns are Kirkwall and Stromness. POMONA, a city of California, the county seat of Los Angeles co. It is on the Southern Pacific and the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake railroads. Its attractive situation and healthful cli- mate make it a popular health resort. It is _ the center of an important fruit- growing region. Pomona College is in the neighboi-hood. It has a handsome park and a public library. Pop. (1910) 10,207; (1920) 13,505. POMPADOUB, JEANNE ANTOIN- ETTE POISSON, MARQiriSE DE, the mistress of Louis XV., in whose af- fections she succeeded Madame de Cha- teauroux; the daughter of a financier; MARQUISE DE POMPADOUR born in 1720. At the age of 21 she was married to M. d'Etioles; first attracted the king's notice while he was hunting in the forest of Senart; appeared at court in 1745, under the title of Mar- quise de Pompadour. She certainly used her influence with the king in pro- moting the progress of the fine arts, but her cupidity and extravagance were un- bounded; and many of the evils which oppressed France in the succeeding reign have been attributed to her. She died in 1764. POMPEII, a seaport at the mouth of the Sarnus, on the Neapolitan Riviera, Vol. VII— Cyc founded about 600 B. c. by the Oscans, and after them, occupied by the Tyr- rheno-Pelasgians, and by the Samnitea, till these, about 80 B. c, were dispos- sessed by the Romans. From that time down to its destruction, A. D. 79, it be- came (with Herculaneum) a watering place for the wealthy, frequented by the aristocracy, if not by Caligula and Nero, in whose honor it erected triumphal arches. On Feb. 5, A. D. 63, by an earth- quake in the vicinity, all the palatial buildings were wrecked, and years elapsed ere the fugitive citizens recov- ered confidence enough to reoccupy and rebuild what was once Pompeii. Taw- driness replaced simplicity of decoratioa — the columns, capitals, and cornices be- ing ornamented with reliefs in stucco picked out with parti-colored designs, while private houses, fantastically re- stored and adorned, infringed every ar- tistic or aesthetic canon to favor the grotesque style of the Decadence. Revolu- tionized as it was for the worse, the city, however, retained a good deal of Greek character and coloring, and had relapsed into more than its former gayety and licentiousness, when on Aug. 23 (or, more probably, on Nov. 23) 79, with a return of the shocks of earthquake, Ve- suvius was seen to throw up a column of black smoke, ashes, pumice, and red- hot stones, settling down on the doomed cities with a force increased by the rain- torrents that intermittently fell. The panic of the citizens was agg^ravated by repeated shocks of earthquake and for three days the flight continued till Pom- peii was abandoned by all who could ef- fect their escape. By the fourth day the sun had partially reappeared, as if shin- ing through a fog, and the more cour- ageous of the citizens began to return for such of their property as they could disinter. The desolation and distress were such that the reigning emperor Titus organized relief on an imperial scale. This attempt was soon aban- doned, and Pompeii remained a heap of hardened mud and ashes, gradually over- grown with grass till 1592, when the architect Fontana, in cutting an aque- duct, came on some ancient buildings. But only in 1748, under the Bourbon Charles III., were they recognized as part of Pompeii. Unsystematic, unscientific excavations proceeded fit- fully till 1860, when the Italian kingdom took in hand the unearthing of the city. This was carried out with ad- mirable ingenuity, care, and success — all treasure trove being vigilantly pre- served till now Pompeii possesses a dis- tinction unknown to it in the zenith of its imperial favor, and attracts the pil- 20