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The testimony of Sandys on this point is confirmed by that of Pighio, Braccini, Magliocco, Salimbeni, and Nicola di Rubco, all cited by Roth, Der Vesuv., p. 9. There is some uncertainty about the date of the last eruption previous to the great one of 163l.
Doubtless at the close of the eruption a cone of fragmental matter and lava of some slight elevation was built up, and, if so, was subsequently destroyed; for, as we shall presently see by the testimony of the Abate Guilio Cesare Braccini, who examined the mountain not long before the great eruption of A.D. 1631, there was no central cone to the mountain at that time; and the mountain had assumed pretty much the appearance it had at the time that Spartacus took refuge within the walls of the great crater.
The learned Abate Giulio Braccini, whose account of the eruption of 1631 is the most graphic and accurate we possess, explored the crater shortly before the outbreak of the volcano, but found little to suggest any idea of an approaching convulsion.
A deep crack, however, ran from end to end of the whole crater, which allowed persons so minded to descend amidst rocks and boulders to a large plain below the surface, whereon Braccini found three pools of hot steamy water, of a saline and sulphureous taste.
Such was the tranquil aspect of the Mountain as surveyed by the Abate Braccini in the first half of the seventeenth century; to men of science signs of latent energy were certainly not wanting, yet to the ignorant, careless peasants of the hill-side and the scarcely less ignorant dwellers of the towns on the seashore, the state of repose in which the Mountain had continued for four or five generations suggested no fears or suspicions.
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