A second suburb sprang up near the sea, in connection with the salt works (_salinae_) of the city. Our knowledge of the inhabitants, the Salinenses, is derived from several inscriptions painted upon walls, in which they recommend candidates for the municipal offices, and from an inscription scratched upon the plaster of a column in which a fuller by the name of Crescens sends them a greeting: _Cresce[n]s fullo Saline[n]sibus salute[m]_. From another inscription we learn that they had an assembly, _conventus_, possibly judicial in its functions; for in connection with a date, it speaks of a fine of twenty sesterces, which would amount to about 3½ shillings, or 85 cents: _VII K. dec. Salinis in conventu multa HS XX_, 'Fine of twenty sesterces; assembly at Salinae, November 25.' Still another inscription speaks of attending such a meeting on November 19: _XIII K. dec. in conventu veni_.
The suburb most frequently mentioned was at first called Pagus Felix Suburbanus, but after the time of Augustus, Pagus Augustus Felix Suburbanus. Its location is unknown. As it evidently took the name of Felix from the Dictator Sulla, who used this epithet as a surname, we may assume that its origin dates from the establishment of the Roman colony; it may have been founded to provide a place for those inhabitants of Pompeii who had been forced to leave their homes in order to make room for the colonists. The existence of a fourth suburb is inferred from two painted inscriptions in which candidates for office are recommended by the Campanienses; this name would naturally be applied to the inhabitants of a Pagus Campanus, who, perhaps, had originally come from Capua.
Of the government of Pompeii in the earliest times, before the Samnite conquest, nothing is known. The names of various magistrates in the Samnite period, however, particularly the period of alliance with Rome (290-90 B.C.), are learned from inscriptions. Mention is made of a chief administrative officer (_mediss_, _mediss tovtiks_); of quaestors, who, probably, like the quaestors in Rome, were charged with the financial administration and let the contracts for public buildings; and of aediles, to whom, no doubt, was intrusted the care of streets and buildings, together with the policing of the markets. The Latin names of the last two officials suggest that their offices were introduced after 290. There was also an assembly called _kombenniom_, with which we may compare the Latin _conventus_; but whether it was an assembly of the people or a city council cannot now be determined.