In 79 C.E., Pompeii, some 14 miles southeast of Naples, was a luxurious resort city. By then it was part of the Roman Empire, though the area had been first settled by the Osci, a central Italian ethnic group eventually absorbed into the empire. Before its name became synonymous with tragedy, Pompeii was something of a playground for the Roman elite. Stone-paved roads connected shops, restaurants, bathhouses, brothels, and even an arena that could hold 20,000 people. Volcanic ash enriched the land around Pompeii, making the area a major exporter of grapes and olives.
According to Pliny the Younger, minor earthquakes had rattled the area around Pompeii in the days leading up to the fateful eruption. Those, however, were not unusual in the region, and thus not cause for alarm to its 10,000 to 20,000 residents.
When Vesuvius did erupt that autumn, the disaster unfolded in two stages. With the initial eruption ash and pumice were blasted straight into the air and rained down on the city. Historians assume most Pompeiians, spooked by the plume and the damage, fled during this stage, escaping certain death. The next morning, pyroclastic flow—essentially an avalanche of volcanic matter and hot gas—swept the city. Scholars believe upwards of 2,000 people were killed, more than half of whom were accounted for in subsequent archaeological digs.
Pompeii’s ruins weren’t discovered until the 18th century. Their remarkable level of preservation and the subsequent discovery of human-shaped cavities in the ash there (and in nearby Herculaneum) seized the public’s imagination. Pompeii’s discovery rekindled a general interest in antiquity, a fascination that inspired arts, letters, and architecture.
Why is Pompeii so well preserved?
The pyroclastic flow blanketed Pompeii in some 20 feet of ash, pumice, and volcanic debris in a matter of seconds. The effect was like snapping a photo: The ash and debris froze the city in place and immediately killed those unlucky enough to be in their way.
A fresco inside the Insula of the Chaste Lovers, in the archaeological excavations of Pompeii, opened to the public for the first time after the new discoveries.
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What day did Pompeii erupt?
Pliny the Younger, who witnessed the eruption across the Bay of Naples, recorded the eruption as beginning on August 24 of the year 79 C.E. However, archaeological evidence—including analysis of seasonal wind patterns, which would have affected the debris path—suggest it was actually later in the year. Autumn crops were found amid the debris, while summer crops had already been dried and preserved by the time of the eruption. Moreover, heavier clothing and heating braziers were found among the human remains. A recent discovery may put the debate to rest: a charcoal inscription, buried with the city, dated to October of that year.
How was Pompeii discovered?
In the wake of the disaster, Roman emperor Titus commissioned rescue efforts and guards to protect Pompeii’s ruins. However, over time, excavation projects fell by the wayside and the city faded in collective memory to a mere point on a map. The first documented “discovery” of the site is attributed to Italian architect Domenico Fontana, who encountered some of the ruins in 1592 while leading a canal-building project. But formal attempts to unearth the city wouldn’t begin until 1748, during King Charles III’s reign.
Once Italy was unified in 1861 and the Pompeii archaeological site was transferred from royal to state ownership, Giuseppe Fiorelli (1823–1896) led the first major excavation effort. He was also the first to discover human-shaped voids in the ash. The remains of those killed at Pompeii had long since decayed, but the debris around them had hardened into the shape of their bodies at the time of death. Fiorelli poured plaster of Paris into these cavities, creating the haunting casts now associated with the Pompeii ruins.
View of the Roman amphitheatre of Pompeii at the archaeological site of Pompeii, an ancient city destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD.
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Was Pompeii the only city destroyed by Mount Vesuvius’s eruption?
No. Several Roman towns and settlements were wiped out or severely damaged by the eruption. Of them, Herculaneum (pop. 5,000) is the next most famous. Herculaneum’s ruins were actually discovered before Pompeii’s, and they are better preserved, owing to a combination of ground humidity (Herculaneum is a coastal town) and the type and amount of ash dumped on the city (more than double that of Pompeii).
When will Mount Vesuvius next erupt?
We don’t know. Vesuvius remains an active volcano, last erupting in 1944, but volcanic eruptions are only detectable shortly before disaster strikes. Right now, volcanologists are less worried about Vesuvius than about the densely populated Campi Flegrei (Phlegraean Fields), a caldera upon which Naples and surrounding municipalities were built.
