Pompeii

Italy -P- Naples

Appearance

Pompeii is a sleepy town, intermixed with rural house sites and crumbling Roman ruins. The modern world has caught up here, and armed guards are stationed often throughout town. Drugs are a serious problem here, and you can often find bums passed out under the old buildings.

Geography

History

79 AD

Of the many eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, a major stratovolcano in southern Italy, the best-known is its eruption in 79 AD, which was one of the deadliest.

In autumn of 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius violently spewed forth a cloud of super-heated tephra and gases to a height of 33 km (21 mi), ejecting molten rock, pulverized pumice and hot ash at 1.5 million tons per second, ultimately releasing 100,000 times the thermal energy of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The event gives its name to the Vesuvian type of volcanic eruption, characterized by columns of hot gases and ash reaching the stratosphere, although the event also included pyroclastic flows associated with Pelean eruptions.

The event destroyed several Roman towns and settlements in the area. Pompeii and Herculaneum, obliterated and buried underneath massive pyroclastic surges and ashfall deposits, are the most famous examples. Archaeological excavations have revealed much of the towns and the lives of the inhabitants leading to the area becoming the Vesuvius National Park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The total population of both cities was over 20,000. The remains of over 1,500 people have been found at Pompeii and Herculaneum so far, although the total death toll from the eruption remains unknown.

Precursor Earthquakes

A major earthquake caused widespread destruction around the Bay of Naples, particularly to Pompeii, on February 5, 62 AD. Some of the damage had still not been repaired when the volcano erupted in 79 AD.

Another smaller earthquake took place in 64 AD; it was recorded by Suetonius in his biography of Nero, and by Tacitus in Annales because it took place while Nero was in Naples performing for the first time in a public theater. Suetonius recorded that the emperor continued singing through the earthquake until he had finished his song, while Tacitus wrote that the theater collapsed shortly after being evacuated.

Minor earthquakes were reported in the four days before the 79 AD eruption, but the warnings were not recognized. The inhabitants of the area surrounding Mount Vesuvius had been accustomed to minor tremors in the region; Pliny the Younger wrote that they "were not particularly alarming because they are frequent in Campania"

Nature of the Eruption

Reconstructions of the eruption and its effects vary considerably in the details but have the same overall features. The eruption lasted for two days. Pliny the Younger, author of the only surviving written testimony, described the morning before the eruption as normal. However, he was staying at Misenum 29 kilometres (18 mi) from the volcano across the Bay of Naples, and may not have noticed the early signs of the eruption. During the next two days, he did not have any opportunity to talk to people who had witnessed the eruption from Pompeii or Herculaneum (he never mentioned Pompeii in his letter).

Around 1:00 p.m., Mount Vesuvius erupted violently, spewing up a high-altitude column from which ash and pumice began to fall, blanketing the area. Rescues and escapes occurred during this time. At some time in the night or early the next day, pyroclastic flows in the close vicinity of the volcano began. Lights seen on the mountain were interpreted as fires. People as far away as Misenum fled for their lives. The flows were rapid-moving, dense, and very hot, wholly or partly knocking down all structures in their path, incinerating or suffocating the remaining population and altering the landscape, including the coastline. These were accompanied by additional tremors and a mild tsunami in the Bay of Naples.[citation needed] One or more earthquakes at this time were strong enough to cause buildings to collapse at least in Pompeii killing the occupants. By the evening of the second day, the eruption was over, leaving only haze in the atmosphere, screening sunlight.

Pliny the Younger wrote: "broad flames shone out in several places from Mount Vesuvius, which the darkness of the night contributed to render still brighter and clearer... It was now day everywhere else, but there a deeper darkness prevailed than in the thickest night."

The Two Plinys

The only surviving eyewitness account of the event consists of two letters by Pliny the Younger, who was 17 at the time of the eruption, to the historian Tacitus and written some 25 years after the event. Observing the first volcanic activity from Misenum across the Bay of Naples from the volcano, approximately 29 kilometers (18 mi) away, Pliny the Elder (Pliny the Younger's uncle) launched a rescue fleet and went himself to the rescue of a personal friend. His nephew declined to join the party. One of the nephew's letters relates what he could discover from witnesses of his uncle's experiences. In a second letter, the younger Pliny details his own observations after the departure of his uncle.

Pliny the Younger

Pliny the Younger saw an extraordinarily dense cloud rising rapidly above the mountain:

"the appearance of which I cannot give you a more exact description of than by likening it to that of a pine-tree, for it shot up to a great height in the form of a very tall trunk, which spread itself out at the top into a sort of branches. [...] it appeared sometimes bright and sometimes dark and spotted, according as it was either more or less impregnated with earth and cinders."

These events and a request by messenger for an evacuation by sea prompted the elder Pliny to order rescue operations in which he sailed away to participate. His nephew attempted to resume a normal life, continuing to study and bathe, but that night a tremor woke him and his mother, prompting them to abandon the house for the courtyard. At another tremor at dawn, the population abandoned the village. After a third tremor, "the sea seemed to roll back upon itself, and to be driven from its banks", which is evidence of a tsunami. There is, however, no evidence of extensive damage from wave action.

A black cloud obscured the early light through which shone flashes, which Pliny likens to sheet lightning, but more extensive. The cloud obscured Point Misenum near at hand and the island of Capraia (Capri) across the bay. Fearing for their lives, the population began calling each other and moving back from the coast along the road. Pliny's mother requested him to abandon her and save his own life, as she was too fleshy and aged to go further, but seizing her hand, he led her away as best he could. A rain of ash fell. Pliny needed to shake off the ash periodically to avoid being buried. Later that same day, the ash stopped falling, and the sun shone weakly through the cloud, encouraging Pliny and his mother to return home and wait for news of Pliny the Elder. The letter compares the ash to a blanket of snow. The earthquake and tsunami damage at that location were not severe enough to prevent continued use of the home.

Pliny the Elder

Pliny's uncle, Pliny the Elder, was in command of the Roman fleet at Misenum and had meanwhile decided to investigate the phenomenon at close hand in a light vessel. As the ship was preparing to leave the area, a messenger came from his friend Rectina (wife of Bassus) living on the coast near the foot of the volcano, explaining that her party could only get away by sea and asking for rescue. Pliny ordered the immediate launching of the fleet galleys to the evacuation of the coast. He continued in his light ship to the rescue of Rectina's party.

He set off across the bay but encountered thick showers of hot cinders, lumps of pumice, and pieces of rock in the shallows on the other side. Advised by the helmsman to turn back, he stated "Fortune favors the brave" and ordered him to continue to Stabiae (about 4.5 km or 2.8 mi from Pompeii), where Pomponianus was. Pomponianus had already loaded a ship with possessions and was preparing to leave, but the same onshore wind that brought Pliny's ship to the location had prevented anyone from leaving.

Pliny and his party saw flames coming from several parts of the mountain, which Pliny and his friends attributed to burning villages. After staying overnight, the party was driven from the building by its violent shaking.[16] They woke Pliny, who had been napping and snoring loudly. They elected to take to the fields with pillows tied to their heads to protect them from rockfall. They approached the beach again, but the wind had not changed. Pliny sat down on a sail spread for him and could not rise, even with assistance. His friends then departed, escaping ultimately by land. Very likely, he had collapsed and died, the most popular explanation for why his friends abandoned him, although Suetonius offers an alternative story of his ordering a slave to kill him to avoid the pain of incineration. How the slave would have escaped remains a mystery. There is no mention of such an event in his nephew's letters.

In the first letter to Tacitus, his nephew suggested that his death was due to the reaction of his weak lungs to a cloud of poisonous, sulphurous gas that wafted over the group. However, Stabiae was 16 km (9.9 mi) from the vent (roughly where the modern town of Castellammare di Stabia is situated), and his companions were apparently unaffected by the fumes, and so it is more likely that the corpulent Pliny died from some other cause, such as a stroke or heart attack. An asthmatic attack is also not out of the question. His body was found with no apparent injuries the next day once the plume had dispersed.

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Population

• -- City (0) - Dated census
• -- Urban (0) - Dated census
• -- Metro Area (0) - Dated census

Attractions

• Statue of Eumachia -- Eumachia was the public priestess of in Pompeii during the middle of the 1st century AD as well as the matron of the Concordia Augustus. The Concordia Augustus was an imperial cult initiated by Livia, widow of Augustus, dedicated to the Divus Augustus, the deified emperor Augustus.

Holy Ground

• Tempio di Iside (Temple of Isis)

Private Residences

• House of the Faun -- The House of the Faun (Italian: Casa del Fauno), built during the 2nd century BC, was one of the largest and most impressive private residences in Pompeii, Italy, and housed many great pieces of art. It is one of the most luxurious aristocratic houses from the Roman republic, and reflects this period better than most archaeological evidence found even in Rome itself.

• House of Julia Felix -- The House of Julia Felix is a large Roman villa in the ruined city of Pompeii. It was the residence of Julia Felix, who converted portions of it to apartments after a major earthquake in 62 CE, a precursor to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE that destroyed the city. Archaeological excavations began in 1755 and continue to this day. As the residence of multiple family units, it is an invaluable resource for providing insights into the daily lives of the people of Pompeii.

• The Villa of the Mysteries -- The Villa of the Mysteries (Italian: Villa dei Misteri) is a well-preserved suburban Roman villa on the outskirts of Pompeii, southern Italy, famous for the series of frescos in one room, which are usually thought to show the initiation of a young woman into a Greco-Roman mystery cult. These are now probably the best known of the relatively rare survivals of Ancient Roman painting. Like the rest of the Roman city of Pompeii, the villa was buried in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 and excavated from 1909 onwards (long after much of the main city). It is now a popular part of tourist visits to Pompeii, and forms part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site at Pompeii.

• House of Loreius Tiburtinus -- The House of Loreius Tiburtinus (Also called the House of Octavius Quartio) is renowned for its meticulous and well-preserved artwork as well as its large gardens. It is located in the Roman city of Pompeii. It, along with the rest of Pompeii was preserved by the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius on August 24, 79 AD.

• House of the Vettii -- In Pompeii one of the most famous of the luxurious residences (domus) is the so-called House of the Vettii, preserved like the rest of the Roman city by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. The house is named for its owners, two successful freedmen: Aulus Vettius Conviva, an Augustalis, and Aulus Vettius Restitutus. Its careful excavation has preserved almost all of the wall frescoes, which were completed following the earthquake of 62 AD, in the manner art historians term the "Pompeiian Fourth Style."

Ruins

• Amphitheatre of Pompeii
• Forum at Pompeii
• Lupanare
• Quadriportico dei Teatrico
• Teatro Grande- Scavi
• Tempio de Apollo
• Tempio de Iside
• Tempio di Capitoline Triad

Supernaturals of Pompeii

• Changing Breeds of Pompeii
• Magi of Pompeii

Theaters

• -- The Odeion

Transportation

• -- Porta Marina -- Porta Marina, at night. Of all the gates of Pompeii, this was the closest to the sea. The port of the city may still lie buried a short distance from here, ...

http://wikitravel.org/en/Pompeii

Vampires of the City

• -- Yanna Pietrina Capello

Websites

http://unchartedruins.blogspot.com/2014_02_01_archive.html
https://sites.google.com/site/ad79eruption/pompeii/the-city-gates

https://www.thetravel.com/what-was-pompeii-really-like/