Pompeii fascinates. The Roman city attracts some 2 million visitors a year. Today, this listed site is in danger of disappearing for a second time. A look back at the history of a prosperous city that fell victim to the wrath of Vesuvius.
It’s surely one of the most famous natural disasters in the history of mankind, and particularly in Roman history. But what do we really know about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which engulfed Pompeii and other nearby cities such as Herculaneum and Stabies?
On August 24, 79 AD, Vesuvius erupted, killing over 15,000 inhabitants in just 48 hours and changing the landscape forever. How can we tell the incredible story of this cataclysm? How can we tell the story of the population’s last hours before the terrible disaster? The answer lies in the Letters of Pliny the Younger, senator and famous Roman lawyer, who recounted the events to his uncle, Pliny the Elder, the great scientist of the time, who set off for Pompeii to see the eruption at close quarters.
However, it was not until the 19th century that archaeologists unearthed the first remains of the ancient Roman city.
The ruins of Pompeii today, with Vesuvius – Photo credit: Wikimedia – ElfQrin
Pompeii before the eruption
Pompeii has always been a city with a thriving economy, thanks to its attractive geographical location, which made it a popular holiday resort for the Romans. Pompeii was also known for its wealth.
In political and cultural terms, Pompeii may not have been on the same scale as Rome or Florence, for example, but the catastrophe that forever froze the city under the volcano’s tons of debris and ash made it an exceptional site, a kind of retrospective and a precious mine of information on everyday Roman life in the 1st century AD.
Pompeii’s population was close to 12,000 souls, and the city was built on one side at the foot of the volcano and on the other by the sea.
Documentary broadcast on France5, « La cité disparue de Pompéi », uploaded by an Internet user on YouTube
An apparently extinct volcano
For the inhabitants of Pompeii, it was common knowledge that the volcano of Vesuvius had never gone to sleep for good, as there were frequent tremors to the contrary. There are written accounts of Vesuvius being the subject of various stories, but this was never a cause for concern. But they were far from imagining the calamity that was about to befall them, both literally and figuratively.
The first warning, however, came in 62 AD, during the reign of Nero. A major earthquake destroyed many of Pompeii’s buildings. But the city’s wealthy notables rebuilt magnificent residences adorned with frescoes, paintings, statues, mosaics and private fountains. Pompeii soon became a place to relax, far from the turmoil and noise of Rome.
An extraordinary and surprising eruption
According to the first commonly accepted sources, the eruption occurred on the afternoon of August 24, 79. Within 24 hours, the volcano began spewing columns of glowing ash clouds, typically in the form of umbrella pines, up to 30 kilometers above the ground.
As the tons of volcanic ash fell, they covered the city of Pompeii, as well as the towns ofHerculaneum and Stabies, under 6 meters of mud, and the port of Herculaneum (which today lies inland, as the beach has retreated due to the disaster), where housing was less luxurious than in Pompeii, was crushed under a flow of rock and lava.
Homes and other structures began to collapse from the ash and volcanic debris, and residents were trapped under the rubble in no time. Hundreds more suffocated to death under the blast of the « nuées ardentes » (pyroclastic flow at the base of the volcano, from which a pyroclastic cloud rises). For hours, the volcano spewed and released rocks and lava that tumbled down the mountainside, burying and destroying everything in front of them.
The phenomenon was so brutal and so rapid that the inhabitants were unable to escape, and many ended up burnt, trapped and asphyxiated before they knew it.
In just over 48 hours, almost 15,000 people died in this massive natural disaster, which changed the Neapolitan landscape and that of an entire region for centuries to come.
It was Pliny the Younger who gave a detailed account of the disaster he witnessed, and vulcanologists have since coined the term « Plinian eruption » to describe this type of volcanic eruption.
Pliny the Younger tells the story of how his uncle, Pliny the Elder, a famous scientist and historian, died of asphyxiation in Stabies after trying to help the unfortunate Pompeians.
Vesuvius erupted in 1767. Photo credit: Flickr – Ωméga *
Immortal vestiges
Contrary to popular belief, not all of Pompeii’s inhabitants perished in the volcanic eruption. In fact, 10% of the inhabitants died in the disaster, knocked unconscious by the rocks, shattered house structures or burned alive by the boiling lava. The rest of the population wandered the surrounding countryside, crying and screaming in fear, calling and searching for family members.
Excavations carried out as early as 1872 uncovered thousands of bodies (around 2,000) frozen in the ashes. Most of the bodies remained frozen as they were at the time of the volcanic eruption. In fact, the eruption was so strong, with a considerable amount of debris and ash, that it covered the bodies and everyday objects, preserving them from natural oxidation.
This enabled us to discover how people lived back then, what their daily activities were, how they dressed and what they ate.
Many of the skeletons were very well preserved naturally, some still had all their teeth (their teeth were in good condition and as such, it is thought that they had a balanced and varied diet) while others still had shreds or traces of their clothing (tunics and dresses).
During excavations, it was discovered that the furniture and bodies instantly buried under tons of ash and various debris had given way to intact cavities.
It was archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli who came up with the idea of injecting plaster into the said cavities to restore the shape of the inhabitants, hence the presence of striking casts, when you’re on site, such as the « seated man hiding his face » and the « pregnant woman ».
This man’s teeth were perfectly preserved – Photo credit: Flickr – Carlo Mirante
Photo credit: Flickr – Carlo Mirante
The Pregnant Woman – Photo credit: Flickr – Brett Neilson
Protecting Pompeii from oblivion
Excavations have brought to light the remains of private homes, the theater, the amphitheater and the gladiator barracks, as well as stores, temples, the forum, the remains of the basilica, « thermopoliums » – the forerunners of today’s fast-food restaurants, etc.
Today, it is estimated that there are still many discoveries to be made in Pompeii’s subsoil.
Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1997, Pompeii continues to be a source of concern, not only because of the various storms that have weakened and damaged its structures, but also because of mass tourism, which is damaging both structures and dwellings.
Photo credit: Wikimedia – Pasquale Pannone
Although Vesuvius last erupted (albeit on a lesser scale) at the end of the 19th century, it is often said that the greatest threat to the site today lies in the mismanagement of resources and subsidies by the government and Europe. The country is said to be struggling to preserve the site, which has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997 and is now threatened with being listed as a World Heritage Site in Danger. Things have moved on recently since the European Union warned last year that it was withdrawing from funding the Great Pompeii Project, a program to conserve, maintain and restore the site.
The Italian government has begun to provide funding, but despite this, and even though archaeologists and workers are hard at work preserving what remains of Pompeii, the city is not immune to a second disaster, this time caused by time and man. A third of the city is still underground, and it should stay that way. In the meantime, it’s important to preserve the remaining two-thirds as best we can, to delay the city’s inevitable collapse.
The excavations seem to have generated more questions than they have probably answered. Looking at the city of Pompeii today, looking at the great theater, largely rebuilt and restored over the last century, it’s hard not to wonder if Pompeii will disappear again, very soon.
Main photo credit: Flickr – Carlo Mirante