Pompeii: History, Destruction & Rediscovery of the Ancient Roman City

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Introduction to Pompeii

Pompeii an ancient Roman city on the Bay of Naples 15 miles (24 km) southeast of Naples near the southern foot of Mount Vesuvius. In the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Pompeii was buried in volcanic rock and ash. Its existence was completely forgotten within a few generations. The site was discovered in the 18th century and excavations were begun. Because it had lain undisturbed and protected from the elements since the time of the disaster, Pompeii gave the world its most precise knowledge of how a Roman city looked and how its inhabitants lived.

Ancient Pompeii

Growth of the City

Pompeii was founded in the Pre-Roman period by the Oscans, and came later under the domination of the Etruscans and Samnites. It was a seaport, although it is now about two miles (3 km) from the shore, and a prosperous market town. Wine, vegetables, olive oil, and pumice were the main products. As the town grew larger new streets were laid out in a gridiron pattern. They were made so narrow, however, that only a single cart could pass along them. Eventually, as commerce thrived, the city became so crowded that small houses were built on the grounds of large ones, and shops were built into the street sides of private residences.

In the first century B.C. Rome made itself master of the entire region. The Roman general Sulla settled his army veterans at Pompeii, and it quickly became Latinized. An amphitheater, new public baths, two theaters, and temples to Roman deities were constructed. The Bay of Naples became a popular resort area for imperial Rome, and many new, luxurious villas were built in Pompeii. At the time the city was destroyed, the population was about 20,000.

Homes

Pompeiian homes were built with few windows and with two inner courts onto which all rooms opened. One court, the atrium , was roofed except for a hole in the center through which rainwater drained into a shallow cistern in the floor. The other court, the peristyle , was larger, with a colonnaded gallery on all four sides. The open center area was a garden, adorned with a fountain and statuary. In Roman times water was piped into the house.

The homes were colorfully decorated, with mosaic floors and frescoed walls. Many of the wall paintings were of high artistic merit. Favorite subjects were the activities of gods and goddesses. Stucco reliefs of these deities were also popular as wall decorations.

Eruption of Vesuvius

In 63 A.D. Pompeii was shaken by a severe earthquake, and many buildings were destroyed. During the next 16 years there were occasional minor quakes. Finally, on August 24, 79 A.D., there were several violent shocks, followed immediately by the eruption of Vesuvius.

Out of the great, dark cloud that shot up from the mountain, masses of scorching pumice fragments, some of them as large as three inches (7.6 cm) across, rained down on Pompeii. Deadly sulfurous gases emitted by the hot material killed many persons as they ran through the streets, and killed some who fled to their cellars or huddled in inner rooms to escape the falling rock. Others waited until the doorways of their homes were blocked, then escaped from second-story windows, only to fall in the continuing lethal deluge. When 8 to 10 feet (2.4 to 3 m) of the pumice covered the city a fine ash moistened by steam began to fall. Breathing in this smothering substance, the people who had survived so far but had not yet escaped out to sea were suffocated.

It was three days before the rain of ash stopped. Pompeii was covered by 15 to 25 feet (4.5 to 8 m) of lightweight, largely dry volcanic material. It is estimated that three-fourths of its population died. In time, soil sifted over the site, hiding all trace of the city. Even the location of Pompeii passed from memory.

Discovery of Two Buried Cities

In the 16th and 17th centuries workmen several times stumbled upon buried relics of Pompeii, but hardly anyone considered them significant and they were soon forgotten. In 1710 an Italian peasant deepening his well came upon traces of Herculaneum, a town also destroyed by the eruption and buried in volcanic mud. Excavations were started in 1738. Soon afterward, the site of Pompeii was again discovered, by chance, and excavating began there in 1748. The ash and pumice were easier to remove than Herculaneum's rocklike mud, and Pompeii became the favored site of exploration.

Antiquities recovered from Pompeii were carried off to museums, and created a trend toward neoclassic design that swept the art world. (The relief figures on Wedgwood jasperware were inspired by Pompeiian wall reliefs.) A romantic novel, The Last Days of Pompeii (1834) by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, captured the public imagination and made the lost city familiar to all.

During the latter 19th century, excavating was directed by Giuseppe Fiorelli, Italy's foremost archeologist of that period. It was discovered that Pompeiians who died while the ash was falling had a mold of moist ash formed about them that dried and held its shape like plaster of Paris. By pumping plaster into the hollow molds where the bodies had lain, archeologists have obtained figures that show every detail of facial expression and posture as well as details of the clothing the persons were wearing and any objects they were carrying.

In the 1920's, during the regime of Benito Mussolini, a program of continuing excavation was begun under the direction of Amadeo Maiura. Instead of removing art works and small objects to museums, an effort was made to preserve the ruins intact as they were found. The entire site has been explored, and more than half of the city has been excavated.