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The unexpected catastrophe

It is certain that when the eruption of Vesuvius started on the morning of 24 August, AD 79, it caught the local population utterly unprepared. Although at the same time, as we now know in retrospect, all the tell-tale signs were there to warn them.

'... the sighting of a column of smoke ... triggered a response more of curiosity than of alarm'

It is mainly thanks to the vivid eye-witness account of the younger Pliny (a Roman administrator and poet, whose many vivid letters have been preserved), that we have some understanding of what happened. And it is through him that we can gain insight into the reactions and feelings of the people caught up in the drama of this natural catastrophe.

Pliny's account leaves no doubt that everyone was caught unprepared. His uncle, known as Pliny the Elder, was stationed in command of the imperial naval base at Misenum, on the north-west extremity of the Bay of Naples. He was not only the senior military officer in the district, but possibly the most well informed living Roman on matters of natural science. His 37-volume Natural History is the longest work on science in Latin that has survived from antiquity.

But for all his science and his seniority, his nephew tells us that the elder Pliny was relaxing, after a bath and lunch, when Vesuvius started to erupt. And the sighting of a column of smoke 'like an umbrella pine' on the far side of the Bay triggered a response more of curiosity than of alarm in him. He and his companions were evidently not anticipating such an event.

The same account reveals, however, that the signs were there. Pliny's casual reference to earth tremors 'which were not particularly alarming because they are frequent in Campania' reveals the Roman's comprehensive ignorance of the link between seismic activity (earth tremors) and volcanic activity.

The volcanologists of today constantly monitor any changes in levels of seismic activity from the observatory on Vesuvius, because they know that the same increase of activity in the deep reservoir of magma (molten or partially molten rock beneath the Earth's surface) causes both earth tremors and volcanic eruptions. Through measuring seismic activity, these scientists expect to predict an approaching eruption months in advance.

They also know that the activity of Vesuvius is recurrent, and that the longer the intervals between one eruption and another, the greater the eventual explosion will be. The frequent but low-level activity of Vesuvius in recent centuries has relieved the build-up of pressure in the magma chamber. The catastrophic magnitude of the eruption of AD 79 was connected with the extended period of inactivity that preceded it. A long interval combined with mounting seismic activity is a sure sign of impending disaster.

Of course, the Romans could not know this, and our own knowledge owes much to the care of Pliny's description. The long inactivity of the volcano naturally lulled the people of the region into a false sense of security, though they were aware of the signs of burning at the peak of the mountain.

They were not the first to be so lulled: recent excavations at the site of the new NATO base at Gricignano, on the north of the Bay, have revealed two catastrophic eruptions that preceded that of 79, and wiped out the populations of a densely occupied territory. The most important earlier eruption, known as that of the 'Avellino pumice' occurred around 1800 BC; several sites, especially one near Nola, reveal the destruction of Bronze Age settlements, with their huts and pots and pans and livestock. But of this the Romans knew nothing.

hat he regarded it as likely that earthquakes in different parts of the world were interconnected, and even that they were linked to stormy weather, but he draws no link with volcanic activity. Indeed, he goes so far as to reproach the landowners who were deserting Campania for fear of further earthquakes.

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Response to earthquakes

Caldarium of the Thermae ©

The earthquake of AD 63 caused extensive damage to both Pompeii and Herculaneum, as we can see from repairs made to the buildings. Some areas seem to have been worse affected than others - there are cases where entire houses were demolished and reduced to agricultural land. Upper floors would have been particularly badly affected - and indeed some buildings do have blocked-up doors at the top, indicating that the higher floors had been abandoned.

But more impressive than the signs of damage are the signs of the resilience of the local population. Damaged houses were being extensively repaired and redecorated at the time of the AD 79 eruption, and there was a comprehensive programme of restructuring of public buildings in the Forum of Pompeii.

'... tenaciously repairing their city, and trying to carry on with life as usual.'

The evidence points to a continuous process of repairs and rebuilding from AD 63 onwards. It used to be assumed that the earthquake described by Seneca was the only cause of damage, and that signs of incomplete work suggested that it took the cities a long time to recover from the first catastrophe. But we now know from volcanological research that a series of seismic episodes immediately preceded the eruption, causing further damage to structures that had already been repaired.

So, in the house of the Chaste Lovers at Pompeii, archaeologists discovered that the oven of a bakery had suffered major cracking; it had been repaired and plastered over, but had then been damaged again - and building work was already in progress to mend this new damage. In the same block, three cesspits in the street, which linked to latrines in the houses, had been dug out immediately before the eruption, presumably to restore them to full functionality.

Outside in the main street, an open trench was found, cutting the entire length of the walkway as far as a water-tower at the crossroads: seismic activity had interrupted the water supply, but people had been hard at work repairing it. A frequent sight in the excavated houses of Pompeii is that of heaps of plaster, which must have been brought in ready for new decoration. Sometimes even the pots and compasses of the decorators are in position.

The Pompeians in August 79, far from abandoning their city, or fretting about earthquakes as portents of future destruction, were thus tenaciously repairing their city, and trying to carry on with life as usual. There was every reason to: the economy of the Bay was booming, with the great port of Puteoli as one of the biggest nodes of Mediterranean trade, and the holiday villas of the rich bringing constant investment.

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The eruption

A CGI image showing Vesuvius erupting 

Taken unawares by the eruption, the population of the towns and villas that circled the Bay could only respond with panic. Pliny depicts his uncle as a model of Stoic fortitude: calmly sailing directly into the danger zone (where he subsequently died), and taking a bath, dinner and sleep while the catastrophe unfolded. But all around him is panic - Rectina in her villa, Pomponianus in his.

The young Pliny too stays calm, but his mother weeps and implores, and by the time they set out to flee northwards, a dense black cloud of ash has blotted out the light, and the crowds of screaming people fleeing around them are in terror. The skeletons found in Pompeii and Herculaneum give us an equally eloquent testimony of panic and uncertainty.

'The eruption lasted for more than 24 hours ...'

The eruption lasted for more than 24 hours from its start on the morning of 24 August. Those who fled at once, unburdened by possessions, had a chance of survival, for the rain of ash and pumice, mixed with lithics, that descended for several hours was not necessarily lethal. It is clear that many, like the elder Pliny, thought their best chance was to take shelter and weather the storm.

It was not until around midnight that the first pyroclastic surges and flows occurred, caused by the progressive collapse of the eruptive column, and these meant certain death for the people of the region. (A pyroclastic flow is a ground-hugging avalanche of hot ash, pumice, rock fragments and volcanic gas, which rushes down the side of a volcano as fast as 100 km/hour or more.)

The hundreds of refugees sheltering in the vaulted arcades at the seaside in Herculaneum, clutching their jewellery and money, met their end swiftly - from the intense heat of the first surge that reached the city.

Subsequent waves reached Pompeii, asphyxiating those who had survived the fall of 3m (10ft) of pumice, and were fleeing across the open in the dark, or hiding beneath roofs. The waves that followed smashed flat the upper floors of houses, and left the corpses encased in successive blankets of gaseous surge and pumice fall.

It is impossible to tell what proportion of the inhabitants died, but the Romans were accustomed to losses mounting to tens of thousands in battle, and even they regarded this catastrophe as exceptional. The corpses found by archaeologists in Pompeii or Herculaneum should be regarded as only a small sample: the destruction encompassed the entire landscape south of Vesuvius to the Sorrentine peninsular. As many died in the countryside or at sea as in the cities. Even as far north as Misenum, the ash lay deep in drifts.

After the eruption

Plaster cast of a victim killed by the Mount Vesuvius eruption ©

The effect of the eruption was evidently totally traumatic, as is shown by the failure to reoccupy the sites of the cities destroyed. It was normal practice to rebuild the cities of this region after even the most massive earthquakes; but neither Herculaneum nor Pompeii was reoccupied.

Instead, the site of Pompeii was riddled with tunnels by explorers, not by modern explorers as is often imagined, but by the Romans themselves after the eruption. Room after room of the city's buildings had holes hacked through the walls by tunnellers, and though Pompeii has richer finds than any other Roman site, it is a city already extensively sacked by looters.

'The Bay of Naples ... never again regained the massive levels of popularity of the two centuries before the disaster ...'

The cities on the north of the Bay swiftly recovered, and Puteoli continued to be a significant commercial centre. The Bay of Naples continued to attract rich holidaymakers, but never again regained the massive levels of popularity of the two centuries before the disaster, the time when it had been the playground of many rich senators and emperors.

It was not until the 18th century, when Naples flourished under the Bourbon kings, that the villas of the rich courtiers and ambassadors of that time brought a new flowering to the region. It was at this period that the aristocrats of Europe, as they progressed on their Grand Tours, made the Bay of Naples and its hidden Roman treasures a focus of international fascination.

Find out more

Books

Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum by A Wallace-Hadrill (Princeton University Press, 1994)

Unpeeling Pompeii edited by J Berry (Electa, 1998)

Pompeii: Guide to the Lost City by SC Nappo (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998)

About the author

Andrew Wallace-Hadrill is Professor of Classics at the University of Reading. He is currently on secondment as the Director of the British School at Rome. His publications include Suetonius: The Scholar and his Caesars, Augustan Rome, and Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Published: 23-09-2003

Pompeii - AD 79; 1748-1860

Pompeii was buried - although not, as we now know, destroyed - when the nearby, supposedly extinct, volcano Vesuvius erupted in AD 79, covering the town and its inhabitants in many tons of pumice and volcanic ash. The disaster remained in people's minds for many years but was eventually forgotten, until the exploration of the ancient site started in an area called 'Civita', in 1748. This was found to be a comparatively easy task, because the debris that had caused such chaos was light and not compacted.

'... artefacts and wall paintings were damaged or irreparably destroyed.'

During the first phase, the excavation was carried out essentially in order to find art objects. Many artefacts considered suitable for the private collection of the Bourbon king Charles III (reigned 1759-88) were removed, and transported to Naples - where they remain to this day, displayed in the Museo Nazionale. Meanwhile, other wall paintings were stripped from the walls and framed, and yet other artefacts and wall paintings were damaged or irreparably destroyed.

After the spoliation, buildings such as Villa di Cicerone and Villa di Giulia Felice were back-filled, although many famous scholars, among them Johann Winckelmann, demonstrated strongly against this, as they had against the previous destruction. Due to their pressure, the practices were stopped to some extent, although the stripping of the wall paintings continued.

By the end of the 18th century, two wide areas had been uncovered: the Quartiere dei Teatri with the Tempio d'Iside, and the Via delle Tombe with the Villa di Diomede. Two of the archaeologists most connected with this phase were Karl Weber and Francesco La Vega, who wrote detailed diary accounts of the works they carried out, and made very precise designs of the buildings being uncovered.

During the period of French control of Naples - (1806-1815) - the excavation methodology changed: things became more organised, and an itinerary was drawn up to accommodate the visits of scholars and important personages.

The French wanted to excavate the buried town systematically, going from west to east. In some periods of their influence they employed as many as 1500 workmen, and this concentration of effort resulted in the Foro, the Terme, the Casa di Pansa, the Casa di Sallustio and the Casa del Chirurgo all being excavated.

With the return of the Bourbon king Ferdinand I to Naples, this method of organising the excavations continued, but there were fewer funds available to back the project. By 1860 much of the western part of the town had been excavated.

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1. Pompeii - AD 79; 1748-1860
2. 1863-1923
3. 1924 - 2003
4. Pompeii and European culture
5. Pompeii as a source
6. Pompeii today
7. Find out more

1863-1923

The excavation of the Temple of Isis

 ©

Giuseppe Fiorelli directed the Pompeii excavation from 1863 to 1875 - introducing an entirely new system for the project. Instead of uncovering the streets first, in order to excavate the houses from the ground floor up, he imposed a system of uncovering the houses from the top down - a better way of preserving everything that was discovered.

In this way the data collected during the excavations could be used to help with the restoration of the ancient buildings and of their interiors - although the most important wall paintings and mosaics still continued to be stripped and transported to Naples.

'Fiorelli ... developed the use of plaster casts to recreate the forms of plants and human bodies.'

Fiorelli also took the topography of the town and divided it into a system of 'regiones', 'insulae' and 'domus' - and he developed the use of plaster casts to recreate the forms of plants and human bodies that had been covered by the volcanic ash, and had then left a hole - shaped in the form of the plant or person - in that ash after putrefaction.

Michele Ruggiero, Giulio De Petra, Ettore Pais and Antonio Sogliano, continued Fiorelli's work in the following years, and during the last 20 years of the century began to restore the roofs of the houses with wood and tiles - in order to protect the remaining wall paintings and mosaics inside.

During these years many famous scholars came to study the remains of Pompeii, and one of them, August Mau, in 1882, created a system for categorizing the Pompeian pictures into a range of decorative styles. His work still provides the standard framework for the study of these ancient Roman paintings.

Vittorio Spinazzola, starting from around 1910, uncovered the Casa di Loreio Tiburtino, the Casa dell'Efebo, the Casa di Trebio Valente and Via dell'Abbondanza, which goes from west to east all along the length of the town.

He reconstructed the façades of the houses along this street with their balconies, upper floors and roofs, using a meticulous excavation technique. In doing so he demonstrated how it was possible both to understand the dynamics of how the buildings had been buried in the first place, and also what the original structure of the houses had been - thus making it possible to restore them accurately

Page 3 of 7

1. Pompeii - AD 79; 1748-1860
2. 1863-1923
3. 1924 - 2003
4. Pompeii and European culture
5. Pompeii as a source
6. Pompeii today
7. Find out more

1924 - 2003

Monumental peristyle in the Casa del Menandro ©

Spinazzola was succeeded by one of the most dynamic and controversial archaeologists in the history of the excavation of Pompeii - one Amedeo Maiuri.

Maiuri uncovered the city's walls, and found a large necropolis along its southern walls - while his excavation of the Via di Nocera allowed him also to explore Regio I and Regio II. This, however, was carried out using inaccurate methodology, with inadequate instruments, and the project suffered from chronic underfunding, so the houses were not well restored and were eventually practically abandoned.

'Many areas are still to be uncovered in Pompeii ...'

Maiuri also uncovered the Casa del Menandro and Villa dei Mister, and he undertook stratigraphical research under the AD 79 level, in his search for the origins of Pompeii.

Alfonso De Franciscis became director of excavations in 1964 - his period in charge was characterised by an emphasis on the restoration of buildings that had already been uncovered. Only the magnificent Casa di Polibio was uncovered in this period.

Following him, Fausto Zevi and Giuseppina Cerulli Irelli had to work hard to resolve the problems caused in Pompeii by the earthquake of 1980. Then in 1984 Baldassare Conticello started an extensive and systematic restoration of buildings in Regio I and II, where excavation work had already been completed.

The excavation of the Complesso dei Casti Amanti was done ex novo (from scratch). The present director, Pietro Giovanni Guzzo (who started his stint in Pompeii in 1994) has had to confront many management and financial problems in order to plan the finishing of excavations and the complete restoration of the buildings. In the most recent years, excavations have been carried out outside the Porta Stabia, and also in Murecine, near the river Sarno, where the Hospitium dei Sulpici has been uncovered.

Many areas are still to be uncovered in Pompeii, but it is even more important to restore what has already been excavated. Today 44 of the 66 hectares of urban area are visible, and it is unanimously considered that the other 22 hectares must be left under the volcanic debris, in order to preserve this important part of our past for future generations.

Page 4 of 7

1. Pompeii - AD 79; 1748-1860
2. 1863-1923
3. 1924 - 2003
4. Pompeii and European culture
5. Pompeii as a source
6. Pompeii today
7. Find out more

Pompeii and European culture

Scene with a centaur and a maenad from Villa di Cicerone ©

The nine books of Antichità d'Ercolano Esposte by the Accademia Ercolanese (from 1757 onwards), as well as the works of Winckelmann, Francois Mazois and William Gell, informed the whole of Europe about what was being revealed as the ancient Roman towns of Herculaneum and Pompeii were slowly being uncovered.

'... a new, Neo-classical, attitude emerged, influencing philosophers, men of letters and artists.'

The discoveries aroused great interest, and emotion, among Enlightenment circles - and offered many new subjects for cultural debate. Slowly a new, Neo-classical, attitude emerged, influencing philosophers, men of letters and artists. Painters, sculptors, jewellers, upholsterers, cabinet-makers, joiners, decorators - all made explicit reference to the findings in the towns that Vesuvius buried, and there was a constant demand for books illustrated with accurate pictures.

Many European countries, thanks to the new importance given to the ancient world, opened academies in Naples and Rome to offer hospitality to those who wanted to study the newly excavated towns. In this period the younger members of many of the noble and rich families of Europe completed their education by doing a 'grand tour' of Europe, and a visit to Pompeii, Herculaneum and the Museo Archeologico in Naples was considered an essential part of these trips.

The diaries of some of the people who made these journeys show how much influence the excavations had all over Europe, and these discoveries certainly eventually gave rise to modern archaeology, and led to the finding of many other ancient Greek and Roman towns.

Page 5 of 7

1. Pompeii - AD 79; 1748-1860
2. 1863-1923
3. 1924 - 2003
4. Pompeii and European culture
5. Pompeii as a source
6. Pompeii today
7. Find out more


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Pompeii as a source

The discovery of Pompeii is of huge importance for our modern-day understanding of the ancient Roman-Italic world - partly because the more public and monumental ruins left behind by Imperial Rome have often been misleading.

'The excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum ... offer an intact vision of daily life in a Roman society in all its aspects.'

Their ruination and destruction left crucial questions unanswered, and made it impossible in many ways to gather a satisfactory understanding of the Roman world from them. Ancient Greek and Roman texts are also often obscure and enigmatic, because the ancient writers naturally took for granted, and did not explain, things that the modern reader cannot begin to guess at.

The excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum, by contrast, offer an intact vision of daily life in a Roman society in all its aspects. They have produced not only many treasures, but also many objects that are less precious but extremely useful for the understanding of everyday life during the years of the Roman empire. In the buildings of these towns - from the monumental to the most simple - the ancient world appears in all its complexity, with great clarity.

The same principle applies to the ancient texts of classical times. These have Rome and other big cities as their main point of reference, meaning that the history they speak of corresponds to the history of big centres and cities - while the ancient Roman world was actually made up, above all, of a great number of small towns and villages. In order to find out about the morality, culture, sense of state and religion for the vast majority of people in the Roman-Italic world, it is to Pompeii and Herculaneum that we must turn. It is here that we are most likely to find the truth about the society that made Rome 'caput mundi'.

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1. Pompeii - AD 79; 1748-1860
2. 1863-1923
3. 1924 - 2003
4. Pompeii and European culture
5. Pompeii as a source
6. Pompeii today
7. Find out more

Pompeii today

An excavated arena at Pompeii ©

Many modern visitors see Pompeii as merely a collection of ruined buildings, and find it difficult to believe that in AD 79 the streets, houses, public buildings were full of life. They don't realise that many parts of the ancient town were uncovered more than two centuries ago, and that inadequate technology and debatable methods were used in the excavations, especially when the first works were carried out.

'Today the biggest danger for the old town is the increasing number of visitors ...'

They don't recognise what a miracle it is that buildings that were originally erected to last for only a few decades, and that even on that basis would have required frequent upkeep, are still in existence - and able to tell us something of the life that was lived within them.

Today the biggest danger for the old town is the increasing number of visitors, who often do not understand that they are touching, creeping, walking along, an open air museum, which requires much respect and attention.

In Pompeii all is original: the tombs along the stone paved streets; the houses, with their frescoes - some with simple designs and gaudy colours, others more elegant and complex - which open onto shadowed arcades made precious by gardens in bloom and gushing fountains.

The workshops and the shops immediately suggest the busy and noisy life once so much in evidence along the streets, and the religious sanctuaries are awesome even today - with monumental columns still emphasising the sacredness of the altars. The 'Forum', when it is crowded with people, also still reflects an image of previous times - perhaps the times of various elections, when different factions confronted each other in the square or under the large portico.

It is perhaps only in Pompeii, and the other towns buried by Vesuvius, that people of today can be in such direct contact with the ancient Roman world - it is for this reason that these places leave such an unforgettable memory on the minds of imaginative visitors.

Page 7 of 7

1. Pompeii - AD 79; 1748-1860
2. 1863-1923
3. 1924 - 2003
4. Pompeii and European culture
5. Pompeii as a source
6. Pompeii today
7. Find out more

Find out more

Books

Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum by A Wallace-Hadrill (Princeton University Press, 1994)

Unpeeling Pompeii edited by J Berry (Electa, 1998)

Pompeii: Guide to the Lost City by SC Nappo (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998)

About the author

Dr Nappo Salvatore Ciro is an archaeologist who has been working in Pompeii for many years both in excavation work (Insulae I-14, I-22, Hospitium dei Sulpici) and in restoration work (Grande Palestra, Casa del Menandro, Casa del Citarista, Mura Meridionali). He has had many articles about Pompeii published in Italy.

(This article was translated by Enza Salerno)

Published: 61-05-05