Pompeii is a city in the Campania region of southern Italy, about 30km from Naples. The city is most famous for its archaeological site near the Bay of Naples, that features the ruins of ancient Pompeii. A Roman city that was buried by ash and pumice from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. . The city’s quick burial preserved it for centuries before its ruins were discovered in the late 16th century. Today it is considered the most preserved large Roman ruin in the world.
Pompeii’s origin as a Roman city began around 341 BC in the Samnite Wars, when the first Roman army entered the Campanian plain bringing with it the customs and traditions of Rome. In the 2nd century BC, Pompeii enriched itself by taking part in Rome’s conquest of the east, as shown by a statue of Apollo in the Forum erected by Lucius Mummius in gratitude for their support in the sack of Corinth and the eastern campaigns. These riches enabled Pompeii to bloom and expand to its ultimate limits. The Forum and many public and private buildings of high architectural quality were built, including The Large Theatre, the Temple of Jupiter, the Basilica, the Comitium, the Stabian Baths, and a new two-story portico.
Pompeii was one of the towns of Campania that rebelled against Rome in the Social Wars and in 89 BC it was besieged by Sulla, who targeted the strategically vulnerable Porta Ercolano with his artillery as can still be seen by the impact craters of thousands of ballista shots in the walls. Pompeii was forced to surrender after the conquest of Nola. The result was that Pompeii became a Roman colony named Colonia Cornelia Veneria Pompeianorum. Many of Sulla’s veterans were given land and property in and around the city. The Pompeians were granted Roman citizenship and quickly assimilated into the Roman world.
The area around Pompeii became very prosperous due to the desirability of living on the Bay of Naples for wealthy Romans and due to the rich agricultural land. The city became an important passage for goods that arrived by sea and had to be sent toward Rome or Southern Italy along the nearby Appian Way. Many public buildings were constructed or refurbished and improved under the new order; new buildings included the Amphitheater of Pompeii in 70 BC, the Forum Baths, and the Odeon.
These buildings raised the status of Pompeii as a cultural centre in the region as it outshone its neighbours in the number of places for entertainment which significantly enhanced the social and economic development of the city. From about 20 BC, Pompeii was fed with running water by a spur from the Serino Aqueduct, built by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa.
The inhabitants of Pompeii had long been used to minor earthquakes, but on 5 February 62 a severe earthquake, between 5 and 6 on the Richter magnitude scale, did considerable damage around the bay, and particularly to Pompeii. Between 62 AD and the eruption in 79 AD, most rebuilding was done in the private sector and older, damaged frescoes were often covered with newer ones. An important field of current research concerns structures that were restored between the earthquake of 62 and the eruption. In about 64 A.D., Emperor Nero and his wife Poppaea visited Pompeii and made gifts to the temple of Venus, when he performed in the theatre of Naples. By 79 A.D., Pompeii had a population of 20,000.
In late October 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 eruption lasted for two days. The first phase was of pumice rain lasting about 18 hours, allowing most inhabitants to escape as evident by only approximately 1,150 bodies recovered so far on site. At some time early the next day, pyroclastic flows began near the volcano, consisting of high speed, dense, and scorching ash clouds, knocking down wholly or partly all structures in their path, incinerating or suffocating the remaining population and altering the landscape, including the coastline. By the evening of the second day, the eruption was over, leaving only haze in the atmosphere through which the sun shone weakly.
Pliny the Younger provided a first-hand account of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius from his position across the Bay of Naples at Misenum, but it was written approximately 27 or 28 years after the event. His uncle, Pliny the Elder, with whom he had a close relationship, died while attempting to rescue stranded victims.
Over the following centuries, its name and location were forgotten, though it still appeared on the Tabula Peutingeriana of the 4th century. Further eruptions, particularly in 471–473 and 512, covered the remains more deeply. The area became known as the La Civita (the city) due to the features in the ground. The re-discovery of the ruins began in 1592, when architect Domenico Fontana, while digging an underground aqueduct to the mills of Torre Annunziata, ran into ancient walls covered with paintings and inscriptions. Herculaneum was rediscovered in 1738 by workers digging for the foundations of a summer palace for the King of Naples. Due to the spectacular quality of the finds, the Spanish military engineer Roque Joaquín de Alcubierre made excavations to find further remains at the site of Pompeii in 1748. On 20 August 1763, an inscription was found and the city was identified as Pompeii.
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