Now Playing: Empeza by Tim Raybourn on Quadim at Magnatune.com
This week’s episode was suggested by Mara from Galeta, California and is about Pompeii. Most people, who have at least heard of Pompeii, can tell you it was a Roman city that was destroyed by the volcano, Mount Vesuvius. They can possibly even tell you the year, 79AD. It was rediscovered in the 1730s and became an archaeologists dream site in the 1860s. Due to the volcano’s ash, the entire city was covered and everything preserved. This is true as well for the nearby city of Herculaneum.
Pompeii didn’t fall under Roman rule until 80BC. Before that, Greeks, Etruscans and Samnites all had a part in the city’s history and development. All of these cultures ruled the region for a period of time.
The town is only five miles to the south of Mt. Vesuvius and was an average sized city with an estimated population of twenty thousand inhabitants. A decent sized town by today’s standards. Pompeii was a merchant and port town. Located on the Sarno River, fish sauce and wine were its major exports. In ancient times, much like today, graffiti was very popular and helps give an insight to what people thought. In the case of business in Pompeii, an inscription found on a cloth merchant’s wall says “Salve Lucrum”, or “Hello Wealth”. The Pompeiians liked to make money too. Beachfront property was also popular. If you lived in the middle of town, you were in the midst of hustle and bustle and it could get very hot and crowded. On the coast you had the breeze and hopefully some extra room.
About 10 miles northwest of Pompeii, lay Herculaneum. Herculaneum was a smaller town and the population is figured at about five thousand. However, there was not the same level of commerce as in Pompeii and most of the citizens were fishermen, artisans and craftsmen. Herculaneum had a small beach area and considered a more scenic retreat and attracted some more affluent citizens as well.
Politics were a big part of life and the graffiti reflects this. Every March, the top officials, the duoviri and aediles were elected. Throughout Pompeii, there are numerous writings urging the election of different candidates. Guilds had their say, “The goldsmiths unanimously urge the election of Gaius Cuspius Pansa as aedile.” Some people had what would equate to signs on your front lawn today, painted on the side of their house. “If upright living is considered any recommendations, Lucretius Fronto is well worthy of the office.” Even women had their say. While women wer not allowed to run for office, they still gave their opinion, as wall on a wine shop said, “Caprasia along with Nymphius – her neighbors too – ask you to vote for Aulus Vettius Firmus for the aedileship; he is worthy of the office.” Of course, like today’s political campaigns, there was mudslinging and snide comments, “Claudius’ little girl-friend is working for his election as duovir.”
Graffiti didn’t just cater to politics, but it also showed a bit of daily life. There are instances were people figured accounts, advertised and available groceries. This is much like advertising today, except the signs couldn’t just be replaced, but had to be repainted first. In the case of listing accounts, a tavern could publicly record a patron’s running tab so that it could not be easily disputed later. After all, if the whole town knows what you owe, the tavern owner can’t get a better witness.
There was a large amphitheater at Pompeii and saw much activity. In 59AD, a riot broke out with fans from a neighboring community. An advertisement from 79AD states the next program. Basically it states, thirty pairs of gladiators will fight between April eighth and twelfth. There would be standard fights as well as wild beast combats.
As a possible deterrent for thieves and as decoration, there is a famous mosaic at the entrance of one house that displays a dog and says, “Cave Canem” or “Beware of the Dog”.
Around one o’clock, August twenty-fourth, 79AD, Mt. Vesuvius exploded. A column of ash and pumice was sent about twelve miles into the sky. There wasn’t any lava yet, but after half an hour, debris rained down and pumice and ash fell at a rate of about six inches per hour. After eleven hours of this, the column of the volcano collapsed. Herculaneum was spared the ash and pumice due to winds, so many may have remained, thinking conditions looked worse than they were. Yet once the volcano’s cone collapsed, “surge clouds” of gases and debris, over two hundred and twelve degrees Fahrenheit, came down, along with the lava that was over seven hundred degrees Fahrenheit at speeds between sixty and one hundred and ninety miles per hour. Herculaneum was only four miles from the volcano, so it was only a matter of minutes before the town was completely destroyed. Herculaneum was buried sixty-five to one hundred feet below the volcano’s wrath. An hour later, Pompeii was hit by a surge of lava and whatever remained there was completely obliterated.
There are two famous Romans, Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger who were affected by Mt. Vesuvius’ eruption. At this time, Pliny the Younger and his mother were living with her brother, Pliny the Elder, at Misenum, about twenty miles across the bay from Mt. Vesuvius. Pliny the Elder is famous for his “Naturalis Historia” or Natural History, which delved into all aspects, such as botany, mineralogy and anthropology, among other subjects. This word was written only two years before, in 77AD. His nephew, Pliny the Younger is famous as an orator and statesman. His letters survive in the “Epistulae”.
Pliny the Younger wrote to his friend Tacitus what happened on that fateful day. His mother first saw the cloud erupting from Mt. Vesuvius and Pliny the Elder climbed to a point where he could see better. Curious, the Elder called for a small ship so he could get closer to the action. As he was leaving the house, he received a letter from a woman living at the foot of the mountain and realized all that was happening. As commander of the local fleet, the Elder ordered the fleet to begin rescue operations and boarded one to join his men. Meanwhile, the younger and his mother remained in Misenum and waited for the Elder. After waiting through the night, they were finally encouraged by a friend to flee. They made it just in time. The Younger’s accounts have them running with the crowds to escape the ash and debris. At one point, while they rested, “We had scarcely sat down to rest when darkness fell, not the dark of a moonless or cloudy night, but as if the lamp had been put out in a closed room. You could hear the shrieks of women, the wailing of infants, and the shouting of men; some were calling their parents, others their children or their wives, trying to recognize them by their voices. People bewailed their own fate or that of their relatives, and there were some who prayed for death in their terror of dying.” (Kebric 156)
After a night away from home, the earthquakes and eruptions subsided and the Younger and his mother returned to Misenum to find the town buried under drifts of ash. There they remained until they heard news of the Elder.
The Elder had gone to his friend’s house and calmed them, yet they did not immediately leave. In the early morning hours, the Elder finally realized they should leave, but it was too late. Again the Younger writes, “They debated whether to stay indoors or take their chances in the open, for the buildings were now shaking with violent shocks and seemed to be swaying to and fro as if they were torn from their foundation. Outside on the other hand, there was the danger of falling pumice-stones, even though they were light and porous; however, after comparing the risks they chose the latter. […] As a protection against falling objects they put pillows on their heads tied down with cloths.
Elsewhere there was daylight by this time, but they were still in darkness, blacker and denser than any ordinary night, which they relieved by lighting torches and various kinds of lamp. My uncle decided to go down to the shore and investigate on the spot the possibility of any escape by sea, but he found the waves still wild and dangerous. A sheet was spread on the ground for him to lie down, and he repeatedly asked for cold water to drink. Then the flames and smell of sulphur which gave warning of the approaching fire drove the others to take flight and roused him to stand up. He stood leaning on two slaves and then suddenly collapsed, I imagine because the dense fumes choked his breathing by blocking his windpipe which was constitutionally weak and narrow and often inflamed. When daylight returned on the 26th – two days after the last day he had seen – his body was found intact and uninjured, still fully clothes and looking more like sleep than death.” (Kebric 157)
Pliny the Younger’s account is a very vivid one and shows just how terrible the event was. After the town was rediscovered and archaeology began in 1860, voids were found in the layer of ash, where bodies had fallen and eventually decomposed. The archaeologist, Guiseppe Fiorelli, filled in these voids with plaster and once again, people viewed the horror and can see what Pliny the Younger began to describe.
Today, visitors can go to Pompeii and see the remains of the town. Because of the layers of ash and lava, the town has been preserved, even down to the grains and breads. There are still sections that aren’t fully excevated, but most of the town is and while not all of it is open to the public, visitors can see the “Cave Canem” mural, homes and businesses.
Kebric, Robert. Roman People, London: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1997
