Pompeii

Pompeii was a city in what is now the town of Pompei, near Naples, in the Campania region of Italy. Along with Herculaneum, Stabiae, and many surrounding villas, it was buried under several metres of volcanic ash and pumice when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD.

Because it was largely preserved under the ash, Pompeii gives us a snapshot of Roman life, frozen at the moment it was buried. It also helps us learn about ancient urban planning. When the city was destroyed, it was a wealthy town with 10,000 to 20,000 people living there. It had many fine public buildings and beautiful private houses with decorations, furniture, and artworks. Later digs found hundreds of homes and businesses in different architectural styles and for different social classes, as well as many public buildings. Wooden objects and human bodies decayed in the ash, which allowed archaeologists to create moulds of figures in their final moments of life. Many graffiti carved on walls show the Vulgar Latin that people spoke every day. This everyday language is mostly lost today and was different from the formal language of famous writers.

Pompeii stayed mostly hidden until it was rediscovered in the late 16th century. Major digging did not begin until the mid-18th century, which marked the start of modern archaeology. Early efforts to uncover the city were careless, and some people took items away, so many objects and sites were damaged or lost. By 1960, most of Pompeii had been uncovered, but it was left to decay. Later major digging was banned or limited to carefully chosen areas. Since 2018, new work has led to discoveries in parts of the city that had not been explored before.

Pompeii is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, because it is "the only archaeological site in the world that provides a complete picture of an ancient Roman city". It is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Italy, with about 2.5 million visitors each year.

Etymology

The Latin name Pompeii is a masculine plural noun of the declension type, written as Pompeiī, -ōrum.

According to Theodor Kraus, the root of the word may be the Oscan word for the number five, pompe. This suggests that the community was made up of five hamlets, or that it was settled by a family group (gens Pompeia).

The Forum of Pompeii with the entrances to the Basilica (left) and Macellum (right), the Temple of Jupiter (front) and Mount Vesuvius in the distance

Geography

Pompeii was built about 40 m (130 ft) above sea level, on a flat area of hard rock left by earlier eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, which is 8 km (5 mi) away. The land sloped steeply down toward the sea to the south and partly to the west. Layers of soil and rock from large landslides lie on top of the lava, possibly caused by long periods of rain. The city was once right on the shoreline, but today it is about 700 m (2,300 ft) inland.

The mouth of the navigable Sarno River, next to the city, was protected by shallow lagoons. Early Greek and Phoenician sailors used it as a safe harbour, and the Romans later improved it. Pompeii covered about 64 to 67 hectares (160 to 170 acres) and was home to roughly 11,000 people.

History

Pompeii is best known for its Roman remains from AD 79, but it was built on a much older town. The first settlements on the site date to the 8th century BC, when the Oscans founded villages there. Later, Greeks, Etruscans, and Samnites helped shape the town. In 89 BC, Sulla surrounded Pompeii and it became a Roman colony. Under Roman rule, the town grew rich. People built many public buildings, such as the Amphitheatre of Pompeii, and farms and villas, such as the Villa of the Mysteries, were built nearby.

In AD 79, Mount Vesuvius erupted and covered the city with ash and tephra. The eruption lasted two days, and most people were able to get away during the first part. Pompeii was later found again, and the city was identified in 1763. Archaeologists such as Giuseppe Fiorelli then began careful digging. Today, protecting the ruins is very important, because they are slowly getting worn down.

Main article: Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79

Main article: Conservation issues of Pompeii and Herculaneum

See also: Conservation and restoration of Pompeian frescoes

Roman city development

Pompeii is very interesting to people who study Ancient Roman architecture. It has a rich history that includes Greek, Etruscan, and Roman influences. It was a fairly small town in the Roman provinces. Apart from the Amphitheatre, it did not have large monuments like other Roman cities. By the time the Romans took control in 89 BC, the streets were mostly laid out and most of the insulae (city blocks) had been built. From about 30 BC, the town grew quickly under Roman rule. New public buildings included the Amphitheatre, two theatres, the Eumachia Building, and at least four public baths. An aqueduct carried water to the baths, to more than 25 street fountains, and to many homes and businesses.

Pompeii also had many shops and workshops. There were at least 31 bakeries and nearly 100 thermopolia, which were inns or snack-bars that sold hot food and drinks. Workers also processed wool and ran a fullonica, which was a workshop for cleaning and processing cloth. They also made garum, a fish sauce. Farmers grew barley, wheat, and millet, and they made wine and olive oil. Wine was sent to other regions, so vineyards were very important to the town's economy.

Tourism

Pompeii has been a popular place to visit for over 250 years. It was part of the Grand Tour, a trip many travelers took through Europe. By 2008, almost 2.6 million visitors came each year, making it one of Italy's most popular historic sites. Pompeii is part of the larger Vesuvius National Park. UNESCO named it a World Heritage Site in 1997. To reduce crowds at Pompeii, the group that looks after the site started selling tickets that also allow visits to Herculaneum, Stabiae, and the Villa Poppaea. In 2024, the site's managers said they would limit daily sales to 20,000 personalised tickets. They also planned to add timed entry during the busy summer season.

Tourism is a big part of the economy of the nearby town of Pompei. Many people there work as taxi or bus drivers, waiters, or hotel staff. New digging at the site was mostly stopped by a rule set in 1999 by the site's leader, Professor Pietro Giovanni Guzzo. That rule ended in 2017. Today, fewer than a third of the buildings that were open in the 1960s can be visited. The Antiquarium of Pompeii was built by Giuseppe Fiorelli between 1873 and 1874. It was designed to show objects that helped people learn about daily life in the ancient city. The building was damaged in 1943 during World War II and again in 1980 by an earthquake. It was closed for 36 years. It reopened in 2016 for temporary displays and became a permanent exhibition space on 25 January 2021. Visitors can see objects from the digging, casts made from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, and displays about Pompeii's history.

Pompeii has appeared in many works of art and entertainment. The 1954 film Journey to Italy, starring George Sanders and Ingrid Bergman, includes a scene at Pompeii. In it, they watch a cast of a couple from the eruption being uncovered. Pompeii was also the setting for the British comedy television series Up Pompeii! and its movie. In the second episode of the fourth season of the revived BBC science fiction show Doctor Who, called "The Fires of Pompeii", a character named Caecilius appears. In 1971, the rock band Pink Floyd filmed the concert Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii. They played six songs in the city's ancient Roman amphitheatre. The only audience was the film crew and some local children.

Pompeii and the eruption have also inspired music and books. The B-52s mention Pompeii and Herculaneum in their song "Lava" on their self-titled first album. Siouxsie and the Banshees wrote the song "Cities in Dust", which tells about the disaster that struck Pompeii and Herculaneum in AD 79. Robert Harris's 2003 novel Pompeii tells the story of a race to fix a broken water channel before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The 2013 song "Pompeii" by Bastille also refers to the eruption. In 2016, guitarist David Gilmour gave a live concert in the amphitheatre as part of his Rattle That Lock Tour. It was considered the first concert there with an audience since the eruption.

Documentaries

In Search of... has an episode, No. 82, that is all about Pompeii. It first aired on 29 November 1979. The National Geographic special In the Shadow of Vesuvius (1987) visits the sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum. It talks with archaeologists of that time and looks at what led up to the eruption of Vesuvius. Ancient Mysteries: Pompeii: Buried Alive (1996) is an A&E documentary narrated by Leonard Nimoy. Pompeii: The Last Day (2003) is an hour-long BBC drama. It follows people living in Pompeii, Herculaneum and around the Bay of Naples in their final hours. The characters have names from history, but their life stories are made up. They include a fuller and his wife, two gladiators, and Pliny the Elder. The show also shows what happened during the eruption.

Pompeii and the AD 79 eruption (2004) is a two-hour documentary from Tokyo Broadcasting System. Pompeii Live (28 June 2006) is a Channel 5 show. It features a live archaeological dig at Pompeii and Herculaneum. Pompeii: The Mystery of the People Frozen in Time (2013) is a BBC One drama documentary presented by Margaret Mountford. The Riddle of Pompeii (23 May 2014) is a Discovery Channel program. Pompeii: The Dead Speak (8 August 2016) is a Smithsonian Channel program. Pompeii's People (3 September 2017) is a CBC Gem documentary presented by David Suzuki.