In the year 79 of the Christian era, the city of pompeii was devastated by one of the greatest catastrophes of humanity. On the twenty-fourth of August the Roman city on the outskirts of Naples in southern Italy was totally destroyed.
Sixteen thousand people died in this tragic demonstration of the force of nature, currently the ruins of the city are part of an archaeological park that receives thousands of visitors a year.
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In 1944, it was the last time there was news of the eruption of the volcano Vesuvius. Located in the Gulf of Naples, in southern Italy, near the city of the same name, it is the only volcano located on a continental part of the Italian territory, the others are located on islands.
Officially Vesuvius is inactive, the damage caused by its last eruption is far from comparable to the tragedy caused by them in the Roman city of Pompeii in the year 79 of the Christian era. On the 24th of August, the residents of that city were surprised by the violence provoked by the activity of the volcano.
A rain of ash and stones that came out of the volcano's crater covered the entire city. In addition to Pompeii, the cities of Herculaneum and Stabia in the same region were also affected.
On the day of the tragedy, residents heard a tremor coming from the ground, but they never imagined that the region where they planted, harbored a dangerous volcano. A succession of explosions made Vesuvius expel stones and rocks that reached a radius of thousands meters and a smoke formed by toxic gases that reached a height of thirty kilometers.
The Vesuvius volcano left a great trail of destruction, the expelled stones and the dense smoke in a short time left the city of Pompeii buried. Of the victims who managed to survive the highs, many died from inhaling the toxic smoke, it is estimated that the number of fatal victims reached sixteen thousand.
The avalanche of stones provoked despair and panic among the residents, the disorderly search for shelters contributed to the increase of chaos, in this way several people died trampled. Public buildings, houses, arenas, everything was destroyed, the city was transformed into a large open-air cemetery.
Residents who managed to escape the ferocity of the volcano tried to resume their lives in the city, but gave up in the face of such destruction, there was nothing left that could be used. Both the city of Pompeii and Herculaneum and Stabia were not rebuilt.
For many centuries the ruins of Pompeii were forgotten, only in the 16th century when the Italian architect Domenico Fontana tried to open a tunnel under Mount La Civita were they discovered.
Despite the discovery, it was only in the 18th century, more precisely in the year 1738, that the ruins began to be explored at the behest of the King of Spain Carlos III. Firstly, traces of the city of Herculano were discovered, in 1763 the excavations commanded by the engineer Rocco Giacchino de Alcubierre, discovered inscriptions that referred to the lost city of Pompeii.
As the ruins were unveiled, the engineer Alcubierre was also faced with the discovery of the corpses of the former residents. Astonishingly, the victims' bodies had been transformed into stone statues (inhalation of the ash and toxic gases was responsible for the petrification).
The fascination surrounding Pompeii lies precisely in the discovery of petrified victims. The accumulation of ash and mud on objects and bodies was responsible for preserving them exactly as they were left. Below you can get an idea of the magnitude of the damage caused by Vesuvius.
From the discovery of these bodies it was possible to understand a little of the history of Pompeii. Through CT scans, scholars were able to draw a profile of the daily life of former residents, one of the results came to the conclusion that the inhabitants of the city were supporters of a healthy diet low in sugar, the discovery is the result of the analysis of the healthy teeth of the bodies found.
Although the teeth were healthy, it was concluded that the bones were weak due to excessive intake of fluoride contained in the waters. Studies are able to decipher even the profession exercised by stone statues.
Unlike other provinces belonging to the powerful Roman Empire, research based on petrified bodies concludes that the residents of Pompeii were peaceful provincials.
The basis of the economy was the trade in olive oil and wine, which after being produced were sold to neighboring cities on the shores of the Mediterranean. The architectural style can also be glimpsed through the findings from the excavations. Another discovery concerns religiosity, scholars found temples in honor of official gods, which reinforced the thesis that residents were adherents of polytheism.
On the day of the tragedy, the city was in full swing, the position of the bodies was able to reconstruct some daily tasks of these people, it can even demonstrate that the Pompeians struggled a lot to resist death.
The young poet known as Pliny the Younger was a contemporary of the tragedy at Pompeii and wrote the following in a letter reportedly addressed to the historian Tacitus:
Vesuvius shone with enormous flames in many places and great columns of fire came out of it, whose intensity made the nocturnal darkness more conspicuous. Day was already breaking in other regions, but here it was still night, a dark night, darker than all the others; the only exception was light from lightning and other similar phenomena.
Currently, the mysteries surrounding the city of Pompeii and the announcement that the bodies are being analyzed, have increased curiosity about the episode that took place in the year 79 of the Christian era.
One of the main tourist destinations in southern Italy, around Naples, are the sites archaeological sites where the ruins of temples, frescoes, arenas and public buildings of Pompeii.
Lorena Castro Alves
Graduated in History and Pedagogy
