Pompeii facts: the eruption that buried a Roman city

Pompeii facts: what happened in 79 CE?

Pompeii facts start with a city that was buried, preserved, and later uncovered from ash. In 79 CE, Mount Vesuvius erupted for two days and sent volcanic ash and pumice over Pompeii, covering the Roman city in a layer that reached four to six metres deep.

Pompeii was a wealthy town when it was destroyed. Estimates for its population in 79 range from 10,000 to 20,000 residents, with more recent estimates putting it at up to 11,500.

How did the eruption unfold?

The first phase was pumice rain that lasted about 18 hours. After that, pyroclastic flows began near the volcano sometime in the night or early the next day.

The people and buildings of Pompeii ended up covered in up to 12 different layers of tephra. Those layers reached as much as six metres deep in some places, helping preserve the city under the volcanic debris.

Pliny the Elder died while trying to rescue stranded victims during the eruption. The eruption itself lasted for two days, turning an ordinary Roman city into a place sealed by ash.

How many people were in Pompeii, and how many victims were found?

By 79, Pompeii had a population of 20,000, although more recent estimates are up to 11,500. Despite that, only about 1,150 bodies have been found on site at Pompeii.

That gap between the population and the number of bodies found is part of why Pompeii continues to draw attention. The ash preserved streets, buildings, and traces of the people who were there when Vesuvius erupted.

In November 2020, the remains of two men were found in a two-metre-thick layer of ash. The site still keeps yielding new finds from the buried city.

What was Pompeii like before the disaster?

Pompeii became a Roman colony named Colonia Cornelia Veneria Pompeianorum after the Social Wars. It was not a quiet town by the time of the eruption. In AD 59, there was a serious riot and bloodshed in the amphitheatre between Pompeians and Nucerians.

The city also had already suffered damage before Vesuvius struck. On 5 February 62, a severe earthquake did considerable damage around the bay, particularly to Pompeii.

That means the city of 79 CE had already lived through violence and rebuilding before it was buried under ash and pumice.

How do archaeologists study Pompeii today?

Giuseppe Fiorelli devised the technique of injecting plaster into voids in the ash layer to recreate the forms of Vesuvius’s victims. That method helped turn empty spaces in the ash into casts of people who were caught in the eruption.

Since 2018, work at Pompeii has been confined to excavated areas except for targeted soundings and excavations. Archaeology there now focuses on carefully defined work inside areas that have already been opened, along with selected new checks and digs.

Pompeii facts connect the eruption, the ash, the bodies, and the excavation into one story that still keeps growing. Now test what you remember with the quiz.