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Just watched a BBC historical docu-drama - Pompeii: The Last Day . . .

Posted by mr grits on March 10, 2011 at 18:42:00

and it was really informative. First, nobody in Pompeii realized Vesuvius was a volcano--they thought it was a mountain. It had been dormant for 1500 years. At the same time there was NO Latin word for volcano so their wasn't a lot of knowledge or conjecture about the subject beyond Mt Aetna and one or two others elsewhere.

The eruption lasted for 18 hours--it was not one big blast and all hell broke loose. It was 18 hours of hell in medium doses. Pliny, the Elder, was at his villa on the Bay of Naples (Misenum) and within sight of Herculaneum and Pompeii. Being grand admiral of the Roman fleet he decided to sail over to mount a rescue effort for Pompeii. Pliny, the younger, stayed behind and witnessed and wrote down the events in great detail. For nearly 2000 years men thought Pliny had made up what he described and it took modern scientists to review it and say he got it right. Massive eruptions, such as Vesuvius, are noted a "Plinian".

Herculaneum was annihilated by the first pyroclastic cloud Vesuvius belched. Pompeii would receive two later during the 18 hours. In the aftermath, Rome abandoned any sort of rescue and Pompeii lay forgotten from August 79 until the mid-1500's when it was rediscovered by accident.

It's a painless 53 minutes but worth it if you run an egghead factor.

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