The Eruption of Mount Vesuvius Pompeii DISASTER (79 A.D.)

At the beginning of 79 AD the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, situated in Campania, on the Bay of Naples in southern Italy, were both bustling centres of human activity. Pompeii was a busy commercial centre with a population estimated to have been anywhere between 6,400 and 30,000. Herculaneum, on the other hand, was a smaller and more exclusive place, popular with the Roman elite, as is attested by the number of luxurious villas that have been discovered there. By the end of the year, both of them lay buried under metres of volcanic mud and ash, victims of one of the worst geological disasters in recorded history, an event so cataclysmic that it still horrifies almost 2000 years later: the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

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Credit:
Created by Daniel Turner (B.A. (Hons) in History, University College London)

Narrator:

Chris Kane

Beard, Mary, and Ferdinand Mount. 2013. Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town. London : The Folio Society

Beard, Mary. 2016. Pompeii: New Secrets Revealed. England: Lion Television.

Bowersock, G. 1978. The Rediscovery of Herculaneum and Pompeii. The American Scholar, 47(4), 461-470. Retrieved February 14, 2021

Moser, Barry, and Benedicte Gilman. 2007. Ashen Sky: The Letters of Pliny the Younger on the Eruption of Vesuvius. Los Angeles : J. Paul Getty Museum

Petrone P, Pucci P, Vergara A, et al. A Hypothesis of Sudden Body Fluid Vaporization in the 79 AD Victims of Vesuvius.

Sigurdsson, H., Cashdollar, S., & Stephen R. J. Sparks. 1982. The Eruption of Vesuvius in A. D. 79: Reconstruction from Historical and Volcanological Evidence. American Journal of Archaeology, 86(1), 39-51. doi:10.2307/504292

[noahmezan]

“Sponsored by humankind”
That’s deep man

[handsomegeorgianbankrobber]

First time I learnt about this disaster was as a kid thanks to one of the books of the Magic Tree House series.

[shamefulfox]

i didn´t even know you could turn organic matter into glass.

that´s just insane, the amount of heat that would be required.

[z-man]

This cataclysmic event is very interesting, yet scary in a way. Let’s hope none of the volcanoes today don’t go off like that for a long time. Those ash mummies surprised me when I saw it in a book

[Marinealver]

Lets not forget all the erotic art that was recovered from the ashes.

Also Simple history seemed to enjoy animating exploding heads a little too much.

[Deruwugen]

To think these were real people that went through this, can't even begin to imagine the terror, the suffering, I just hope they all went instantly with no pain.

[Wil_Dasovich]

Those exploding head animations were brutal 😅 the curation of this one was like an animated kill bill

[quas]

Went to Pompeii myself, you want to be careful, not because of the ruins or the ancient structures, but because you’re pretty much forced to walk through a brothel with roman hentai on the walls.

[merlink.]

This was always such an interesting event in history, so I'm glad to finally see it on here!

[a_can_of_soda]

Only 70s AD kids will remember the destruction of Pompeii.

[Kakashi-]

Eh eh oh eh oh eh eh oh eh oh

And the walls kept tumbling down
In the city that we love
Grey clouds roll over the hills
Bringing darkness from above

But if you close your eyes
Does it almost feel like nothing changed at all?
And if you close your eyes
Does it almost feel like you've been here before?
How am I gonna be an optimist about this?

[kevinmackay]

Every time I think of Pompeii I just think of the horror of the possibility of doing something sus, getting fossilized doing something stupid and get remembered as “that dude” in history

[Armalite-ljcl]

Can you make an episode about the IRA and the Troubles in Northern Ireland?

[tomaslopez]

“The temperature in Herculaneum was so hot, that it caused the people’s blood to boil and their brains to explode”

*Insert Metalocalypse Brutal meme here

[ghostcreeper]

Pompeii: **exists**

Mt Vesuvius: but if you close your eyes

[glaus]

Fun fact : near vesuvius more exactly 10 km away from naples theres another more dangerous volcano : supervolcano campi fregrei

[FreedomLovingLoyalistOfficial]

RIP to those who died in Pompeii and Herculaneum.

[rosswebster]

I’m reminded of my visit to Pompeii on a trip to Italy in 2003. It was perhaps the first site I’d been to where ancient history felt like something that was actually lived in rather than just something you read about in books.

[Slyarno]

I recalled of this back in a drama class one of my friends did a play of it giving out our speeches of the event.

[studyhistoryctruth]

In 2016 I went to Pompeii and it was something to behold. Saw a concert there in a 2000 year old Roman stadium. David Glimour ( Pink Floyd)