POMPEI INTRODUCTION History

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Now let me tell you a bit about the history of Pompeii, which has origins as ancient as Rome. In fact, the Gens Pompeia descended from the Osci, one of the first Italic peoples, who founded and gave this first urban aggregate its name more or less around the time when Rome was established. The fact that the city was preserved, buried as it was by the lava from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD all the way up to the excavations that began in the seventeenth century, helps us understand how a Roman city was structured, how houses were built, and infinite other details.

Three centuries after its foundation Pompeii was already a considerable city, superior to the nearby centers of the Vesuvian area, including Neapolis, which was rather modest then. As a proud and autonomous center of Italic populations, in 89 BC Pompeii fell under Roman administration. The inhabited center was enlarged and the palaces, streets, and urban furnishings were restructured. In the imperial era sidewalks were added, the forum was transformed into a pedestrian area, the public baths and thermal baths were enlarged, and a large amphitheater was built. In the middle of the first century AD, its population was about 25,000. In the year 62 it was hit by an earthquake that was so severe that 17 years later when the eruption occurred, several buildings were still being reconstructed. The town was surrounded by a wall and sat on 66 hectares of land, about three-fifths of which have been unearthed up to now. Most of the objects found in Pompeii can be admired in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, but many were also exported, and almost immediately: the British ambassador William Hamilton sent home two ships full of finds.

One of the most recent finds is the newly rediscovered Antiquarium, where you won't easily forget the plaster casts of Pompeians killed by the eruption and fixed in dramatic and moving poses.

Lastly, even though the two cities are always named together, I'd like to point out that the eruption had very different effects in Pompeii and Ercolano. The inhabitants of Pompeii were overrun by a shower of burning fragments and a cloud of hot gas and had no way out, while those from Ercolano could safely escape from the slow flow of lava and mud.

 

FUN FACT: the streets of Pompeii had a size that had been calculated for letting wagons pass. The distance between one wheel and the other determined the width of the rails when the route of the Circumvesuviana railway was built!

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POMPEI INTRODUCTION
4 Audio

POMPEI INTRODUCTION

Thanks to the initiatives of the Bourbon family, when Goethe visited they had already been carrying out systematic excavations for about 30 years on the cities that had been buried by the eruption of...
THERMAE-REGIO VII
1 Audio

THERMAE-REGIO VII

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TEMPLE OF APOLLO-REGIO VII
1 Audio

TEMPLE OF APOLLO-REGIO VII

It was during the archaeological excavations that artifacts such as vases and votive objects, dating back as far as the sixth century BC, were discovered. These objects are currently kept in the...
FORUM-REGIO VII
1 Audio

FORUM-REGIO VII

Around the square, try to imagine a large portico with Doric columns, and a complex of public buildings such as the administrative offices, the 'Comitium' where elections were held, and the 'Basilica'...
LUPANARE-REGIO VII
1 Audio

LUPANARE-REGIO VII

It is necessary to make this clarification because this activity, which was legal and considered useful for society, did not only take place in the lupanare. Just imagine, at most businesses where...
HOUSES OF MARCUS RUFUS AND THE GOLDEN BRACELET-REGIO VII
1 Audio

HOUSES OF MARCUS RUFUS AND THE GOLDEN BRACELET-REGIO VII

Here, the domus were built right next to the walls, even incorporating them, and projecting their extension outside the walls, with splendid rooms and gardens laid out in terraces sloping down towards...
GRAND THEATRE-REGIO VIII
1 Audio

GRAND THEATRE-REGIO VIII

For this reason, a large semi-circular structure was built in Pompeii as early as the second century BC, now identified as the Grand Theatre, which was enlarged and modified over the following...
HOUSE OF THE TRAGIC POET-REGIO VI
1 Audio

HOUSE OF THE TRAGIC POET-REGIO VI

This work, in fact, depicts actors preparing to stage a tragedy. The genre of the performance can be guessed from the type of masks placed on the floor near the actors. What you are about to visit is...
HOUSE OF THE FAUN-REGIO VI
1 Audio

HOUSE OF THE FAUN-REGIO VI

On the pavement in front of the entrance you are greeted by a welcome sign in Latin, 'HAVE', and as soon as you enter you see, in the center of the impluvium of the main atrium, a copy of the famous...
HOUSE OF VETTII-REGIO VI
1 Audio

HOUSE OF VETTII-REGIO VI

The two former slaves, who became wealthy landowners, were mainly involved in trading agricultural products and wine. In order to create this large mansion, they had joined two pre-existing ones and...
VILLA OF THE MYSTERIES- REGIO VI SUBURBIO
1 Audio

VILLA OF THE MYSTERIES- REGIO VI SUBURBIO

It is a large, square-plan villa that had a different organization from classical Roman mansions. At the entrance, there was an area for the production and trade of wine and rooms such as kitchens...
HOUSE OF MENANDER-REGIO I
1 Audio

HOUSE OF MENANDER-REGIO I

Scholars believe that its owner, Quintus Poppaeus Sabinus, was related to Emperor Nero's second wife, Poppaea Sabina, and that he also owned the domus in Pompeii now known as the House of the Golden...
AMPHITHEATRE-REGIO II
1 Audio

AMPHITHEATRE-REGIO II

Elliptical in shape, with a length of 135 meters and a width of 104 meters, it could accommodate up to 20,000 spectators, protected from sun and weather by an imposing roof, the velarium. Precisely...
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