Pompeii

Pompeii was a prosperous Roman town on the Bay of Naples in Campania, southern Italy, buried under several metres of ash and pumice when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE. Founded centuries earlier by Oscan-speaking villagers and shaped in turn by Greek, Etruscan, Samnite and Roman influence, it lay hidden until the early modern period. Sealed under ash, its streets, houses, paintings and graffiti give an unusually complete picture of everyday Roman life.

The first permanent settlements on the site, a lava plateau about 40 metres above sea level near the mouth of the Sarno River, date to the eighth century BCE, when Oscans founded five villages there. Greek settlers arriving in Campania from about 740 BCE drew the place into their world, building a Doric temple, and in the early sixth century BCE the villages merged into a walled town at a crossroads between Cumae, Nola and Stabiae. Etruscans controlled the area by about 524 BCE without conquering the town outright, until the Greeks of Cumae defeated them in 474 BCE. Around 424 BCE the Samnites, from what are now Abruzzo and Molise, took over the region, enlarged the town and laid out new, more regular streets.

Under Samnite rule Pompeii was drawn steadily into Rome's orbit. After the Samnite Wars it became an ally of the Roman Republic in 290 BCE, keeping its own language and government, stayed loyal when Hannibal invaded, and grew rich on wine, olive oil and a share in Rome's eastern conquests. In the second century BCE it gained a forum, temples, a theatre and baths. When Pompeii joined the Italian revolt against Rome in the Social War, Sulla besieged it in 89 BCE; the marks of his artillery can still be seen near the Herculaneum Gate. The town became a Roman colony, Sulla's veterans received land, Latin replaced Oscan, and new buildings followed, among them the amphitheatre of 70 BCE and, under Augustus, the Building of Eumachia and an aqueduct supply. In 59 CE a riot in the amphitheatre between Pompeians and visitors from Nuceria led the Senate to ban games there for ten years.

A severe earthquake on 5 February 62 damaged much of the town, and rebuilding was still under way when Vesuvius erupted in 79. Estimates of the population at the time range from about 11,000 to 20,000. A first phase of falling pumice lasted around 18 hours, giving many people time to flee; then scorching pyroclastic flows swept over the town, and a study published in 2010 concluded that heat rather than suffocation killed those who remained. About 1,150 bodies have been found. Pliny the Younger, watching from Misenum across the bay, later described the eruption in letters; his uncle Pliny the Elder died leading a rescue by sea. The traditional August date has been challenged by evidence such as a charcoal inscription found in 2018, and a 2022 study placed the eruption on 24–25 October.

The emperor Titus sent relief, but the town was never rebuilt. Survivors and robbers dug for valuables, and a small settlement lingered until the fifth century before later eruptions buried the site deeper. The architect Domenico Fontana ran an underground water channel through the ruins in 1592, but systematic digging began only in 1748 under the Bourbon kings of Naples, and an inscription found in 1763 confirmed the city's identity. Giuseppe Fiorelli, director from 1863, filled cavities left by decayed bodies with plaster to create the famous casts, and introduced the system of regions and blocks still used today. Amedeo Maiuri led large excavations until the 1950s, often with poor records.

Allied bombing in the Second World War and an earthquake in 1980 damaged the ruins, and weather, plants, theft and mass tourism have taken a steady toll. The collapse of the House of the Gladiators in 2010 caused a scandal, and in 2013 UNESCO, which had listed Pompeii as a World Heritage site in 1997, warned that it might be declared in danger. The EU-funded Great Pompeii Project that began in 2012 stabilised walls and led to new excavations in Regio V, which have since uncovered a painted snack bar and richly frescoed rooms. About two-thirds of the city has now been uncovered, and the site receives roughly 2.5 million visitors a year.