ABSTRACT
The Romans occupied Campania in 88 bc, and thereafter Pompeii takes its place in Roman history, and is frequently mentioned by Seneca, Pliny and other contemporary writers. Toward the close of Nero’s reign—that is to say, in the year ad 63—the whole region was visited by severe earthquakes, which made such a havoc that the cities were deserted for several years. The rebuilding of Pompeii appears to have been begun about ad 69, ten years before its final destruction, which took place on the 23 November ad 79 and appears to have commenced in the afternoon. Although Herculaneum and Pompeii were destroyed by the same eruption, they were destroyed in quite different ways. The former was filled up by a flow of warm muddy water, which filled it with a soft paste; and subsequent eruptions have covered it with molten lava no less than eleven times, rendering excavation exceedingly difficult and costly. Pompeii, on the other hand, was covered with loose ashes and pumice-stone, which were ejected from the volcano to a considerable height and blown into the city by the violent northwesterly gale which Pliny tells us was raging at that time. In short, Pompeii can be excavated with a trowel, but it takes a chisel to make an impression on Herculaneum.
