L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, AUGUST 24, 2017 www.italoamericano.org 14 L'Italo-Americano LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE SIMONE SCHIAVINATO P ompeii is without a doubt one of the most exception- al archaeological sites in the world, probably the most rel- evant, for the wealth of findings and their very nature, related to the world of Imperial Rome. A lot of what we know about the daily habits of the people of the Empire during its apogee comes from the many discoveries made in the towns of Pompeii, Hercolaneum and Stabiae, all tragically destroyed by the dead- ly work of the Vesuvius. The last hours of these places and their unfortunate people have fascinated historians and archaeologists for centuries: did Pompeiians know something that tragic was about to take place and what truly happened in those last fateful hours? Today, thanks to two cen- turies of archaeological, histori- cal and geological work, we can finally answer at least some of these questions. Knowing the Vesuvius We are all familiar with that romantic, stereotypical image of the Vesuvius looming upon Naples: a perfect cone, the quin- tessential volcano, complete with a gauze-like ribbon of smoke ris- ing from its crater. Most certain- ly, that was not the way Pompeiians knew it. Truth is, they ignored the fact the Vesuvius was a volcano, because it did not look like one at all: it had the shape of a large hill, with a part higher than the other, a bit like the Colosseum. Covered in beautiful forests and dotted with lakes, its luxuriant slopes became home to many a farmer. Even though Pompeiians were aware of the existence of volcanos (they had Etna and Stromboli within the empire, in the end) they never suspected that strangely shaped hill near their homes may have been one. They never suspected it, even if their city had been continuously hit by earthquakes, the last prob- ably only a handful of days before the eruption, as the hefty amounts of lime and debris found by archaeologists on the site demonstrate. Pompeiians did not know their enemy. They ignored it existed and that was the very ori- gin of their tragedy. Dating the eruption Our high school history books very likely stated Pompeii was destroyed on the 24 th of August of 79 AD. However, both philol- ogists and modern archaeologists tend to disagree. The date the Vesuvius' erup- tion reached us in a letter written by Pliny the Younger, nephew of Pliny the Older, naturalist, admi- ral and victim of the eruption. In it, he described in detail what he himself had witnessed from the safety of his own home, near enough to the Vesuvius to describe the events, but safely. He did so in so much detail that modern volcanologists managed to reconstruct perfectly each moment of the eruption. There are no doubts about the authenticity of the letter, but truth is we never saw the origi- nal: as it happens for the vast majority of classical documents, including literature, it is medieval copies we can, still today, set our eyes upon. Pliny the Younger's letter came to us in several manuscripts, of which the oldest was considered the closest to the original. Picking the most ancient copy as the closest to the real thing was common in the past centuries, but philology teaches us it can be an awful mistake: older does not mean free from errors. In the case of Pliny's letter, it was only the oldest manuscript stating the 24 th of August was the date of the eruption. All other exemplars mentioned the 24 th of October. Source evidence is supported by archaeologists, who found during excavations remains of chestnuts, dates, dried figs and sealed wine amphorae, all signs pointing to the fact Pompeii was destroyed during the Fall and not during the Summer. The last day of Pompeii The 24 th of October, then. It was a Friday morning. All of a sudden, the air is bro- ken by a series of lugubrious, heavy sounds coming from the Vesuvius. Pompeiians raised their heads and probably saw a dark cloud quickly embracing the farms and forests on the hill. The smell of sulfur turned the air putrid. The vast majority of peo- ple gathered in the city's Forum trying to understand what had been happening. At around 1 pm, the Vesuvius exploded, in s ilence. We all imagine volcanos erupting with a heavy, deep, diabolical rumble, but this was not the case. Eerie and deadly, the only noise was a quick and loud explosion, at the very moment a gigantic, dark column exited the Vesuvius' mouth: it was the smoke break- ing the barrier of sound. Pompeiians were used to the earth acting up: earthquakes w ere common and many believed it was just another one of them. They left their daily activities to reach the Forum, thinking to return quickly to their routine. A baker had just put 81 bread loaves in his oven, which he clos ed before leaving momentarily his store and meet other Pompeiians in the Forum . That oven w as opened 2000 years later by modern archaeolo- gists, its content of 81 bread loaves still there for us to see. Shortly after, the winds bent the s moke column tow ards Pompeii, virtually signing its death sentence. It covered the sun and the earth got dark and cold. A thick fog engulfed the city and its people who could not breathe and felt their skin burn- ing and aching: it was ashes filled with pumices and glass particles that scratched the skin and made respiration hard. It is likely that people had to breathe through a damp cloth. To avoid pain and breathlessness, people returned home, waiting for the end of this most strange event. The rain of ashes and pumices went on for the good part of 12 hours layering up on the ground and reaching heights between 3 and 6 meters. Pompeii's streets and houses up to the first floor had disappeared, roofs had col- lapsed killing many, bridges had caved under the weight of the ashes, leaving people no possi- bility to escape. Even the sea was no longer an option, as the eruption had been caus ing storms. In the morning of the 25 th of October, the first eruption of the Vesuvius had stopped. People began roaming outside again, trying to find a way to escape: how difficult it must have been to understand where to go, with- out streets and landmarks leading the way. All was underneath a meters-thick layer of pumices. However, the Vesuvius had not finished its deadly work, yet. At some stage, that morning, the black column coming out of its crater collapsed on itself, causing what can only be defined as a "landslide" of talc-like ashes, filled with sulfur dioxide and heavy with steam . It travelled at a speed of about 95 miles per hour, hitting Pompeii immediate- ly: all people in the streets, thou- sands of them, died trying in vain to protect themselves and their loved ones, covered and imprisoned in a deadly mud, unable to move, just like it must happen when you are caught in quicksand. It was the end of Pompeii. The first rescue teams reached the area only three days later. The Emperor visited what was left: a round hill, under which a whole city, its people, its dreams had been buried. It was decided Pompeii was no longer to be: too dangerous rebuilding there. Everyone knew, though, a city laid under the gentle sloping of that hill: for centuries people would call the hill civitas, city in Latin. Pompeii became a city w ithout name, at leas t until when, in the 18 th century, the firs t excavations in the area began to bring it once again to the surface and under the eyes of the world. Even though Pompeiians were aware of the existence of volcanos (they had Etna and Stromboli within the empire, in the end) they never suspected that strangely shaped hill near their homes may have been one The rain of ashes and pumices went on for the good part of 12 hours layering up on the ground and reaching heights between 3 and 6 meters The first excavations in the area began in the 18th century to bring Pompeii once again to the surfa- ce and under the eyes of the world The last days of Pompeii: what really happened?

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