Pompei si trova in Campania, Italia, non lontano da Napoli.
La sua principale attrazione è l'antica città romana in rovina con lo stesso nome, che fu inghiottita dal Vesuvio nel 79 d.C.
I Romani presero il controllo di Pompei intorno al 200 a.C. Il 24 agosto del 79 d.C., il Vesuvio eruttò, seppellendo la vicina città di Pompei sotto cenere e fuliggine, uccidendo 20.000 persone e preservando la città nel suo stato da quel giorno fatale.
Pompei è un sito di scavi ed un museo all'aperto dell'antico insediamento romano.
Questo sito è considerato uno dei pochi siti in cui un'antica città è stata preservata nei dettagli: tutto, dai vasi e tavoli ai dipinti ed alle persone, è stato congelato nel tempo, offrendo, insieme alla vicina Ercolano che ha subito la stessa sorte, un'opportunità senza precedenti di vedere come vivevano le persone duemila anni fa.
Nel 1997, l'UNESCO ha dichiarato Pompei Patrimonio Mondiale dell'Umanità.
Il Comitato ha deciso di iscrivere tale area sulla base dei criteri culturali considerando che gli straordinari reperti delle città di Pompei, Ercolano e delle città limitrofe, sepolte dall'eruzione del Vesuvio del 79, costituiscono una testimonianza completa e vivente della società e della vita quotidiana in un momento preciso del passato, e non trovano il loro equivalente in nessuna parte del mondo.
La città antica, fondata dagli Osci Campani nel VII sec. a.C. e così battezzata in onore di Ercole (Pompe) fu importante snodo commerciale, inizialmente greco, poi etrusco, successivamente sannita e romano.
La terribile eruzione del ’79 d.C. la distrusse e solo nel XVIII secolo cominciarono i primi scavi per poterne, successivamente, visitare le antiche rovine.
Il centro attuale, sorto intorno al Santuario, trae le sue origini da una comunità parrocchiale sorta nel IX secolo intorno alla primordiale Chiesa del SS. Salvatore, detta “Campo Pompeiano”.
Successivamente, con il nome di Valle di Casale, ebbe un castello, prima feudo di Luigi Caracciolo e poi di Ferdinando D’Aragona.
Nel 1593 divenne proprietà di Alfonso Piccolomini, ma per lo straripamento del fiume Sarno, si spopolò divenendo poi, una zona malsana e infestata dai briganti.
Ed ecco giungervi nel 1872, l’avvocato Bartolo Longo, originario di Latiano di Puglia, che contribuì inizialmente a radunare i pochi abitanti dispersi intorno alla Chiesa dedicata alla Vergine del Rosario, fatta erigere dal caro Benefattore - Fondatore, oggi proclamato Beato ed in attesa di canonizzazione.
Da quel momento Questi divenne l’uomo chiave per la costruzione delle immense opere di carità e di assistenza all’infanzia, in special modo, che rendono Pompei famosa in tutto il mondo e polo aggregante di numerose iniziative di solidarietà.
La memoria di Bartolo Longo è oggi commemorata dal monumento nella grande Piazza a Lui intitolata nel cuore della città.
The Roman period
Pompeii was one of the towns of Campania that rebelled against Rome in the Social Wars and in 89 BC it was besieged by Sulla, who targeted the strategically vulnerable Porta Ercolano with his artillery as can still be seen by the impact craters of thousands of ballista shots in the walls. Many nearby buildings inside the walls were also destroyed.
Although the battle-hardened troops of the Social League, headed by Lucius Cluentius, helped in resisting the Romans, Pompeii was forced to surrender after the conquest of Nola.
The result was that Pompeii became a Roman colony named Colonia Cornelia Veneria Pompeianorum.
Many of Sulla's veterans were given land and property in and around the city, while many who opposed Rome were dispossessed of their property.
Despite this, the Pompeians were granted Roman citizenship and quickly assimilated into the Roman world.
The main language in the city became Latin, and many of Pompeii's old aristocratic families Latinized their names as a sign of assimilation.
The area around Pompeii became very prosperous due to the desirability of living on the Bay of Naples for wealthy Romans and due to the rich agricultural land.[36] Many farms and villas were built nearby, outside the city and many have been excavated.
These include the Villa of the Mysteries, Villa of Diomedes, several at Boscoreale, Boscotrecase, Oplontis, Terzigno, and Civita Guiliana.
The city became an important passage for goods that arrived by sea and had to be sent toward Rome or Southern Italy along the nearby Appian Way.
Many public buildings were constructed or refurbished and improved under the new order; new buildings included the Amphitheatre of Pompeii in 70 BC, the Forum Baths, and the Odeon.
In comparison, the Forum was embellished with the colonnade of Popidius before 80 BC. These buildings raised the status of Pompeii as a cultural centre in the region as it outshone its neighbours in the number of places for entertainment which significantly enhanced the social and economic development of the city.
Under Augustus, from about 30 BC, a major expansion in new public buildings, as in the rest of the empire, included the Eumachia Building, the Sanctuary of Augustus and the Macellum.
From about 20 BC, Pompeii was fed with running water by a spur from the Serino Aqueduct, built by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa.
In AD 59, there was a serious riot and bloodshed in the amphitheatre between Pompeians and Nucerians (which is recorded in a fresco) and which led the Roman Senate to send the Praetorian Guard to restore order and to ban further events for ten years.
Eruption of Vesuvius
The eruption lasted for two days.
The first phase was of pumice rain (lapilli) lasting about 18 hours, allowing most inhabitants to escape.
Only approximately 1,150 bodies have so far been found on site, which seems to confirm this theory, and most escapees probably managed to salvage some of their most valuable belongings; many skeletons were found with jewellery, coins, and silverware.
At some time in the night or early the next day, pyroclastic flows began near the volcano, consisting of high speed, dense, and scorching ash clouds, knocking down wholly or partly all structures in their path, incinerating or suffocating the remaining population and altering the landscape, including the coastline.
By the evening of the second day, the eruption was over, leaving only haze in the atmosphere through which the sun shone weakly.
A multidisciplinary volcanological and bio-anthropological study of the eruption products and victims, merged with numerical simulations and experiments, indicates that at Pompeii and surrounding towns heat was the main cause of death of people, previously believed to have died by ash suffocation.
The results of the study, published in 2010, show that exposure to at least 250 °C (480 °F) hot pyroclastic flows at a distance of 10 kilometres (6 miles) from the vent was sufficient to cause instant death, even if people were sheltered within buildings.
The people and buildings of Pompeii were covered in up to twelve different layers of tephra, in total, up to 6 metres (19.7 ft) deep. Archaeology in 2023 showed that some buildings collapsed due to one or more earthquakes during the eruption, killing the occupants.
Pliny the Younger provided a first-hand account of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius from his position across the Bay of Naples at Misenum, but it was written approximately 27 or 28 years after the event.
His uncle, Pliny the Elder, with whom he had a close relationship, died while attempting to rescue stranded victims.
As admiral of the fleet, Pliny the Elder had ordered the ships of the Imperial Navy stationed at Misenum to cross the bay to assist evacuation attempts.
Volcanologists have recognised the importance of Pliny the Younger's account of the eruption by calling similar events "Plinian".
It had long been thought that the eruption was an August event based on one version of the letter, but another version gives a date of the eruption as late as 23 November. A later date is consistent with a charcoal inscription at the site, discovered in 2018, which includes the date of 17 October and which must have been recently written.
A collaborative study in 2022 determined a date of 24–25 October.
An October/November eruption is clearly supported by many pieces of evidence: the fact that people buried in the ash appear to have been wearing heavier clothing than the light summer clothes typical of August; the fresh fruit and vegetables in the shops are typical of October - and conversely the summer fruit typical of August was already being sold in dried, or conserved form; nuts from chestnut trees were found at Oplontis, which would not have been mature before mid-September; wine fermenting jars had been sealed, which would have happened around the end of October; coins found in the purse of a woman buried in the ash include one with a 15th imperatorial acclamation among the emperor's titles.
These coins could not have been minted before the second week of September.
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