Eruption of Vesuvius buries Pompeii and Herculaneum
- Date
- 79 CE (traditionally 24 August)
- Category
- Environment & climate
- Region
- Italy (Campania)
- Era
- Classical Antiquity
- Significance
The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE buried the Campanian towns of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae under metres of ash, pumice and pyroclastic surges, killing thousands and freezing daily Roman life in place.
The young Roman writer Pliny the Younger recorded the disaster in two letters describing the towering ash column and the death of his uncle, the naturalist Pliny the Elder, who had sailed toward the eruption to mount a rescue; his account is the earliest detailed eyewitness description of a volcanic eruption, lending its name to 'Plinian' eruptions in volcanology. Sealed beneath volcanic deposits, the sites preserved houses, frescoes, graffiti, food and the body-cavities of victims, later rediscovered from the 18th century onward to become an unparalleled archaeological window onto Roman urban society, art and economy. The catastrophe occurred early in the reign of the emperor Titus and remains the most famous natural disaster of the ancient world.
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Empires active in 79 CE (traditionally 24 August)
- Han Dynasty202 BCE – 220 CE
- Roman Empire27 BCE – 476 CE
- Kingdom of Funan50 CE – 550 CE
- Zapotec State of Monte Albán500 BCE – 800 CE
- Parthian Empire247 BCE – 224 CE
- Kushan Empire30 CE – 375 CE
Related environment & climate events
- Volcanic Winter of 536 and Onset of the Late Antique Little Ice Age536–537 CE
- Eldgjá Eruption in Iceland939-940 CE
- The Medieval Warm Period (Medieval Climate Anomaly)c. 950–1250 CE
- The 1257 Samalas Eruption (Mount Rinjani, Lombok)1257 CE
- The 4.2-Kiloyear Event: Megadrought and the Collapse of the Akkadian Empire and Egyptian Old Kingdomc. 2200 BCE
- Decline and De-urbanisation of the Indus Civilisationc. 1900 BCE
Further reading
The wider story
A New Green History of the World
The classic accessible account of how environment and climate have shaped human history.
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