PR-2237IRE Ancient Rome

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Destruction of Pompeii
Tacitus had inquired about the death of Pliny the Elder, Uncle of Pliny the Younger and
commander of a Roman fleet. Pliny the Elder, an asthmatic, had died at Stabiae when he tried to
save friends while on a rescue mission to help the people of Pompeii. The 56-year-old’s ships
could not reach the shore because of falling debris, and carried on to Stabiae.
The ruins at Pompeii were first stumbled upon accidentally by an architect in the 16th century as he
tunnelled under the ground as part of a plan to take water to a nearby town. Not recognising the site’s
importance, he did little to follow up the find. The eruption had changed the landscape of the region so much
that, in later years, location of the original site of Pompeii would have been very difficult. The course of the
Sarno River had been changed and the beach on the Tyrrhenian Sea raised so much that major changes had
taken place.
Excavations at Pompeii began in 1748 after a peasant digging in a local vineyard struck a wall below the
surface of the ground. King Charles III, then ruler of the kingdom around the present city of Naples, was
excited by the discovery and was there when excavations began. Unfortunately, those people involved in the
early digs were mainly hunting for valuable objects. There was no systematic planning and no careful
recording of objects found or their location. Despite interruptions through wars and political troubles,
excavations are still being carried out today. Though wooden objects have rotted away over the centuries,
archaeologists have discovered much about life in Roman times from the many marble, ceramic, bronze and
silver artefacts which have survived.
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