Until the late summer of A.D. 79, Pompeii was renowned chiefly for fertile vineyards and grand villas to which the cream of Rome's society—including, perhaps, Julius Caesar's father-in-law—fled each summer to escape the heat. The hillsides flanking Mount Vesuvius formed some of the most desirable real estate in the Roman Empire. But at one o'clock in the afternoon of August 24, la dolce vita ended abruptly. In less than a day, the fiery mountain spewed enough ash and rock to bury Pompeii and two neighboring towns, Herculaneum and OpIontis, beneath as much as 70 feet of volcanic debris. More than 2,000 people perished, many within minutes.
展开▼
