50 Fun Facts About Pompeii

Which volcano buried Pompeii in 79 AD?

It also buried Herculaneum, Stabiae and many surrounding villas under 4 to 6 metres of ash and pumice.

Pompeii lies near which modern Italian city?

It sits in the Campania region, about 8 km from the volcano and today some 700 metres inland from the sea.

Roughly how deep was the layer of ash and pumice that buried Pompeii?

Up to twelve separate layers of tephra fell; Herculaneum was buried far deeper by pyroclastic flows.

The name Pompeii is thought to derive from the Oscan word 'pompe', meaning what?

It may refer to five original hamlets founded by the Oscans in the 8th century BC.

Which Roman general besieged Pompeii in 89 BC, leaving ballista craters in its walls?

Pompeii had joined the revolt of the Social War; it became a Roman colony settled by Sulla's veterans.

What happened in Pompeii's amphitheatre in AD 59?

The Senate banned games there for ten years; a fresco records the brawl.

Pompeii's amphitheatre, built around 70 BC, is notable as what?

It was designed to hold about 20,000 people, roughly the whole population of the town.

A severe earthquake damaged Pompeii on 5 February of which year, seventeen years before the eruption?

It is estimated at magnitude 5 to 6, and much of the town was still being rebuilt in 79.

Which emperor visited Pompeii around AD 64 with his wife Poppaea and made gifts to the temple of Venus?

Venus was the city's patron deity; Nero was probably in the area to perform in the theatre of Naples.

Who was emperor when the volcano erupted in 79 AD?

He appointed two ex-consuls to organise relief and visited the site twice, but no recovery work was done.

How long did the eruption of 79 AD last?

The first phase, about 18 hours of pumice rain, let most inhabitants escape; the pyroclastic flows came later.

How high did the volcano's column of tephra and gas reach in 79 AD?

It ejected material at 1.5 million tons per second, releasing 100,000 times the thermal energy of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs.

A 2010 study concluded that most people at Pompeii died from what?

Flows of at least 250 °C were enough to kill instantly, even indoors, ten kilometres from the vent.

Roughly how many bodies have been found at Pompeii itself?

The number suggests most of the town's inhabitants escaped during the initial hours of pumice fall.

Which writer left the only eyewitness account of the eruption, in two letters to Tacitus?

He watched from Misenum across the bay; volcanologists now call such eruptions 'Plinian'.

How did Pliny the Elder die during the eruption?

He sailed toward Stabiae saying 'Fortune favours the brave', and could not get away again.

What did a 2022 study conclude was the most likely date of the eruption?

Autumn fruit in the shops, sealed wine jars, heavier clothing and a charcoal note dated 17 October all point away from the traditional August date.

What discovery in 2018 undermined the traditional August date for the eruption?

Written in charcoal, it could not have survived long, so the eruption must have come soon after.

Which town near Pompeii, buried deeper by pyroclastic flows, preserved wooden roofs, beds and papyrus scrolls?

It was smaller and wealthier than Pompeii, and was rediscovered first, in 1709.

Where in the wealthier neighbouring town were the skeletons of at least 300 people found?

They had fled to the beach and were killed by the pyroclastic surge.

Which architect hit Pompeii's painted walls digging an aqueduct in 1592, and kept it secret?

His channel to the mills of Torre Annunziata still runs under a large part of the city.

In what year did excavation of Pompeii begin under the Spanish engineer Alcubierre, for the Bourbon king?

The city was only positively identified in 1763, when an inscription naming the 'Rei Publicae Pompeianorum' was found.

Which king sponsored the early digs, and kept an interest even after leaving to become King of Spain?

Herculaneum had been rediscovered in 1738 by workers digging foundations for his summer palace.

Which archaeologist, in charge from 1863, invented pouring plaster into voids left by decayed bodies?

He also divided the city into nine regiones and numbered blocks and doorways, a system still used today.

What material has replaced plaster in modern casts of Pompeii's victims?

It is more durable and does not destroy the bones inside, allowing later analysis.

Into how many regions (regiones) did Fiorelli divide the city?

Addresses at Pompeii still read region, insula, doorway, such as VII, 12, 18 for the Lupanar.

Which archaeologist first dug beneath the 79 AD layers in the 1920s and led the last big digs in the 1950s?

His reconstructions are hard to tell from original ruins, a lasting headache for scholars.

The Alexander Mosaic, showing Alexander the Great facing Darius, was found in which Pompeian residence?

The largest and most expensive residence in Pompeii, it fills a whole block; the original mosaic is now in Naples.

The famous bronze 'dancing faun' that names Pompeii's largest residence is technically what?

Its lower body is a man's; it stood beside the limestone impluvium in the atrium and was found in October 1830.

The frescoes in Room 5 of the Villa of the Mysteries are usually interpreted as showing what?

They are among the rare survivals of first-century-BC Roman painting; the villa was excavated from 1909.

What was the Lupanar of Pompeii?

The Latin word means 'wolf den'; a prostitute was a lupa, a she-wolf.

How many casts of eruption victims lie in the Garden of the Fugitives?

The area, near the Nocera gate, had been a vegetable garden and vineyard before the disaster.

Pompeii's graffiti are prized by linguists as rare examples of what?

They contrast with the formal Latin of the classical authors.

What is a Roman snack bar, like the one excavated in Regio V in 2020, called?

Its frescoes advertised the menu, and the skeleton of a tiny dog only 20–25 cm tall was found nearby.

From about 20 BC, running water reached Pompeii by a spur from which water channel, built by Agrippa?

Under Augustus the town also gained the Eumachia Building and the Macellum.

Which people, arriving from about 740 BC, brought Pompeii into the Hellenic orbit and the cult of Apollo?

The Doric Temple in the Triangular Forum dates from this period.

Which Italic people from Abruzzo and Molise ruled Pompeii from around 424 BC?

They enlarged the town and imposed their architecture; the 'first Samnite wall' underlies the walls visible today.

What Roman name did Pompeii receive when it became a colony after Sulla's conquest?

Cornelia was Sulla's family name and Veneria honoured his patron goddess Venus.

Roughly how many visitors does Pompeii attract each year?

UNESCO calls it the only site giving a complete picture of an ancient Roman city.

What did archaeologists find harnessed in the Villa of the Mysteries in December 2018?

The remains, still in their tack, were among discoveries made as the Great Pompeii Project shored up the site.

Which band filmed a 1971 concert in the empty amphitheatre of Pompeii, with no audience but the crew?

Adrian Maben directed; David Gilmour returned to play two real concerts there in 2016.

Which British band's 2013 breakthrough hit was titled 'Pompeii'?

It reached number two in the UK and number five on the Billboard Hot 100.

The eyewitness likened the eruption cloud to which tree, a tall trunk spreading into branches?

Vesuvian eruptions send columns of gas and ash into the stratosphere before they spread and collapse.

How long after the eruption was the eyewitness account in letters to Tacitus written?

He was around 17 at the time and wrote the letters at the historian Tacitus's request.

Pompeii once stood by the shoreline; roughly how far inland is the site today?

The city sat on a coastal lava plateau about 40 metres above sea level, beside the navigable mouth of the Sarno River.

Which alliance of cities did Pompeii join after the Etruscans settled the area by 524 BC?

Like the Greeks, the Etruscans controlled rather than conquered the city; a primitive forum and the Temple of Apollo date to their rule.

A four-wheeled pilentum unearthed near Pompeii in 2021 is now thought to have carried whom?

The elaborate ceremonial vehicle, found at the villa in Civita Giuliana, has bronze and red-and-black wooden panels with silver medallions.

Which Pompeii building, known as the House of the Gladiators, collapsed after heavy rain in 2010?

The collapse, blamed on poor drainage, sparked accusations of neglect and helped spur the 'Great Pompeii Project'.

At least how many bakeries, each with wood-burning ovens and millstones, have been found in Pompeii?

The Modestus bakery, or House of the Oven, was the largest; Sotericus's bakery still preserves its kneading room.

What liquid was collected in a jar near the entrance of the Eumachia Building for use by fullers?

Named for the priestess who built it, the building served as the wool market or fullers' guild seat, rebuilt in brick after AD 62.