Important+Period+-+Pompeii

=**Pompeii**=

About Pompeii
Pompeii is an Ancient city located near the Bay of Naples called Campania. It was very beautiful and peaceful. The blue skies and the magnificent scenery that made people build villas there. Pompeii was a sympathetic city where they treated slaves like common class people and they could work as craftsmen, shopkeepers, doctors, teachers, gladiators, farmers etc. They were also considered part of their master's family.

Destruction
On August 24, 79A.D, almost 2,000 years ago, this city was destroyed by the eruption of the volcano Vesuvius along with its neighbor, Herculaneum. After the eruption, Pompeii was covered and buried with ashes and pumices that were pouring out of the volcano. The eruptions went on for two days. Pompeii was covered with more than 18 meters (60 feet) of mud and volcanic material, 2 to 3 meters (10 feet) of pumice, and 6 to 7 feet of ashes. Most of the people managed to escape but about 2,000 people (1/10 of population) perished.

Effect on Study of Rome
Pompeii wasn’t found until 1748, when a peasant who was working in his vineyard found it. This discovery of Pompeii really helped the historians’ study about Ancient Rome because it showed how the Roman’s everyday life, politics, arts, societies, etc. were. Not only the houses were found, but citizens too. Although only their skeletal parts were left, historians managed to make plaster casts out of them because their bodies were decayed by the volcanic gases and ashes. Now houses, other parts of Pompeii, and the plaster casts are open for people to view and see how it was during that time. Objects such as statues, mirrors, paintings, coins, ink bottles, and pens were sent to a museum at Naples for display and safekeeping.