Pompeii and the Eruption of Mt. Vesuvius
"…a devastation of the loveliest of lands, in a memorable disaster shared by peoples and cities."...Pliny the Younger
Pliny the Younger's eyewitness description of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius gives us a riveting sense of the impending doom Pompeii faced on August 24th and 25th, C.E. 79. You can find this letter and other teaching tools at the EDSITEment participating website, the Pompeii Forum Project, a collaborative research venture formed to gather data about city life in Pompeii.
Pliny the Younger's letter, written to the historian Tacitus, notes how he and his family saw a "cloud …rising from a mountain-at such a distance we couldn't tell which, but afterwards learned that it was Vesuvius. I can best describe its shape by likening it to a pine tree. It rose into the sky on a very long 'trunk' from which spread some 'branches.'… Some of the cloud was white, in other parts there were dark patches of dirt and ash." The ash and debris Pliny the Younger saw in that cloud would entomb the city of Pompeii for the next 17 centuries, protecting the Roman city from vandals, looters, and Mother Nature herself.
Systematic excavation of Pompeii did not begin until the eighteenth century. These excavations yielded an archaeological gold mine: a small Roman town preserved in the moment of a typical summer day. You can take a virtual tour of these famous ruins through the new EDSITEment lesson plan, In Old Pompeii. In this lesson, students take a virtual field trip to the site and learn about everyday life in Roman times. After their "trip," they assume the role of amateur travel agents and create a travelogue designed to convince visitors to tour the city. Finally, students read excerpts from Mark Twain's description of Pompeii found in his best-selling book, Innocents Abroad, and then write the story of their own trip, modeling it on Twain's account.
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