ROMAN ATTITUDES AND RESPONSES TO THE ERUPTION OF MOUNT VESUVIUS

Abstract

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius is one of the most pivotal points in world history, for since we have learned so much through what once mainly lied underneath its fallout, we can piece together much of Roman life – at least, in a city like Pompeii. In this article, the fallout of the eruption in a social and cultural setting is analysed, through the nature of the ancient sources, and the expositions inherent and current in modern scholarship. We shall see that the response to the eruption, and the damage caused, was multifarious to some degree, but also multifaceted, in that human responses from culture to subculture are never entirely the same – nor society to substrata. Even between individuals, reactions can occur that are different, however similar. Thus, it shall be shown that what went before informed what went after, and the thoughts and feelings of people influenced how they responded on that day in AD 79.