Last Days of Pompeii | Ancient Letters Reveal Devastating Impact of Vesuvius Eruption
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- Опубліковано 6 чер 2023
- History Hit's Tristan Hughes explores the destruction of Pompeii, using extraordinary eyewitness testimony and the revelations of archaeology to understand what really happened here nearly 2000 years ago.
In 79 AD, one of the greatest natural disasters in Roman history occurred in southern Italy, when Mount Vesuvius erupted and obliterated the surrounding area, including the prosperous port of Pompeii. The thriving town was first engulfed by a relentless hailstorm of pumice rock before being overwhelmed by deadly volcanic heat waves, called pyroclastic flows and surges. Nothing living survived. By the time the eruption came to an end, Pompeii had been buried in six metres of volcanic debris.
This great disaster has immortalised Pompeii’s story, preserving so much of its archaeology, and giving us remarkable insight into the town's final hours - men, women and children caught up in the unfolding disaster.
But these incredible material remains are not the only evidence of what happened. In addition, we also have an extraordinary piece of surviving literature. An eyewitness account, written by a prolific Roman letter writer called Pliny the Younger.
Pliny’s letters - rich in detail and emotion - paint a terrifying picture of what people caught up in this ancient apocalypse thought and felt. Beautifully written, his detailed account provides poignant and humanising colour to the terrifying archaeology that has survived - most infamously Pompeii’s iconic plaster casts of people stuck down during the eruption.
But Pliny’s letters also tell a remarkable story - the heroic adventure of his famous namesake uncle, Pliny the Elder, who sailed towards the volcanic danger during the early stages of the eruption on a daring rescue mission.
In this documentary, Tristan Hughes visits Pompeii to learn more about the terrifying eruption that caused its destruction. Meeting leading experts around the site, he discovers what the archaeology, along with Pliny the Younger’s letters, has revealed about Pompeii’s ultimate fate.Sign up to History Hit now and get 14 days free: access.historyhit.com/checkout
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#historyhit #pompeii #ancienthistory
This is so fascinating, to have written accounts from such historical moments in history!
I'm currently reading 'Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town' by Mary Beard. It's a great book. Thanks for making it come alive even more with this docu!
She’s presented a few documentaries that you can find on UA-cam.
Can we take a min to focus on the fact he took a bath, ate a meal and SLEPT! when i think of that..im seriously in awe and disturbed at the same time lol..
"Mondays. Am I right?"
-Pliny the Elder's last words
I knew this event unfolded over a few days, but these letters really give me a new perspective of the prolonged agony and fear those people experienced.
Was Pliny the Elder delirious from lack of oxygen to the brain as he slowly asphyxiated? Always find it hilarious how he dove headfirst into the fire in a rescue mission because “fortune favors the bold.” Then decided to bathe, have a 5-course meal, and sleep. Meanwhile it would’ve looked like Armageddon outside and sounded like an explosive naval battle. Genuinely mind-boggling how little urgency there was. Unless he was partially blind and deaf, surely it was hypoxia or something?
I kinda agree, did a double take at that lol. Also his friend was clearly not okay at all. "Oh you have massive PTSD and you just lost everything? Have some food it's fine!"
I have sometimes wondered if he realised he would not get back. He was really very old by the standards of the time, he already had some respiratory disease (thought to be asthma) and he was evidently aware of feeling tired.
As we saw with the 2011 Japan tsunami, and even the present Russian dam burst in Ukraine, people at the sharp end of large-scale events are usually the ones who know least about the overall situation.
Over and over, we humans also show a tendency to normalise situations like that, to presume the event is more localised than it is, and that it’s (going to be) a matter of hours or days before things start getting back to normal. We also seem to always assume that the event will continue at the same sort of pace we see as we’re watching: we forget that floods surge (even uphill) wildfires create their own wind, &/or jump, and volcanoes pop their tops. A six year old nowadays knows more about volcanoes than Pliny the Elder could.
Pliny had asthma or something anyway, so he may have just presumed the situation would improve by morning, by which time he would feel less frail, better able to travel. Romans of his class were not big on displaying their frailties.
Or he decided his time had come and didn’t care too much about his visitor (who may have reached the same conclusion). They didn’t tend to trouble themselves about the lower orders anyway.
There is a question about whether he had some official position as an augur; in this case he had signally failed to predict Vulcan becoming temperamental. We tend to forget that most Romans really believed in their gods. Maybe in the privacy of his bedroom there, Pliny was trying to intercede in some way.
Pliny the Elder, I should have said.
@@eh1702 Fair! We always seem to think we'll be okay, until we aren't. So hey I guess him enjoying himself wasn't too bad after all.
It was a thrilled looking video. Thank you for sharing
Pliny was a genius and a very good man and friend.
Yes, but Brutus was an honorable man.
I apologise for my intrusive reply.
Not kind to the Christians.
Pliny wrote so many things that were wrong
Interesting this was , love history
Great information and great video
Amazing,so interesting 👌
Very informative
The brothels in the local towns downwind from Vesuvius were famous. Victorious troops of the Roman Empire would be given a few days there to relax and celebrate their victories. This is where Titus's legion was and were enjoying as reward for their services to the empire, which they had just accomplished by their final destruction of Jerusalem.
Correction for this title, Death was NOT instantaneous. The ONLY thing instant is a hole in the head. A body burning from anything is still feeling pain until the nerves are burned away. You are not dead until the brain dies.
I’m no expert but I would think you could die instantly from shock, pain, & fear.
I can remember seeing what was left of the bodies after being dug up when I was a kid, scared the poop out of me.
Whoa, how'd you see this? The archeological finds are pretty fascinating, the way they cast the bodies.
A remarkable phenomenon in the history of mankind.
Knowing who said that "fortune favors the bold" is rather unsettling.
💔
Until it was already too late people in Pompeii thought that they were not in danger.
I have never understood how people continue to live and build in the shadows of Mt Vesuvius when one day it will erupt again. Not if, when.
Naples could be next.
Technology now will tell them in advance and they can relocate beforehand
been to naples a few times, pink floyd played live in the amptheatre ehco's, pompea in the 70s, without an audience, yer pliny the younger was the historian everything was documented in script, Iraklion got hammered also buried in pumas
I don’t understand why they didn’t leave immediately instead of hanging out eating and sleeping. It’s not as if they weren’t being affected
Look at hurricane katrina. People stayed till 6hrs before landfall and then crowded the highways instead of going a day or more ahead of time. Humans will sit and watch a slow train wreck especially when you have other people telling you to stay. Look at all the people who went back into the trade towers after being told by the port authority it’s safe to go back in that the fires on the upper floors won’t effect your business down on the lower floors.
Maybe I missed it, but how did Pliny the Younger know that his uncle stopped for a bath and a nap, or that they ran with pillows on their heads, when his uncle was killed? Who reported that to him?
The volcano
@@doyouhaveawristband "hey bro you should've seen your uncle"
Foot messengers?
"Fortune favors the brave" - Pliny the Elder shortly before his death
Also - Matt Damon hyping bitcoin right before it sht the bed
The latter isn't bravery. It's greed. Along with anyone who invested in this play money.
Very interesting, thank you 🙏🙏👵🇦🇺
Glad you enjoyed it
Boom!
Unfourtunate Romans not wearing WHO mandated masks....that's what killed them 😆
We are learning about the eruption
in school
It sounds like it is one letter singular that this video is based on, written by Pliny the Younger.
I'm not an expert in the history of Rome, and I'm well aware that communication and transportation were slow and sometimes difficult in the First Century AD. But the Roman Empire had a good systems of both, including a road system much of which is still used today. So was it really the case that after Pompeii, and Herculaneum as well, were destroyed and buried, and their citizens wiped out, by Vesuvius, the Central Government in Rome, hearing not a word from those cities, did not send out an expedition- especially considering its well equipped and massive military- if only to find out what had happened?
Pliny The Elder looks a little like Mel Gibson🙂
TALK LAUDER
if only they had EVs and st greta BBC etc. this wouldnt have happened
Why does he pronounce "debris" in American style, and every other word British?
Same in brit pronunciation.
@@associatedblacksheepandmisfits It isn't. Most say "duh-bree".
No, one has the accent on the e, the other on the i...
why it gives the US a bit hope to think they have something when they are jell of everything so they try to a steel something they no nothing about, the english language, if you mean the US say US america stretches from alaska down to argentina and more,
@@skepticalbadgerThat's exactly how it is in American accents too? Lmao
Kilometres not kiLOMetres
Clickbait trying to get you to buy stuff
Climate change 🤷
From city to cemetery 🪦 it's crazy how lava aftermath leaves behind
I got all excited seeing the title of this video, thinking it might be some glorious new find. Nope! Just a retelling of old Pliny's letter, the one and only eye-witness account of the eruption---and that written many, many years after the fact. I don't have anything against Pliny, it's just the title is very misleading.