One of the reasons that question the authenticity of Pompeii is that two thousand years have passed, how do Westerners know when Pompeii was buried? Knowing so specifically, it must be made up.
The truth is, it's all thanks to Pliny The Little. The eruption of the volcano nearly two thousand years ago, Pliny the Younger left a detailed written record, so that the truth of this natural disaster can be preserved, so that future generations can still experience the terrible disaster.
Excavation site
Pliny the Elder was an ancient Roman scholar and encyclopedic writer, and Pliny the Younger was the patriarch and writer of the Roman Empire. Pliny the Elder was Pliny the Younger's uncle and mentor, and Pliny the Younger died when his father died, and his uncle adopted him, from whom he inherited the surname Pliny.
Pliny the Younger published a Greek tragedy and some poems at the age of 14. Some of his speeches have also survived. Pliny the Younger is best known for his letters. He collected and published a total of 10 volumes and 369 letters. The first 9 volumes include 248 letters, which were addressed to 105 different recipients. Volume X includes correspondence between him and Trajan (12 letters in total, including Trajan's reply). In each letter he discussed an issue, and his letters touched on almost all the problems of life in the Roman upper class, providing posterity with a detailed description of Roman society, life, and politics at that time.
Pliny the Elder was born in 23 AD (24 AD) and died in 79 AD, the day Pompeii was buried by volcanic gravel, when he resolutely stepped into the disaster area despite the obstacles, trying to help the shipwrecked citizens of the area leave Pompeii, and finally died. Pliny the Younger was staying in a place west of Naples, and he later described the catastrophe in two letters to the historian Tacitus. Pliny the Younger's letter to Tacitus was included in his collection of ten letters. Tacitus was a famous historian of ancient Rome, who wrote such works as "History", "Germania", and "Chronology"
On August 24, 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius clouds erupted violently into the sky, reaching an altitude of up to 21 miles, obscuring the sky. In just one day, volcanic ash covered Pompeii. Pliny The Younger witnessed the eruption 22 miles away in Messenum. For more than 24 hours, Mount Vesuvius brought ruin to Pompeii, with fires, ash and lightning engulfing the city.
August 24, 79 AD
8 a.m
Campania, the ground shook for more than a week, but was ignored because the shaking was so frequent. Finally, the night of the violent earthquake came, and the intensity of the earthquake reached its peak at 8 a.m. the next morning. Many household items and furniture were overturned.
1 p.m
The morning before the eruption was eerily calm, followed by an astonishing eruption of Mount Vesuvius, a cloud of erupting volcanic material spread around the mountain and rose 14 kilometers in the air before ash landed and deposited.
3 p.m
The volcano continues to erupt. As it cools in the atmosphere, it solidifies into volcanic boulders and turns into hard lava that rains down over Pompeii like raindrops.
Most fled the ancient city, while some, including the elderly and pregnant women, stayed here.
4 p.m
The volcanic rock was dense and large, falling like hail, and the Sarno River and nearby ports began to be clogged with debris.
Ships on the shore are trapped, and ships at sea are unable to enter the harbor. Shock waves shook the entire city, and some buildings began to collapse.
6 p.m
Large pieces of pumice (a type of volcanic rock) fall from a volcanic cloud that covers the sky. The streets of the ancient city were buried with pumice, volcanic gravel and volcanic ash, and the buildings collapsed under heavy pressure.
August 25, 79 AD
1am
People continued to flee, their diversion paths pitch black, occasionally illuminated by lightning bolts that were quickly streaked. Piping hot mud flowed down the volcano, flooding nearby Herculaneum.
Volcanic ash, volcanic gravel and pumice continue to fall over Pompeii.
4am
The column rising from Mount Vesuvius collapsed violently, and a stream of pyroclastic pyroclastics (overheated ash and gas) flowed down the slope. The first wave of magma rushed into Herculaneum, wiping out all remaining life.
5 a.m
A second wave of larger, hotter pyroclastic flows buried Herculaneum.
Subsequently, pumice and volcanic ash weakened somewhat, but due to the thickness of the ash and the diffusion of the gas, people in and around the city began to have difficulty breathing.
6:30 a.m
More pyroclastic debris poured into Pompeii, destroying the city's northern wall. A wave of toxic gases and suffocating volcanic ash swept across the city.
Those who remained in Pompeii were brutally burned or even suffocated to death.
The last devastating shockwave struck Pompeii, destroying the tops of almost all of its buildings.
The shockwave was so powerful that it spread to Stabue and even parts of Naples. Fortunately, it began to weaken before reaching Metsonum.
9 a.m
A fire and lightning storm followed, and after the last eruption, the summit of Mount Vesuvius was blown open.
The clouds began to disperse, but pompeii's landscape was vastly different from what it had been in the past, with thick layers of volcanic ash covering everything.
"My uncle was in Misenum and was given command of the fleet. At about 7 o'clock on August 24, my mother told him that a cloud of unusual size and shape had appeared in the sky. My uncle then ascended to a high place that was most convenient for viewing the wonder. The cloud rose from which mountain, and those watching from a distance could not tell—it rose from Mount Vesuvius, which was learned later. In terms of shape, it is most similar to the canopy of the tree. It seems to have been lifted into the sky by an incomparably tall trunk, and countless branches stretched out in all directions, I think that is because it is lifted up by the newly gathered air current, and has no dependence on it after the lack of air power, or even because it is subdued by its own weight, and thus dissipates in all directions. Sometimes it is white, sometimes it is dark and cloudy, as if it is wrapped in dirt and dust. ”
Pliny the Younger, who was 18 years old at the time, emphasized in his letter to Tacitus that "what I have described is what I have seen with my own eyes or that I have heard when people remember it afterwards", so the material he provided should be very reliable.
He said in the letter that his uncle Pliny the Elder, while preparing to leave, received a letter from his friend's wife, Lektina, asking him to give him rescue to get out of danger, so Pliny the Elder's original idea of observing the eruption nearby changed, "He ordered the fleet with four oars to anchor, and he personally boarded the ship, not only to help Rectina, but also to rescue more people, because it was a pleasant climate and densely populated seashore." ”
The letter mentions the very important fact that Pliny the Elder, while directing the fleet into peril, "dictates and records the changes and landscapes of this terrible catastrophe that he has seen with his own eyes." At that time, the fleet was in an increasingly dangerous situation, "the ship has begun to fall ashes, and the further it sails, the hotter and denser the ashes fall." The pumice stones also began to fall, mixed with black, hot, burned rocks." When the fleet docked, "the collapsed mountain burned so much that it could not reach the shore, and the helmsman suggested returning", but Pliny the Elder was very brave and insisted on sailing to Stabia, where his men were stationed, south of Mount Vesuvius.
"At the same time, Mount Vesuvius is full of fire, illuminating the sky, making it particularly bright in the dark night sky." In his letter, Pliny the Younger specifically mentioned that at the same time as the eruption of the volcano, there was a continuous strong earthquake, and his uncle Pliny the Elder slept in the bedroom at first, "However, the ash and pumice stones that fell in the courtyard of the bedroom have accumulated more and more, and if you continue to stay in the bedroom, you may be stuck in it and not be able to get out... After some deliberation, Pliny the Elder and his men decided to leave the house, which could collapse at any moment, "and everyone put pillows on their heads and tied them with towels to prevent being injured by the stone rain."
The crowd decided to leave the perilous situation and flee to safety. They went to the seashore, "but the sea was still rolling. On the beach, his uncle lay on a piece of the sail and kept asking someone to hand him cold water to drink. The light of the fire and the smell of sulfur, which heralded the impending fire, finally forced everyone to leave, and my uncle had to get up from the sails. He helped the two slaves to his feet, but then fell down again, and I think it was the thick volcanic gas that was holding his breathing and blocking his trachea. Pliny Jr. wrote.
In another letter, Pliny the Younger recounts in detail the catastrophe he and his mother experienced. It is worth noting that Pliny the Younger "encountered many strange things" that allow geologists to study changes in the movement of the Earth's crust: "We once commanded carts to accompany us, and although they were parked in very flat places, they rolled in different directions, and even if they were stuffed with wheels, they could not make them stop in place". "The sea is retreating backwards, as if pushed back by the jolt of the earth; the shore is clearly extending forward, and many marine animals are stranded on the beach."
The eruption of Mount Vesuvius was terrifying, and as the ashes from the eruption filled the sky, "darkness fell at once, far from the usual dark night when there was no moon or when it was cloudy, but like a closed room with lights out." Only women are heard crying, children screaming, men shouting, people by voice, some are looking for and identifying their own parents, some are looking for and identifying their own children, and some are looking for and identifying their wives. Some are lamenting their own misfortune, others are lamenting the misfortunes of their loved ones, and still others are praying for death for fear of death. Many people raise their hands to ask God for mercy, while many more believe that there is no god anywhere and that the last, eternal darkness of the world has come."
The Chinese translation of Pliny the Younger to Tashitus was translated by Wang Huansheng from the Latin text of the Collection of Pliny the Little Letters in the Loeb Classic Series, and included in the Selected Greco-Roman Prose compiled by Luo Niansheng. As the translator puts it, "They are the only direct written material in the surviving historical sources of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius." Because of this, this disaster report nearly two thousand years ago is of extremely great scientific value.