The Last Day

79 AD.

On 24 August – or 24 October, as the latest findings suggest – Pompeii disappeared.

The second letter of Pliny the Younger describes the eruption of Vesuvius.

“… You might hear the shrieks of women, the screams of children, and the shouts of men; some calling for their children, others for their parents, others for their spouses, and seeking to recognize each other by the voices that replied; one lamenting his own fate, another that of his family; some wishing to die, from the very fear of dying; some lifting their hands to the gods; but the greater part convinced that there were now no gods at all, and that the final endless night had come upon the world. 

Among these there were some who augmented real terrors by others willfully invented. It now grew rather lighter, which we imagined to be the forerunner of an approaching burst of flames not the return of day.

However, the fire fell at a distance from us: then again we were immersed in thick darkness, and a heavy shower of ashes rained upon us, which we were obliged every now and then to stand up to shake off, otherwise we would have been crushed and buried in the heap...”