Mt. Vesuvius In Robert Harris's Pompeii

Over the summer, I read the book Pompeii written by Robert Harris. This book is about the cities around Mt. Vesuvius during the eruption. The book starts out in Pompeii during the eruption, but everyone assumes it’s just the weather heating up as summer ends. However, one man is curious to find out what is happening and after a few days of research, he finds out that the volcano and its ashes will destroy the Bay of Naples, Pompeii, and other cities surrounding Mt. Vesuvius. He and Pliny the Elder try to lead people to safety but the book ends with Pliny dying trying to send people away on war ships and no one finding the other man. However, I was curious about this and decided to write three things that could help me understand this historical
Vesuvius impacted on Pompeii? In real life, did people really expect Mt. Vesuvius to erupt? How were people planning to escape cities surrounding the volcano? How did the rest of Italy and other countries react to this? These are three questions that come to mind when one thinks about the impact Pompeii took when Mt. Vesuvius erupted. In the book, people escaped on war ships which Pliny the Elder organized but in real life, as Pliny the Younger wrote, many people were unprepared, including Pliny the Elder. In fact, Pliny the Elder was eating lunch and taking a bath when Mt. Vesuvius erupted. However, historians do not blame the people for being unprepared as they did not have the technology, so they would not know when exactly the volcano was going to erupt, hence they couldn’t have escaped in time. However, there were many earthquakes that occurred prior to Vesuvius erupting but many people thought it was just a coincidence and casual. Earthquakes are major signs that a volcano is heating up and about to explode. During the eruption, many people started to panic and started to flee; others tried to brave it out and stay sheltered. After Mt. Vesuvius erupted, Romans went to look to see if anything remained in Pompeii but found only bodies coated with layers of
However, what did he really do during the eruption? What did Pliny the Elder do up to the eruption? And did he try to save himself while saving the people or did he stay back until the very end? Information on Pliny the Elder as a child is very limited, except for the fact that he had a sister, named Plinia and he had a nephew named Pliny the Younger. He was a very famous scientist and moved to Rome around 30 AD. When he was 21, he become a military officer and moved out of Italy. He then discovered a liking for being part of the militia and was promoted to captain and was later victorious in his fight. Then, in 50 AD, he decided become an author and planned to write many books, which turned out to be successful. However, he only wrote 2 books and decided that he wanted to become a political leader. Ironically, all his political competition started to decline and Pliny the Elder easily got the job. In August of 79 AD, when Vesuvius became active, Pliny was recruited back into the military and was stationed on the west side of the Naples Bay. After seeing the volcano erupt with his own eyes, he sent the people of Naples away on warships to the far side of the bay. Pliny escaped also, but later died at a friend’s house due to the over-absorption of ash and sulfur. Pliny the Younger, his nephew, survived the eruption and published many of his uncle’s diary