Mt. Vesuvius is a volcano located on the Bay of Naples in southwestern Italy. The ancient Romans considered the volcano extinct because it had not erupted since well before recorded history. Consequently, towns and villages grew up around the mountain, and its slopes were crowded with farms, vineyards, and the villas of wealthy Romans. Slaves led by Spartacus hid on the mountain during a slave revolt in the 70s B.C.
Vesuvius was not extinct; it was merely dormant, or inactive. On February 5, A.D. 63, the mountain began to awaken as an earthquake shook the surrounding area. The earthquake caused much damage, traces of which are still visible in the ruins of Pompeii. However, the quake aroused little fear among the people living near Vesuvius. Then, on August 24, A.D. 79, Vesuvius erupted violently. The eruption buried the nearby resort of Pompeii under a layer of volcanic stones and ash. It covered the town of Herculaneum with flowing liquefied ash and mud, and it buried the town of Stabiae under ashes. The Roman scholar Pliny the Elder was killed while making scientific observations of the eruption. His nephew, the writer Pliny the Younger, witnessed the cataclysm and described the event in a famous letter that he wrote to the historian Tacitus.
Pompeii and Herculaneum were lost to history until the middle A.D. 1700s, when local residents discovered buried remains. In the 1860s, archaeologists* began to uncover the towns, which had been preserved amazingly well by the thick layers of ash and mud that covered them.
* archaeologist scientist who studies past human cultures, usually by excavating ruins
Despite periodic eruptions, people gradually resettled in the area around Vesuvius, attracted by the fertile volcanic soil and scenic beauty. Today hundreds of thousands of people live in the shadow of the volcano. (See also Archaeology of Ancient Sites; Geography and Geology, Mediterranean.)