The Destruction of Pompeii

© 2006 Mr. Craft’s Class and CrossRoads Middle School

Life in Pompeii

• Harbor town• Center for import and export for

six hundred years

• Influence of traders

Life in Pompeii

• Pompeii streets lined with

– Bars

– Taverns

– shops

Life in Pompeii

• The good and the bad– Lots of money for local economy– Lots of people who want the money– chambermaids

Life in Pompeii

• Paintings of gods and goddesses– Venus is patron goddess of Pompeii

• Shops and workshops operated by slaves and owned by free men.

Life in Pompeii

• Main commercial center was the…?– Forum

• Center of…– Government– Business– law

Life in Pompeii

• Bars– No seating– Sold hot drinks– Folks wrote on the walls while they

drank– Guest rooms above

Let’s take a bath

• Three public bath houses– Forum baths– Stabian baths– Central baths

• Bath houses served as places to bathe, swim, or exercise

Let’s take a bath

• Bath houses– Choose your temperature!– Impressive system to heat the

water•hypocaust•Series of boilers•Operated by servants

Let’s take in a show

• Two theatres– Large theatre – no roof

•~5000 people

– Small theatre – enclosed roof•~1200 people

Let’s take in a show

• Amphitheatre– ~20,000 people– Gladiator contests– Riot in 59 A.D.

Mountain of Fire

• Vesuvius sits ~ 6 miles from the center of Pompeii

• Destroyed all of Pompeii– Herculaneum– Stabiae

• Ash traveled 1000 km

Mountain of Fire

• Pliny the younger– “enveloped in night, only the shrill

cries of women, the wailing of children, the shouting of men could be heard”.

Mountain of Fire

• Pompeii covered in ash up to 21 feet deep (7 meters)

• Many people died because of the poisonous sulfur gasses

• Excavations continue still today!• That’s it!