Pompeii - history.

Pompeii - history. I INTRODUCTION Victims of Mount Vesuvius Once a thriving city in ancient Italy, Pompeii literally disappeared with the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in ad 79. After a devastating earthquake in ad 63 decimated the city, Vesuvius emitted poisonous gases into the atmosphere and covered Pompeii with ash and mud. The ash mixed with rain and settled around the volcano's victims, creating molds that remained intact long after the bodies had decayed. Archaeologists poured liquid plaster into the forms, preserving the exact shapes of the bodies at the moment of death. Leonard Von Matt/Photo Researchers, Inc. - history. Pompeii, ancient city of Italy, in the Campania Region, built at the mouth of the Sarnus River (now Sarno), a few miles south of Mount Vesuvius, between Herculaneum and Stabiae. The city was founded about 600 in 80 BC BC by the Oscans, who were later conquered by t...