Pompeii in AD 79, from Pliny's letters to the plaster casts
TL;DR — In AD 79 Vesuvius buried Pompeii under about four meters of ash; Pliny dates it to August 24, and Pompeii’s park now argues that date stands.
The eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79 buried Pompeii, and the only eyewitness account dates it to August 24. Pompeii’s archaeological park describes “a column of about 4 metres of ash and lapilli, the volcanic material from the eruption that completely buried the city of Pompeii.” For years a later date, October 24, was widely repeated. In 2024 the park’s own journal, in a paper co-written by its director Gabriel Zuchtriegel, concluded that this date “has zero evidentiary basis,” in the words of the scholar Pedar Foss whom it quotes.
Quick facts
- When
- The eruption of AD 79, dated by Pliny the Younger to August 24; excavations from 1748
- Where
- Pompeii, about 10 kilometers from the vent of Vesuvius, on the Bay of Naples
- Who
- Pliny the Younger, who saw it from Misenum; his uncle Pliny the Elder; Giuseppe Fiorelli
- Outcome
- Pompeii was buried under about 4 meters of ash and lapilli; 49 of its 66 hectares have been excavated
A town under four meters of ash
Pompeii lay about 10 kilometers from the vent. A 2018 study in PLOS ONE gives the distances: “the towns of Herculaneum, Pompeii and Stabiae, situated respectively about 7, 10 and 16 kilometers from the vent, were definitively buried by subsequent pyroclastic currents,” whose deposits reached a maximum thickness of 20 meters.
The town under the ash was a working one. The park’s guide to the site counts “over 30 bakeries known so far in Pompeii,” with lava millstones and large ovens. The site covers 66 hectares, “49 of which have already been excavated.”
.jpg){kind=link}
What Pliny saw
The one eyewitness was Pliny the Younger, who described the eruption in two letters to the historian Tacitus. At the time he was in Misenum, across the bay, and “agebam enim duodevicensimum annum,” he writes: he was in his eighteenth year, seventeen years old. His letter gives the date and hour: “Nonum Kal. Septembres hora fere septima,” the ninth day before the Kalends of September, at about the seventh hour, his mother pointed out to his uncle “a cloud of unusual size and appearance.” No tree, he wrote, matched its shape better than a pine, rising on a long trunk and spreading into branches.
His uncle, Pliny the Elder, commanded the fleet at Misenum. He launched warships to bring help to people on the shore and sailed for Stabiae, where he died. How he died his nephew did not know for certain: “ut ego colligo,” “as I gather,” the thick fumes had blocked his breathing. Quotations from the Latin and Italian sources are our own translations.
August or October?
The date has been argued over for decades. The park’s 2024 paper sets out its case. “The oldest manuscripts of the letter of Pliny the Younger, the only one to give a precise date, unanimously give ‘nono’ or ‘nonum kal. Septembres,’ that is, August 24, AD 79,” it states, though some copies have a gap where the month should be. The October 24 date, it adds, is “not even 100 years old,” and the other dates proposed are “the result of fairly recent misunderstandings, suppositions and misinterpretations.” The historian Cassius Dio placed the eruption in autumn, but the paper notes that for the Romans autumn began around August 8.
The physical evidence for autumn has weakened. A silver coin once read as proof of a later date has had its inscription questioned. In 2018 a charcoal inscription reading “XVI K NOV,” October 17, was found in the House of the Garden, but it has no year, and its first editor, Massimo Osanna, himself called it “not a decisive argument,” since charcoal “could in theory have survived for a year.” To test this, the park wrote the same words in oak charcoal on the same wall on October 17, 2023. Ten months later, the paper reports, the new inscription was “perfectly legible.” The original, the paper concludes, could have been written in October of the year before.
The plaster casts
The casts of the dead are not bodies turned to stone. The park explains that “it was in 1863 that the archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli became the first person to succeed in recreating the original forms of the victims by pouring liquid plaster into these cavities,” the hollows left in the hardened ash. When the ash was removed, figures emerged “often with their bones still present within them.”
Digging out Pompeii
The town was rediscovered at the end of the 16th century, the park’s guide records, “but explorations only began in 1748, under the King of Naples, Charles III of Bourbon.” Its neighbor Herculaneum, buried deeper, has a library of carbonized papyrus scrolls that researchers are now reading without opening them.
Key facts
- Pompeii was buried under about 4 meters of ash and lapilli (Pompeii Archaeological Park).
- Herculaneum, Pompeii and Stabiae lay about 7, 10 and 16 kilometers from the vent (Petrone et al. 2018).
- Pliny the Younger, then 17, dated the eruption to the ninth day before the Kalends of September, August 24 (Pliny, Letters 6.16 and 6.20).
- The park’s 2024 study finds that the oldest manuscripts unanimously give August 24 and calls the October 24 date less than 100 years old (Zuchtriegel et al. 2024).
- A replica of the 2018 “XVI K NOV” charcoal inscription was still perfectly legible after ten months (Zuchtriegel et al. 2024).
- Giuseppe Fiorelli made the first plaster casts in 1863, often with bones inside (Pompeii Archaeological Park).
- Excavation began in 1748; 49 of the site’s 66 hectares have been excavated (park guide).
FAQ
When did Vesuvius erupt and bury Pompeii?
In AD 79. Pliny the Younger dates it to August 24, and the Pompeii Archaeological Park's 2024 study argues that this is the only date with documentary support.
Why do some sources say October 24, AD 79?
The date became popular after a charcoal inscription dated October 17, without a year, was found in 2018. The park's 2024 study calls October 24 "not even 100 years old" and shows that charcoal writing can stay legible for months.
How deep was Pompeii buried?
Under about 4 meters of ash and lapilli, according to the park. A 2018 study puts the maximum thickness of the eruption's deposits at 20 meters.
Who saw the eruption of Vesuvius?
Pliny the Younger, then 17, watched from Misenum and described it in two letters to Tacitus. His uncle, Pliny the Elder, died at Stabiae.
What are the Pompeii plaster casts?
Casts made by pouring plaster into the hollows that victims' bodies left in the ash, a method first used successfully by Giuseppe Fiorelli in 1863. Bones often remain inside them.
Sources
- Pliny the Younger, Letters 6.16 and 6.20 (Latin text), Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University
- Gabriel Zuchtriegel and others, "La data della distruzione di Pompei: premesse per un dibattito aperto," E-Journal degli Scavi di Pompei 27 (2024), Parco Archeologico di Pompei
- Parco Archeologico di Pompei, A Guide to the Pompeii Excavations
- Pompeii Archaeological Park, "The plaster casts of Pompeii: an itinerary through the eruption of AD 79"
- Pierpaolo Petrone and others, "A hypothesis of sudden body fluid vaporization in the 79 AD victims of Vesuvius," PLOS ONE (2018), PubMed Central
Cite this article
- APA
- Song Letter. (2026, October 11). Pompeii in AD 79, from Pliny's letters to the plaster casts. Our Earth's History. https://ourearthshistory.com/europe/classical/pompeii-a-day-buried-in-ash/
- Chicago
- Song Letter. “Pompeii in AD 79, from Pliny's letters to the plaster casts.” Our Earth's History, October 11, 2026. https://ourearthshistory.com/europe/classical/pompeii-a-day-buried-in-ash/.
- MLA
- Song Letter. “Pompeii in AD 79, from Pliny's letters to the plaster casts.” Our Earth's History, 11 Oct. 2026, https://ourearthshistory.com/europe/classical/pompeii-a-day-buried-in-ash/.
Get the week in history
One email a week: the new articles, and what was happening elsewhere at the same moment. Free, no ads, unsubscribe any time. How we handle your email.
Text licensed CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Found an error? Tell us.