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In 79 AD Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried the Roman town of Pompeii under metres of pumice and ash. The Short follows Felix, a fictional baker, through the town's last ordinary morning. This is the history behind it.
Pliny the Younger writes that tremors had been felt for many days. They caused little alarm, because earthquakes were common in Campania.1 Parts of the town were still being rebuilt after a large earthquake in 62 or 63 AD.6
TULLIA
Papa! The ground is shaking again!
24 October · morning
An ordinary working day
Pompeii's round loaves were scored into eight wedges before baking, and bakers pressed a stamp into the dough to mark whose bread it was.5
FELIX
Eighty-one loaves today. Best bread in Pompeii.
About 1 pm · the seventh hour
A column like an umbrella pine
Across the bay at Misenum, Pliny's mother pointed out a cloud of unusual size and shape. Pliny compared it to an umbrella pine: a tall trunk rising high, then spreading out at the top.1
POMPEII24 OCT 79 AD 13:00
Afternoon to night
Stones from the sky
Pumice and ash fell on Pompeii for 18 to 20 hours, building up to 2.8 metres deep.2
FELIX
Leave the bread. Take my hand. RUN.
25 October · early morning
The surges
Pyroclastic surges, fast clouds of hot gas and ash, reached the town. Those still in the town were killed.2
1748
Rediscovery
Excavation began about 1,670 years after the eruption.7
1862. Archaeologists open a bakery oven in Pompeii.
Inside: 81 loaves of bread.
Felix is fictional. The bread is real.
Every line, checked
Each line from the Short that makes a historical claim, beside what the record says.
On screen · opening
To everyone here, the mountain is just a mountain.
The record
Vesuvius looked dormant, and vineyards grew up its slopes. Romans knew about volcanoes in general, but people in Pompeii probably did not think of this mountain as one in any practical sense.89
Medium
On screen · life
FELIX
Eighty-one loaves today. Best bread in Pompeii.
The record
The number comes from the find: 81 carbonised loaves in the oven of the Bakery of Modestus.4 Some accounts count 80. Whether they were being baked that day or stored is debated. Felix's boast is our invention.
High
On screen · shrug-off
FELIX
It shakes every week. The gods owe us some quiet.
The record
Pliny writes that tremors had been felt for many days and caused little alarm, because they were common in Campania.1 "Every week" is our dramatisation.
High
On screen · the event
POMPEII24 OCT 79 AD 13:00
The record
Pliny dates the column to about the seventh hour, roughly 1 pm.1 The date itself is this entry's open question.
High
On screen · chaos
Stones rain from the sky all afternoon. All night.
The record
The pumice phase of the eruption lasted 18 to 20 hours and left up to 2.8 metres of pumice on Pompeii.2
High
On screen · aftermath
The town is buried. It sleeps for almost 1,700 years.
The record
Excavation began in 1748, 1,669 years after the eruption.7
High
Open question
Open question
Why does the Short say October, not August?
Traditional24 AUG 79 AD
From copies of Pliny's letter
Favoured24 OCT 79 AD
After the 2018 inscription
For centuries the eruption was dated to 24 August, from medieval copies of Pliny's letter. In 2018, archaeologists in Pompeii found a charcoal scribble on a wall dated to 17 October. Charcoal fades fast, so it was most likely written that same October, a week before the eruption.310
Most experts now lean towards 24 October, but it is still debated.
Contested
Think about it
People in Pompeii lived with frequent earthquakes. Why might a familiar warning sign be easier to ignore than an unfamiliar one?
Pliny wrote his letters about 25 years after the eruption, at the historian Tacitus's request. How should that change the way we read them?
The date rests on copied manuscripts and one charcoal note. What other kind of evidence could help settle it?
The Short invents Felix to tell a real story. What does a fictional character let a storyteller do, and what are the risks?
Glossary
Plinian eruption
A violent eruption that drives a tall column of gas and pumice high into the sky. Named after Pliny's description.
Pumice
Light, frothy volcanic rock full of gas bubbles.
Pyroclastic surge
A fast, ground-hugging cloud of hot gas and volcanic debris.
Carbonised
Turned to carbon by heat without burning away, so the object keeps its shape.
Panis quadratus
The Roman round loaf scored into eight wedges, the kind found in Pompeii's ovens.
Campania
The region of southern Italy around the Bay of Naples.
Felix
Tullia
POMPEII24 OCT 79 AD 13:00
FELIX
