The destruction of Pompeii (Essay Sample)

Name: Course: Instructor: Date: The destruction of Pompeii Danger lurks in the dark, goes one African proverb, capturing the reality of the obliteration of the city of Pompeii succinctly. The cruel ending of the city still lingers in the remains of the city. New bits of information and artefacts emerge every now and then from down under the ashes where the city lies, like messengers from a victim in exile, to remind humanity of the ghastly ending that befell the city and the people not prudent enough to heed the warnings nature gave. People visit the site where the city was located to pay tribute to nature and to picture the events of August 24, 79 A.D. as described by the witness accounts available, each in their own way. Before the tragedy, one would never have pictured that the city would be ended so abruptly. Pompeii had a been a hub of trade entertainment and a lush life in which ancient Greek natives had settled starting the year 8 B.C. People would come to the city on vacation in the city, drawn by the sunshine and the scenic sites provided by the Bar of Naples and Mount Vesuvius, which was only five miles away. The hedonistic life led in the city is evident in the elegance of the townhouses and the might of the villas located in the city, or the remains thereof. It all began and ended with the mountain, Mount Vesuvius. This mountain stood, and still stands tall over the city for a time that scholars estimate in hundreds of millennia. It is a volcanic mountain that is estimated to have been active for generations, erupting randomly but never without warning. The eruption that buried the city of Pompeii was no exception as accounts of major earthquake seventeen years to the eruption suggest. It was the source of much suffering in the Bay of Naples and Pompeii but the people recovered. A smaller earthquake, but significantly damaging all the same, followed six years later. Between then and the time of the eruptions there were many more earth tremors as witnesses such as Pliny the Younger record. Instead of instilling alarm among the people, the frequency of the tremors inspired complacency among them and they grew accustomed to them. Towards the major eruptions, there were minor releases of smoke and ashes from the mountain, whose details are scanty since there are not many people who were living at the city who survived to tell the tale. However, the first major eruption tha...