Vesuvius+-+The+Volcano

=__3. Pompeii and Herculaneum: Vesuvius - The Volcano__=
 * ==**Description of Vesuvius**== || **Evidence to prove (3 items)** ||
 * In AD 79, Mt Vesuvius erupted and buried the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Prior to the eruption, Mt. Vesuvius was seen as a sign of fertility, an ideology demonstrated in a fresco found in the House of the Centurion Bacchus and Vesuvius.

**Warning Signs and Precursors to the eruption**

 * There were earthquakes, including a substantial one in A.D. 62 that Pompeii was still recovering from in 79.
 * There was another earthquake in 64, while Nero was performing in Naples.
 * Earthquakes were seen as facts of life. Pliny the Younger wrote that they "we re not particularly alarming because they are frequent in Campania"
 * However, in 79, springs and wells dried up, and in August, the earth cracked, the sea became turbulent, and the animals showed signs that something was coming.

Description of Eruption
Roman fresco showing Bacchus, the Roman God of Wine and Drunkeness, and Mt. Vesuvius. ||
 * The only first-hand account that has survived, is that of Pliny the Younger. He wrote two letter's detailing the work of his uncle, Pliny the Elder, to the Roman historian Tacitus.
 * When the eruption of the 24th of August began, it looked like a pine tree in the sky, according to Pliny, spewing noxious fumes, ash, smoke, mud, stones, and flames.
 * There is also evidence that a tsunami occurred in the Bay of Naples, an assumption prompted by the writings of Pliny the Younger "the sea seemed to roll back upon itself, and to be driven from its banks ..." || [[image:Vesuvius,_Bacchus,_Frescoe.jpg]]