Around 2,000 years back, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius wiped out Pompeii and Herculaneum, entombing the 2 cities and victims within a scorching mix of molten rock, pumice, ash and gas. With the Roman cities frozen in time, archaeologists understand a substantial offer about the lives of those who died– however what about the survivors?

In this excerpt from “Escape from Pompeii: The Great Eruption of Mount Vesuvius and Its Survivors” (Oxford University Press, 2025), author Steven L. Tuckhistory teacher at Miami University in Ohio, takes a look at the historic and historical proof of individuals who got away the damage of Pompeii and Herculaneum, tracing them on their journey to begin a brand-new life outside the shadow of the volcano.

This book begins with an uncomplicated concern: did anybody make it through the A.D. 79 eruption of Vesuvius? That obviously results in a host of associated concerns: if anybody did endure, who were they, where did they transplant, under what conditions, and how did they reconstruct their lives in the post-eruption duration? What does this inform us about the Roman world and the performance of its federal government, social networks, and economy?

No eyewitness accounts of the eruption endure from Pompeii or Herculaneum. The closest we have are the 2 letters from Pliny the Younger to the historian Tacitus that tell his experiences and those of his uncle throughout the eruption. Considerably, Pliny does tape-record the psychological responses and activities in action to the eruption of those at Misenum: individuals because neighborhood, which had to do with 28 miles (45 kilometers) due west of the volcano by roadway, were plainly distressed however did not desert their households in the crisis.

This was habits they obviously shared with those at Pompeii and Herculaneum. “You could hear the shrieks of women, the wailing of infants, and the shouting of men; some were calling their parents, others their children or their wives, trying to recognize them by their voices.”

There exists a popular understanding that everybody in Pompeii and Herculaneum died in the eruption. This is easy to understand provided the discussion of the catastrophe in pop culture […] by contrast, a reader of scholastic work on Pompeii and Herculaneum may fairly think that the concern of survivors from the eruption of Vesuvius is currently settled […] Academic agreement has actually established that contrary to popular understanding, much– maybe even a bulk– of the populations of Herculaneum and Pompeii most likely endured the eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79.

‘Evidence from lack’
At both Pompeii and Herculaneum we can discover a lot of indirect proof of population survival, a minimum of throughout the early phases of the eruptive occasion. Much of this has actually not been acknowledged for what it is due to the fact that it is proof from lack. Particularly, a lot of the traditional home items are not where we would anticipate them to be and types of transport such as boats, horses, and wagons are missing out on or, as far as we can inform, lost.

It is barely unexpected that this proof has actually not been studied in depth before now, provided the numerous countless things, both undamaged and damaged, discovered definitely all over– inside and outdoors, and in all kinds of structures– at the 2 websites. On the whole, nevertheless, the lack of specific items appears to show a minimum of preliminary survival and prepares to get away from the cities.

The patterns of damage, human remains, and missing out on things and transportation animals at Herculaneum and Pompeii supply proof that numerous locals of the 2 cities got away. Other proof for this proposal comes [from] the eruption series itself and from the date of the eruption and the area of the local market beyond the 2 cities on that date. Taken singly, none of these pieces of proof show escape. Taken together, nevertheless, they develop a pattern that supports the conclusion that individuals made it out of the cities alive. […] The look for survivors likewise includes finding a pattern of proof for these survivors’ resettlement.

This research study for this book started with the hypothesis that some escapees might be recognized, however these would be just a couple of incredibly abundant males who saw the eruption, turned their home secrets over to an enslaved caretaker, and left town instantly in the instructions far from the eruption. This does not appear to have actually held true. It ends up that those who left were actually a sample of the population in their cities of origin.

Where did the survivors go?
We can state with certainty that a range of individuals from both Pompeii and Herculaneum got away the eruption of Vesuvius, although more gotten away from the bigger city of Pompeii. These individuals consisted of abundant and bad, guys, ladies, and kids. We can state that a minimum of 172 called people, most likely representing about 3,000 home members, can be traced.

How they handled to get away is more difficult to figure out, however some appear to have actually resided on the edges of the afflicted cities, where escape was simpler. Others might have been far from the cities on the day of the eruption, potentially at the marketplace at Puteoli. The bulk did not go far: they transplanted in seaside Campaniamainly along the coast from Naples northward to Puteoli, Misenum, and Cumae. Smaller sized numbers are discovered even more afield at Capua, Nola, Nuceria, and Aquinum, and a bigger group transplanted at Ostia.

The proof recommends that they got away and transplanted as households in neighborhoods that they most likely picked themselves based upon social or financial networks. They were not transplanted by the federal government, however the federal government did, nevertheless, react to the eruption with relief efforts planned to assist these neighborhoods. Roman federal government did matter, however in regards to reaction and relief, not rescue, in spite of the preliminary action of Pliny the Elder and the Roman fleet at Misenum.

People can possibly be traced even more to– in contemporary terms– main Italy, Spain, and Romania. Modern research studies of refugees and their motions, results on their brand-new neighborhoods, and the scenarios of their brand-new lives can assist to notify our understanding of the lives of these individuals, who made it through a dreadful natural catastrophe and, in many cases, reconstruct their lives, incorporated into their neighborhoods, however did not completely desert their individualities and culture as they continued.

Excerpt from E scape from Pompeii: The Great Eruption of Mount Vesuvius and Its Survivors by Steven L. Tuck. Copyright © 2025 by Steven L. Tuck, and released by Oxford University Press on October 20, 2025. All rights booked.