Roman navy's daring bid to save the people of Pompeii

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...if you happen to be in Canberra, worthwile to visit it seems...

The Roman navy's attempt to rescue people from one of history's most famous natural disasters is detailed in the exhibition Escape from Pompeii – the untold Roman rescue, at the Australian National Maritime Museum. The story of the rescue mission is often overshadowed by the scale of the disaster, which buried Pompeii and the neighbouring city of Herculaneum under metres of volcanic ash. Exhibition curator Will Mather says the decision by naval commander Pliny the Elder (uncle to Pliny the Younger) to turn warships into rescue boats reveals a different face of the notoriously powerful Roman Empire. "His first impulse is to use a military force to rescue civilians, which shows that more human side," he says.

via Canberra Times