Festivals complicating Pompeii

[guy]

Here's a brief video that discusses the tragic events of Pompeii. The video suggests that the people of Pompeii were busy with a multi-day festival dedicated to the deified Augustus, which attracted many visitors. (However, it's worth noting that the deification of Augustus was actually celebrated on August 19, so the timing mentioned in the video is slightly off.)

On the day before the eruption, there was a festival called Vulcanalia, dedicated to the god Vulcan, who was the god of fire and volcanoes. This festival may have led people to mistakenly believe that the rumbles from Mount Vesuvius were actually favorable signs from the god Vulcan. Interestingly, the festival occurred annually on August 23rd, which almost coincided with the presumed date of the eruption.

The eruption of Vesuvius is believed, not without controversy, to have occurred on August 24, 79 AD.

 

 

 

Here are previous threads on the controversy about pinpointing the date of Vesuvius’ eruption:

 

 

 

Edited August 13 by guy