Answer: Misenum
Misenum is across the Bay of Naples from Pompeii.
Pliny the Younger was staying with his uncle, Pliny the Elder, who was a Roman administrator in charge of the Navy in the Bay of Naples. He watched as events unfolded, and later wrote detailed letters about all he saw. He also interviewed people who escaped, and his letters are our source for all we know. The letters were rediscovered in the 16th century.
Pliny the Elder realised the danger to the people of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae, and ordered the launch of the naval vessels to go to their rescue. We do not know how many people were saved because of his actions, but Pliny the Elder died, it is believed from inhaling the fumes from the eruption.
From Quiz: Pompeii and Circumstance
Answer: the founding date is unknown
It's believed that Pompeii was founded in either the sixth or seventh century BC, though the exact date is unknown.
From Quiz: Pompeii: The Last Day
Answer: Naples
Vesuvius is on the Bay of Naples, but all the options are coastal areas of Italy. The cities of Genoa and Livorno are large seaports, and Salerno is a smaller city on the Gulf of Salerno, the largest town of the well-known Amalfi coast area with its stunning scenic views.
From Quiz: Vesuvius, Pompeii and Beyond
Answer: The Civic Forum
This is where Pompeians met for business, religious, and political events. They also spent much of their casual time here. The temple of Jupiter was at the end of the square.
From Quiz: Civilization in Pompeii
Answer: Naples, Italy
Naples is a large city complete with a bay named after it and has several major museums, including one with artifacts from Pompeii and other ancient Roman cities. However, it's often said that the city itself is a vast open air museum .
From Quiz: Pompeii: A Covered City
Answer: Italy
It is about 14 miles south of Naples.
From Quiz: Pompeii: A Buried Town
Answer: Herculaneum
Pompeii was overwhelmed by ash and lava, which buried it 20 feet deep.
Herculaneum was destroyed by the pyroclastic flow, which buried it much deeper than Pompeii. The flow preserved organic items such as wood and food as well as skeletons. Other smaller towns such as Stabiae were also destroyed.
From Quiz: Pompeii and Circumstance
Answer: celebrating a festival
The day before Vesuvius erupted, Pompeiians and those living in surrounding communities were celebrating a festival in honour of the Roman god of fire.
From Quiz: Pompeii: The Last Day
Answer: LXXIX
L = 50, X = 10, IX = 9. Therefore, 50 + 10 +10 +9 = 79. LXXX is 80, XCIX is 99 and CXXI is 121.
From Quiz: Vesuvius, Pompeii and Beyond
Answer: Minerva
This was Jupiter's temple, but Minerva and Juno were both also worshiped here. Apollo, Isis, Vespasian, and Lares all had their own temples within Pompeii.
From Quiz: Civilization in Pompeii
Answer: Roman
Pompeii was initially a Roman-Italic town, but gradually came under Roman rule.
From Quiz: Pompeii: A Covered City
Answer: Vesuvius
The inhabitants had been warned by small earthquakes for quite some time before the eruption.
From Quiz: Pompeii: A Buried Town
Answer: Vesuvius
Archaeological evidence shows that Vesuvius had not erupted for hundreds years, and nobody understood what was happening. Apparently they didn't even have a name for 'volcano' until then, when they named it for Vulcan the God of Fire. There was an earthquake in 62AD, which caused a great deal of damage, and was probably a sign that the volcano was waking up. Vesuvius is regarded as very dangerous; it has erupted many times since 79AD, the last time being in 1944. It will do so again, but who knows when. It is the only active volcano on mainland Europe.
There are still many active volcanoes in Italy. Mount Etna looms over Taormina in Sicily and there is often ash in the air as the volcano grumbles away. Another active volcano is Stromboli which is on one of the Aeolian Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Solfatara is near Pozzuoli, and emits steam and sulphurous fumes. It hasn't erupted since 1198.
Knowing how dangerous and destructive an active volcano can be, you might wonder why anybody would choose to live near one, but the fact is that the volcanic soil is very fertile and excellent for farming, so people continue to live in hope and take their chances.
From Quiz: Pompeii and Circumstance
Answer: Titus
Titus had only recently succeeded his father Vespasian (both named Titus Flavius Vespasianus) as emperor when Vesuvius erupted. He visited Pompeii and arranged for a relief effort to be organised to give assistance to the volcano's victims, himself donating generous funds of money from the treasury. Titus only reigned as emperor for a little over two years; the building of the Flavian Amphitheatre (Colosseum), which had been started by his father, was completed during his reign.
From Quiz: Vesuvius, Pompeii and Beyond
Answer: Mt. Vesuvius
This volcano actually has two craters: one original crater and one crater created when the top of the mountain caved in during a previous eruption.
From Quiz: Pompeii: A Covered City
Answer: Naples
All the three wrong answers are places in the Bay of Naples area, but Naples itself is the capital of the Campania region, and the third largest Italian city after Rome and Milan. It's about 6 miles from Vesuvius. Modern Naples is built on ancient foundations, which is probably true of almost anywhere in Italy, and can be traced back to the 6th century BC. The Metropolitan City of Naples has a population exceeding 3 million, and we have to hope that it never becomes necessary to evacuate them if Vesuvius erupts again on the same scale as in 79AD.
From Quiz: Pompeii and Circumstance
Answer: five miles
Pompeii lies approximately five miles (eight kilometres) from Vesuvius. Other towns located in the same area include Herculaneum and Stabiae, which were also destroyed by the eruption.
From Quiz: Pompeii: The Last Day
Answer: fresco
Mythical creatures, gods, goddesses, heroes, and historical recreations were all popular subject matter.
From Quiz: Civilization in Pompeii
Answer: 79 AD
This eruption was observed from several miles away by a young boy named Pliny the Younger.
From Quiz: Pompeii: A Covered City
Answer: Pornography
Pornographic wall paintings and objects of a sexual nature are found all over Pompeii, and indeed the Roman world. The Romans accepted them as normal, but to the people of the 16th century they were shocking and unacceptable. In 1748 men digging foundations for a palace rediscovered them, and this time they kept excavating. Some of the things they found were deemed too embarrassing to be exhibited, so they were kept under lock and key.
Sadly, many of the amazing wall paintings have suffered damage over the years since they were uncovered. Failure to protect them from weather and sunlight has caused irreparable damage, but modern archaeologists use better techniques to preserve what they find. Many artefacts from the excavations are kept in the museum in Naples, which is well worth visiting .
From Quiz: Pompeii and Circumstance
Answer: It was named after a small statue.
The most common roof design in Pompeii was the atrium style. In the atrium roof there is an opening called a compluvium for rain water to fall through. Below this there is an impluvium. An impluvium is a basin in the ground for the collection of rain water. In this home there was a small Greek statue of a faun in the impluvium. It was not uncommon for these areas to be decorated or surrounded by small gardens.
From Quiz: Civilization in Pompeii
Answer: Latin
Note that many educated Romans spoke Greek as well as Latin.
From Quiz: Pompeii: A Buried Town
Answer: Flush toilets
The Romans had running water from aqueducts, but flush toilets had to wait until the 16th century to be invented. They did, however, have all the other amenities listed above and many more, and there are well preserved remains of all these buildings, as well as huge numbers of artefacts relating to them. There are walls still standing, and you can walk around at will, imagining yourself to be 2000 years in the past.
From Quiz: Pompeii and Circumstance
Answer: 1599
It was during the building of a channel designed to divert the river Sarno that the first remains of Pompeii were found in 1599. These were mostly walls covered in paintings and ancient writing, one of which clearly displayed the name 'Pompeii'. However, these finds were reburied (!) for reasons that are unclear.
Systematic excavation of the site began in late 1740s, revealing that many of the buildings were still intact. In 1819 at the Naples National Archaeological Museum, the was an exhibition displaying some of the artefacts found in Pompeii. Among the visitors was the King of Naples and his family. The King was so embarrassed by the openly erotic nature of many of the paintings that he decided to have them locked away in a secret location, where they would only be accessible to "mature-aged people".
In 1863, Giuseppe Fiorelli took over the running of the excavations. Occasionally, archaeologists would find hollows in the ash and, by filling these hollows with plaster, they produced almost perfect casts of the bodies of some of the victims.
From Quiz: Pompeii: The Last Day
Answer: It allowed pedestrians to keep their feet dry.
The roads of Pompeii sometimes did flood despite their drainage. There were raised pavers in the road spaced so that pedestrians could use them to cross the roads, but chariot wheels would still fit to each side of them.
From Quiz: Civilization in Pompeii
Answer: Plaster casts
People digging in the ruins realised that there were, in the volcanic ash, the impressions of where people and animals were buried. In 1863 Giuseppe Fiorelli realised that he could preserve these forms by filling them with plaster, and in the museum you can see heartbreaking representations of people with their children, families and chained up animals, who did not manage to get away from the town. The casts contain the skeletons of the victims, the flesh being long since gone. Sheltering inside buildings that could not save them, they must have been terrified. It is thought that they died from the effects of the extreme heat, reaching up to 250c, rather than from being buried.
From Quiz: Pompeii and Circumstance
Answer: human remains
The cellar contained the remains of no less than fifty-four people, both young and old, among them a pregnant woman and two children believed to have been twins. Some were found with their belongings which included jewellery and money while others were found with nothing. It seems the victims probably thought the cellar would be a safe place to hide from the eruption.
While some remains were removed for study, many were left where they died.
From Quiz: Pompeii: The Last Day
Answer: Nero
Poppaea Sabina was Nero's second wife and he was her third (and last) husband. Otho had been her second husband, whom she had divorced in AD 58; he became emperor himself briefly, during the Year of the Four Emperors, after the death of Nero in AD 68. Poppaea Sabina died in AD 65, possibly as a result of Nero kicking her in her abdomen while she was pregnant, but this remains uncertain. The Villa Poppaea is large and one of the best-preserved of the area.
From Quiz: Vesuvius, Pompeii and Beyond
Answer: banking, judgments, and business
The building was destroyed by an earthquake in 62 AD and never rebuilt. If people in the surrounding areas had realized Mount Vesuvius was active, these earthquakes would have been an early warning.
From Quiz: Civilization in Pompeii
Answer: Earthquake
The movement of magma up and into the magma chamber in the volcano and out the top causes the earth to tremble and shake. This is not the only reason for an earthquake, but it may be a warning sign of a volcanic eruption.
From Quiz: Pompeii: A Covered City
Answer: Edward Bulwer Lytton
This is a novel about the people who were living in Pompeii shortly before the volcano destroyed it. It was a tremendous success at time, though probably it's less interesting to modern taste, being a typical Victorian melodrama and, I think, rather hard going. The book has been made into a film a couple of times, and made into a TV mini series in 1984.
From Quiz: Pompeii and Circumstance
Answer: Naples
The Naples National Archaeological Museum at Piazza Museo is home to many stunning artefacts from the area, including a large collection of mosaics which were found during the excavation process. It also houses many other collections including one of the largest collections of marbles in Italy, gladiatorial exhibits and Egyptian antiquities. Among the Pompeiian exhibits are the original statue of the famous Dancing Faun from the House of the Faun and the original Alexander Mosaic (the ones displayed in Pompeii are excellent copies, commissioned when the originals were relocated to the Museum).
From Quiz: Vesuvius, Pompeii and Beyond
Answer: Pyroclastic flows
The prefix pyro- means 'fire' or 'heat'. These heat generated by these flows can incinerate the body and can kill almost instantly.
From Quiz: Pompeii: A Covered City
Answer: 2,000
Of course, nobody can be certain how many died. The city was a resort with a shifting population, which could have been anything up to 20,000; the accepted estimate for deaths seems to be about 2,000, based on the remains that have been found.
From Quiz: Pompeii and Circumstance
Answer: carbonized bread
There were thirty bakeries in Pompeii, so we know that bread was an important part of the Pompeiian diet. At one bakery, in particular, archaeologists discovered no fewer than eighty carbonized loaves of bread in the ovens, all cooked and ready to be sold. The loaves are round and cut into roughly eight large pieces.
From Quiz: Pompeii: The Last Day
Answer: The use of the building is unclear
As a sign of gratitude, a large statue was erected in her honor.
From Quiz: Civilization in Pompeii
Answer: 1
There are also two theatres (semi-circular), one larger than the other. All are accessible today to visitors who can sit on the stone benches/seats and stand in the stage area.
From Quiz: Pompeii: A Covered City
Answer: Large scale excavations stopped in the 1960s
The site covers about 160 acres, and the cost and difficulties of maintaining what is already on view is enormous. About a third of the site is still unexcavated, and looks likely to stay that way for some time. Conserving what has been exposed has always been a problem, with many of the wall paintings discovered in the early years now lost to us, apart from the records made at the time. Italy has such an enormous wealth of ancient remains that there is never going to be enough money to take care of all of them, despite grants from the EU and many charitable bodies. There is no point in exposing yet more of the city when existing buildings have been collapsing and succumbing to other damage.
From Quiz: Pompeii and Circumstance
Answer: a dog
This is probably one of the saddest discoveries to be made in Pompeii. The dog, wearing a bronze collar, was found chained to a post outside one of the houses, obviously abandoned by its owner. Unable to escape, it suffocated under roughly twenty-five metres of ash.
From Quiz: Pompeii: The Last Day
