Timeline August 79

Events in August 79 2

• 79 Eruption of Vesuvius — Pompeii destroyed On 24 August 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius erupts, burying the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae under metres of ash and pumice. Pompeii's 20,000 inhabitants have perhaps 18 hours to flee; those who remain are killed by the pyroclastic surge. The cities are preserved almost perfectly under the ash — a time capsule of Roman life. Pliny the Elder, commanding the fleet at Misenum, dies attempting to rescue survivors. His nephew Pliny the Younger watches from shore and writes the first eyewitness account of a volcanic eruption in history.
• 79 Mount Vesuvius Eruption Destruction of Pompeii The catastrophic eruption that buried the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in ash.