Excavations at Pompeii – the city “frozen in time”

Why is Pompeii foundational to New Testament studies? Scholars of the Roman Period in General and of the New Testament in particular treasure the ruins of Pompeii. The site was “frozen in time” from the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE. It is much more than a destroyed ancient site, for it “froze” in time a living picture of what daily living in the Roman Period was like for a variety of classes of Roman citizen. Seven important illustrations are notable from investigating the site:

1. Class Distinction was of paramount importance: Your place in society was everywhere marked – from clothing, seats in public, markings on Patron residences, etc.
2. Daily work was varied: Written sources were mostly from the vantage point of the elites – Senators, Equestrians. The city helps us understand many more levels of the work performed by the regular Roman on the street. The life of a slave was wholly dissimilar to a Patron. Ten percent of the buildings had plumbing, particularly if it assisted with the building’s craft.
3. Relationships of Patronage system were vital: The role of the patron and the client was well established for respectable society.
4. Buildings were both decorative and functional: In Pompeii we can see more than just the outlines of rooms, we can see the whole room and often the upper floor plans, before lost in time. The wall art shows dress styles and room functions.
5. Writings and epigraphic finds are particularly vivid: graffiti shows slanders and slurs as well as other normal written materials – this is somewhat unique. Advertising billboards (dipinti of gladiatorial contests and election posters for aedile, or local official for infrastructure help breathe life into the bones of the city. There were some 50,000 pieces of writing found on the walls to date – including legal notices and all manner of communication. This is a city that has allowed the dead to reach down through the ages and speak to modern man in a profound way. In some places like the “Fullonica of Stephanus (like a wool treatment and cleaners), the wall art revealed the functions of the rooms.
6. The relationship between cultic practice and commercial activities is especially clear: The temples were a vital part of commercial activity.
7. Sexual proclivities of various Romans are “exposed”: art within the brothel (or “lupanare”) depict Greek classical bodies (the ideal) set in lavish rooms, but the remains of the rooms show a different story – the romanticism of sexuality was alive and well.

Why did people move to Pompeii in the first place? The plate tectonics of the African plate and the Eurasian plate converged and caused a complex geological event, and an upheaval to the region surrounding Pompeii, with volcanic fissures and activity abounding. The Bay of Naples and its surrounding islands – Capri, Ischia and Procida – are all rims of ancient volcanoes. Mt. Vesuvius is now 3000 feet high, but was 6,000 feet before the eruption in 79. The violent upheavals were all in one small region, for Cumae, a short distance away, was largely unaffected along its beaches. As a result, the earliest inhabitants were treated to hot water springs, sulphur that could be mined. Fertile valleys of basalt soils made growing season elongate. The more subtle weather of the region also made it more tolerable. The earliest organized inhabitants of the region were the Greek colonies – first at Ischia, then later at Procida.

Who occupied Pompeii and when? The site was founded around 650 BCE and grew from the original city in the SW quadrant of the current excavation – an Etruscan beginning. The Temple of Apollo and the Triangular Forum were established before 500 BCE. By 75 years later, the Samnite tribes moved in from the Apennines into Campania and eventually grew into Pompeii’s occupiers. They were the founders of the open forum, and the establishment of the basilica style buildings nearby. As the Greeks steadily colonized the region near the coasts (beginning at Ischia and then at Cumae by 476 BCE, the year the Olympics were established) the city appears to have gained a mixed audience including Greeks and Etruscans. The Samnites expanded the city eastward, and the additional buildings demonstrate a covered plastering style that mimicked ashlar construction. They built the large theatre is about the C4th BCE. The C2nd BCE appears to have been a mixed city with many people groups. Eventually the city was made a colony by two Roman duoviri (chief magistrates) in 80 BCE, just after the “Social War” (92-88 BCE), during which the dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla besieged Pompeii (89 BCE). The two duoviri built the Odeon and left their names inscribed to mark it – Gaius Quinctius Valgus and Marcus Porcius. The Romans held the site until the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 that was responsible for the death of the Admiral of the Roman fleet (Pliny the Elder) as recorded by his seventeen year old nephew (Pliny the Younger) as well as Tacitus and other sources. One scholar estimated about 1,000 bodies of 20,000 in town were found – so about 95% made it out alive. The place lay buried until about 250 years ago, when excavations began around 1594.