DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61617#0053
THE CITY OVERWHELMED
23
permanent shape. If the ashes had been dry and had packed
down and hardened afterwards, we should be able to trace at
least the beginnings of decay.
Neither the pumice stone nor the ashes, then, could have set
wood on fire. The woodwork must have become charred grad-
ually from the effect of moisture, as in the case of coal, and the
change in the color of the yellow ochre must be due to some
other cause than the presence of heat. This is all the more
evident from the fact that vestiges of local conflagrations, con-
fined within narrow limits, can here and there be traced, kindled
by the masses of glowing slag which fell at the same time with
the pumice stone, or by the fires left burning in the houses.
From the number of skeletons discovered in the past few
decades, since an accurate record has been kept, it has been
estimated that in Pompeii itself, about two thousand persons
perished. As the city contained a population of twenty thou-
sand or more, it is evident that the majority of the inhabitants
fled; since the eruption commenced in the morning, while the
hail of pumice stone did not begin till afternoon, those who
appreciated the greatness of the danger had time to escape. It
is, however, impossible to say how many fled when it was
already too late, and lost their lives outside the city. Mention
has already been made of some who perished at the harbor ;
others who went out earlier to the Sarno may have made good
their escape. Of those who remained in the city part were
buried in the houses — so with twenty persons whose skeletons
were found in the cellar of the villa of Diomedes; others, as
the hail of pumice stone ceased, ventured out into the streets,
where they soon succumbed to the shower of ashes that imme-
diately followed. As the bodies wasted away little except the
bones was left in the hollows formed by the ashes that hardened
around them, and the casts already referred to, which have been
made from time to time since 1863, give in some cases a re-
markably clear and sharp representation of the victims.
The Emperor Titus sent a commission of senators into Cam-
pania to report in what way help could best be rendered. A
plan was formed to rebuild the cities that had been destroyed,
and the property of those who died without heirs was set aside
23
permanent shape. If the ashes had been dry and had packed
down and hardened afterwards, we should be able to trace at
least the beginnings of decay.
Neither the pumice stone nor the ashes, then, could have set
wood on fire. The woodwork must have become charred grad-
ually from the effect of moisture, as in the case of coal, and the
change in the color of the yellow ochre must be due to some
other cause than the presence of heat. This is all the more
evident from the fact that vestiges of local conflagrations, con-
fined within narrow limits, can here and there be traced, kindled
by the masses of glowing slag which fell at the same time with
the pumice stone, or by the fires left burning in the houses.
From the number of skeletons discovered in the past few
decades, since an accurate record has been kept, it has been
estimated that in Pompeii itself, about two thousand persons
perished. As the city contained a population of twenty thou-
sand or more, it is evident that the majority of the inhabitants
fled; since the eruption commenced in the morning, while the
hail of pumice stone did not begin till afternoon, those who
appreciated the greatness of the danger had time to escape. It
is, however, impossible to say how many fled when it was
already too late, and lost their lives outside the city. Mention
has already been made of some who perished at the harbor ;
others who went out earlier to the Sarno may have made good
their escape. Of those who remained in the city part were
buried in the houses — so with twenty persons whose skeletons
were found in the cellar of the villa of Diomedes; others, as
the hail of pumice stone ceased, ventured out into the streets,
where they soon succumbed to the shower of ashes that imme-
diately followed. As the bodies wasted away little except the
bones was left in the hollows formed by the ashes that hardened
around them, and the casts already referred to, which have been
made from time to time since 1863, give in some cases a re-
markably clear and sharp representation of the victims.
The Emperor Titus sent a commission of senators into Cam-
pania to report in what way help could best be rendered. A
plan was formed to rebuild the cities that had been destroyed,
and the property of those who died without heirs was set aside