{"id":30599,"date":"2025-03-22T07:00:51","date_gmt":"2025-03-22T11:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblicalarchaeology.org\/?p=30599"},"modified":"2025-03-21T17:24:27","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T21:24:27","slug":"the-destruction-of-pompeii-gods-revenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblicalarchaeology.org\/daily\/ancient-cultures\/ancient-near-eastern-world\/the-destruction-of-pompeii-gods-revenge\/","title":{"rendered":"The Destruction of Pompeii\u2014God\u2019s Revenge?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"1813<\/a>

\u201cOne last unending night for the world.\u201d Overcome by the fumes and falling ash, the famed Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder and his companion collapse in view of the 79 C.E. eruption of Mt. Vesuvius while buildings crumble nearby, as depicted in this 1813 painting Vesuvius Erupting<\/em> by Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes. First-century accounts of the eruption by his nephew Pliny the Younger and Dio Cassius describe the terror and confusion as the affluent cities of the Bay of Naples, including Pompeii and Herculaneum, were destroyed by the violent volcano. Was this disaster, which occurred almost exactly nine years after Roman troops destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem, seen as God\u2019s revenge on the conquerors of the holy city? Photo: AKG-Images<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Nine years, almost to the day, after Roman legionaries<\/a> destroyed God\u2019s house in Jerusalem, God destroyed the luxurious watering holes of the Roman elite.<\/p>\n

Was this God\u2019s revenge?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not exactly the question I want to raise, however. Rather, did anyone at the time see it that way? Did anyone connect the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 C.E. with the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70?<\/p>\n

First the dates: The Romans destroyed the Second Temple (Herod\u2019s Temple)<\/a> on the same date that the Babylonians<\/a> had destroyed the First Temple (Solomon\u2019s Temple)<\/a> in 586 B.C.E. But the exact date of the Babylonian destruction is uncertain. Two different dates are given in the Hebrew Bible for the destruction of the First Temple. In 2 Kings 25:8 the date is the 7th of the Hebrew month of Av; Jeremiah 52:12 says it occurred on the 10th of Av. The rabbis compromised and chose the 9th of Av (Tisha b\u2019Av). That is the date on which observant Jews, sitting on the floor of their synagogues, still mourn the destruction of the First Temple, Solomon\u2019s Temple, in 586 B.C.E. and the Second Temple, Herod\u2019s Temple, in 70 C.E.<\/p>\n

The exact corresponding date in the Gregorian calendar is also a bit uncertain. According to the translator of the authoritative translation of Josephus<\/a>, the ancient historian who gives us our most detailed (if sometimes unreliable; see sidebar) account of the Roman destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E., it occurred on August 29 or 30.1<\/sup><\/a> Others place it earlier in the month.<\/p>\n

\n

The earliest existing picture of a scene from the Bible–portraying the judgment of King Solomon–comes from Pompeii. The oldest Biblical painting includes some surprising onlookers. Read the full article “Solomon, Socrates and Aristotle<\/a><\/strong>” by Theodore Feder online for free.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabia and other nearby sites occurred, according to most commentators, on August 24 or 25 in 79 C.E. According to Seneca, the quakes lasted for several days.<\/p>\n

But the dates are close enough to raise the question: Were these two catastrophic events connected, at least in the mind of some observers?<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>

Buried by burning hot ash, Pompeii was completely destroyed in a matter of hours by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius (seen in the background of this photo of Pompeii\u2019s ruins). The manner of its demise also protected it, however. The city remained amazingly preserved for almost two millennia. When it began to be excavated in the late 19th century, the archaeologists revealed a first-century Roman city frozen in time\u2014from the vivid frescoes on the walls of spacious villas to the loaves of bread left baking in the oven. Photo: \u00a9 istockphoto.com\/dhuss.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

The volcanic eruption of Vesuvius has been graphically described by Dio Cassius in his Roman History<\/em>:<\/p>\n

The whole plain round about [Vesuvius] seethed and the summits leaped into the air. There were frequent rumblings, some of them subterranean, that resembled thunder, and some on the surface, that sounded like bellowings; the sea also joined in the roar and the sky re-echoed it. Then suddenly a portentous crash was heard, as if the mountains were tumbling in ruins; and first huge stones were hurled aloft, rising as high as the very summits, then came a great quantity of fire and endless smoke, so that the whole atmosphere was obscured and the sun was entirely hidden, as if eclipsed. Thus day was turned into night and light into darkness \u2026 [Some] believed that the whole universe was being resolved into chaos or fire .\u2026 While this was going on, an inconceivable quantity of ashes was blown out, which covered both sea and land and filled all the air \u2026 It buried two entire cities, Herculaneum and Pompeii \u2026 Indeed, the amount of dust, taken all together was so great that some of it reached Africa and Syria and Egypt, and it also reached Rome, filling the air overhead and darkening the sun. There, too, no little fear was occasioned, that lasted for several days, since the people did not know and could not imagine what had happened, but, like those close at hand, believed that the whole world was being turned upside down, that the sun was disappearing into the earth and that the earth was being lifted to the sky.2<\/a><\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The tone is plainly apocalyptic. And indeed Dio seems to have had this in mind. In the next paragraph he notes that the eruption consumed the temples of Serapis and Isis and Neptune and Jupiter Capitolinus, among others. It is almost as if some supreme God was at work.<\/p>\n

Seventeen-year-old Pliny the Younger was an eyewitness to the eruption and described it in terms similar to Dio\u2019s. In two surviving letters to Tacitus, Pliny also gives an account of the death of his famous uncle Pliny the Elder, author of the renowned Historia Naturalis<\/em>. Pliny the Elder was at Misenum in his capacity as commander of the Roman fleet when the eruption began. He set sail to save some boatloads of people nearer Vesuvius and headed toward Stabia\u2014to no avail. All perished, including Pliny, as his nephew recounts:<\/p>\n

Ash was falling onto the ships, darker and denser the closer they went. Now it rains bits of pumice, and rocks that were burned and shattered by the fire \u2026 Broad sheets of flame were lighting up many parts of Vesuvius; their light and brightness were the more vivid for the darkness of the night \u2026 Buildings were being rocked by a series of strong tremors and appeared to have come loose from their foundations and to be sliding this way and that. Outside, however, there was danger from the rocks that were coming down \u2026<\/p>\n

It was daylight now elsewhere in the world, but there the darkness was darker and thicker than any night \u2026 Then came the smell of sulfur, announcing the flames, and the flames themselves \u2026onto the ships, darker and denser the closer they went. Now it rains bits of pumice, and rocks that were burned and shattered by the fire \u2026 Broad sheets of flame were lighting up many parts of Vesuvius; their light and brightness were the more vivid for the darkness of the night \u2026 Buildings were being rocked by a series of strong tremors and appeared to have come loose from their foundations and to be sliding this way and that. Outside, however, there was danger from the rocks that were coming down \u2026<\/p>\n

[Then] came the dust, though still lightly. I looked back [from his flight from Misenum] \u2026 We had scarcely sat down when a darkness came that was not like a moonless or cloudy night, but more like the black of closed and unlighted rooms. You could hear women lamenting, children crying, men shouting.3<\/a><\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then comes the same apocalyptic tone that we saw in Dio:<\/p>\n

There were some so afraid of death that they prayed for death. Many raised their hands to the gods, and even more believed that there were no gods any longer and that this was the one last unending night for the world \u2026 I believed that I was perishing with the world, and the world with me, which was a great consolation for death.4<\/a><\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Did anyone connect all this to the Jewish God? To the Roman destruction of the Jerusalem Temple?<\/p>\n

In a conversation with Harvard\u2019s Shaye Cohen<\/a> about something else, I offhandedly asked him if he knew of any ancient source that made the connection between the Vesuvius eruption and the destruction of the Temple. I had already asked this of several other scholars, but none had any sources for me, although they said there must be some. Shaye, however, immediately replied, \u201cTry Book 4 of the Sibylline Oracles.\u201d He was right on.<\/p>\n\n\n\t\t

\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
\t\n\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

FREE eBook: Life in the Ancient World<\/strong>. Craft centers in Jerusalem, family structure across Israel and ancient practices\u2014from dining to makeup\u2014through the Mediterranean world.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t