#stabiae

Carpet-like fresco, ca.54-69 CE Villa Arianna, ancient Stabiae Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli (inv. 9661)

Roman calendar - April 27/28*-May 2, Floralia

Festival of Flora, a goddess of spring, flowers, vegetation and fertility. During the festival week the Games of Flora (Ludi Florae) were held. During these games people could watch theatrical performances, nude dancing, circus events, gladiator combats and also ritual sacrifices.

More info here:

https://penelope.uchicago.edu/encyclopaedia_romana/calendar/floralia.html

*= Julian Calendar

fresco: Villa Arianna, Stabiae, 1st century CE

attribution:

Top: Mosaic of the street musicians, from the so-called Villa of Cicero, located outside Herculaneum.

Bottom: Fresco of the same scene, from a villa in Stabiae, several kilometres to the south.

2 WOMEN STANDING [Pastiche]: Combined from two frescoes - a female harpist and a crowned figure clad in a [purple] stola. Discovered in Room W28 of the Villa of Ariadne [Villa di Arianna], Stabiae, Bay of Naples | Vesuvius area. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stabiae 45-69 AD, Inv. 8840.

Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli | MANN 2nd Fl. | Room LXXVII 'La Villa di Arianna a Stabiae'

WEB : https://www.museoarcheologiconapoli.it/en

FB : https://www.facebook.com/MANNapoli

IG : @ museoarcheologiconapoli

YT : https://www.youtube.com/@museoarcheologiconapoli

MANN | Michael Svetbird phs©MSP | 05|01|26 4500X4000 600 [I.] The object photographed is part of the MANN collection [Non-commercial fair use | No AI | Author's rights apply | Sorry for the watermarks]

📸 Part of the "MANN.Selected" MSP Online Photo-gallery:

👉 D-ART: https://www.deviantart.com/svetbird1234/gallery/76957935/mann-selected

👉 FB Album: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1329554957413078&type=3

The Eruption of Mt. Vesuvius

The Eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 CE remains one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history. Not only did the volcano destroy the economically powerful city of Pompeii, but Herculaneum, Oplontis, Stabiae were also buried and thus lost to the Roman Empire. The number of victims is unknown, but given the size of the four cities, estimates have reached over 18,000 individuals.  

Today only one first-hand account of this horrific event survives in two letters from Pliny the Younger to the Roman historian Tacitus. They are preserved as letters 6.16 and 6.20 in the collected Epistles of Pliny. Among our holdings of the works of Pliny is this 3-volume set of the Epistles with William Melmoth’s 18th-century translation edited by Clifford Herschel Moore, and printed by the Harvard University Press in an edition of 405 copies for members of The Bibliophile Society, Boston, in 1925.

While the term ‘volcanic eruption’ evokes scenes of lava and fire, the reality is much more frightening. Curiously, there is no word for volcano in the Latin language. While ancient Romans were aware of the destructive power of volcanoes, there’s some debate about whether they were aware that Vesuvius was a volcano before its eruption. Signs of the eruption began back in 62CE with a great earthquake that caused much of the city to collapse. Smaller earthquakes continued over the next 15 years until one was accompanied by the rise of a column of smoke from Mt. Vesuvius in October 79 CE. 

The hot gases that made up the column of smoke began to cool, darkening the sky, and not long after a rain of pumice began to fall, and after 15 hours ceilings began to collapse. Nevertheless, many residents chose to take shelter rather than flee. At 4am the first 500C pyroclastic surge barred down the volcano, burying Herculaneum. Six more of these surges occurred before the end of the eruption, destroying Pompeii, Oplontis, and Stabiae. 

The 17-year old Pliny was in the port town of Misenum across the Bay of Naples from the volcano at the time. Pliny’s uncle, Pliny the Elder, commander of the Roman fleet at Misenum, launched a rescue mission and went himself to the rescue of a personal friend. The elder Pliny did not survive the attempt. In Pliny the Younger’s first letter to Tacitus, he relates what he could discover from witnesses of his uncle's experiences. In a second letter, he details his own observations after the departure of his uncle.

Mt. Vesuvius is still active and according to volcanologists, erupts about every 2000 years, which would be right about now. Who will be our next Pliny the Younger?

Our copy of The Epistles of Pliny is another gift from our friend and benefactor Jerry Buff.

View more of my Classics posts.

Port of Stabiae