The Romans, like many polytheistic societies, had a god of fire. He's loosely inspired by his Greek predecessor (most Roman gods are inspired by Greek gods), who was named Hephaestus. To the Romans he was Vulcan or Mulciber. I personally prefer the name Mulciber since it hasn't taken on any sci-fi elements over time (John Milton preferred it as well, although Star Trek had no sway over his preference), but we'll stick with Vulcan because it simplifies everything. Vulcan was the god of fire, both harmful and helpful. That means he was in charge of not just your fireplace, but also your forge. Also, the wildfires that burned your crops, the flaming arrows you shot at your enemy and the volcanoes that burned down everything around them. In case you didn't make the connection, volcanoes are named after him.
Given the huge number of things that fell under his purview, it's no surprise that he had a day of his own to celebrate his greatness and to give him sacrifices to keep him from burning everything people held dear into smoking cinders. That day was August the 23rd, was called Vulcanalia, and at one point they'd burn people alive, but eventually that got phased out and they just burned crops and animals, usually fish. Six emperors and nearly twenty years after Rome burned to the ground in 64C.E. (Nero played the fiddle, according to gossip, a topic for another day), Emperor Domitian built a new shrine to Vulcan because of the Great Fire of Rome. This is how much Vulcan freaked people out, twenty years after an event people were still worried that he was angry about whatever caused him to start the fire in the first place, and were still trying to make amends.
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| To be fair, he burned down the largest city in the Western world. |
Of course, they got a reminder about his temper in 79C.E., and that might have had something to do with Domitian's new temple, since Domitian only became emperor in 81C.E.. What was that event? Vesuvius. As in, Mount Vesuvius. As in, Mount Vesuvius the volcano that literally wiped the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum off the map for fifteen centuries. Yes, in 79C.E., despite much appeasement of Vulcan only 15years earlier, Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried two cities entirely. And according to early scholars, Vesuvius erupted on August 24th, the day after Vulcanalia. I mean, can you imagine being one of the guys that escaped? Sitting around, looking at the ash field that used to be your city, wondering if it's worth digging out. Turning to your shrewish wife and seeing a look of anger on her face before she said, "I told you we should have thrown more fish into the fire." It's that kind of thing that would make a believer out of me. I mean, that's some cosmic-level coincidental timing.
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| "YOUR FISH WERE INSUFFICIENT!" |
Or would be, if it were true. And here's where science and diligent research come in and ruin a perfectly good tragedy.
The problem is, lots of things in Pompeii were well preserved, so we know everything from what people's houses looked like to what kind of food was up for sale in the market. They've even found graffiti (on a sign leading into town, someone had dubbed Pompeii "Sodom & Gomorrah"). The important thing here is the fruit in the market. What was up for sale is more indicative of it being buried in October or November than in August. Olives, a fall fruit, were up for sale. Summer fruits were being sold in dried form. Wine was being fermented in sealed jars, again something that would be happening in Autumn instead of Summer. Plus, the people were dressed too warmly for the Mediterranean in August. Also, there's some sort of meteorological evidence that I'm sure is very convincing if you care about wind patterns (which I don't).
Basically, it's pretty much proven that Pompeii was buried in late October, and not in late August. The long-held discrepancy is attributed to errors in copying manuscripts, particularly since Pliny the Younger didn't give an actual date, he gave an abbreviated date that nobody's been able to interpret with any certainty. Many scholars over the centuries have given various interpretations, and the one that researchers in the 1500's decided upon now seems to be the wrong one. Which sucks, because the date they chose was way more interesting than the one that's now considered true.
Science is awesome, but sometimes it ruins a great story.
Sources:
Image of Rome burning taken from NevadaCounty.com - American political site, not about Rome, just happened to have a good image of Rome burning
Image of Vesuvius erupting taken from St. Colmcilles Senior National School's Pompeii page
Religio Roma article on Volcanus
PaganSpace.net forum post of Vulanalia
Ecclesia Ordinis Caelestis Templum Olympicus page on Vulcanalia
William Smith's A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities
Ancient Study blog entries on dating the Vesuvius eruption parts 1, 2 and 3
Wikipedia article on Vulcan
Wikipedia article on Mount Vesuvius
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