00:00The story of Pompeii is complete chaos as is, but to add a little fuel to this fire,
00:05we dug up some groundbreaking facts, and I mean that quite literally.
00:10Hear me out. What if it wasn't the scorching sea of lava that destroyed the city of Pompeii,
00:16but rather an earthquake that happened during the volcano's eruption?
00:22Rewind to over 2,000 years ago. The year is 79 BCE.
00:28It was around 1 o'clock in the afternoon when Mount Vesuvius decided to erupt.
00:33Pompeians were going on with their normal daily routines when lava started taking over.
00:39The flow of lava was so quick that most people didn't have anywhere to run. The disaster took the lives of around
00:452,000 people. The lava covered most of the city, which then turned everything to ashes.
00:51Pompeii was only discovered during the 16th century of our common era, when an architect commended a dig to divert a river.
00:59It's a very well-studied site nowadays, but something unusual recently caught the researchers' attention.
01:07Scientists were excavating a site called the House of Painters at work.
01:12They were examining a couple of skeletons when they saw something weird.
01:16The skeletons probably belonged to two men around the age of 50.
01:21The analysis showed these men had survived the first surge of lava in the city,
01:26but they didn't make it out due to this second unexpected part, the earthquake.
01:33The men probably took shelter at the House of Painters at work,
01:36but the walls crumbled down when the earthquake hit.
01:39The men were found in a protective posture, like they were trying to shield themselves from something that was going to fall above their heads.
01:47Plus, these skeletons were not found under the layer of volcanic ash, but on top of it,
01:52proving that they really did survive Vesuvius' sea of lava.
01:57It turns out this is not as rare as it seems.
02:00A volcanologist explained that the seismic activity during the eruption really made things worse in Pompeii.
02:06He said that this seismic chaos probably influenced the desperate choices of a lot of Pompeians in their final moments.
02:13This is not the first time the world heard of a possible earthquake in Pompeii.
02:19A guy named Pliny the Younger, who escaped the disaster and witnessed the whole thing, beat these scientists to it in his famous letters.
02:26Pliny the Younger was a lawyer and an important person back in ancient Rome.
02:30He was an eyewitness to the whole Pompeii disaster,
02:33and he wrote in one of his letters that the eruption was followed by a trembling of the earth.
02:39Researchers do agree that something never added up.
02:43Pompeii is known to have really well-preserved skeletons since the ashes kind of played an important role in preserving them.
02:50But the buildings were in horrible shape, making it hard to reconstruct the entire city as it once was.
02:57Pompeii was indeed one of a kind.
02:59It was one of the most vibrant and lively cities of the ancient Roman Empire.
03:04The city was huge.
03:05It could have been home to as many as 30,000 people in its heyday.
03:10The House of Faun, for example, was a clear example of how rich Romans lived their lives in Pompeii.
03:16It was a huge house that even had two gardens inside, taking up the entire block.
03:21They looked like they were made of white marble, but it was actually painted stucco.
03:26It was clear to researchers that only aristocrats lived there.
03:31Then there was this famous forum.
03:33This is where most of the administrative part of the city life happened.
03:37It was made up of a lot of different buildings, like the Basilica, a hotspot for political and civil meetings,
03:43the Makellum, which was a market, and several temples.
03:48If we were visiting this back in the day, we'd see a bunch of men dressed in tunics.
03:52A few select ones would wear togas, those heavy white pieces of draped cloth that look like bed linen wrapped over the body.
04:00Togas were mainly used on special occasions since they were costly, hard to wash, and considered a traditional costume.
04:08Representatives running for office would use it during their campaign run so that commoners would identify them as candidates.
04:15One can't forget about the Villa of the Mysteries. Cool name, huh?
04:19It was called that way because of some mysterious frescoes found inside of it.
04:23Modern-day archaeologists still haven't figured out what the scenes painted are trying to depict.
04:29Probably some type of ritual or ceremony.
04:32By the way, a villa is simply a large suburban Roman-style house.
04:37It's not necessarily a super posh place where the rich and beautiful live. It's usually located on the outskirts of town near the city's walls.
04:45The Villa of the Mysteries one in particular was found astoundingly well preserved in modern archaeological excavations.
04:52It even had a manufacturing area inside of it, like its own little industry.
04:57It was common for richer Romans to own big farmlands like olive gardens, for example.
05:02So they would also build a processing station inside their villas to extract the oil and package the whole thing.
05:09The amphitheater was where some of the richer men paid to put on gladiator fights for the rest of the town.
05:14It was built around 70 BCE, and it was one of the oldest amphitheaters of the world.
05:20It was even older than the Colosseum in Rome.
05:23This huge building could fit around 20,000 spectators at once.
05:27The seating was arranged by social class, so you could easily spot who was a member of the nobility.
05:33Ah, and in case you're wondering why it was shaped like a weird egg,
05:37it's because that was the shape that allowed for an unobstructed view wherever you were in the crowd.
05:43As every other Roman city, Pompeii also had some famous baths.
05:48Since not every house had access to plumbing back in the day, most people didn't shower in their homes.
05:54That's why so many Romans would use public baths, usually at the end of the day, to clean themselves.
06:00But make no mistake, this wasn't just a place for bathing. It was a cultural hot spot.
06:06The baths were made up of many different rooms.
06:09The first one was like a locker room where people would keep their clothes and personal belongings.
06:14This is where the upper and lower classes mingled together.
06:17Someone's class could easily be identified by their clothes and jewelry.
06:22The amount of gold and silver worn back in those days is nothing compared to what most people wear today.
06:28Usually, the rich folks would leave someone to take care of their belongings while they went and took their bath.
06:33Because yes, it could happen that stuff went missing while chilling and relaxing.
06:38The big focus on self-care nowadays was already a thing for ancient Romans.
06:43It was common that before taking a bath, olive oil was rubbed all over the skin.
06:48They would scrape off the dirty skin with a strigil. That may sound weird, but also extremely pleasing.
06:55The baths had rooms for massages. Some of them had reading rooms and even courtyards for some healthy exercise.
07:03Oh, there was even a natazio, or swimming pool if you're not fluent in Latin.
07:08After all, it was the Romans that said, a healthy body is a healthy mind.
07:13The bakeries.
07:15Bread was one of the main components of Pompeian diet, so much so that there were around 30 bakeries in the city.
07:22Bread was freshly made from scratch every day.
07:25In a special area of the shop, the corn or wheat was ground and mules would circle around to keep the mills going.
07:33The funny thing about Pompeians is that they like to cover the exterior walls of buildings with paintings, much like graffiti nowadays.
07:41Their paintings, usually frescoes, used to depict what daily life was like in the city.
07:46Ancient Romans were very outdoorsy people, so coloring their walls seemed like a good option for them.
07:53A lot of houses had frescoes inside of them, too, to make up for the lack of windows.
07:58The paintings gave the house owners the illusion of more space if the painting was of, let's say, a garden, for example.
08:05That's it for today.
08:07So, hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends.
08:11Or, if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!
