The ancient city of Pompeii is a port city but not a sea port. It is situated in the region of Campania in the Bay of Naples, just south of the infamous volcano, Mt. Vesuvius.
It is unknown when the city was first founded. There is evidence of a Doric temple dating back to the 6th century B.C., so it can be assumed that the city was already in existence at that time. It was founded by a Latin people called the Oscans, most notably from the Pompey gens, or clan, which is where the term "Pompeian" comes from. Thus, the city is Pompeii of the clan of the Pompeys.
In the year 80 B.C. a colony was sent down to Pompeii from Rome under the leadership of Publius Sulla, a nephew of the Dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix. Its official name is Colonia Veneria Cornelia Pompeianorum, after the Dictator Sulla and from the goddess to whom he paid special honor, Venus Pompeiana, who then became the patron goddess of the city. From this point on, Pompeii became much like any other small city in the Roman Empire. It was never known to be a very wealthy city, but took advantage of the rich volcanic land at the base of Mt. Vesuvius for wine, cabbages, and the huge market for flowers. It is estimated that the city boasted a population of around 20,000 people.
In the year 62 A.D. Pompeii fell victim to a horrible earthquake, a warning of the reawakening of Mt. Vesuvius. Much of the city was destroyed, and there is still evidence of rebuilding until the time of the volcanic eruption in 79 A.D. Up until then, the volcano was believed to be extinct.
While somewhat debated, Mt. Vesuvius is credited by Pliny the Younger as erupting on August 24-26 in the year A.D. 79, which was devastating to the Bay of Naples as it destroyed the cities of Pompeii, Stabiae, Oplontis, and Herculaneum.
Ash spewed five miles into the air and blew south, toward Pompeii. It wasn't lava that buried the ancient city, but little ash pellets called lapilli, meaning "tiny stones," about the same size but three times heavier than Styrofoam packing pellets. These pellets were not hot, but came down at such a fast rate that the city was buried in roughly 20 feet of ash over two days. Massive thunderstorms also formed in reaction to the ash clouds, causing the ash to form a sort of plaster over the city. Because of this, all organic things took a long time to rot and instead dessicated over the millenia. Many items look charred or burnt but this is actually due to them being dried out.
From the casts of human remains found, it is estimated that around 2,000 Pompeians died in the city at the time of the eruption. Some look as though they died horrific deaths due to their body placement, but this is most likely because they were trying to "swim" out of the falling ash; in reality they probably suffocated or, as newer evidence suggests, they died from intense heat flashes that occurred when the volcano erupted.
Some inhabitants returned after the eruption to try and sift through the debris and reclaim buried belongings, but Pompeii was soon forgotten after this. It wasn't until the 1740's that it was rediscovered by chance, and it has been an active archaeological site for the last 250 years. Roughly two-thirds of the site is now excavated, with funding being the main reason that the rest has not been explored yet.
**Information from August Mau's book World of Pompeii (http://academic.depauw.edu/~pfoss/Mau/maukelsey.html), James Franklin's class at Indiana University titled "The Art & Archaeology of Pompeii," and www.wikipedia.org.
**Picture credits to thinctanc.co.uk/photogrophy/pompeii.html, www.dogsofpompeii.com, https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9ho6pag2ipNxZNsoPZyxgCfj0iuUzInep9XOZ4lyY4Kqdfhdd8RNTCIH7wOQr3VUe5nb5cUqRHkVYENO4nqRX0grYNcDjLhfFsKXhtz4Em8nAc4meFxi4atX6w-GyiP1XC99VD8xbaugO/s1600/DSC_0864.JPG, http://opentravel.com/Things-To-Do-In-Italy-Attractions, and http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/282/cache/101102-plaster-body-cast-of-pompeii-victim_28275_600x450.jpg
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