[Deflagration]
[Music and intro]
[Off voice] Travel back in time to the Ancient city of Pompeii
where sexual excesses and slavery were a regular part of everyday life.
What happened to its citizens when life was suddenly shattered by an explosion
more powerful than a nuclear bomb?
It's one of the stories of the ages.(Ancient Mysteries)
one of the ancient mysteries.
[Leonard Nimoy] Before we unlock the future, we must find the keys to the past.
I'm Leonard Nimoy. Join us as we the door to Ancient Mystery, beginning now.
[Leonard Nimoy] For an eternity, the volcanic cone of Mount Vesuvius
has dominated the landscape of Southern Italy.
Two thousand years ago, it would shape history.
At that time, Rome was an all-powerful empire.
Pompeii was one of its most prosperous provincialtowns, thriving at the foot of Vesuvius.
(Explosion noise)
Suddenly, a terrible explosion shook the earthand Vesuvius entered the annals of history
as one of the most devastating volcanic disastersever recorded.
The people ran for their lives. Some tookcover in their homes. Others tried fleeing
to the nearby sea.
But thousands would not escape.
In a matter of hours, homes, buildings andthe people themselves were covered
by a thick layer of volcanic ash and dĂŠbris.
Everything was entombed and forgotten, tolie in undiscovered silence for centuries.
Archeologists discovered the hollow cavitieswhich the decayed bodies left behind.
These were used as molds to produce eerieplaster casts of the victims.
And the once vital inhabitants of ancientPompeii now lie here, distorted in agony,
exactly where they fell.
What secrets did the people leave behind?
What misteries are entombed with them?
A journey into the ancient past to a cityfrozen in time.
(Pompeii: Buried Alive)
(Act I)
(The Mountain Speaks)
[Music]
[Nimoy] Today, two million people live aroundthe foot of Mount Vesuvius near Naples, in
Southern Italy.
The inhabitants of modern-day Pompeii arevery much aware of the constant threat
posed by this still active volcano.
Farmers tend fruitful fields where, just afew feet below, lie the remains of an ancient
civilization.
Sprawling over 160 acres, the layout of ancientPompeii is much like that of any modern city.
Unequal among historical sites for its remarkablestate of preservation,
Pompeii is a unique showcase of ancient artand architecture.
There is an abundance of original mosaicsand frescoes,
some as vivid as though they were createdyesterday.
The city offers archaeologists a once in anlifetime opportunity to explore the mysteries
of those who once inhabited the Roman World.
(The Roman Empire 79 C.E.)
[Nimoy] During the 1st century of the CommonEra, Rome was a powerful empire,
straddling Europe and the Near East, fromBritain to Egypt.
(Map of Italy, with Rome and Pompeii marked)
[Nimoy] Pompeii was a thriving commercialcenter with a population of 20,000.
Then, these streets leading to the city'sforum were bustling with farmers and merchants
from afar,
trading produce and merchandise.
Many of the local citizens were wealthy, enjoyinga relatively affluent and placid way of life.
Mount Vesuvius always loomed in the background.
But as far as the people were concerned, itwas just another mountain, a good place to
cultivate vines.
[Haraldur Sigurdsson - Professor of Oceanography,University of Rhode Island] The Romans living
in the area were not aware of the fact thatthe mountain was a volcano.
For example, the most famous of these Romanswas Pliny the Elder, who was a great historian
and a writer.
And he described many volcanoes in Italy,but he never mentioned Vesuvius as a volcano.
[Nimoy] The 24th of August, in the year 79,was an ordinary Summer's day,
with the people of Pompeii uneventfully goingabout their daily business.
The slight rumbling sounds coming from Vesuviusin the early morning were largely ignored.
[Ann Koloski-Ostrow - Assistant Professorof Classical Studies, Brandeis University]
People proceeded as if everything was normal.
Women at home were probably getting theirchildren ready for short siestas,
slaves were bustling about the kitchen, gettingeverything ready for what would be
the evening hours at home.
Men were thinking about spending an afternoonat the public baths, but the rumbling didn't
stop.
[Music]
[Nimoy] Suddenly, around 12 noon, a deafeningexplosion shook the entire city.
The people watched, horrified, as Vesuviuserupted.
Pillars of black volcanic ash
and of red-hot magma spewed miles high intothe sky.
Then, a torrent of suffocating ash fell uponthe city, followed by complete darkness.
[Music]
At the same time, stones hailed down fromheaven.
Gradually, Pompeii became buried in whitepellets of solidified ash.
[James L. Franklin, Jr. - Professor of ClassicalStudies, Stanford University] They hadn't
seen an eruption before,
so I don't think that they had any idea - trueidea - of what they were encountering.
They must have been really terrified, however,with the addition of the eruption to the earthquake.
And I suspect it took a lot of them an awfullylong time to figure out
that they were actually going to be buriedby these pellets.
[Nimoy] Two men whose names have come downto us from their time were witness to the
inferno:
Pliny the Elder, an admiral in the Roman Navy,died, attempting to rescue victims.
His nephew, Pliny the Younger, wrote the onlyeye-witness report to have survived the disaster.
*"On Mount Vesuvius, broad sheets of fireand leaping flames' blazed at several points,*
*their bright glare, emphasized by the darknessof the night.*
*The buildings were now shaking with violentshocks and seemed to be swaying to and fro,*
*as if they were torn from their foundations.*
*Outside, on the other hand, there was thedanger of falling pumice stones. It was a*
choice of fears."
[Koloski-Ostrow] Some huddled in corners,collecting their belongings with them there,
and thought: "We'll wait it out, it will stop."But it didn't stop.
And 17 hours later, it was still raining ashes,and many of the roofs of the town had collapsed
from the weight of these ashes, some peoplethen were trapped in their cellars,
others were trapped in their homes, and manyothers still were trapped as they tried to
flee the city.
[Nimoy] Pliny the Elder did not grasp theseverity of the situation until it was already
too late:
*"My uncle decided to go down to the shoreand investigate the possibility of an escape*
by the sea.
*The flames and smell of sulfur drove theothers to take flight.*
*And he stood, leaning on two slaves, andthen, suddenly collapsed,*
*I imagine because of the dense fumes stifledhis breathing and choked him."*
[Nimoy] Pliny the Younger also describes hisown death-defying escape:
*"You could hear the shrieks of women, thewailing of infants, the shouting of men.*
*Then ashes began to fall again, this timein heavy showers.*
*We rose from time to time and shook themoff.*
*Otherwise, we would have been buried andcrushed beneath.*
*I derived some poor consolation in my beliefthat the whole world was dying with me, and*
I with it."
[Nimoy] As the night wore on, thousands wouldperish.
(Act II)
(The Death Of Herculaneum)
[Nimoy] Death and destruction rained downfrom the sky for an entire day and night.
As Pompeii riled in agony,(Map of Italy with Rome, Vesuvius and Pompeii)
another town, lay in the direct path of thevolcano's fury, nine miles away,
neighboring Herculaneum was a seaside resortfor the Roman rich and famous.
But even fame and wealth would not save theinhabitants, that terrible night.
As Vesuvius erupted, Herculaneum was entombedin a layer of ash 40-feet thick.
Today, beneath the rubble and debris, piecesof carbonized wood can still be seen.
Such evidence enables volcanologists to reconstructthe city's final moments.
Even complete window shutters and doors arepreserved.
Artifacts like these reveal that Herculaneum'sdestruction was very different from that of
Pompeii.
[Sigurdsson] We know that around midnight,the style of the eruption changed dramatically.
Instead of a very high eruption column, allof a sudden, the ash and pumice comes out
of the crater
as a flow, a glowing avalanche, a dust cloudthat is moving like a nuclear blast
in all directions from the crater at a velocityof 100 to 200 miles per hour.
And within minutes, this cloud would havereached Herculaneum.
And this cloud is hot enough to carbonizewood and to melt glass.
Obviously, it is lethal.
[Nimoy] At Herculaneum's public baths, thismarble washing bowl now stands below the window,
where it once stood in ancient times.
But when the bath was excavated, the bowlwas found hurled across the room.
Its impression can still be seen imprintedon the solidified volcanic magma.
[Sigurdsson] The Vesuvius' eruption in 79A.D.
was one of the largest volcanic explosionsin history.
In terms of the energy, the amount of energyinvolved, it is much larger than any nuclear
explosion
that has been set off on the earth.
[Nimoy] One of the great mysteries of Herculaneumis the absence of human skeletal remains in
the town.
The houses and streets seemed to be deserted.
What happened to the people?
Did they know something that their neighborsin Pompeii did not?
Were they forewarned of the disaster, andhad time to escape?
Archaeologists always thought so, until agrisly discovery was made.
[Koloski-Ostrow] More recent excavations,right at the sea shore of Herculaneum,
have brought a much grimmer and sadder resultto our understanding of this mystery.
Upwards of a hundred victims have been found,and some of them are so well-preserved
and give us such poignant details of thosetragic final moments,
that we can say quite a bit about their storiesand what happened to them at the end of the
city.
[Nimoy] This was the first time we ever comeface to face
with human remains from the ancient Romanworld.
As it was a Roman custom to always crematetheir dead,
the other thing of the skeletons at Herculaneumand Pompeii was a rare discovery.
This was once a soldier, found face down,watching the sand, his sword still with him.
[Joseph J. Deiss - Professor of Classics,University of Florida] It's an extraordinary
find, because no other Roman soldier has everbeen discovered anywhere.
And he was wearing, he had his sword belt,he had his money belt, he had three gold coins,
and he was all prepared to be rescued. Andit never happened.
[Nimoy] Physical anthropologists examinedthe skeletons in detail.
Through their work, we've gained a new insightinto the lives of these long-lost people.
[Koloski-Ostrow] In one of the chambers, Imet a family of twelve victims.
We find a young woman, probably about 14,clutching very closely a baby of 7 months
in her arms
trying to protect this child from the inevitabledeath that is soon to come.
[Nimoy] At first, it seemed that this wasthe baby's older sister.
Then, investigations pointed to a more poignantand tragic story.
[Koloski-Ostrow] The baby is very likely anaristocratic baby,
it had in its ear a gold earring with a smallpearl on it,
whereas the bones of the 14-year old girlare bones that show
she has done far heavier labor than a girlof her age do.
She's not well-nourished, her teeth are inpoor condition, she very likely had a difficult,
not to say, a terrible life.
[Nimoy] The conclusion was that this is theskeleton of an overworked slave girl.
One of her duties may have been to protectand tend the baby.
Her life style stood in stark contrast tothat of the more affluent citizens of the
town.
The gleaming white teeth of some remains indicatehealthy nutrition, at least for most of the
population.
[Deiss] This is the only find of Roman bodies,the only important find ever made.
So, for the first time, we can find what Romanswere really like,
not just the way they look from statues andfrescoes.
[Nimoy] Perhaps the most moving example tosurvive Pompeii's fearful night of destruction
are these silent forms.
After what must have been a terrible death,bodies decomposed, leaving eerie cavities
within the hardened volcanic ash.
These are casts made by archaeologists afterfilling the hollow spaces with plaster of
Paris,
forever preserving the forms of the victims,exactly as they were caught at the moment
of death.
This man was wearing a wide belt identifyinghis status as a slave.
All slaves had to wear a heavy belt inscribedwith the name and title of their owner.
Two thousand years after death, the peopleof Pompeii still tell a haunting, yet silent
tale.
Can we ever understand the destruction ofan entire community, on such an unprecedented
scale?
(Act III)
(In the Shadow of Vesuvius)
[Nimoy] The eruption of Vesuvius in the year79 is comparable to the drama of Mount St
Helen's
in the State of Washington in 1980.
In both cases, volcanic ash was hurled highinto the air, followed by a devastating explosion.
But the eruption of Vesuvius was 3 times morepowerful than that of Mount St Helen's.
In just a few hours, two prosperous citiesdisappeared from the face of the earth,
taking with them the great works and accomplishmentsof their inhabitants.
Where ash and lava once covered the cities,grass and vines slowly took possession of
the land.
Gradually, the place faded from memory.
More than 1,500 years would pass before Herculaneumwould be rediscovered.
It was totally by accident.
In 1709, two monks were sinking a well, whenthey inadvertently struck the marble floor
of an ancient theater.
[John J. Dobbins - Associate Professor ofArchaeology, University of Virgina] Pompei
was also discovered by accident.
The digging of a canal actually produced partof the city, and it became clear that there
was something there,
and during the early days, excavation wasnot an archaeological enterprise,
but was really a treasure-hunting activity,in order to provide objects for the royal
collection.
[Nimoy] During the 17th and 18th centuries,kings from Vienna and Spain ruled Naples.
To provide their courts with classical statues,Roman gold and silver, they ordered excavations
of the ruins.
Plundering the area in search of ancient bounty,treasure-hunters secretly sank
numerous shafts and tunnels, many of themstill visible today.
It was only in 1861 that orderly scientificexcavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum began,
and have continued unabated ever since.
(Man chattering while typing on keyboard)
[Nimoy] Today, cutting-edge computer technologyis used by John Dobbins at the University
of Virginia
to rebuild ancient Pompeii.
In binary building blocks, he's reconstructing,a 3-dimensional computer images,
a series of public buildings from the city'sforum.
[Dobbins] There is not evidence of a colony,in front of the sanctuary of the end of Augustus
So this seems to have been just an open areaat the...
[Nimoy] Modern technology provides uniquenew tools in the search to unravel
the ancient mysteries of Pompeii and of itsinhabitants.
[Dobbins] In many ways, Pompeii, more thanany other city in the classical world, demystifies
ancient life.
because it puts the modern viewer in closeproximity with all of those aspects.
There is an immediacy, it's possible to connectwith Pompeii, because it is preserved well,
the buildings are tri-dimensional, they aretaller than we are.
You can go into those houses and have a feelingthat the people have just gone away.
and that you're stumbling into someone's house.
[Nimoy] Once inside their homes, a searchfor their belongings brings us closer to the
people who once lived here.
Walking these silent passages, we brush withphantoms from a long gone civilization.
Complete dwellings can be explored, allowingthe visitor to vividly travel backwards in
time.
Even the frescoes and the mosaics seem toharbor a life of their own.
Ancient technology and plumbing laid bare,revealing a remarkably advanced piping system
for distributing water.
In the panic and confusion of the devastatingvolcanic eruption, everything was left exactly
as it was,
including this complete wine shop.
Intact objects of daily life were to be foundeverywhere.
Even a loaf of ordinary bread, carbonizedby the hot gas of the explosion.
[Koloski-Ostrow] Pompeii and Herculaneum becomeopportunities for us to time-travel
to the ancient world: not just time-travelto a century, or to a period or to a decade,
but in fact, time-travel to one day in theancient world, to 24 August 79 C.E.
and see the moment in which these people mettheir deaths.
[Nimoy] Obvious everywhere is the enormouswealth and extravagance of the villas of the
well-to-do:
wall paintings and mosaics of exquisite artistry,
decorative cosmetic boxes, complete with delicateinstruments, fashioned from wood and ivory,
solid gold jewelry, embellished with expensivegem stones.
All of these objects conjure the ghosts oftheir owners, recalling a once living, breathing
society.
[Dobbins] We actually have some sense of lifebreathed into those ruins by the writings
of Pliny the Younger,
once again, who describes in tremendous detailthe pleasures of living in these villas.
They enjoyed their meals, and they enjoyedthat in the proximity of their garden,
with fountains playing and the light comingin, the breeze, dining, water
music and all that.
[Nimoy] The extent of the wealth enjoyed bysociety is not known.
But clearly, only a small fraction of thepeople lived in plush opulence.
[Franklin] There is an incredible difference
between the wealthy and everybody else, youknow, in the Roman world.
There is essentially no middle class. Thereare only very wealthy people and very poor
people.
[Nimoy] The privileged few often spent theirtime in ornate atriums, lavishly decorated
with art works,
but mysteriously, much of the decor is essentiallyGreek in origin.
Alexander the Great, the Greek warrior emperor,in battle.
This mosaic was found in Pompeii, yet it isan exact copy of a similar work of art made
in Greece.
Why? Why does so much of Pompeii and Herculaneumspeak so strongly of Greek influence?
[Franklin] The Romans were absolutely overwhelmed,I think, by the Greek World, and then,
the world that follows Alexander the Great,
the Hellenistic world of great sophisticationand culture that came to Italy.
The Romans didn't fight it at all, they gavein and said:
"Wow, if it's that good, let's make ten copies."
[Nimoy] Another mosaic reveals a lively sceneof street musicians.
A delicate work of extraordinary craftsmanship,it bears the signature of the artist who made
it:
"Dioscurides of Samos", in Greece.
[Koloski-Ostrow] The themes of the paintingswere frequently adapted from Greek literature.
And we can understand that it's very likelymany of the painters were Greek slaves,
were actual Greeks who were brought to Pompeiito do the decoration of these houses.
[Nimoy] Perhaps the most famous of all artworks discovered here are these bronze sculptures,
depicting two young wrestlers.
Still in mint condition, the were found inthe garden of the Villa dei Papiri, near Herculaneum.
[Dobbins] These are wonderful pieces of artand they will have been done in Greece and
shipped over.
There was a major trade in shipping all sortsof statuary over from Greece.
So, that surely, would be Greek.
[Franklin] The Romans never were into statuaryand painting.
This came to them from the Greek world.
The Romans got to the Greek world, whetherit's here on the bay of Naples or over in
Greece, with armies
and practicality, and going in and fighting.
[Nimoy] Most historians conclude that whilethe Romans were emulating and admiring the
Greeks
in art and literature, they themselves wereinnovative leaders in more practical fields.
The extensive use of the arch and concretewere two of their great contributions to civilization.
Romans conquered the world and built theirempire on the mighty power of the sword,
but then reinforced it with massive civilengineering skills.
Little in this world unfolds as we predict.
The people of Pompeii could not have for seen
the contributions they would make to the chainof humanity.
In the first century before the Common Era,the wealthy lounged in luxurious indoor baths,
illuminated by sunlight.
Thanks to an anonymous Roman, who had inventedglass windows.
Villas with glass windows would spread throughoutthe Roman empire and the Mediterranean,
eventually leading to the design of the greenhouse.
In the ensuing centuries, the popularity ofthe greenhouse would soar,
inspiring interest in harnessing the powerof the sun.
This quest would reach bold new types in 1959,when Pioneer IV,
the United States' first solar-powered satellite,was launched into orbit.
An enduring link to the modern world, Pompeiiand Herculaneum's architectural marvels still
stand,
just as they did two millennia ago.
(Act IV)
(The Oldest Obsession)
[Nimoy] From the ashes of Pompeii, ghostlyeyes stare at us across the centuries.
Tantalizing clues can be found here, revealingintimate details
of the relationship between men and women.
A lady of the house holding a stylus and writingtablet,
indicating that she is literate and well-educated.
Though long gone, we even know the names ofsome of these people: Terentius Neo, wife
of the town baker;
[Franklin] I would say that they are obviouslya loving couple.
They have that quality that Roman marriagesare always looking for:
a husband and wife who actually get alongand spend their lives together.
Many Romans find true love in their lives,and when you read Roman tombstones, Roman
inscriptions,
you find that expressed over and over:
"To my incredibly sweet wife, who lived withme without an argument for forty years."
[Nimoy] This captivating portrait was discoveredin a mansion once owned by a woman
we know only as Julia Felix.
Could this be her? An independent, rich womanof property?
From evidence that has transcended the centuries,we know that most women lived in a subdued
and restricted life style, deeply secludedwithin the privacy of their home.
Those who belonged to an aristocratic family,living in one of the lavish villas,
would also be responsible for running theday to day affairs of the house and would
manage the slaves.
But in spite of what we know, the true statusof women in ancient Rome still remains a mystery.
[Dobbins] Women in the Roman world were noton the same power with men,
they didn't have the same rights to hold office,they could not vote.
[Franklin] Well-born women at Pompeii, thematrons of these grand houses at Pompeii,
wielded their power very much within the realmof the private household,
at dinner parties and among the family.
They certainly would in no way even want acareer.
It would be unheard of. When we are talkingabout women's liberation today,
we often talk about the ability of a womanto go out and build a career.
A Roman woman simply wouldn't want to do that.
[Nimoy] But one career for women did flourish:the so-called oldest profession in the world.
In the center of Pompeii stands a very conspicuoushouse: the town's main brothel.
Six small darkly lit rooms greet the visitor,each one with its own stone bed.
These would have been covered by fine blanketsand furs.
But how do we know what activity really tookplace in these rooms?
The paintings on the walls reveal it all,in graphic detail.
[Koloski-Ostrow] We mustn't over-glamorizethe institution, however.
The young women were captured slaves, whoworked for a pimp,
no doubt were often abused and underfed, andbrutally treated.
Yet it was an accepted part of society andany number of Roman gentlemen from all levels
of society
would have felt free to use the services thatwere offered there.
[Nimoy] Paintings which would be termed pornographictoday
were not restricted to the Roman brothel.
They're found in many private homes of distinguishedcitizens.
In the entrance hall to the house of the well-establishedfamily named Vettii,
the visitor is greeted by this explicit painting.
Excavators also found a remarkable collectionof novel wind chimes, replete with their original
bells.
These winged phalluses were used as decorationsin the home,
were suspended from columns in the garden.
[Koloski-Ostrow] It shocks us, it makes uswonder about the morality of these people.
Clearly, this particular figure and many representationsof the nude phallus
found throughout the city, were there as goodluck symbols, as symbols of fertility,
symbols to shed fertile children and opportunityon a household, not as objects of perversion.
[Franklin] We really do find ourselves ina completely different world here,
than the ancients did, I supposed. Becausemany ancient cults are flagrantly orgiastic,
involve sexuality, and it is used for religiousexpression.
That really got removed from religion, atleast as I understand it, but largely through
Christianity.
[Nimoy] Barely discernible fertility symbolscan still be found on many walls in and around
Pompeii.
[Franklin] When, for example, the site wasbeing excavated in the 18th-19th century,
and the excavators took hatchets to theseand destroyed them,
because they were obscene beyond belief,
it tells you a great deal more about yourself,I mean, than it does about the objects, I
mean
we all know that there are phalluses in thisworld.
Sexuality was an ordinary daily part of everyRoman's life, the way it is of most of our
lives,
though we don't like to talk about it openly.
And the idea that you would be hiding sexualityin any way, to an ancient Roman, would just
-
would seem absurd.
[Nimoy] What might seem outrageous today wasconsidered perfectly normal 20 centuries ago.
(Act V)
(Roman Life Roman Death)
[Nimoy] As Pompeii and Herculaneum slowlyyielded their treasures to the modern world,
what did the artifacts reveal about the workingsof ancient Roman society?
In confronting the cities' rich aristocrats,we may envy them for their flamboyant life
style.
Yet there is a dark side to the story.
The cities' opulent habits were founded uponhuge reserves of human labor.
And this, in turn, required a constant provisionof slaves .
As the Roman Empire marched in triumph acrossconquered territory,
it consumed vast human resources, absorbingslaves as the spoils of war.
[Koloski-Ostrow] All the time, capturing citiesmeant killing the men
and taking into slavery the women and childrenof the town, and bringing them wholesale into
Rome.
They came from Egypt, they came from Greece,they came from Tunisia.
They would - it was as much a slave tradeas there was a trade in cloth, in wine,
and in other articles produce.
[Nimoy] In this massive structure, many aslave saw his last moments on earth.
Together with many prisoners of war and convictedcriminals, death would come violently
as victims were forced to compete in the arena.
Known as the gladiator games, they took placehere, in a massive amphitheater,
which accommodated up to 20,000 spectators.
All of Pompeii's population would gather toenjoy the bloody spectacle of people fighting
for their lives.
One of the most popular forms of entertainmentwas the fight-to-death contest.
A heavily armed gladiator, wearing a bronzehelmet and shield, bearing only a short sword,
would be pitched against a completely nakedopponent equipped with a long spear and a
net.
It was brutal, a source of cheap thrills forthe blood-thirsty audience.
[Dobbins] This was an institutionalized violence,
as there are many institutionalized acts ofwhat we would call violence in our own society:
executions and wars. And yet we consider thatthose are appropriate under certain circumstances.
[Nimoy] Most slaves were kept, not as fighters,but as servants.
Large villas had up to 50 slaves, eternallyembroiled in the hustle-bustle of household
service.
[Franklin] There are so many slaves in Romanantiquity and in Pompeii in particular,
because that was a way to keep alive.
The wealthy needed a whole household of slavesbecause there was no middle class,
no industry the way we have it.
So they couldn't go to the tailor: there essentiallywere no tailors, you had to have
a dress-maker, a tailor, a shoemaker, allof that, on your personal staff.
[Nimoy] To better understand the people ofPompeii, it is important to remember that
two thousand years ago, the law was supreme.
Civic responsibility was taken very seriously.
Sometimes, these concepts drove people apart,including fathers and their sons.
[Franklin] The father has complete legal power.
He could kill any of his children at any timefor disobedience,
and there are great episodes, particularlyin early Roman history, which makes one wonder
about the veracity of them, of fathers doingexactly that.
A consul orders his son not to engage theenemy in battle.
The son engages the enemy in battle and hasa great success,
and he comes back and his father kills him,because the father had told him not to engage
the enemy.
And there's nothing that can be said aboutit: that his right as a father.
[Nimoy] Although, today, we subscribe to lawsand virtues similar to those of the Pompeians,
they held their own beliefs about the sanctityof human life.
[Franklin] They don't have this sacred viewfor life - the way we do -
I'm sure each of them had it for his own life,but when it came to life in general,
well, people die.
There were so many poor people that you seedeath all of the time.
[Nimoy] Their attitudes on death and justiceseems foreign to us today.
Roman values were quite different from theJudeo-Christian tradition
that was being introduced to the Western Worldat that time.
[Koloski-Ostrow] There is no text or bookor Bible with a set of morals that the Romans
follow.
Religion, to the Romans, is very much a ritual.
And without that moral superstructure, withouta text or a set of relgious rules and regulations
that you're following in some way, it makessociety much freer in terms of what's allowed.
[Nimoy] In the years since 79, when Pompeiiand Herculaneum met their doom,
Vesuvius has erupted more than 70 times.
[Journalist] Vesuvius once again strikes terrorinto the surrounding Italian countryside.
A giant wall of lava, in some places 30-feethigh, circles irresistibly forward through
field and farm.
[Nimoy] In 1944, as Italy reeled from theclosing phases of World War II, Vesuvius erupted
again.
But unlike the eruption that devastated Pompeii,this time,
the volcano spewed deadly molten lava as wellas ash.
The flow moved at a swift 12 feet per minute,destroying entire towns and villages in its
path.
The worst eruption occurred in 1631, when18,000 lost their lives.
[Journalist] Vesuvius, unpredictable and unconquerable,has had its way.
[Nimoy] Today, the mountain is silent onceagain, its anger long vented.
And Vesuvius broods like a great sentinelabove the landscape.
At its feet lie only the ruins and remainsof a once proud Roman heritage
in which many mysteries yet prevail.
[Franklin] The mystery is that although wehave all of these objects,
like we have no place else in all of the Romanworld,
these people are still just beyond our grasp.
The human element there, which we share withthem helps, but they are -
they're just beyond our grasp.
[Koloski-Ostrow] Pompeii offers a wonderfulpoetic magic for all of us.
It makes us touch our own feelings about lifeand death,
yet at the same time that we feel that emotionand that we feel
such sympathy for the victims of that eruption,
as we uncover the pumice stones and removethe pyroclastic mud flows,
we have to realize we're coming into a worldof enormous cultural difference and this -
the quest for that truth is what the archaeologist'smission must be.
[Nimoy] In one dreadful night, a volcano entombedan entire ancient community.
But in spite of the evidence that lies here,it is difficult to comprehend a society so
remote from our own.
The people of Pompeii may continue to remaina mystery to us for all time.