At first, it was probably curiosity that roused the naturalist and prepared one of his ships to examine the unusually shaped and rather large cloud that was hanging over Mount Vesuvius.
But then Pliny the Elder received a hastily written letter from an acquaintance who lived at the foot of the volcano, begging him for help.
Pliny changed his plans and put to sea the fleet he commanded in order to save as many inhabitants of the densely populated coast as possible: "Hither he hastens where others flee, and heads straight for danger, so fearless that he all the changes and manifestations of that misfortune as he perceived them, dictated them, and had them recorded.”
Tilman Spreckelsen
Editor in the Feuilleton.
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It was, according to his nephew Pliny the Younger, August 24th of the year 79 AD, when a catastrophe struck the coastal landscape of the Gulf of Naples and not only wiped the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum from the face of the earth.
The younger Pliny mentions the fleeing, but leaves open the success of his uncle's rescue mission.
He only reports of his death: The elderly Pliny, who had a lung disease and had to go to Stabiae before the volcano erupted, collapsed in the dense smoke and was only found later.
The fact that Pompeii and Herculaneum were buried and preserved under mud and ash is an unbelievable misfortune for contemporaries and at the same time a blessing for later research into antiquity.
A look at the victims shows that depending on the status of the excavations, our image of the cities and the events that led to their demise can change fundamentally.
While in Pompeii the imprints of numerous corpses were soon found in the layer of ash and their body shapes made visible to us by pouring plaster in the nineteenth century, very few human remains were found in Herculaneum, giving the impression that the local population had settled , unlike in Pompeii, can save for the most part.
That changed forty years ago when an excavation in the area of the city's old port unearthed some two hundred and fifty skeletons and the remains of a keel-up ship.
Apparently, a large number of people had tried to reach the safety of the sea and had been surprised by the avalanche of ash, gas and stones at several hundred degrees.
Destruction in time lapse
The exhibition in Chemnitz, which is dedicated to Pompeii and Herculaneum, also traces the decline of the cities, which forms the framework for this exploration.
Right at the beginning there is a large-format projection that puts the visitor on a balcony in Pompeii and from there shows him the destruction in fast motion: heavy clouds descend over the city, earthquakes and fire cause the surrounding walls to collapse, but at the same time would an observer also perceived deceptive pauses between the waves of destruction - Plinius in Stabiae, not too far away, is reported to have wanted to calm everyone on the evening of August 24th instead of speaking out for a determined evacuation.