The eruption of Vesuvius, which destroyed the Roman cities, occurred later than commonly believed.
“You may have to rewrite the history books,” said Alberto Bonisoli, Italy’s culture minister, showing an inscription found on the wall of an ancient Roman villa.
The villa belonged to the wealthy residents of Pompeii, a city covered in volcanic ash during the catastrophic eruption of Vesuvius. Archaeologists dug it up quite recently and saw: on the wall located closer to the entrance to the courtyard, something was scrawled with coal.
The point is that history textbooks will have to be rewritten - not all, of course, but in places.
Massimo Osanna, director of the Parco Archeologico di Pompei, assures that it is written “XVI K Nov”. Which means: "16 days to November". That is, October 17th.
According to archaeologists, the author of the inscription marked the date of the beginning of the eruption of Vesuvius. He managed to leave "historical evidence" before he died in a terrible hell. This is why the Italian Minister of Culture called it - the evidence found - an outstanding discovery.
Something like this looked like a villa, on one of the walls of which there was sensational historical evidence.
It is believed that Vesuvius destroyed Pompeii on August 24, 79 AD. This date was named by the ancient Roman historian and writer Pliny the Younger (Gaius Pliny Caecilius Secundus), who seems to have personally seen the eruption - watching it from the other side of the Gulf of Naples. Pliny was then either 17 or 18 years old.
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After 30 years, the "witness" told about the catastrophe to another ancient Roman historian Tacitus. The date is fixed.
Pompeii and Vesuvius were located on the shores of the Gulf of Naples.
Now it turns out: the tragedy seems to have occurred almost two months later. Either Pliny the Younger got it wrong, or his friend Tacitus, or the inscription is not about that at all.
When the eruption began, the owners were not in the villa. There were only construction workers who painted the walls of the interior and poured the floors, these works remained unfinished. The writing appeared on the newly plastered patio wall. There is no year on it, but archaeologists claim that it was exactly 79 AD. So, if you believe - in the literal sense - "newly discovered circumstances", then Pompeii still died in 79, but in October, not August.
The death of Pompeii inspired painters. For example, Karl Bryulov.
By the way, suspicions that the recognized date is wrong have arisen before. They were fed by strange finds - for example, collected by someone from the inhabitants, but petrified berries that ripened just in October.
Will textbooks be rewritten now? It is not excluded. The excavation continues. Perhaps there is something more convincing than the writing on the wall.
The inhabitants of Pompeii, who tried to sit out in the houses and the basement, burned down in a hot gas.
VLADIMIR LAGOVSKY