From deep in the earth come clues to
mystery nearly 2,000 years old.
They died instantly,
victims of a volcano's wrath.
But only now are we beginning
to piece together
the mosaic that tells
of their tragic final hours.
Pulsing with
an electric energy uniquely its own,
southern Italy is also the intimate
companion of destruction and death.
Active for 17,000 years,
Mount Vesuvius erupted most recently
in 1944, devastating two towns.
Only a few miles from Vesuvius another
town lives with yet a different threat.
Here, the sea appears to be boiling,
the earth regularly grumbles and groans
and sulfuric gases choke the air.
"Vesuvius slumbers",
one scientist wrote,
"but his heart is still awake".
A microcosm of our eternal battle
with forces we cannot tame,
this is life in the shadow of Vesuvius
Washed by the placid waters
of the Bay of Naples,
the region of Campania
has long attracted poets
and travelers, emperors and kings.
Two thousand years ago
writers described Campania as
"the most blest land",
"the fairest of all regions,
not only in Italy but
in all the world",
"a place where the summers are cool
and winters warm
and where the sea dies away gently
as it kisses the shore".
The climate and extraordinarily rich
soil enabled farmers then, as now,
to grow grapes, olives,
and up to four seed crops a year.
But 2,000 years ago few understood
that the richness of the soil
was a gift from the mountain
in their midst that
the mountain was in fact a volcano.
Today we know Mount Vesuvius
as one of the most famous,
and infamous, volcanoes in history.
The most active volcano on the
mainland of Europe,
it has erupted some 50 times
since the Roman era.
Looming over a metropolis vastly
expanded since Roman times,
Vesuvius, the "flaming mountain",
is no less of a threat today.
Today, Vesuvius's shadow falls on
some two million people
in the greater Naples area
one of the most densely populated
urban areas in all of Europe.
Nowhere else in the Western world
do such vast numbers dwell in the
immediate vicinity of an active volcano.
Though most Neapolitans either don't
know or refuse to believe
that Vesuvius is an active volcano,
local scientists are on 24-hour alert.
Seismic information from throughout
the region is continually monitored.
With no practical civil defense plan
possible caught unaware,
the goal is to accumulate enough data
to be able to develop
an early warning system.
The science of plate tectonics
tells us that the earth's outer shell
is composed of about a dozen rigid
plated that are in continuing motion.
The movements cause the plates
to clash in several ways.
One is called subduction, in which one
plate grinds beneath another.
As this happens,
the heat of the earth's interior
creates magma hot liquid rock.
In this way about 80% of the world's
volcanoes are formed.
Along the coast of Italy subduction has
created an entire string of volcanoes.
The most famous in Italy, and perhaps
the world, is Mount Vesuvius.
Here, the power of nature's forces
has been felt, at Pozzuoli,
Naples itself,
San Sebastiano,
and two towns made famous
when Vesuvius buried them in 79 A.D.
Herculaneum and Pompeii.
Lost and forgotten for
more than 1,600 years,
Pompeii is one of the great
archeological sites of the world,
as much for its poignant story
as for its historical significance.
Lying six miles from
the foot of Vesuvius,
Pompeii was a thriving Roman
commercial center of some 15000 people,
specializing in the export of wine,
fish sauce, and woolen cloth.
Its boundless prosperity was reflected
in the name of its main road:
Street of Abundance.
Kept safe from the ravages of time by
the very volcanic debris that buried it.
Pompeii is the largest site of the
ancient world so completely preserved.
In addition to homes and shops.
Pompeii had its own marketplaces,
baths, and theaters.
More than a hundred taverns
and inns catered to merchants
and traders arriving by land and sea
from the farthest reaches
of the Roman Empire.
Bakers were among the busiest tradesmen
Grain was ground into flour
in stone mills
turned by animals or slaves.
In the oldest known Roman amphitheater
built 100 years before
the Colosseum in Rome,
sporting events, gladiator contests,
and battles with wild animals.
Soon after excavation was begun.
Pompeii's name swept the Western world
and its art and architecture had
a profound effect
on European and American culture.
A "Pompeii fever" compelled painters
and sculptors throughout Europe
to make pilgrimages here.
Neoclassicism was fueled
as a major art from
and remained the standard
for the 18th and 19th centuries.
Pompeiians depicted the wine god
Bacchus clothed in grapes,
as was the fertile Vesuvius itself.
With no record of eruption
in living memory,
they saw it as merely a mountain,
beautiful and benign.
On that fateful August day in 79 A.D.
thousands fled the city
at the mountain's outburst.
For those who tarried, the end was
sudden and violent
a painful, choking death from
asphyxiation by gases and ash.
Their bodies were packed
in the dry ash,
which hardened over the years
into hollow outlines of the dead.
When the forms were discovered
in the 1860s,
plaster was injected into them,
Creating these faithful images of the
victims at their very moment of death.
Eight miles northwest of Pompeii
is the modern-day town of Ercolano.
It is built atop a buried ancient town
Herculaneum,
which was silenced in the same
eruption as Pompeii.
The earliest part of Herculaneum
to be discovered
still remains hidden underground
because occupied homes and
stores lie above it.
All traces of Herculaneum
had been lost until 1709.
Even writings about the once elegant
town had disappeared or been destroyed
The rebirth of Herculaneum
began with its accidental discovery
by a well digger.
Searching for water, he struck instead
what turned out to be a Roman theater.
Later, excavators knew they
had found ancient Herculaneum
when they uncovered marble inscribed
with its name in Latin.
In one of the dark tunnels a haunting
image from the past
an impression left in
the volcanic debris
by a statue toppled from its pedestal.
Magnificent treasures were uncovered,
and when word of them spread,
the ruling nobility of Naples
recklessly looted the theater.
Tunnels were ordered dug and searched.
And a massive hole was cut to
haul out the exquisite marble
and priceless bronze statues.
Then, except for sporadic digging,
Herculaneum was all
but forgotten once again.
More than 100 years later
excavating begins in earnest
when the Fascist government allocates
large sums to preserve Roman antiquities.
Ton after ton of volcanic debris
is hauled away.
Only then does the ancient town
begin to emerge.
Pompeii had been relatively
easy to excavate;
yet here at Herculaneum
workers struggle through 40 to 60 feet
of material as hard as cement.
Why this difference? Scientists puzzle
Why was Pompeii covered
by gravel and ash
and Herculaneum
by a rock-solid deposit
when the two towns were buried
in the same eruption?
Unlike the commercial center
of Pompeii,
Herculaneum was a residential
and resort town.
Built on a low bluff
overlooking the sea,
it housed between four and
five thousand wealthy retired citizens
artisans, and fishermen.
The most notable gathering places
in Herculaneum were the bath houses.
Heated by fires and tended by slaves,
the baths drew residents almost daily.
With separate sections
for women and men,
the baths were a place to relax,
socialize, and conduct business.
Now, bases on record from the past,
with the help of an artist's hand,
Herculaneum is magically recaptured
as it was in the glorious days
of the Roman Empire.
They left us image magnificently cast
in bronze,
but where were the people themselves?
Few human remains had ever been found,
and scholars concluded that surely
the people of Herculaneum
had successfully escaped.
The extraordinary number
of everyday objects
provides an intimate look
at Roman life.
A cloth press in a cleaner's shop.
The remains of a bed.
A baby's charred cradle.
A charred doll.
Magnificent jewelry,
hand-hammered from the purest of gold.
And costume jewelry of beads,
stones, and amber.
and perhaps most astounding
of all food set on the table:
walnuts, freshly baked bread, eggs,
and figs preserved for
nearly 2,000 years.
In 1980, more than 270 years after
the initial discovery of Herculaneum,
a skeleton was uncovered on the site
of the ancient beach front.
Then three more were found there,
igniting the archeological community.
The arched chambers facing
the beach had never been excavated.
Now they cried out for attention.
Yet no one was prepared
for the landmark discovery
that would destroy scientific theory
on Herculaneum's final hours.
Many Herculaneans had not escaped.
Huddled together in the dark recesses
of the chambers,
scores were overtaken
by Vesuvius's indiscriminate rampage.
Perhaps members of the same family,
one group died locked in embrace.
Some of the victims were found wearing
valuables gold and shining gems.
Others, no doubt certain
they would escape,
gathered their treasure troves
and carried them as they fled.
Today, the cataclysm that brought
instant death
has become an unparalleled legacy
for modern scientists.
Analysis of the bone may answer some
of history's riddles
about Roman culture and daily life.
Physical anthropologist Dr. Sara Bisel
has spent her career
analyzing human bones,
but this opportunity is unique.
The reason why the Herculaneum
population is so important
is that it may well be the only one
we ever have from
the Roman period in Italy
because Roman burials were
cremations and so aren't studiable.
And we've had artifacts before,
we've had architectural remains,
we've had literature, but this is
the first time we've had real people.
I find it very moving.
Working with chief excavator
Ciro Formicola,
Bisel uncovers treasures locked
in the earth for nearly 2,000 years.
A magnificent bracelet is found
alongside a woman's remains.
No doubt a person of wealth,
she was found with much gold jewelry.
I think she must have had them
in her purse
since her arm is off
in another direction.
Oh, this one has a little chain.
Her earrings, meant for pierced ears,
were probably decorated with pearls.
And as she ran,
she carried a bronze oil lamp
futile protection against the dark.
I take them out of the ground
because they talk to me then.
They don't talk to me as much in
the ground as they do to other people.
But when I get them out, then they
tell me what they did all their lives
and what they did every day.
And they say whether they are male
or female, their ages,
what kind of work they did,
whether they were abused
when they were alive,
what sort of nutrition they had,
if they were sick.
Well, I can't see all the illnesses,
but some of them.
They can tell me that.
Women can tell me how many
babies they had.
They can't tell me whether
they were happy or not.
This is noteworthy.
From a pelvic bone Bisel is able to
tell the woman's approximate age
and how many babies she had.
Twenty-seven years;
two or three children.
She was roughly 27 years old
and had two or three babies.
From that little bone,
all that news.
In all, Bisel will analyze
some 25,000 bones.
It is a monumental task.
After the bones are cleaned, dried,
and dipped in an acrylic-resin
solution to harden them,
Bisel begins the process of
sorting and reconstruction.
In general I think they
are pretty healthy.
I haven't seen some of the gross
diseases that I might see.
Some of the people who, I presume,
were slaves show signs of working very
very hard and they're of course
not nearly so healthy
as some of the other people.
Ancient people have beautiful teeth,
even at ages of 35, 40, 45.
They have very few cavities
and very few abscesses
and all the teeth just line up
like piano keys.
With her trained eye, Bisel is able
to unravel a tantalizing mystery
about two people found lying together
in one of the chambers.
This baby was in the first chamber
that we excavated in the back part.
And actually before we
started taking people out,
all you could see was the top of
the little head,
and it was being held in the arms
of a young girl.
So we didn't know we knew it was a baby
but we didn't know too much about it.
The men that were working
with me all said,
This is the baby and its mother
and everything.
And I looked at the skeleton
of the girl holding it
and it was a prepubertal girl.
So I know it wasn't the mother.
So then they all said it
must be the sister,
but I'll show you that
I really don't think it was.
This baby was the baby of a rich family
because it had jewelry on it.
And I don't really think a child that's
from a poor family would have jewelry.
Now here's the girl
that was holding her.
And I'll show you why I don't think
she was the sister.
Sort of a nice-looking person,
isn't she?
Nice regular features.
But if you look really closely here
at these teeth,
you can see the line,
a really deep line,
and the same here on the first molar.
Now this deep indentation into
the enamel shows that
when the tooth was forming, she just
simply wasn't getting anything to eat.
That in itself does not point to
a girl of a rich family.
This is even more telling the humerus.
You see these places here the
attachment for the muscles here
on the humerus that's the arm bone
the attachment for the muscle here
shows severe pulling of that muscle,
which would really only happen in
someone who was lifting things
that were far too heavy
for her to lift.
And no daughter of a rich family would
have to work like that.
So I think she was a slave.
So you see that there really was a cross
section of people found on that beach.
It wasn't just poor people;
there were rich people.
You remember the lady with
the gold bracelets.
So everybody was down there
that didn't escape.
And they were all there together,
and they all died together.
But the central mystery remains:
why had they fled to the beach?
By studying various levels
of volcanic debris,
Dr. Haraldur Sigurdsson
of the University of Rhode Island
pieces together Herculaneum's
final hours.
The eruption of Vesuvius occurred
in two phases.
The first phase lasted for about
and resulted in ash fall over
a wide area.
During that phase the wind was blowing
from the north however,
so that Herculaneum was spared most of
the ash and here only about...
...two inches of ash fell during
the first 18 hours of activity.
Therefore, the population of
Herculaneum was relatively unaware
of the potential dangers for the city.
And so, many Herculaneans stayed.
But their good fortune did not last.
Sigurdsson finds evidence of a violent
change of events
that did not occur until many hours
after the ash fall began.
These layers contain important lines
of evidence.
First of all, carbonized wood,
or charcoal,
indicating temperatures of two to
three hundred degrees Centigrade,
as well as bricks and
all their building materials,
which indicate high force,
perhaps of the order of one to
two hundred kilometers per hour.
These layers, therefore,
in our interpretation represent surges
Now surges are the most deadly phases
of volcanic eruptions.
One phase of the Mount St. Helens'
eruption in 1980 was a surge.
Unlike slowly advancing lava flows,
Surges explode with the force
and fury of a nuclear bomb blast.
Compared to Mount St. Helens,
the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D.
was ten times more powerful.
For 12 hours Vesuvius hurled into
the sky a column of pumice and ash,
at times as high as 20 miles.
When the column collapsed,
it created a surge
superheated avalanche that blasted
through Herculaneum,
killing its residents.
Immediately after the surge
a slower-moving river of debris,
called a pyroclastic flow,
entombed and preserved them.
Of the five surges that followed,
three reached Pompeii,
but by now most people
there had already fled.
Herculaneans were not as fortunate.
In the ruins of one of Herculaneum's
bath houses
the enormity of
the mountain's fury is clear.
This heavy marble bowl was sitting
here by the window before the eruption
But when the surge blasted through
the window, it picked up the bowl
and the force of the surge threw it
across the room
where it left this impression
in the volcanic deposit.
If you look closely, you'll see
the impressions which were left
by window glass thrown into the bowl
when the surge blasted
through the window.
As midnight approached,
none could comprehend that their world
would be snuffed out
in one horrifying blow.
With the surge bearing down on their
town at more than 60 miles an hour,
the Herculaneans had less than
five minutes to flee to the beach,
no doubt hoping to escape by sea.
When escape became impossible,
they ran into the chambers.
Scorched by the searing heat
of the surge,
they suffocated as the gases tore
at their lungs.
Pyroclastic flows that followed
sealed them where they lay
frozen for nearly two millennia
in the tortured postures
of their final moments on this earth.
To date excavations along the ancient
beach front have exposed ten chambers.
But Herculaneum is less
than half excavated.
It seems certain other chambers,
with other dead, remain hidden
in the volcanic debris.
Because parts of Herculaneum lie
buried below the homes
and shops of Ercolano,
they may never see the light of day,
never reveal their ancient secrets
to the modern world.
seven miles west of Naples is Pozzuoli
the largest town in a region known
as the Fiery Fields.
The entire region is a caldera
formed about 35,000 years ago
by a massive eruption.
The Fiery Fields are dotted with some
two dozen vents of smaller volcanoes.
The only one still active is on
the outskirts of Pozzouli itself.
It is called La Solfatara
sulfur earth
Unable to explain the constant steam
and bubbling mud,
the ancients thought surely this
was an entrance to the underworld.
In more recent times Solfatara was
reputedly a source
of inspiration for Dante's "Inferno".
Throughout its history Solfatara
has drawn the attention
of layman and scientist alike.
In the beginning it was pressure
and steam
and we cannot enter the area
because it is dangerous
because there is a corrosion
by the steam of the crater.
So there is the possibility
of collapse of the ground.
Today, scientists stand behind
a wire fence,
protected against ground collapse.
Seventy years ago they were able
to work in this observatory
right on the crater's floor.
Just beyond the trees at the edge
of the crater one is not prepared
for the unlikely sight of campers.
Here, for a few thousand line,
a few American dollars,
tourists from many countries
come to vacation.
This unusual piece of real estate
has been owned by the De Luca family
for more than 100 years.
Eugenio de Luca.
Not so many people used to come here
to see the volcano
because they were afraid.
Now they come again.
But we, me personally,
we have never been afraid.
I was sure, we were sure
that nothing would happen.
I mean nothing volcanic, you know.
Tourists continue to come with
fascination and awe,
and no doubt a bit of daring.
But just beyond the ridge, thousands
of people harbor only deep concern.
The uneasy of Pozzuoli live and work
with Solfatara as a permanent neighbor
Pozzuoli is a working-class
fishing town.
Two thousand years ago,
like Herculaneum and Ischia,
it was a favorite holiday resort
of Italian aristocracy.
In its heyday it was also one of the
principal trading centers
of the Roman Empire.
Now as then, hawkers pitch their wares
They go about their business,
but buyers and sellers alike are
keenly aware
of another potential danger
this one under their feet.
Throughout recorded history Pozzuoli
has been plagued
by earthquakes triggered
by the rise and fall
of magma lying beneath the town.
As the magma has risen and fallen,
so has the town.
As the ancient Roman marketplace
the columns of the Temple of Serapis
were above water level when the market
was built 2,000 years ago.
Now they are marked with the burrows
of marine mollusks,
evidence that over the centuries
Serapis has been periodically submerged
As recently as 1976
it was largely flooded.
One period of startling uplift
occurred in the early 1970s
when the ground rose five-and-half feet
in only three years.
Boats that once anchored
alongside their docks
must now be reached by ladder.
Were Pozzuoli not situated near water,
the uplift would be more difficult
to see.
In fact, it was fishermen
who first noticed it,
as well as the bubbles boiling up
from steam vents on the sea floor.
If too much pressure builds,
the threat is an explosion like the
one that formed this mountain in 1538.
Preceded by a series of earthquakes,
the eruption raised the earth
more than 400 feet in just three days.
On October 4, 1983, after months
of daily tremors,
a four-point earthquake
wracked Pozzuoli.
The older buildings fared the worst.
Already weakened by a period of
renewed volcanic uplift,
many, like this church,
all but crumbled into ruin.
No one can say how many houses
were damaged,
but at least half the population
moved out
some in fear,
others at government order.
With their economy collapsed
and schools closed,
an estimated 35,000 people were
relocated to hotels
and temporary camps hastily set up
by the government.
A population already severely stressed
by a year of continuous tremors
was now uprooted from the only home
most had ever known.
In 1985 the volcanic uplift
mysteriously stopped
and people began to return to Pozzuoli
Some businesses, their buildings
destroyed or deemed unsafe,
set up temporary shops
in the town's main park.
Scientists can neither explain
the calm nor guarantee future safety.
Many residents still live elsewhere,
returning to the town only by day.
For fishermen, the best catch
is just after dawn.
So Raffaele Bucciero,
and many others like him,
must sleep in Pozzuoli
or lose their livelihoods.
Working with his son Vincenzo
every day but Sunday,
he hauls in their mile-long net.
The bountiful water are famous for
their shellfish, octopus, and squid.
Vincenzo has a full-time factory job
during the day
and has no desire to become a fisherman
But he knows his father needs help
with the physically demanding work.
Vincenzo has his own family now, but
his ties to his parents remain strong.
Raffaele's wife works perhaps hardest
of all to keep family ties intact,
traveling daily to Pozzuoli
by bus from where she now lives.
Annunziata Bucciero is too frightened
to stay in the damaged apartment
the family once shared.
Major efforts are underway to
reinforce damages buildings
by injecting new cement into them.
But for many people,
the chaos and devastation keeps
their fear of the quake palpably real.
Pozzuoli may be Mrs. Bucciero's
birthplace and home,
but surrounded by the rubble,
she is simply too terrified
to spend even one night.
To retain some semblance
of the family's former life,
Mrs. Bucciero has made a ritual
of the midday meal.
For two long years,
since their apartment was judged unsafe,
the routine has seldom varied.
They are fortunate to have inherited
from her mother
a small ground-level storage room
where the family can gather.
Making do with a portable gas stove,
she takes immense pride in being
able to provide for her family
as she has for more than 35 years.
"I was happy," she says.
"All I cared about was having
my family around me.
But the earthquake divided us."
In a few years retirement is the goal
of Raffaele Bucciero, now 61.
Until that time his life remains tied
to the rhythm of the sea.
He says: We have this cross to bear,
my wife and I.
Our children are scattered all over.
We can't all be together,
so we fixed up this little room.
My wife and I sacrifice. I fish
and she comes and cooks and cleans.
At one o'clock the family is united,
the number of people varying
from day to day.
With their parents today are
one daughter and one son
and their respective fiancs.
It is a time to talk and laugh,
to eat and drink,
and to reenter each other's world
A time to pretend their family
has not been torn apart
and that in one short hour
they won't again be forced
to go their separate ways.
Before nightfall descends on Pozzuoli,
jitneys crowd the marketplace
to transport home
those like Mrs. Bucciero
who live a distance away.
My family is everything to me,
she says.
Alone late at night, I sometimes cry.
After dark Pozzuoli becomes
a veritable ghost town.
His net set out for the night,
Raffaele eats the evening meal
his wife has left behind.
It's very hard, he says.
At my age where would I go?
Pozzuoli has always been our home.
Home or not, many residents have been
forced by authorities to leave.
About four miles northwest of Pozzuoli
in a presumably safe zone,
the government is building a new town
for 20,000 people.
Acclaiming it the "new Pozzuoli",
officials hope it will develop
a vital social and economic life.
But many residents are doubtful.
Isolated from friends and loved ones,
they stay only because
there's nowhere else to go.
Perhaps none are more deeply affected
by Pozzuoli's problems
than some elderly who are separated
from their families and their town.
"During the quake", she says,
the walls were going like this,
and I called out to Jesus.
the ceiling was shaking and the smell
of cracking plaster was everywhere.
It is a trauma for me when I think of
when I used to live in Pozzuoli,
and it hurts to see it so deserted
and convulsed.
I miss everything in Pozzuoli,
everything. It is my home.
Generations have been shaken by fear.
A new generation waits and wonders
when the quakes will strike again.
Until now the Fiery Fields' volcanic
uplife has only been monitored on land
But the Gulf of Pozzuoli is also part
of the ancient caldera.
Prof. Lorenzo Mirabile believes a
true picture of the phenomenon
will only emerge by including a study
of the sea floor.
His team of scientists from
Naples' Institute of Oceanography
will place instruments at four
locations on the bottom of the gulf.
Surface buoys will mark their location
The instruments will indicate
any uplift of the sea floor
by measuring the changes in the height
of the water
between the bottom and the surface.
They will also monitor water
temperature and seismic activity,
taking into account such variables
as currents, tides, and storms.
Solar-powered radio transmitters relay
the data to a centralized computer.
The signals from the gulf are received
at five-minute intervals,
But Mirabile believes it will take at
least a year to accumulate enough data
to even determine what
is critical uplift and what is not.
Then, he hopes, the information,
in combination with the findings
of geologists and volcanologists,
can be used to develop an early
warning system to alert Pozzuoli
before disaster strikes.
The Fiery Fields are home to 200,000
people; grater Naples, to two million.
The evacuation of such numbers poses
astronomical problems.
Yet, without doubt,
Vesuvius is still active;
it will erupt again.
The most recent eruption, in 1944,
was filmed by the Allied troops that
had recently liberated war-torn Naples
Relentlessly for three days the lava
rolled over farmlands and vineyards,
moving ever close to the town
of San Sebastiano.
Lying just three miles below
Vesuvius's central crater,
San Sebastiano has historically
been an easy target.
Nearly every generation living here
since the early 19th century
has seen their town destroyed.
Even their patron saint seemed
helpless against the onslaught.
Miraculously, only two people died,
but two thirds of the buildings
were totally destroyed.
Most of the population was homeless.
Two hundred yards wide, the solidified
lava flow remains today
as a vivid reminder of
San Sebastiano's perilous hours.
One man remember well.
Nineteen at the time of the eruption,
Raffaele Capasso would go on to
become mayor of San Sebastiano,
a position he has held for 31 years.
For his the-year-old niece he recalls
the events of 1944
as the lave advanced and
inundated the town.
Could it erupt again? She asks.
Yes, he replies. The volcano has been
sleeping now for 42 years.
We've never seen it
sleep that long before.
But, he goes on, we must rely
on scientists to alert us in time.
Under Mayor Capasso's leadership,
San Sebastiano today is a thriving,
bustling town.
As a young man, it was he who urged
the townspeople
not to abandon their city,
but to rebuild.
And rebuild they did right on
top of the lava.
What might be an ominous reminder
of past horrors
stands as unofficial monument
to a people's tenacity and pride.
Mayor Capasso, often quoted as saying,
"The power of man in greater
than the power of the volcano",
has turned San Sebastiano
into a showcase city.
Before the eruption some
Today, that figure
has more than doubled.
And San Sebastiano is
but one of 14 towns
that crowd the slopes of Vesuvius.
Twice every year, those living
in Vesuvius's shadow throng
to Naples' cathedral, the Duomo,
in anticipation of an ages-old ritual
the miracle of San Gennaro,
their patron saint.
San Gennaro, martired in 305 A.D.,
is said to have saved the region
from famines, plagues, and cholera.
But perhaps most importantly,
he is its protector against
the might of Vesuvius.
A small amount of his dried blood
is stored in the Duomo.
The faithful believe it must
turn to liquid today
to ensure Naples' safety
from Vesuvius for another year.
Occasionally, the miracle has not
occurred for instance in 1979.
Then in 1980 the region suffered
a devastating earthquake
from which it is still recovering.
Nearly 3,000 died.
A hundred thousand were homeless.
The miracle has happened.
Vesuvius, the devout believe,
will not harm them for another year.
They offer prayers of thanks.
This land holds their roots;
it is their beloved home.
And once again San Gennaro
has assured them it is safe.
With renewed faith on this bright
and hopeful day,
it is a time to reflect, to look
to the future, and to celebrate.
Yet even as they rejoice,
the faces of the present hauntingly
evoke the faces of the past.
The faces of the living are reflected
in the faces of the dead.
In 1632 the Viceroy of Naples warned:
Children and children's children. Hear
I warn you now. Sooner or
later this mountain takes fire.
Flee so long as you can.
And yet people still return
to the slopes of the mountain,
even to build new town farther up
its broad and fertile flanks.
In years to come,
scientists will continue to be drawn
to the towns of Vesuvius
to probe more deeply
the mysteries of the past,
to ponder the fate of those
whose lives were lost.
Perhaps today the power of man has
become greater than the volcano.
Perhaps science does hold hope
for a future
when Nature can at last be tamed.
Ultimately, perhaps,
it may be the indomitable human spirit
that will prevail.
Those in the shadow of Vesuvius
have been called courageous by some,
foolhardy by others.
The judgment is history's to decide.
For now only this is sure:
if holocaust is only dimly feared,
its specter nevertheless remains.
Long after the sun has disappeared
from the sky,
a mountain's shadow continues to fall.