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Pompei Essay

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Are the remains in Pompeii and indication of how the Ancient Romans lived? The city of Pompeii has been frozen in time since the early afternoon of 24th August 79CE. A gigantic time capsule, illustrating the everyday life of ancient Romans, has captured the last moments of at least two thousand people. Pompeii had remained mostly untouched up until 1594 when building an aqueduct, upon uncovering the ashes that worked as a preservative, they found the ruins of a once great town. Casts of people showed their dying moments, gold and precious household items littered the streets. (Staff, 2010) From the ruins of the city, it is reasonable to assume that the rest of Roman society was much the same as Pompeii was at the time of the eruption. (Whipps, 2007) The 24th August began just as every other day for the citizens of Pompeii. However the warning of an earthquake sixteen years earlier did not warn them of the incoming danger. Mount …show more content…

Pompeii’s amphitheatre was built shortly after 80 BCE; this causes it to become the oldest known example of its kind in the Roman world. Any event hosted in the amphitheatre was strongly publicised and well attended. These attendee’s were not just the citizens of Pompeii, but many of the spectators were from the surrounding villages. (Western Australian Museum, n/d) It is recorded at in 59 CE, a riot broke out between Pompeian fans and the citizens of the nearby town of Nuceria, and as a result, the amphitheatre was closed for a decade. A gentler form of entertainment, with less gore, was that of theatrical performances. Pompeii’s theatre was old, built originally in the second century BCE in the traditional Greek Style, this was later enlarged and modernised to look similar to the Roman theatre. The drama of ancient Greece proved popular with the Romans, shown in wall paintings depicting the Greek playwright

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