Event
Risk and Vulnerability on the Campanian Plain (Italy): The Vesuvius Eruption of 472 CE
Campbell Grey, Department of Classical Studies, University of Pennsylvania
The Somma-Vesuvius volcano in Campania, Italy, erupted spectacularly on November 6, 472 CE, ejecting a mixture of lava, pumice and volcanic debris into the air. Pyroclastic flows surged out of the crater and, in the damp conditions of a late-Fall day, mixed with loose, wet soil and other debris to create a series of lahars which flowed through the Campanian plains, causing widespread damage. Large quantities of ash were flung into the air and blown by favorable winds as far as Constantinople, in modern-day Turkey.
However, no eyewitness account of the eruption survives, and there is little in the way of textual evidence for its effects upon Campania. Building on such evidence as does exist, the immediate and longer-term effects of this event on the region and its inhabitants are reconstructed. In particular, the intimate connection between the immensely rich resources of the region and the hazard that hovered at the edge of consciousness for the residents of the Campanian Plain are explored. This relationship provides an opportunity to define more closely concepts of risk and vulnerability, which are fundamental to the multidisciplinary field of disaster studies.