Ancient Pompeii w. Dr Ray Laurence

In less than a millennium, Pompeii went from being indigenous, to Samnite, to Roman, and in the 1st century CE, was cataclysmically destroyed by the eruption of a volcano. Professor & chair in the Department of History & Archaeology at Macquarie University, Dr Ray Laurence, joins the show to discuss ancient Pompeii.

Some topics explored

• What Pompeii was in history and is today
• When it comes into the records archaeologically and in writing
• Where it’s located
• What’s known about it in its indigenous period
• The etymology of the word Pompeii
• Tradition that surrounds Pompeii (including a festival dedicated to Hercules) and their sources
• What’s known about its indigenous language(s) and governance
• Pompeii under Samnite rule
• Pompeii participating in The Social War
• Trade and commerce
• It’s architecture
• Rome besieging Pompeii in 89 BCE and Romanizing the city (including the Oscan language disappearing and being replaced with Latin)
• Examples of children being elected to town council
• Writings that survive and the kinds of topics written about
• A large earthquake that occurred in 62 CE and the city’s rebuilding afterwards
• Details about the Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE

Listen to the episode

The episode can be streamed below and is also available on major podcast apps: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music.

About Professor Laurence

Ray Laurence is Professor of Ancient History at Macquarie University (Australia), previous to his move to Macquarie University – he was Professor of Roman History and Archaeology at the University of Kent (UK). His work based in Archaeology, History and Classics is characterized by a cross-disciplinary aspect that causes it to be accessible to architects, landscape historians, geographers and urbanists. He has published books and articles on urbanism at Pompeii and across the Western half of the Roman Empire.

Show Notes

• Professor Laurence is author of Pompeii: Space and Society (Routledge, 2007) and co-author of Pompeii: the living city (Orion Publishing, 2005)
• During the episode, Andrew Schiestel mentioned a couple related podcast episodes: Ancient Civilization of Samnium w. Dr Rafael Scopacasa (June 14, 2021) and The Social War – Year 1 of 5 w. Dr. Seth Kendall (July 19, 2021)