In the city of Pompeii, the preserved ancient Roman city in Campania, Italy

 The town of Pompeii, in Italy is legendary for having been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

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(in a preserved ancient Roman city in Campania, Italy, located southeast of Naples at the base of Mount Vesuvius.) Pompeii, the preserved ancient Roman city in Campania, Italy, 14 miles (23 km) southeast of Naples, at the southeastern base of Mount Vesuvius. Around noon on August 24, 79 CE, a huge eruption from Mount Vesuvius showered volcanic debris over the city of Pompeii, followed the next day by clouds of blisteringly hot gases. Lots of buildings were destroyed, the population was crushed or asphyxiated, and the city was buried beneath a blanket of ash and pumice. For many centuries Pompeii slept beneath its pall of ash, which perfectly preserved the remains. When these were finally unearthed, in the 1700s, the world was astonished at the discovery of a sophisticated Greco-Roman city frozen in time.

+ Pompeii was built on a spur formed by a prehistoric lava flow to the north of the mouth of the Sarnus (modern Sarno) river. Herculaneum, Stabiae, Torre Annunziata, and other communities were destroyed along with Pompeii. Herculaneum, and Torre Annunziata, which were were collectively designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1997. Pompeii supported between 10,000 and 20,000 inhabitants at the time of its destruction. The modern town (comune) of Pompei (pop. [2011] 25,440) lies to the east (and contains the Basilica of Santa Maria del Rosario, a pilgrimage center.)

Archaeological evidence indicates that the Oscan village of Pompeii soon came under the influence of the cultured Greeks who had settled across the bay in the 8th century BCE. Greek influence was challenged when Etruscans came into Campania in the 7th century. The Etruscans’ influence remained strong until their sea power was destroyed by King Hieron I of Syracuse in a naval battle off Cumae in 474 BCE. A second period of Greek hegemony followed. Then, toward the end of the 5th century, the warlike Samnites, an Italic tribe, conquered Campania, and Pompeii. (Stabiae and Herculaneum, became Samnite towns.) Pompeii is first mentioned in history in 310 BCE, when, during the Second Samnite War, a Roman fleet landed at the Sarnus port of Pompeii and from there made an unsuccessful attack on the neighboring city of Nuceria. At the end of the Samnite wars, Campania became a part of the Roman confederation, and the cities became “allies” of Rome. But they were not completely subjugated and Romanized until the time of the Social War. (Pompeii joined the Italians in their revolt against Rome in this war and was besieged by the Roman general Lucius Cornelius Sulla in 89 BCE.) After the war, Pompeii,received Roman citizenship. However, as a punishment for Pompeii’s part in the war, a colony of Roman veterans was established there under Publius Sulla, the nephew of the Roman general. Latin replaced Oscan as the language, and the city were Romanized in culture, institutions, and architecture.