Roman Society
He founded Rome in 753 BCE.
Romulus.
This date marks the eruption that buried Pompeii
25 August 79 CE
People here died slowly from pumice and ash.
Pompeii
In Roman society, the size of a home and the quality of its artwork showed this about the owner.
Their status and wealth
The poorer lower class.
Plebians
This famous Roman arena once hosted gladiator battles and even reenactments of naval fights to entertain the public.
The Colosseum
Romans named each year after these officials.
Consuls of Rome.
This town, closest to Mount Vesuvius, was mostly destroyed by a deadly pyroclastic surge.
Herculaneum
The mosaic revealed the owner’s education, military achievement, and privilege.
Their social status.
Picture or pattern created by piecing together many small, often irregular pieces of coloured material, such as stone, glass tile, or ceramic.
Mosaic
These four factors determined Roman rank and status.
Ancestry, rank, gender and citizenship
These are the full terms that the abbreviations BCE and CE stand for.
Before the Common Era / Common Era
This Pompeian home housed the mosaic.
House of the Faun.
This term refers to a small square tile of stone or glass used in mosaics.
Tesserae
A fast-moving current of hot gas and volcanic matter that flows along the ground away from a volcano down its slope.
Pyroclastic flow.
This emperor began construction of the Colosseum in 72 CE before it was later completed by his successor.
Emperor Vespasian
This Latin phrase is what the abbreviation AD stands for.
Anno Domini
He uncovered Pompeii between 1594–1600.
Domenico Fontana.
This famous mosaic from Pompeii was created using an enormous number of tesserae.
1.5 million
A type of tourism that involves travel to sites where death, suffering, tragedy, distance or violence took place.
Dark Tourism.
This phrase, meaning “bread and circuses,” described how emperors controlled the Romans.
Panem et Circenses
Pliny the Younger wrote two famous letters to Tacitus describing the eruption of Mount Vesuvius this many years after Pompeii was destroyed.
25 years later
This large Pompeian home featured a dancing faun statue and four dining rooms, while another belonged to two freedmen who became wealthy wine merchants.
House of the Faun / House of the Vettii
This battle is depicted in a famous mosaic in which Alexander the Great charges forward on horseback while Darius III is pulled away in his chariot.
The Battle of Issus.
Extremely explosive eruption that produces ash columns that extend into the stratosphere and spread out into an umbrella-like shape.
Plinian eruption.