The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 destroyed Pompeii—but it did not erase its people. While around 2,000 perished in the catastrophe, thousands fled and survived, building new lives in Campania’s neighboring towns such as Neapolis, Cumae, and Puteoli. Unique family names found in tomb inscriptions reveal the migration of Pompeiians and evidence of intermarriage among survivors. But survival also meant returning. Archaeological digs in the southern neighborhoods of Pompeii uncovered post-eru

On August 24 in the year 79 CE, one of the most infamous natural disasters in history took place when Mount Vesuvius erupted in Italy, burying the inhabitants of nearby Pompeii, Stabiae, and Herculaneum in volcanic ash. Exact reconstructions and details of the eruption vary widely, but it is known that it lasted two days, and was preceded by small earthquakes that started on 20 August. According to Pliny the Younger, whose description of the event is the only surviving eyewitness account, Romans