This Week: The wrath of Mother Nature

Posted by Robin Fowler Aug 20, 2006

August 23 - The festival of the Vulcanalia was held on this day. During this festival, held in honor of Vulcan, Roman god of fire, Romans burned small animals alive in order to pay tribute.

August 24, 79 A.D. - Mt. Vesuvius erupts, burying the Roman town of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae beneath several feet of volcanic ash and mud. The discoveries of the remains of these towns and its inhabitants many centuries later would provide some of the greatest cultural and historical information about the Roman Empire ever uncovered.

August 24, 79 A.D. - Pliny the Elder, famed Roman writer and staunch naturalist, dies in the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius.

August 25 - The festival of Opiconsivia is held in honor of Ops, the Roman goddess of plenty and fertility.

August 26, 55 B.C. - Julius Caesar invades Britain on this date, the first of two invasions in his attempted conquest of the region.