Imagine you are a plebeian and write a newspaper account of the eruption in AD79

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Thomas Rolfe        Year 11        Classics

Imagine you are a plebeian and write a newspaper account of the eruption in AD79

        It was the 24th August AD79.  It was just another summer’s day.  As I walked through the town of Pompeii I saw the tradesmen removing the shutters from their shops and hanging up their merchandise.  Clothes were being washed in the laundry of Stephanus.  The baker placed his dough next to the fire.  I felt the earthquake so strongly that morning it shook the whole town.  I had noticed several small shudders before today, but nothing as intense as the shudder we just had.  It was then when Mount Vesuvius erupted.  The ground shook and charred fragments began to fall.  It spread as far as Stabie.  I grabbed a cushion and tied it to my head, hoping to protect myself from the hail of pumice that was pelting down onto me.  By the end of the following day, few were dead but many were left homeless.  I had lost my home, covered in ash and solidified mud along with the flourishing Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

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The eruption was unexpected even though there had been small shudders.  I had no water as our water supplies had dried up.  It was thought that the hot summer had caused the water sauces to disappear.  I thought that the Gods must have been filled with so much anger to cause such damage to our towns, killing our people with the eruption of the volcano. I saw debris thrown into the heavens and it spread like an umbrella pine.  The rocks and debris fell onto the towns which surrounded the volcano.  The towns included Herculaneum, Pompeii and Stabie.   ...

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