Editing Mount Vesuvius (section)

====Casualties====
[[File:Pompeii&Vesuvius.JPG|thumb|Pompeii, with Vesuvius towering above]]

Along with Pliny the Elder, the only other noble casualties of the eruption to be known by name were Agrippa (a son of the Herodian Jewish princess [[Drusilla (daughter of Agrippa I)|Drusilla]] and the procurator [[Antonius Felix]]) and his wife.<ref>{{cite book|first=Flavius|last=Josephus|author-link=Josephus|title=Jewish Antiquities |section= xx.7.2|orig-date=94 AD<!-- 94 AD is the real date --> |title-link=Jewish Antiquities}} Also known to have been mentioned in a section now lost.</ref>

By 2003, around 1,044&nbsp;casts made from impressions of bodies in the ash deposits had been recovered in and around Pompeii, with the scattered bones of another 100.<ref name="Episodes">{{cite journal |journal= Episodes |volume= 26 |date= September 2003 |title= The eruption of Vesuvius of 79 AD and its impact on human environment in Pompei |first1= Lisetta |last1= Giacomelli |first2= Annamaria |last2= Perrotta |first3= Roberto |last3= Scandone |first4= Claudio |last4= Scarpati |issue= 3 |pages= 235–238 |doi= 10.18814/epiiugs/2003/v26i3/014 |doi-access= free }}</ref> The remains of about 332 bodies have been found at Herculaneum (300 in arched vaults discovered in 1980).<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.fieldmuseum.org/pompeii/herculaneum_2.asp | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090318012551/http://www.fieldmuseum.org/pompeii/herculaneum_2.asp | archive-date = 18 March 2009 | title = Pompeii, Stories from an eruption: Herculaneum | year=2007|publisher = The Field Museum of Natural History |location=Chicago | work = Soprintendenza archeologica di Pompei| access-date = 12 May 2010}}</ref> What percentage these numbers are of the total dead or the percentage of the dead to the total number at risk remain unknown.

Thirty-eight percent of the 1,044 were found in the ash fall deposits, the majority inside buildings. These are thought to have been killed mainly by roof collapses, with the smaller number of victims found outside of buildings probably being killed by falling roof slates or by larger rocks thrown out by the volcano. The remaining 62% of remains found at Pompeii were in the pyroclastic surge deposits,<ref name="Episodes" /> and thus were probably killed by them – probably from a combination of suffocation from inhaling ashes and blast and debris thrown around. Examination of cloth, frescoes and skeletons shows that, in contrast to the victims found at Herculaneum, it is unlikely that high temperatures were a significant cause of the destruction at Pompeii. Herculaneum, much closer to the crater, was saved from tephra falls by the wind direction but was buried under {{convert |23|m}} of material deposited by pyroclastic surges. Likely, most of the known victims in this town were killed by the surges.

People in Herculaneum, caught on the former seashore by the first surge, died of thermal shock. The rest were concentrated in arched chambers at a density of as high as three persons per square metre. As only {{convert|85|m|ft}} of the coast have been excavated, further casualties may be discovered.