On this day in 79 A.D., the Roman towns of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Oplontis, and Stabiae were destroyed and buried by a massive eruption of Mount Vesuvius. I mean massive. We’re talking 100,000 times the thermal energy of an atomic bomb. Adding to the tragic loss of life was the destruction of Pompeii’s heralded vineyards. The town’s wine was considered some of the finest, and strongest, in Europe at the time. Though perhaps not the most sanitary. Pliny the Elder, a Roman author and naval commander who would be slain by the eruption, wrote that finding drowned rodents in Pompeii’s dolias, the large clay vessels used to transport and store the wine, was a pretty common occurrence. And if you thought that discovery would incite a thirsty Roman to dump the wine, you are gravely mistaken. Pliny’s advice was to gather up the marinated mice and roast them over a fire, because they were quite delicious. See, that’s why the Romans ruled for so long. If life handed them wine bobbing with drowned mice, they paired it with tasty mice snacks.
