For PaleoJudaica posts on the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE and its destruction of Herculaneum and Pompeii, start here and here and follow the many links. For more on the pyroclastic surge that killed the people of Pompeii, start at the latter post and follow the links.
The emergency resue operation lead by Pliny the Elder, in which he himself perished, may have saved a couple of thousand people from the eruption. See the links above.
For the carbonized library at Herculaneum and the ongoing efforts to recover it, see here and links. For some possible connections between the eruption, Pompeii, and ancient Judaism, see the links collected here plus this post.
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