Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Pompeii's destruction as divine retribution - again

POMPEII'S DESTRUCTION as divine retribution is explored by the Jerusalem Post. The article is mainly just a summary of Hershel Shanks's BAR piece from July. As the article notes, the disaster took place 1931 years ago today. It also interviews Shanks briefly, but, disappointingly, it does not consult any scholars to get their comments on Shanks's arguments. That would have been interesting.

Follow the second link for some background on the Pompeii disaster. The fresco depicting Solomon is noted here.

UPDATE: Joseph I. Lauer points to a blog post by David Meadows at Rogue Classicism commenting on the original article. David raises a very good point, although it is addressed in passing in the Solomon link above.

UPDATE (25 August): Ah yes, it was also the 1600th anniversary of the sack of Rome.