Herculaneum Rediscovered

April 1, 1738

Workmen digging a well for the new Bourbon king of Naples struck marble, then bronze, then a Roman theater buried in volcanic mud. The city of Herculaneum, entombed by Vesuvius in 79 AD, began to emerge. The rediscovery of classical antiquity under one's feet would help reshape European taste from Pompeii frescoes to Napoleon's columns.