Over the weekend, an ancient Roman came to life on Twitter to recount the final hours of the city of Pompeii before Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried the Roman city and all of its residents in ash.
In real-time and exactly 1,933 years after the eruption, Pliny the Elder -- a Roman scholar and commender of the Roman fleet at Misenum who took command of the city's evacuation in August, 79 AD and died trying to rescue a friend and his family from the disaster -- was resurrected, if only briefly and digitally, to tell the tale as it happened from 10 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 24 until 6:55 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 25 when his final tweet was posted.
Pliny the Elder's first tweet went out on Wednesday before the eruption:
To which, some of the Elder's nearly 5,000 followers tweeted "Run!" and "Leave now!!" 25 tweets follow, bringing history back to life as the Elder Pliny describes the scene in Pompeii as things turn from bad to worse. Each tweet is accompanied by a link back to an interactive website with photos and more information about Pliny the Elder's whereabouts during those fateful hours in August of 79 AD.
The tweets are based on the final hours of Pliny the Elder's life as told by his nephew and heir, Pliny the Younger, who obtained an account of his Uncle's death from the survivors and told the story in a letter to Tacitus, a senator and historian of the Roman Empire. Read Pliny the Younger's letter to Tacitus here, historians believe that the Younger wrote the letter to Tacitus nearly thirty years after the tragedy occurred.
The novel Twitter campaign was launched by The Denver Museum of Nature & Science in preparation for their upcoming exhibit focused on the ancient Roman city which opens Sept. 14. Called "A Day in Pompeii," the exhibit will display some of the hundreds of artifacts that were unearthed when the city was rediscovered in the early 1700s.
Highlights will include some of the marble and bronze sculptures, jewelry, and gold coins as well as casts of the volcano's victims frozen in their last moments and everyday household items once used by the citizens of Pompeii.
There are still tickets available for the opening day of the "A Day in Pompeii" exhibit, click here for availability.
Twitter campaign and website put together by Carmichael Lynch.
LOOK: Pliny The Elder's tweets about Pompeii's final hours