What might surprise us is how similar the Roman government’s response was to what we hope for in Western democracies of the early 21st century. Emperor Titus toured the disaster sites, and subsequently offered survivors financial support to rebuild their lives. Suetonius, who published a biography of Titus in the early 120s, explains: “Immediately [Titus] chose commissioners by lot from among the ex-consuls for the restoration of Campania; the property of those extinguished by Vesuvius, and who had no surviving heirs, he donated to the restoration of the affected cities.”
