Although it now lies inland, before the volcanic eruption of October 79 AD, the structure occupied more than 250 metres (820 ft) of coastline along the Gulf of Naples.

[2] The living and reception quarters were grouped around the porticoes and terraces, giving occupants ample sunlight and a view of the countryside and sea.

[2] The luxury of the villa is evidenced not only by the many works of art, but especially by the large number of rare bronze statues found there, all masterpieces.

[2] Five statues of life-sized bronze dancing women wearing the Doric peplos sculpted in different positions and with inlaid eyes are adapted Roman copies of originals from the fifth century BC.

This philosophy taught that man is mortal, that the cosmos is the result of accident, that there is no providential god, and that the criteria of a good life are pleasure and temperance.

[5] Philodemus' connections with Piso brought him an opportunity to influence the young students of Greek literature and philosophy who gathered around him at Herculaneum and Naples.

[5] At the time of the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79, the valuable library was packed in cases ready to be moved to safety when it was overtaken by a pyroclastic flow; the eruption eventually deposited some 20–25 m of volcanic ash over the site, charring the scrolls but preserving them – the only surviving library of Antiquity – as the ash hardened to form tuff.

[14][15] Excavation work at Herculaneum was done through digging tunnels, and piercing walls, in an attempt to find treasures like paintings, statues and other ornaments to be exhibited in the Museum Herculanense, part of the King's Royal Palace in Portici.

[1] Initially the first papyri scrolls which were obtained in 1752 were thrown away due to the high number, then Bernardo Tanucci advised the King to study them.

[17] Camillo Paderni who took part at the excavations and was possibly the first to transcribe papyri, noted in a letter dated 1754, "...in five places, where we might have expected to meet with busts or statues, the antients had been digging before us, and taken them away.

The method, whereby they regulated their searches, seems to have been this: where the ground was pretty easy to work, they dug through it and where they met with the solid lava they desisted.

[9] In the 1980s, work on re-discovering the villa began by studying 18th century documentation on entrances to the tunnels and in 1986 the breakthrough was made through an ancient well.

With multi-spectral imaging, many pictures of the illegible papyri are taken using different filters in the infrared or the ultraviolet range, finely tuned to capture certain wavelengths of light.

"[26] In 1970, oil billionaire J. Paul Getty engaged the architectural firm of Langdon and Wilson to create a replica of the Villa dei Papiri to serve as a museum where his collection of antiquities would be displayed.

Based on Weber's plans published in Le Antichità di Ercolano, the museum was built on Getty's Malibu ranch in 1972–1974.

The reconceived Getty Villa, as it is now called, serves as an annex dedicated to the display of the museum's antiquities and as a centre for the study of ancient art.

At the start of the eruption, Rectina prepares to have the library evacuated and sends urgent word to her old friend, Pliny the Elder, who commands the Roman Navy at Misenum on the other side of the Bay of Naples.

Pliny immediately sets out in a warship, and gets in sight of the villa, but the eruption prevents him from landing and taking off Rectina and her library – which is left for modern archaeologists to find.

According to the 1908 publication Buried Herculaneum by Ethel Ross Barker, there were busts of Athene Gorgolopha, Archaistic Pallas, Archaic Apollo, Head of an Amazon, Dionysus or Plato (Poseidon?

[28] Frescoes included: Theseus victorious over the Minotaur, Telephus suckled by the hind, Chiron teaching Achilles the lyre, Perseus slaying Medusa, a charioteer, and papyri.