Before the Roman colonisation , the area of today 's Somma Vesuviana was probably inhabited by Italic peoples like Samnites and Oscans . Later it became a vacation place for the rich patricians of Rome , who built magnificent villas in the area . A villa was discovered in the 1930s in the '' frazione '' of Starza della Regina , and interpreted at the time as that of emperor Augustus at Nola where he probably passed his last days of life . In 2002 excavations on the villa started again which determined that the villa was buried during the eruption of Vesuvius of 472 AD and not 79 AD ( like that which buried Pompeii etc. ) , and so was part of the community that continued after the earlier eruption and recovered better than the territories to the south . Much of the villa has been brought to light with its rich decoration
79 AD
Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79
Somma Vesuviana