In 2004 , in an interview on the Australian television programme '' 60 Minutes '' , Wallace-Hadrill aired his opinion about the neglect of the archaeological site of Pompeii . He was described as an " angry archaeologist " when he argued that the conservation issues that need to be acted upon urgently at Pompeii are being neglected and that the site is suffering from a " second death " . Regarding the deterioration of Pompeii , he contends , " Man is wreaking a damage far greater than Vesuvius . The moment of Pompeii 's destruction was also the moment of its preservation . The public needs to understand that unless constant efforts are taken to arrest the decay , the site will , within decades crumble to nothing . " Wallace-Hadrill has made three well-reviewed documentary programmes for BBC television . '' The Other Pompeii : Life and Death in Herculaneum '' , first screened in April 2013 , was described by '' The Arts Desk '' as " a straightforward , lively but informative documentary of substance " on Herculaneum , a Roman city that was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD . The two-parter , '' Building the Ancient City : Athens and Rome '' , was screened in August 2015 , and showed how the building of Athens and Rome paralleled the development of democracy in those two cultures . Daisy Wyatt of '' The Independent '' said of it : " An exuberant Wallace-Hadrill made the ... documentary watchable thanks to his passion for the subject . It was hard to feel anything but warmth for the antithesis of the typical Oxbridge academic presenter . "
eruption of Mount Vesuvius
Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79
Andrew Wallace-Hadrill