Guarding Pompeii

I heard someone describe something they had seen at Pompeii, I don't know if it is true or not, (I haven't been able to find any info about it from a second source) but the illustration still holds whether it is true or not.

For those of you unfamiliar with the story of Pompeii, there was a famous eruption of Mt Vesuvius in Italy sometime in the first couple of centuries AD. The city was so close to the volcano, and the eruption happened so quickly, that much of the city was buried in ash and volcanic material before the residents had any time to flee.

The city was completely buried and eventually lost to the rest of the world until some 1400 or 1500 years later. It was eventually discovered that the ash had preserved the burial places of the people and animals of the city. As the city was excavated they would fill with plaster any cavities that they found (cavities left behind after the bodies decomposed in the newly formed rock), and then continue the excavation to reveal a plaster cast of the person exactly as they looked at the time of their death.

There are dogs in anguish, people fleeing or huddled into corners, or even still sleeping!

The story goes, however, that there is one plaster cast in particular worth mentioning.

A roman guard standing at his post. Unmoving, and unflinching as the clouds of super-heated ash, and the eruption of rock and earth come hurtling toward him...