Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town

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It provides a thorough introduction to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the rediscovery of Pompeii, and the creation of the plaster casts. Classicist Mary Beard has had a great time rooting about that ghostly place, and she has brought it quite splendidly back to life.

Many people hold a number of misconceptions about the eruption in AD 79 (there wasn't any lava flow, for example) and the eventual discovery of the ruins. How to get there by train: There are two Circumvesuviana stations in Pompeii, each serving a different line of the train: (1) If you come to Pompeii from Sorrento or if you take the Sorrento line from Naples, your stop will be the Villa of the Mysteries station (Pompeii Scavi), which is directly across the street from Porta Marina, the main tourist entrance to the archaeological site; or (2) If you come from Naples on the Poggiomarino line, your stop will be the Pompeii City station, which is located in the center of modern Pompeii. Tag harbours ambitions to become a gladiator and thus find a way to be freed from slavery, and his opportunity comes when Quintus, a pompous young man seeking to curry his father’s favour, is deemed too vulnerable to train with the other gladiators who would rough him up, and Tag is chosen to train with him.I also loved Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum by Paul Roberts, which was printed to accompany a 2013 exhibition at the British Museum. Beard opens by challenging the notion that Pompeii was simply a normal city simply 'frozen in time'. Imagine re-creating the works of Shakespeare or Milton from the graffiti on the walls of Victorian England – impossible you’d say. Attilius concludes that the aqueduct must be blocked somewhere close to Mount Vesuvius since reports claim a shutdown of the system just before Nola. I was particularly struck by specific examples such as the House of the Painters at Work, where painters were interrupted on the job on the very day of the eruption of Vesuvius, and we can see exactly where they left each panel on the wall at the time when they presumably made, or tried to make, their escape from the falling pumice or lava flow.

Corelia gets Attilius the proof that he needs from her father's written records when he is performing repairs to a collapsed section of tunnel in the region around Vesuvius. The book explains both how they were made and how archaeologists deduced information about Pompeian life from them. Our need for ritual is primordial, and embracing its logic can help us connect, find meaning and discover who we are. Each photograph has been captioned by the author, and two redrawn maps as endpapers show the site of Pompeii and its surroundings. To complete your tour of Pompeii, plan to visit the National Archaeological Museum( Museo Archeologico Nazionale) in Naples.

The biggest impact that it had on me was to dismiss forever the 'frozen in time' tag that Pompeii carries - the idea that a sudden and unexpected cataclysmic event preserved the everyday activities of a Roman town undisturbed for centuries. So much of Pompeii's impact is visual, which is why I would also recommend books with plenty of photos of the site, its buildings, frescoes and objects, all of which build a picture of daily life in the town.

Beard, a professor of classics at Cambridge, always wears her learning lightly, and in this outstanding book she has excelled herself, puncturing preconceptions and exposing a whole layer of myth about the world's best-preserved ancient town.It blends historical fiction with the real-life eruption of Mount Vesuvius on 24 August 79 AD, which overwhelmed the town of Pompeii and its vicinity. This startling new book concentrates on the twenty years between 59 and 79AD, thus beginning with the earthquake which all but destroyed Pompeii and ending with the volcanic eruption which has become part of our collective popular imagination. The bloodthirsty biographies of the world’s most infamous pirates are reproduced in this Folio edition of Captain Charles Johnson’s renowned work, including original woodcut illustrations and a fascinating introduction by Margarette Lincoln. Produced in partnership with the Parco Archeologico di Pompei, readers are expertly guided through the Roman city’s nine districts, including many hidden corners that are inaccessible to most visitors.

Winner of the Wolfson History Prize, this title offers an unparalleled glimpse into life in Pompeii.

With its peristyle garden, luxurious furnishings, nimble attendants and anatrium filled with paintings that “would scarcely disgrace a Raphael,”Glaucus’ Campanian bachelor pad might serve as “a model at this day for the house of ‘a single man in Mayfair,’ ” Bulwer-­Lytton wrote.