Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town

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I am fundamentally interested in the people, how they lived their lives, and have published widely on tombs, epigraphy, and politics in Pompeii. The photographs of Luigi Spina take readers on a journey through the classical architecture of the nine districts of Pompeii – including through areas off-limits to tourists. With aid from Pliny the Elder, whose fleet is docked at Misenum, Attilius assembles an expedition to travel to Pompeii, the closest town still being supplied with water, and then on to the blocked section of the Aqua Augusta. Ampliatus is killed by the overwhelming heat of the pyroclastic flow, along with the rest of his family and the rest of the expedition.

It is best to visit the museum after Pompeii, since you will be amazed (having seen the ruined buildings) at what was salvaged from them. Mary Beard's expertise shines through, as well as her common-sense dismissal of some of the more fanciful interpretations of archaeological evidence.Another recommended book, for younger readers, is my own Bodies from the Ash: Life and Death in Ancient Pompeii. If you take the Circumvesuviana into Naples (and have purchased a one-day travel pass), you can use the Naples underground all day as well. Street Life, Earning a Living: Baker, Banker and Garum Maker (who ran the city), The Pleasure of the Body: Food, Wine, Sex and Baths, these chapter headings give a surprising insight into the workings of a Roman town.

Children, too, of Eve, forever building Edens – and kicking them apart in berserk fury because somehow it isn’t the same. Our need for ritual is primordial, and embracing its logic can help us connect, find meaning and discover who we are.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. This edition contains 32 pages of colour photographs, from images of Pompeii’s streets with their raised stepping stones, possibly to protect pedestrians from piles of refuse, to haunting plaster casts of the volcano’s victims. D. 79, the ruins of Pompeii offer the best evidence we have of what life was like during the reign of the Roman Empire.