While information about the city from authors based in Rome is included, the great majority of sources come from the city itself, written by its ordinary inhabitants – men and women, citizens and slaves. The individual chapters explore the early history of Pompeii, its destruction, leisure pursuits, politics, commerce and religion, plus early reports of its excavation. This book presents translations of a wide selection of these sources, giving a vivid impression of what life was like in the town. What is less obvious to the visitor is the quality and range of written records which survive.
Today, up to five hundred times that number visit Pompeii each year, attracted by the unique insight it gives into everyday life in Roman times, as well as by the awesome power of the still-active volcano. On 24 August AD 79, a massive eruption of Mount Vesuvius destroyed the unremarkable Roman town of Pompeii and its population of 12,000.
0 kommentar(er)
