Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town
Publisher,Profile Books
Publication Date,
Format, Paperback
Weight,
No. of Pages, 416
Shelf: GENERAL BOOKS / HUMANITIES / EUROPEAN HISTORY
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WINNER OF THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE 2008
The ruins of Pompeii, buried by an explosion of Vesuvius in 79 CE, offer the best evidence we have of everyday life in the Roman empire. This remarkable book rises to the challenge of making sense of those remains, as well as exploding many myths: the very date of the eruption, probably a few months later than usually thought; or the hygiene of the baths which must have been hotbeds of germs; or the legendary number of brothels, most likely only one; or the massive death count, maybe less than ten per cent of the population.
An extraordinary and involving portrait of an ancient town, its life and its continuing re-discovery, by Britain's favourite classicist.
