Pompeii (2003)
by Robert Harris
Motivation
Pompeii is an historical novel that I’ve had on the bookshelf for a while and was in the mood for an easy fast read (sneak peak: next review will be for The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich; it’s taken me almost 3 weeks to finish that behemoth). This also happen to coincide well with the last post on Roman concrete.
We also have a challenging relationship with Pompeii. I was dying to go there on our 2008 trip but some logistics got in the way and we never made it. In 2016 when we went back, it was our first trip with 2 kids (and a niece) and we decided we weren’t yet ready for buying 5 round trip tickets, 3 hours each way, and climbing any hills or mountains. But we are determined to get there. Next time!!
Overview
This book was a fast-paced and accessible read and reminded me that Pompeii and the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD happened to real people.
Terrifying.
The story follows Attilius, a young aquarius (engineer in charge of aqueducts), in a town near Pompeii a couple days before the big event.
There are issues with the water supply (sulfur content and eventually a lack of flow) which he is charged to investigate not quite knowing what the reader does which is the mountain is anger and hell on earth is coming. The more he figures out how to bring water back to the towns the more danger he is in (from people too!).
“Senators might dream of empire; soldiers might conquer them; but it was the engineers, the fellows who laid down the roads and dug out the aqueducts, who actually built them and gave to Rome her global reach.”
Our family are big fans of aqueducts. How is it even possible, 2000 years ago to poke a hole in a mountain, find a spring, and then carry that water for miles using only gravity and mathematics to thousands of people? Our son cannot get enough of them. We had lunch under the Claudian aqueduct in Rome in 2016 and he was following flower pedals through the many in the Alhambra in Spain this past spring.
I learned a lot about aqueducts, specifically their building and maintenance but also how water was power and corruption when under control of the few.
The book also gives a great look into Pompeii, the trade zone where anything and anyone was for sale. People from all over the world trying to make a buck. The characters are also wonderfully created. You learn about ex-gladiators (and the unique names for the weight classes), slaves, navy men, the aristocrats and even Pliny the elder, whose nephew (who survived the eruption) a type of volcanic eruption was then named. (The elder’s natural histories were an amazing attempt to catalog all of ancient knowledge.
There is also a neat convention before each chapter where the author quotes facts and segments from volcanic resources, for example, this one towards the very end of the book: “It is dangerous to assume that the worst is over after the initial explosive phase. Predicting an eruption’s end is even more difficult than predicting it’s beginning.” –Encyclopedia of Volcanoes
Recommended for
- anyone looking for thrilling mass market novel of Ancient Rome
- preparation to travel to Italy now or in the future
- learning about live in 79 AD in Roman empire
- aqueducts!
Considerations
- only 300 pages, so quick read
- 13+ highly proficient readers should be able to read
- (Warning: while no graphic sex and limited violence, there is a scene where the protagonist recounts losing his son and wife during childbirth. Short but potentially disturbing scene.)
- I enjoyed and recommend Pompeii, however I loved the author’s Cicero Trilogy.
- Perfect for Italy travel and covers Cicero, Caesar, Marc Antony, Augustus and one of the greatest stories in history.
- I recommended to a neighbor who was planning a trip to Rome with his wife and he read all three books in 2 weeks. So. Good.
- (I’ll share review of them soon enough.)
Family conversation topic: Pompeii: Worth a trip from Rome? Does the death and destruction fit family member interests? Too off-putting or a learning opportunity?
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