Pompeii

Pompeii is Robert Harris’s book about the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in AD79. It opens very memorably with an engineer, Attilius, who is the aquarius in charge of the Aqua Augusta, one of the most complex aqueducts the Romans built, as he tries to figure out strange things that are going on around Misenum, the home base of the Roman fleet and located on the other side of the Bay of Naples from Pompeii and Vesuvius.

Recommendations from our site

“Robert Harris is just really good at telling a story and making it thrilling. The plot really engages you…Pompeii is about the eruption of Vesuvius and an aqueduct engineer who finds out about it through the sulphur found in the water supplies of the Roman towns nearby. It’s this plot combined with a power-hungry millionaire, a former slave and his ambition to earn money. It’s got a great ending, and it’s filled with action. It keeps you entertained the entire way through.” Read more...

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