Pompeii

Pompeii reconstructs the ordinary workings of a Roman town from streets, houses, shops, workshops, bars, baths, temples, tombs, graffiti and election notices preserved by the eruption of Vesuvius. Mary Beard moves through domestic life, business, local politics, religion, entertainment, slavery and sexuality, using the surviving fabric of the town to show how its inhabitants occupied and altered their surroundings. The evidence reveals a crowded, untidy and socially divided community rather than a perfectly frozen classical city.

The book also challenges many familiar claims about Pompeii, including the precise date of the eruption, the number of brothels, the cleanliness of the baths and assumptions about where victims died. Beard explains how excavation, restoration and tourism have changed the site and how apparently vivid remains can still be difficult to interpret. Pompeii becomes both a portrait of Roman urban life and a study in archaeological detection, demonstrating how much can be recovered from material evidence without pretending that every mystery has been solved.