Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town

by Mary Beard

Hardcover, 2008

Status

Available

Call number

937.7256807

Genres

Collection

Physical Books

Publication

Profile Books (2008), Hardcover, 360 pages

Description

Destroyed by Vesuvius in 79 CE, the ruins of Pompeii offer the best evidence we have of life in the Roman Empire. But the eruptions are only part of the story. In The Fires of Vesuvius, acclaimed historian Mary Beard makes sense of the remains. She explores what kind of town it was -- more like Calcutta or the Costa del Sol? -- and what it can tell us about "ordinary" life there. --from publisher description

Media reviews

The New York Times Sunday Book Review

"Aside from the melodramatic and misleading American title (there’s a minimum of volcanology or disaster drama; in Britain, the title is aptly “Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town”), this is a wonderful book, for the impressive depth of information it comfortably embraces, for its easygoing

erudition and, not least, for its chatty, personable style."

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User reviews

LibraryThing member john.cooper

This is this generation's best book on Pompeii; it's impossible to imagine visiting the site without having read it, and although it's not a guidebook, it does have a helpful appendix called "Making a Visit" that covers what to wear, how best to arrive, and which houses you'll probably be most

interested in seeing. Mary Beard is a distinguished professor of classics at Cambridge, and she writes about Pompeii as though it were her life's work. What I appreciated most about the book were the complete lack of prudishness about the town's ubiquitous, licentious artwork—the frontispiece of my Folio Society edition is a detail of a mosaic showing a slave with genitals as big as his forearms—and the way Beard always takes pains, in a graceful way, to explain what we know, what we don't know, and the various ideas about what the truth might be. A lot of the stories the guidebooks tell you are probably wrong. She sets it straight.

The book is written very casually, without footnotes or unnecessary scholarly trappings. Occasionally it has a dashed-off quality that comes from quick writing (the same word repeated too soon, and the like), but that's a quibble. This is like getting a verbal tour of the site from a very smart friend who's lived a few miles away from it for twenty years. However, it's not a tour of the buildings and monuments so much as a peek into what the people were like, what they did for work and fun and what they seemed to care about. If you've visited the site, as I did a long time ago, this will explain a lot about what you saw (did you know that the ruined state of some of the buildings is due not to age but to Allied bombing in World War II?) and if you haven't been there yet, this will certainly make you want to go.

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20 more

LibraryThing member TheEllieMo

In Pompeii: Life of a Roman Town, Cambridge Don Mary Beard presents exactly that - a description of what life was (probably) like in a provincial seaside town in the Roman Empire.

Using archaeological evidence, both from Pompeii and from the wider Empire, along with written sources from contemporary

(including the town's own signwriters) and modern authors, Beard builds up a picture of how the town's inhabitants went about their daily lives. Everything is covered, from what, how and where they ate and drank, slept, washed, to how the town was governed, from the bars, brothels and gaming to religion. This is achieved through discussion both of individuals - the garum maker, or the banker, for instance, and also through a wider view, not just of Pompeii but of similar towns elsewhere in the Roman Empire.

Beard's style of writing is very similar to her television presenting style - conversational, informative, engaging and inclusive. Unlike other works (Time Team, I'm looking at you), Beard does not make the assumption that her audience will accept things at face value - dar I say that some works seem to assume their audience is ignorant? Where there is doubt over an interpretation of evidence, she presents this, making it clear that while there is much we can glean about the way of life in a Roman Town, we can never be 100% certain.

In essence, Pompeii: Life in a Roman Town is an excellent guide to both Pompeii and an informative presentation on current academic thinking on Roman life, presented in a highly readable format.

A thoroughly recommended book

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LibraryThing member pbjwelch

A fascinating "insider" look on the real Pompeii by Mary Beard, a Professor of Classics at Newnham College, Cambridge, that unwraps some of the mysteries of the city covered in ash in 79 CE. (I confess I only picked it up from a library shelf because it was at the height of the Icelandic volcano

explosion that is spewing ash over Europe, and I thought it might be an interesting book to read -- much like I re-read Camus' The Plague at the height of the SARS epidemic, but anyway....) This book de-myths Pompeii and tells the story of the city as you've probably not read or heard it before. It is full of fascinating facts and stories, often illustrated by the graffiti of the city, or other telling remnants. It strips bare some of the nonsense local guides like to tell of Pompeii; informs us that the days of previous tremors had already caused many of its inhabitants to flee; that it is likely that a lot of the missing goods of the city were long ago pried from their hiding places by early looters; and that frankly, much we've been told has been pure conjecture or mythologizing. Fifteen pages in, I simply couldn't put it down. (Also fascinating in terms of how much the science of archaeology has improved over the past few decades.)

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LibraryThing member nellista

Wonderfully researched. Pompeii is so much more than a town caught in suspended animation by the eruption of a volcano! There is so much detail, some of which gives a clear picture of life at the time, and also leaves a good deal of puzzles to mull over as well.

LibraryThing member hailelib

A very interesting but somewhat dense book about everyday life in Pompeii in the years before the eruption of 79 CE. Bread explores the history of the city back to its beginnings in the sixth century BCE through its place in the Roman Empire at the time of its destruction. She also points out that

we are not really seeing Pompeii as it would have been on a normal day in 79 CE. The inhabitants did have some warning and many had evacuated, taking much of their possessions with them. Also, there is evidence of digging and removal of valuables by locals and, perhaps, looters in the period following the eruption. Recommended for anyone interested in everyday life in the Roman Empire. Well illustrated with drawings and photos.

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LibraryThing member barlow304

An excellent introduction to the excavations at Pompeii, this book uses both the latest archaeological finds and a fair measure of common sense to tell the story of Pompeii. Rather than re-hash the shopworn story of the eruption, Professor Beard delves into the daily life of this provincial town

and its surrounding countryside. Chapters cover such topics as street life, religion, the economy, and even the inevitable food, wine, sex, and baths.
This book is aimed at the well-informed general reader and is suitable for anyone who wants to imagine life in an ancient town. Professor Beard is most judicious about her conclusions, carefully setting out the facts and rendering non-judgments where the data is insufficient for a conclusion.
In addition, the book has suggestions for making a visit to Pompeii and a long section in the back for suggested additional readings in various topics.

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LibraryThing member phoenixcomet

Pompeii, that fascinating archaeological ruin of incredible magnitude, is discussed in great detail in Mary Beard's The Fires of Vesuvius. In 79 CE (which in my day was AD), Mount Vesuvius erupted engulfing Pompeii in flames and preserving the city for posterity. Years and looting later, Pompeii

still retains a number of artifacts and architectural wonders to be a major tourist attraction in Italy. Plodding at times, the overall information is good and does point out that a lot of what is stated as fact about Pompeii is nothing more than conjecture.

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LibraryThing member nmele

An engaging and detailed look at what we know of Roman era life in Pompeii--things like what people ate, literacy and so forth.

LibraryThing member sscarllet

This book was excellent. Beard breathes life into the long dead city of Pompeii. This is definitly a general historical intestest book - but is even better as a tourist book. I think this is a must read before a visit to Pompeii. I've been twice now and Beard's book enhanced my trip more than I can

say.

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LibraryThing member ritaer

Well written, clear and humorous. Explains what we currently know about life in Pompeii, what we don't know, what some of the controversies are. I knew that the famous murals were fading, but I didn't know about the damage to some of the excavated buildings by Allied bombs in WWII. Has extensive

bibliography, floor plans, line drawings and photographs.

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LibraryThing member rakerman

Mary Beard takes a careful look at Pompeii, being sure to make statements based on the archaeological evidence. Very good overview of what the evidence tells us about life in this Roman town.

LibraryThing member robeik

Lots of detail about Pompeii, focusing on life in the town before it being engulfed by Vesuvius. Nicely illustrated. A few pointers at the end about visiting the site.
The author's writing style is interesting. She is very candid about our lack of certainty of many things, and casts a skeptical eye

over many 'established facts'.

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LibraryThing member KarenDuff

I listened to this rather than reading it and I really enjoyed it. I thought the reader did a really good job and delivered the writer's work very well.
As for the book itself I liked the fact that for the most part the writer did not claim that she knew for certain that this was what life in

Pompeii was like, instead she wrote that this is what she believed or what she thought had happened based on her interpretation of the evidence found during the many digs that have occured at Pompeii.

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LibraryThing member jsburbidge

Like much of Mary Beard's work, this points out almost as much about what we don't know - or what we think we know but have in fact constructed for ourselves - as what we do know about Pompeii. It is an enjoyable and enlightening stroll through the archaeology and social history of Pompeii, and

although it is not organised as a companion to a visit it would make a good preface or coda to one. It captures highlights rather than being a systematic survey, and is written for the generalist who already has some classical background but is not an expert.

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LibraryThing member infjsarah

Was my bedtime audiobook so I certainly missed some of it. Interesting though.

LibraryThing member jcvogan1

A fun read. It takes a real expert to have the confidence to write, 'we don't know'. Refreshing.

LibraryThing member KittyCunningham

Started well but became a list of furniture. I may or may not come back to it.

LibraryThing member markm2315

An excellent well-illustrated history, written in a non-formal style, by the well-known scholar (According to the book cover it was associated with a BBC TV production). Dame Beard gives you both the scholarly views and her opinion of them.

LibraryThing member kwskultety

A bit dry at times, and very detail oriented. However, the author brings up many salient points about Pompeii and Roman living in general, such as the famed Roman baths. Up until now I never considered the fact that there was no chlorine or other chemicals to kill germs and bacteria...and forever

after I'm doomed to think of these once glamorous baths as simply giant pools of murky, dirty water.

Another part I found interesting is the descriptions of how traffic, both foot and cart, was directed around the city. Traffic calming devices were placed strategically here and there, and there were blocks set into the streets so pedestrians could cross the street without stepping in horse manure (or worse!)

Yes, there is that dirt and germ factor again. Ancient Roman life is really suffering in my eyes now....but at least I'm better educated about the thing, thanks to this book.

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LibraryThing member john257hopper

This is a brilliant and highly readable account by the famous popular classicist, author and TV personality. She explains in detail what we have discovered in the ruins of Pompeii, what it might mean, but also just as importantly warns against jumping to conclusions based on over-interpretation of

the evidence available, sometimes based on what we might like, or believe might be true, based on our impressions of Roman life from popular culture. It is a fascinating exploration of the ruins and it is surprising what we do know, for example the numerous surviving graffiti range from election posters, enabling us to reconstruct much of the political history of the town, to scurrilous scribblings equivalent to the modern day equivalents in toilet cubicles and bus stations. I was particularly struck by specific examples such as the House of the Painters at Work, where painters were interrupted on the job on the very day of the eruption of Vesuvius, and we can see exactly where they left each panel on the wall at the time when they presumably made, or tried to make, their escape from the falling pumice or lava flow. Another thing that struck me was the stuff that has been lost since it has been excavated, for example wall paintings that were pristine when uncovered in the 18th or 19th century, but which have now faded almost or completely to nothing. One of the major myths about Pompeii's destruction that she exposes is the fallacy that the interruption was unexpected - the evidence was that there had been tremors in the weeks and months leading up to the eruption and many townspeople seem to have moved possessions out of the town before the end (there had been a major earthquake 16 or 17 years earlier, so this was not uncommon). I could write a whole essay on this wonderful description, but suffice to say this is an excellent account for the general reader.

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LibraryThing member Moshepit20

So glad that I read this book just a few months after I got home from Pompeii. Still such a fascinating place and this book highlighted some more interesting facts about the town and people who lived there before the eruption

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