The Fires of Vesuvius

Pompeii Lost and Found

De: Mary Beard

Narrado por: Phyllida Nash

Pompeii is the most famous archaeological site in the world, visited by more than two million people each year. Yet it is also one of the most puzzling, with an intriguing and sometimes violent history.

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 sex to politics, food to religion, slavery to literacy, Beard offers us the big picture even as she takes us close enough to the past to smell the bad breath and see the intestinal tapeworms of the inhabitants of the lost city. She resurrects the Temple of Isis as a testament to ancient multiculturalism. At the Suburban Baths we go from communal bathing to hygiene to erotica.

Recently, Pompeii has been a focus of pleasure and loss: from Pink Floyd's memorable rock concert to Primo Levi's elegy on the victims. But Pompeii still does not give up its secrets quite as easily as it may seem. This book shows us how much more and less there is to Pompeii than a city frozen in time as it went about its business on 24 August 79 CE.

©2008 Mary Beard (P)2019 Tantor

Amazing!

As a history teacher who loves to study everything Roman, I've got to say, this is incredible! Mary Beard gives an incredible account of what life was like in the living city of Pompeii and includes a great amount of evidence, interpretation (her own an other historians) and context to help it all make sense. This is a must read for anyone who loves history, Rome, Pompeii, or just good story telling!

Exceeded expectations

Terrific book with a short review... author questions several assumptions made about archeological findings - was this "typical" or specific to a situation? Moreover, she emphasizes that Pompeii was a place in its own right, not some sort of proxy mini-Rome. Excellent audio narration adds to the experience.

Interesting details

Good narrator. Loved the casual use of profanity as the pompeiians did. As a woman I’m glad I didn’t live there at that time.

Masterfully crafted and narrated

This was so creatively done and so well narrated! I learned a lot and highly recommend this.

Enchanting

This book was written in such a wonderful manner, facts and insights into the City of Pompeii. excellent narrator.

Very informative

Very informative, taking a sometimes humorous look at life in Pompeii and the attempts of archeologists to connect the puzzle pieces.

Pompeii unveiled

Marie beard knows how to make history interesting.
It’s worth listening to a few times because there’s so many compelling details about this lost people and how they lived. It’s a mystery unraveled.

Now Phyllida Nash is a favorite

I *loved* the narration and performance by Phyllida Nash. I could listen to her all day long. Clear, stately, and conveys the material beautifully.

Loved

I loved this book! The author is one of my favorites and the view of the book was refreshing and had new information for me!

A window into a time forgotten

Beard’s research is impressive and highly detailed. She reviews past scholarship with a fair, yet still critical eye. She’s not entirely convinced about some traditional views, and offers some theories of her own. It is clear she loves her subject, and appreciates everything Pompeii can teach us about this moment in history. I like the way she broke down what we discovered about Pompeii into separate sections, such as politics and leisure. It made an unwieldy subject, digestible and interesting.