The effectiveness of Pompeii’s story by Robert Harris comes from the seemingly accurate description of ancient Roman civilization. The believability of Pompeii comes from the details of everyday Roman life that Robert Harris describes. Consequently, the end of the story is known by most readers yet Mr. Harris keeps the curiosity of the reader by unfolding events prior to the demise of Pompeii. The state of preservation that Vesuvius’ eruption left Pompeii in allows the city of Pompeii to be a detailed example of ancient Roman cities and the lives of ancient Roman residents. Additionally, an eye witness account of the destruction of Pompeii remains to this day detailed by Pliny the younger an Roman senator (Damon). The relatability, accuracy …show more content…
The city of Pompeii remained untouched for over 2000 years before being discovered in 1748 by explorers, the corpses of its inhabitants frozen in time (“Pompeii”). Many Roman cities have been the victim of weather, progressing civilization and have not fared well through the ages. Robert Harris acknowledges sources he used to develop Pompeii citing many sources of ancient Roman history and volcanology that are found in research papers detailing ancient Roman civilization. This level of credibility lends authority to Robert Harris’ storytelling. The most compelling telling of a story usually comes from someone living through the event being discussed because the emotion evoked in the retelling lends sincerity to the story …show more content…
Two days before the eruption of Vesuvius Rome has sent Attilius to replace the missing aqueduct engineer. While the story progresses, events that lead up to volcanic eruptions start to occur in the story foreshadowing the destruction to come, but intrigue and a love story fill in the spots between. Ampliatus is a man of influence in Pompeii who once was a slave and has risen to become a powerful business man with aspirations to expand his influence. A Roman bath house is to be Ampliatus ' achievement and his need to provide water to it the start of the connection between Ampliatus and Attilius. The water flow from the Aqua Augustus becomes interrupted to the cities it supplies and Attilius is compelled to find the cause. In the progress of locating the source of the stoppage for Aqua Augustus Attilius realizes the cause is Vesuvius and the mountain will destroy the city imminently. Attilius will try in vain to warn the citizens of Pompeii because history tells of 2000 souls lost in the wake of Vesuvius' eruption. A bittersweet ending to Pompeii is hinted that Attilius and his love interest survive the
On the afternoon of 24th August 79 AD, a volcano called Mt. Vesuvius erupted, which resulted in destroyed lives of citizens, it was estimated that there were 10 to 12 thousand people who occupied the city .The cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum and a few others were severely affected by the eruption. The cities are well known for its beautiful landscapes and its temperate climate.Pompeii is based in the south, close to Naples in the region of Campania in Italy.The eruption started a series of events such as pumice,rocks and ashes falling down and caused hot volcanic gases to rise high in the sky, people from around 100 miles away could see the event unfolding.The remains of Pompeii and other cities was frozen in time due to the pyroclastic surges
Plutarch presented history through biographical stories of the people that were important and influential during the time period he wished to address. However, after having read some of his work, one realizes that Plutarch inserts his own personal opinion and views of the people at hand into the factual documentation of their lives. For example, in The Life of Crassus, Plutarch expresses a general dislike and negative view of the man, but in The Life of Caesar he portrays the life through a lens of praise. It also seems that he uses his opinions of the people that he writes about to subtly extend moral lessons to the reader. What follows is a further isolation of Plutarch's opinions and lessons from within The Lives of Crassus and Caesar.
The Pompeian excavations of both the 19th and 20th centuries offer different archaeological methods and techniques that were used to uncover information regarding Pompeii. Francesco La Vega and Karl Webber were amongst the first people who set up the foundations for archaeologists to come including Giuseppe Fiorelli and Vittorio Spinazzol. Both the 19th and 20th century archaeologists have used diverse methodologies which all have left an imprint into Pompeian knowledge and history.
Livy’s The Rise of Rome serves as the ultimate catalogue of Roman history, elaborating on the accomplishments of each king and set of consuls through the ages of its vast empire. In the first five books, Livy lays the groundwork for the history of Rome and sets forth a model for all of Rome to follow. For him, the “special and salutary benefit of the study of history is to behold evidence of every sort of behaviour set forth as on a splendid memorial; from it you may select for yourself and for your country what to emulate, from it what to avoid, whether basely begun or basely concluded.” (Livy 4). Livy, however, denies the general populace the right to make the same sort of conclusions that he made in constructing his histories. His biased representation of Romulus and Tarquin Superbus, two icons of Roman history, give the readers a definite model of what a Roman should be, instead of allowing them to come to their own conclusion.
...t. The works of Tacitus continue to serve as “textbooks” for the history of the Roman Empire, and it is even greater because it is a primary source. What better way to learn about the Roman Empire than hear it from someone who actually lived in the Roman Empire? Despite missing some books that could have the answers to our most complex questions, as Tacitus said, “Forbidden things have a secret charm.”
Politics in Pompeii and Herculaneum was an essential and important aspect of life. Politics enabled the towns to run successfully and smoothly. There were elections held for politicians, which included the election of two Duumviri and two pairs of Aediles. The comitum, which was made up of roman males who were over the age of 25, voted for who they believed should be the next Aediles and Duumviri. People who were running for the positions or people who wanted someone they liked to be elected would leave messages everywhere to promote and advocate them in hopes for them to be elected. There were over 2000 electoral notices found in Pompeii. This can be shown in source B which is the programmata from the House of Loreius Tiburtinus, Pompeii.
In Titus Livius’, The Early History of Rome, Livy takes on the task of documenting Rome’s early history and some of the famous individuals who help contribute to the ‘greatness’ of Rome. Livy dedicates an entire portion of his writing to describe the reigns of the first seven kings of Rome; all who influence the formation and governance of Rome in some way. However, of the seven kings in early Roman history, King Romulus and King Numa Pompilius achieved godlike worship and high esteem from their fellow Romans. While both highly important and respected figures in Rome’s history, the personalities and achievements of King Romulus and King Numa Pompilius are complete opposites of one another. Despite the differences found in each king and of their rule over Rome, both Romulus and Numa Pompilius have a tremendous influence in the prosperity and expansion of Rome in its early days.
In my opinion this book is not the evaluation of how approximately fifty million people from two thousand years ago thought about the world that they lived in at the time, but about how a few dozen men wrote about it, in a viewpoint illustrative of only a few thousand. In order to support her view, Edith Hamilton tries to bring these people together, threading together their common thoughts and ideologies. Save for the fact that this book only represents a handful of Roman citizens and the way that they saw the world in which they lived, I do feel like I got a better understanding of the “Roman Way” and the way that life was back then. Along with the history that I learned in class on the subject it makes me be able to picture it better in my mind’s-eye.
... Herculaneum was a seaside town that had witnessed the horror of mount vesuvious wreacking havoc on Pompeii, now had to deal with a new problem; the eruption coming towards their city. As stated before, Pompeii was preserved by ash and pumice, but the people of Herculaneum were also preserved, just in a different manner. The citizens of Herculaneum suffered a fate worse than Pompeii, they were hit with pyroclastic flows of rocks and gasses that was so hot that it instantly killed everything that came in contact with it. On account of the flows reaching into Herculaneum and spreading everywhere, when it finally cooled off the entire city was basically cremated. The entire city of Herculaneum was pure bones and stone, no survivors, besides anyone who was out of the country on travel.
Anthony Everitt writes the book Cicero to give readers an inside look at the ancient Roman world during the time of Cicero. Anthony Everitt brings this story to life by retelling the events that took place during this time through Cicero’s eyes. Everitt’s writing techniques give the reader the capability to read the book with ease and understanding. He explores not only the political life of Cicero, but he also gives a detailed insight of Cicero’s personal, everyday life. He shows the readers just how hectic Cicero’s world was and how he came to be known as Rome’s greatest politician.
The life of the citizens of Pompeii had normal commoner lives. Pompeii citizens made a way to recycle water with rainfall. They had an underground “cisterns” as their water supply. Mediterranean diet that included lentils, olives, nuts and fish, as well as the odd scrap of salted meat. Before the big eruption of Vesuvius, Pompeii was a normal city in Italy.
...istory through the use of a popular topic amongst modern readers. Strauss does often times go far too deep describing the landscape, using names of Italian cities and natural landmarks rather in depth, which loses a reader not wholly familiar with Italy’s landscape. Strauss also quite openly marvels at the figure of Spartacus himself, which could be a bias on the part of the researcher that some readers might call into question. Also, Strauss makes some definitive statements regarding why events happened, yet due to the nature of small samples of evidence, Strauss is mainly just making inductive guesswork, although usually logical guesswork. Overall though, Strauss effectively tells a lively story that enriches the reader’s knowledge on Roman history in an entertaining way.
Tacitus stood against self - indulgence and extravagant displays of wealth as he saw these as being major flaws of the aristocracy and nobility. Although Tacitus was far more interested in moral behaviour, he saw these flaws as the basis for Rome's decline at the time of Nero. An example of this decaying Rome was in Ad60 when the people of Pompeii and Nuceria assaulted each other at the gladiatorial event. Nero passed the investigation onto the Senate, who subsequently made the c...
While Pompey’s ambitious nature and hence seeking of ultimate power was detrimental to the fall of the Roman Republic, other factors which also helped him achieve this power were perhaps the fundamental reason for its decline. The Senate was already weak for allowing Pompey to exploit the military and political system to his own advantage and hence to achieve this power, while in the final years of the Republic (which were evidently most damaging to the system) when the First Triumvirate was formed, the other individuals Caesar and Crassus also played a major part in the harm of the Republic. Now what the Romans had feared most all along was well and truly underway.
Julius Caesar was a strong leader of the Romans who changed the course of the history for the Roman world decisively and irreversibly. With his courage and strength, he created a strong empire and guided the empire for almost 20 years. His life was short, but had many adventures. I will tell of some of this man’s remarkable life. He did many things, therefore, I will only discuss a few. His name, part of his reign, one of his greatest battles, and his death will be told.