Herculaneum and Pompeii

When Mount Vesuvius erupted in the year 79, it inadvertently preserved the most extensive and intact ruins anywhere in the ancient world. Drawing on the material remains of Herculaneum and Pompeii, historian Justin M. Jacobs paints a lively portrait of daily urban life in the Roman Empire. He explores the fascinating history of the earliest digs at these sites during the 18th century, when they were regarded as a private quarry of Roman antiquities for a Bourbon king.