ANCIENT VOICES
Learning from Pompeii
By Ann Sloane
Day One. 112 pages. £6
ISBN 978 1 846 253 980
This latest addition to the ‘History Today’ series takes us back to AD79 and to Pompeii and Herculaneum – towns which grew up in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius.
These places have gone down in history because, before the year was over, they lay destroyed – at the cost of many lives – and were lost for the next 1600 years.
The book begins by providing a brief history of the Roman Empire and a snapshot of what everyday life would have been like around AD79. The main body of the book deals with the events of August 24 and 25 AD79 when Vesuvius erupted, covering Pompeii in suffocating volcanic ash and obliterating Herculaneum with a superheat-ed gas cloud – causing at least 2000 deaths.
Spiritual lessons
The next chapters outline how this historic site was rediscovered years later and the efforts that are needed to ensure its preservation today. The final chapter traces some spiritual lessons that can be learnt from these events many years ago. There is also a suggested itinerary for a day trip to Pompeii and a glossary defining some of the architectural and geological terms used.
Brief engaging guide
If you are planning to visit Pompeii, this book offers a brief, engaging guide to the site as well as the events of the eruption which destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum. The book might be especially useful if anyone in your party (either Christian or not) wants to think about the lessons that we can learn from this disaster, particularly the suddenness of death.
A good travel companion
I felt this book was more suitable to a non-Christian with some church connection rather than to a complete newcomer to Christian things, as a certain familiarity with the Bible would be helpful in places. However, this book makes a good travel companion to one of the most famous places in the world.
