The Last Days of Pompeii

The last days of Pompeii were not just a catastrophic eruption, but a final chapter in the lives of ordinary Romans who built the empire behind the scenes. In this episode of *The Ancients*, host Tristan Hughes and guest Dr. Jessica Venner, author of *The Lost Voices of Pompeii*, reveal a city far more vibrant and complex than the archaeological ruins suggest. Pompeii in 79 AD was a bustling commercial hub famed for fish sauce, cherries, and cabbages—its economy driven by figures like Aulus Umbricius Scaurus, the fish sauce magnate whose branded jars reached as far as Londinium. After a devastating earthquake in 62 AD, the city was still rebuilding, with residents converting damaged homes into gardens and vineyards—a response to crisis that mirrors modern human behavior during pandemics. Venner brings to life seven individuals: a slave named Petronus, a powerful female entrepreneur Julia Felix, a priest of Isis, an innkeeper who turned his courtyard into a wine garden, and a politician whose electoral graffiti still lines the streets. These weren’t just victims of a volcano—they were people with dreams, businesses, families, and faith. The eruption itself, now debated to have occurred in October rather than August, unfolded in terrifying stages: a darkening sky, pumice rain, and finally, pyroclastic flows that buried the city in minutes. Yet, contrary to myth, not all died instantly—many suffocated in pumice, while others were caught in the final, scorching wave.