The Lost Voices of Pompeii: Lives Cut Short When Vesuvius Erupted, Including a Fish Sauce Tycoon and an Isis Priest

About this episode

The episode explores the lives of ordinary people in Pompeii before the eruption of Vesuvius, highlighting their stories and ambitions.

Pompeii's story is usually told through the lens of catastrophe—perfectly preserved bodies frozen in ash, a civilization erased in hours, sort of like a Roman version of the Chicxulub impactor that killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago —but the real tragedy isn't just that Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. Worse is that we've forgotten the thousands of ordinary people who lived full, ambitious lives before that final day. These stories include a slave named Petrinus hoped to buy his freedom with earnings from side work, fish sauce merchant Aulus Umbricius Scaurus (who shipped garum bottles as far as Gaul while planning his next business expansion), and wealthy entrepreneur Julia Felix prepared her rental apartments to host the mysterious Cult of Isis. The mortality rate was only 9-11 percent because residents had eighteen hours to evacuate before superheated ash clouds arrived—this wasn't the extinction of the dinosaurs, yet we've reduced these vibrant lives to silent ruins and plaster casts. Today's guest is Jess Venner, author of The Lost Voices of Pompeii: A Gripping History of Seven Lives on the Last Day in Pompeii . We discuss how she reconstructed the…

People in this episode

Host: History Unplugged

Guest: Jess Venner

Topics covered

• Pompeii
• Vesuvius eruption
• ancient history
• Roman society
• personal stories
• cultural tragedy

Keywords

• Pompeii
• Vesuvius
• ancient Rome
• fish sauce
• Isis Cult
• Petrinus
• Scaurus
• Julia Felix
• Gaius Cuspius Pansa

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Lost Voices of Pompeii: A Gripping History of Seven Lives on the Last Day in Pompeii

Places: Pompeii

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