Pompeii: Life And Death in a Roman Town

Mary Beard takes us back to ancient Pompeii and investigates how the ancient Romans lived.

Before Mount Vesuvius’ eruption, the romans of Pompeii lived a life like any other 2000 years ago. There were bar-keepers, restaurant owners, brothels and many more.

Throughout the archaeological excavations and finds from Pompeii its reasonable to say these ancient Romans mostly lived a good life.

Using archaeological forensic techniques, it’s possible to determine what those who perished in the disaster ate and drank, where they came from, what diseases they suffered, how rich they were and, perhaps even more astonishingly, the details of their intimate lives.

From the finds, Mary is also able to tell the story of an ancient polarised society. One which had a super rich upperclass and one which was as low as outright slaves.

Surprisingly, however, archaeological finds from Pompeii also detail that these slaves ate a diet as rich as their masters along with gaining access to the standard healthcare at the time.

All in all, Pompeii: Life And Death in a Roman Town takes an important historic look at ancient Pompeii and opens it up to the viewer; increasing our understanding of the ancient Romans.