Thanks for reading Pompeii: City on Fire! I hope you enjoyed the story.  Read on, for some background and behind-the-scenes info about the setting and the writing of the book!

A CITY FROZEN IN TIME

In some ways, we owe a debt of gratitude to the mountain called Vesuvius and to those who perished under its flow. So much of what we know of life at the height of the Roman Empire has come to us through the frozen-in-time city unearthed in the region of Campania, near modern Naples.

The eruption occurred on August 24, 79 AD, and buried Pompeii under more than twelve feet of ash and pumice over the course of about twenty-four hours. The gradual ash-fall sealed in the city without air or moisture, preserving it exactly as it was on that day. Archaeologists digging 1700 years later discovered entire loaves of bread still sitting on counters, fresh from the ovens!

UNEARTHING THE PAST

The population of the city was probably about 20,000 at the time of the eruption, and historians speculate that all but about 2000 of the townspeople escaped the devastation by simply fleeing the city while the ash was falling.

But not everyone escaped, as the evidence sadly attests. The plaster casts familiar to most of us from history class were created when pockets were discovered in the hardened ash—vacuums created by the decayed bodies of the volcano’s victims. The plaster was poured into these cavities then excavated, giving us a vivid depiction of real Romans in the death throes of the eruption. I used some of these figures as inspiration for characters in City on Fire. To see the photos of the plaster casts capturing the moment of death of some of the characters, visit my travel journal of Pompeii.

Over the centuries, dirt and vegetation gradually overtook the site until it was lost to the world, its location and even its name forgotten. Imagine, an entire city, preserved underground, waiting to reveal its vast riches of knowledge! The first hint of the hidden treasure came in 1599, when the digging of an underground channel to divert river water revealed some frescoed walls and inscriptions.

SHOCKING DISCOVERIES

But it wasn’t until the mid-1700s that proper excavation began, revealing a city with a morality very different from that of the culture excavating it. Much of the artwork and statuary was considered shockingly inappropriate, and debates ensued as to how much of it should be displayed to the public. Even today, many of the more explicit artifacts are housed in the “Secret Room” of the Naples National Archaeological Museum, which over the years has been alternately closed and re-opened and even today requires minors to be accompanied by adults.

CHOOSING MY CHARACTERS

Many of the details given to us by Pompeii—its graffiti, its buildings, its artwork—formed the backdrop of this novel. I had great fun finding places to add some of the intriguing details I found, and much of my research inspired specific characters and events. The name and position of Gnaeus Nigidius Maius came to me from graffiti found in Pompeii. Covering the walls are notices filled with electoral propaganda and announcements of the games to be sponsored by the candidate, including this one:

Thirty pairs of gladiators
provided by Gnaeus Alleius Nigidius Maius quinquennial duumvir,
together with their substitutes, will fight at Pompeii on November 24, 25, 26.
There will be a hunt.
Hurrah for Maius the Quinquennial! Bravo, Paris!

While most of the characters in City on Fire are from my imagination, the characters of Maius, his slave Primus, and the gladiators Celadus, Paris, and Floronius are all names from the city walls.

The characters of the early church in Pompeii are also of my making, and I have tried to describe the function and reputation of these house churches throughout Rome with accuracy. I am indebted to Gerald Sittser, whose book Water from a Deep Well: Christian Spirituality from Early Martyrs to Modern Missionaries aided my understanding of the first century church.

The arena in Pompeii is considered to be the oldest Roman amphitheater yet unearthed, built probably around 80 BC. It was already nearly two hundred years old at the time of this story. The Flavian Amphitheater in Rome, later known as the Colosseum, was in its final stages at the time Pompeii was destroyed.

THE FATEFUL DAY

In outlining the events of Pompeii’s final day, I have attempted to stay as close to the archaeological evidence as possible. Historians and scientists have been able to ascertain the rate at which ash fell from the first eruption to the final pyroclastic surge that buried the city, and from this I built the ending of the book and the end of the city.

In the years since 79 AD, Vesuvius has erupted many times, though not with the devastation of that earlier eruption. Perched now over the populous city of Naples, it is considered dormant but not extinct and is an ever-present threat to Naples and southern Italy. The most recent eruption of Vesuvius in 1944 was caught on film because of the presence of American troops in Italy during World War II.

CLIMBING A VOLCANO

Over two million tourists visit Pompeii each year, and I was privileged to be one of them—during the original writing of this book and then again while re-writing it! To walk among the still-vivid frescoes, to stand in the center of the amphitheater, to gaze across the Forum at Vesuvius in the distance, was unforgettable. I even got the chance to climb Mt. Vesuvius and stare down into the crater. I hope you’ll join me in my travel journal, to discover more about what is fact and what is fiction in City on Fire. There is much to experience in this amazing place, and I’d love to take you there.

READ THIS NEXT! 

PETRA, CITY IN STONE

In an ancient city carved from stone, one desperate young woman searches for peace―in the calm before the Romans attack.

In AD 106, a single mother can be certain of one thing―destitution. So Cassia and her six-year-old son flee to Petra, seeking refuge in the loving arms of family.

But the great stone city is not what Cassia imagined. And family cannot be trusted. When a secret reveals her son’s true bloodline, the boy becomes the target of a royal conspiracy. He’s snatched from Cassia’s grasp.

In her darkest hours, Cassia finds herself surrounded by followers of the Way, a subversive new religious group whose disciples are frequently sentenced to arenas with starved lions and blood-soaked sand. Why would they seek out more danger by helping her? And what kind of religion gives freely and asks for nothing in return?

Roman soldiers soon surround Petra, immersing the city in panic and further endangering Cassia’s son. She realizes he cannot be saved by human efforts alone. Her only hope lies with the followers of the Way . . . and her willingness to trust their One True God.