The Town of Hercules: A Buried Treasure Trove

by Joseph Jay Deiss

Overview

Written especially for young adults, The Town of Hercules tells the tragic story of the eruption of Vesuvius and explains, through the example of the town itself, how life was lived in the Roman Empire during the first century A.D.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780395185162
Publisher:	Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
Publication date:	01/01/1974
Pages:	183
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 1.50(h) x 9.50(d)

About the Author

Joseph Jay Deiss was vice-director of the American Academy in Rome and has written several historical novels and biographies. He is the author of Herculaneum: Italy's Buried Treasure, also published by the Getty Museum.

Editorial Reviews

This book begins with present-day Ercolano, at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, and then proceeds to take the reader swiftly back in time: two thousand years, in fact, to the ancient town of Herculaneum. In AD 79, on "the ninth day before the calends of September," life in that Roman town came to an abrupt, terrifying end. Deiss reveals the story of the fatal eruption of Vesuvius from many different perspectives: from the letters of Pliny the Younger, from the studies of volcanologists, and from the amazing array of evidence uncovered by successive generations of archeologists. We learn what the houses looked like in ancient Herculaneum, what people wore, what they ate, their art, the theater, the basilica, the Forum, the baths. We learn what may be conjectured about the religious practices of the times. A particularly compelling chapter is titled "The Dead Tell Their Stories." Finally, the Getty Museum's full-scale adaptation of the Villa of the Papyri is described. Photographs, diagrams and maps illustrate this fascinating work. A beautiful book, informative and elegantly put together.

Children's Literature - Uma Krishnaswami