The Lost Voices of Pompeii by Jess Venner

Jess Venner is passionate about bringing the past to life and making it accessible to everyone. She is also a doctor of Ancient History at the University of Oxford and has worked as an archaeologist in Italy and especially Pompeii. For her doctorate she specialised in the urban gardens of Pompeii and their role in the city’s economy, diet and social organisation. I discovered this last fact after I read the book and it makes perfect sense because what I read had a real focus on the gardens – one of the features I loved.

The Lost Voices of Pompeii is a marvellous book, and very unique. We have all heard stories about the end of Pompeii as Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79CE. The sky went dark and hot pumice began to rain down on the city creating terror among the inhabitants. This new book picks seven distinct people and dips into their lives in the days immediately before the eruption. These are not fictional people, but real characters that we can name because of what the archaeology has revealed to us. In some cases we know the exact location of their home and what decorations were on the walls of all their rooms. The other unique feature of this book is that Jess Venner also depicts a slave as one of her characters. This is a layer of Roman life  that is almost invisible, but Jenner does a great job noticing all the small things they do. In her chapter about a wealthy family, slaves are there first thing in the morning with food, then they dress their master and mistress, they tie their leather sandals and they apply cosmetics to the face of the lady of the house and curl her hair. Everyday personal and domestic activities are all done for you. By cleverly blending images and information from Pompeii with various written sources from the Roman Empire, Venner creates an incredibly realistic story.

The seven people are the slave, a wealthy businesswoman, an ‘everyman’, a working poor family, an innkeeper, a priest of Isis, and a wealthy politician. Their stories, while separate, also interconnect at various points. The slave belongs to the wealthy politician, while the working poor family work for the everyman, and the priest performs a ritual at the house of the politician. This overlap really helps to bring the narrative alive.

The book contains a wealth of footnotes, but not too many to interrupt the flow. From these you can learn many lesser known facts. For example, I never knew that the Roman day was divided into 12 variable length hours between sunrise and sunset. These stretched or shrank with the seasons, but you always got twelve hours of daylight.

I have to talk about the gardens and the food included in the stories. The city of Pompeii had suffered before and 17 years before Vesuvius erupted there had been large earthquakes that damaged much of the city. Some buildings were rebuilt, but others were left abandoned and numerous smallholdings of vegetables, herbs, olives, figs and grape vines were planted. These open spaces were often enclosed by high walls, useful to keep thieves out. Pieces of broken clay amphora were set into the tops of the walls to deter thieves, much as we still do with broken glass today.

Some small vineyards were attached to inns, where in one case a special outdoor seating area had been created overlooking the vines. All these small details add so much texture to the narrative.

During the eruption trees and vines were surrounded by pumice and ash and as the roots decayed over the following years they left a space in the volcanic matter. Excavators filled these gaps with plaster of Paris and were able to date the trees by the size of the trunks and roots. Many were planted after the earthquakes.

There are many descriptions of the types of food eaten during the day; lots of cheese, fish and nuts. A small pig is roasted. There were exotic imports such as pomegranates and dates. There were also lots of herbs and spices used for flavouring. The everyman character ran his own empire making different types of fish sauce made from fermented mackerel and anchovies. One sauce was very exclusive, others were more watered down and affordable. The everyman was obviously successful, because amphora with his name have been found in Rome and right across the Roman Empire. Once his seven workshops in Pompeii were lost, there was probably no chance of him restarting his business.

The book is richly illustrated with black and white photos, and these brilliantly bring the stories to life, showing a fresco that is described or a scene of a banquet. One of these is a female banqueting scene, showing that this was not just a male pastime. The wealthy businesswoman character was the owner of a large house complex with its own bath house and apartments that were rented. Using this character helps us see the roles of women at the time and also that it was possible to circumvent some of the (male) rules. Women could not become politicians, but they could certainly become wealthy.

We also see a little of how cosmopolitan Pompeii was, with the strong presence of the cult of the Egyptian goddess Isis. She seemed to coexist easily alongside the Roman gods. Venner notes “Women found her a goddess who understood their lives: a mother, a mourner, and a protector all at once.”  Various shrines to Isis were found in private houses and the was a large public temple in the centre of town.

One of the great things about Pompeii is that it is still giving us more. Only about two-thirds of the city has been excavated for the now rock-hard pumice and ash. In a discovery reported a couple of years ago a whole new room of frescos had been discovered where the walls were painted black and there were no windows. I remember thinking how dark it must have been, even with the brightly coloured figures. Venner’s book told me that one of the reasons for these dark walls was because all the burning lamps would have quickly left soot marks across lighter colours.

This is a fascinating book which brings both the city and its individual population to life. It is a very easy read and you will learn something new on every page. It is impossible not to make comparisons with modern life, and note, for example that the public walls of Pompeii were full of graffiti, from political slogans, insults, details of loans and interest, right down to directions and curses. Some were crudely scrawled, others painted paid professionals. Everything is fascinating in The Lost Voices of Pompeii.

Reviewer: Marcus Hobson

HarperCollins