Pompeii: A Novel

The magistrates and Ampliatus meet to discuss the situation in Pompeii. As the magistrates bicker, Ampliatus assures them that he has a plan. He tells them about a prophecy that he "commissioned" (246). In the prophecy, the oracle claimed to have seen "a city famed throughout the world. Our temples, our amphitheater, our streets—thronging with people of every tongue" (246). The meeting is interrupted by the return of the water. They step outside to see a fountain flowing again. Ampliatus exits his villa and talks to the public, telling the increasingly restless people that the water has returned. Then, he tells his slave to throw money to the people. Returning to his house, he notices a finch killed by a cat. He sends his wife to Corelia's room and checks the documents in his office. He already suspects that she has stolen the documents and left.

Corelia rides into Pompeii. She believes that her fate is "inescapable" (250), so she plans to go straight to her hated father and deliver his documents directly to him. When he sees her, he runs toward her. She throws the documents across the room in which the magistrates are meeting.

Attilius climbs Mount Vesuvius on his horse. The landscape is covered in a "ghostly shrouding of ash" (252). He spots another rider in the distance and continues to climb higher, eventually dismounting his horse when the incline becomes too steep. Sensing something "huge and malevolent" (255) in the mountain, he thinks about Corelia and imagines that she is now lost to him forever. On the ground, he spots a body. Instinctively, he knows it is Exomnius. The body has been dead for two weeks, but animals will not eat it. There is "no sign of any wound" (257). In the distance, he spots a man approaching. Attilius recognizes Corax and realizes that the man had been planning his murder "carefully" (258). Corax attacks Attilius with a knife but runs through a deep hollow in the ground and stops, as though he cannot breathe. Corax collapses and dies.

Ampliatus restrains from hitting his daughter in front of the magistrates. He commands the other men to read the documents while he takes Corelia to a private room. She accuses him of being "a thief. A murderer. Lower than a slave" (261). Only Celsinus is able to save his sister from their father's fist. When seeing Corelia's childhood toys, Ampliatus is "suddenly baffled" (262) by how he could now hate his once-beloved daughter so much. He confines her to her room and returns to the magistrates.

The men have read Exomnius's research and they, like Exomnius, fear that another earthquake may be imminent. Ampliatus refuses to call a town meeting on the matter so as to avoid "a panic" (265). He also points out how the other documents are evidence of his corruption and how they, too, are embroiled in his crimes simply by association. When Ampliatus mentions that Attilius seems immune to bribery, the men do not want to know how he plans to "take care" (266) of Attilius. Ampliatus tells them about his murderous plans anyway. As he reaches for a glass of wine, the tremors of the ground are so intense that the glass falls to the floor. A gust of wind blows violently through the house as "the sound of a double boom" (267) is heard from Mount Vesuvius.

After the explosion on Mount Vesuvius, Attilius is almost knocked from his horse. He looks back to the mountain and the peak has been replaced by "a boiling stem of rock and earth" (270).

Ampliatus sees the eruption in the distance. He tries and fails to control the crowd. As he is knocked to the ground in the panicked stampede, he sees a mother drop her baby. The baby is trampled underfoot. Rather than flee from the "vast black wall of cloud" (271) advancing to Pompeii from the mountain, he decides to stay in the city, just as he had done after the earthquake.

In Misenum, Pliny is woken by his sister. He rushes to his balustrade to see the huge pillar of black smoke pouring off the mountain. Thanking the gods for this opportunity, he is desperate to document this "phenomenon" (274) as thoroughly as possible. He calls on a slave to ready a ship to sail across the bay.

Locked in her bedroom, Corelia realizes that she has been forgotten in the chaos. She calls for Popidius to help her. Before he can do anything, small rocks begin to hail down from the dark sky.

Attilius reaches a road. From the passing "stream of refugees" (277), he learns that Pompeii is in imminent danger. He worries about Corelia. As he turns toward the city, the dark cloud blocks out the sun. The rocks fall from the sky. Rather than ride along the busy road to Pompeii, he searches the rich villas along the bay for a boat. In a villa known to house philosophers, people are trying to save the vast library of books and scrolls. Attilius refuses to help books, rather than people, but agrees to take a message to Pliny. He is given a fast horse and set back on the road.

After two hours of riding, Attilius reaches Misenum. In the distance, the mountain smokes and booms.

Before setting sail, Pliny and Gaius research Vesuvius in Pliny's library. They suspect that the mountain has a "fresh source of fuel" (286), as evidenced by the sulfur in the water supply. Noting his nephew's fear, Pliny gives Gaius leave to stay behind while he takes a carriage to the docks. Pliny stops the carriage when Attilius beckons him. They read the message and Attilius impresses on Pliny that "the entire coast is threatened" (288). Pliny welcomes Attilius into the carriage and he describes everything he has seen. Pliny sends a message to Rome saying that "Vesuvius exploded just before the seventh hour" (290) and then orders the entire fleet out into the bay to evacuate survivors. Attilius asks to join Pliny on the Minerva.

As the Minerva leaves the harbor, he begins to feel anxious. On the sea, Pliny begins to dictate to a scribe the sight of the smoke pouring out of the mountain. He gives instructions to save the books from the philosophers' mansion, then to join the rest of the fleet in evacuating people. Pliny calls on Attilius to help him describe the smoke, lightning, and the falling rock. The captain begs Pliny to change course, away from the storm, but Pliny is too fascinated by the pumice stone which "floats on the surface of the sea like lumps of ice" (298). He orders the captain to steer toward the shore, but the seas become too dangers. The captain orders everyone below deck as control of the ship is lost. Pliny frets about his "records" (299).

On the Minerva, the men crouch below decks and listen to the "drumming of the stones above them" (301). They remain under the decks for what seems like hours until the ship drifts through the storm to the coast. The captain runs the ship aground. Along the shore, people are trying to flee with their possessions. Showers of pumice stones continue to fall, and the prevailing wind gives them no hope of setting sail again. Among the crowd, Pliny recognizes his friend Pomponianus. Together with Attilius, the group retires to Pomponianus's villa, some three miles from Pompeii, which in turn is five further miles from Vesuvius. As they enter the villa, the pumice stones fall again. People scream as the rocks crash around them. Despite the circumstances, Pliny suggests that they eat.

A feast is organized. Pliny acts unconcerned, a "display of bravery" (308) that the survivors will never forget. He mulls over the 200-year-old wine from Pomponianus's cellar as the rocks fall, proposing a toast to the "Aqua Augusta" (311). Later, Pliny retires to bed. Stepping outside for a moment, Attilius notices that the size of the falling pumice stones has increased. He worries about the flat roof of the villa becoming overburdened and he evacuates the house, waking Pliny from his deep slumber just before the roof collapses. The people run across the courtyard with "pillows on their heads" (314) to protect them from the falling rocks. They head to the beach, where a crowd of refugees has gathered. In the crowd, Attilius finds Popidius. He and his wife have escaped Pompeii, but—much to Attilius's horror—they "abandoned" (317) Corelia. In the distance, the mountain top bursts into flames.