Pompei

2004 — "A sweltering week in late August. Where better to enjoy the last days of summer than on the beautiful Bay of Naples? All along the coast, the Roman Empire's richest citizens are relaxing in their luxurious villas. The world's largest navy lies peacefully at anchor in Misenum. The tourists are spending their money in the seaside resorts of Baiae, Herculaneum and Pompeii. Only one man is worried. The engineer Marius Attilius Primus has just taken charge of the Aqua Augustus, the enormous aqueduct which brings in fresh water to a quarter of million people in nine towns around the bay. Springs are failing for the first time in generations. His predecessor has disappeared. And now there is a crisis on the Augusta's sixty-mile main line--somewhere to the north of Pompeii, on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius." The novel author builds up the pressure, describing the two days before the eruption in A.D.79. in credible detail. Book