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Pompeii

Title	Pompeii
Author	Robert Harris
Publication	Arrow
Size	397p
Language	ENG
ISBN	0099282615
Topics	English fiction--Suspense English fiction--Historical Volcanoes Catastrophes (Geology) Pompeii (Extinct city) Rome--History--30 BC-476 AD (Empire) Rome--History--Fiction
Notes	Marcus Attilius Primus arrives in the Bay of Naples from Rome to take charge as aquarius (hydraulic engineer) of the Aqua Augusta, the aqueduct that supplies water to the many towns in a region encompassing the Bay of Naples and Mount Vesuvius. The nine important towns are, in sequential order, Pompeii, Nola, Acerrae, Atella, Naples, Puteoli, Cumae, Baiae, and Misenum. Attilius' predecessor as aquarius, Exomnius, has mysteriously vanished as the springs that flow through the aqueduct begin to fail, lowering the supply of water available to the region's reservoir, the Piscina Mirabilis in Misenum. Then, dramatically, the flow of water stops entirely. Attilius concludes that the aqueduct must be blocked somewhere close to Mount Vesuvius, since reports claim a shut down of the system just before Nola, meaning that towns from there through Naples and Misenum are without any water supply. With aid from Pliny the Elder, whose fleet is docked at Misenum, Attilius assembles an expedition to travel to Pompeii, the closest town still being supplied with water, and then on to the blocked section of the Aqua Augusta. While Attilius' expedition is there, the aquarius himself becomes embroiled as part of a plot of the former slave and land speculator Numerius Popidius Ampliatus. Ampliatus is planning to offer a cheap water supply to Pompeii, which Exomnius, the previous aquarius, had helped him do while stealing from the imperial treasury. Attilius' questions and studies make Ampliatus suspicious of what Pliny the Elder and his nephew later discover—thousands of Roman sesterces at the bottom of the reservoir that should have gone to Rome and which Attilius' predecessor had intended to retrieve once he'd emptied the reservoir. [wikipedia]

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