I.B. Tauris (2017) p/b 240pp £14.99 (ISBN 9781784539283)

This Guide to Pompeii is based on personal research on site and aims to ‘bridge the gap between the popular guidebooks and the more specialist academic studies of Pompeii.’ It is a book of two halves: ‘A Brief History’ and ‘The Guide’ but with the addition of helpful supplementary material (a timeline, bibliography, glossary, index and information for visitors, including a tour itinerary).

Unfortunately it exhibits too much evidence of haste. First, the narrative introduction which occupies the opening 83 pages has been to a large extent taken from W.’s earlier publication, Pompeii, The Last Day (BBC Books 2003), with some sections repeated almost completely verbatim. Secondly, it looks as if the proof reading has been entrusted to a spell checker at times since the text is littered by Latin errors, for example Eratria for Eretria (13), probation equitum (32), tabula for fabula (33-34) auger for augur (43), ministry Fortuna Augusta (43), praeda for praedia (plate 7). Mistakes occur in English too (e.g. ‘store’ for ‘stone’ p.69) and on one occasion an Italian word is used instead of Latin (caserma for gladiator’s (sic) barracks). Occasionally a mistake in the earlier volume which should have been easily detected, has persisted: ‘all four magistrates were elected annually in July’ could have been corrected to ‘took office in July’ since W. tells us in the next paragraph that ‘they elected the magistrates every March’. A minor change from right to wrong sometimes occurs: a reference to Petronius given as 118 instead of 44, Caius Quinctius becoming Cais Quintus and ‘deities to whom’ changed ‘to cult to whom’!

There are a few other points that arouse misgivings. On p.19 the population is estimated at 20,000 ‘made up of about 8,000 slaves and 12,000 freedmen’. The statement that the Alexander mosaic ‘shows Alexander the Great bearing down on the Persian ruler Darius during the battle of Issus’ (p.13) is contradicted on p.79, ‘The battle portrayed is not that of Issus in 333 BC, but the rout of the Persians at Gaugamela in 331 BC.’ On p.133 doubt has carried the day: ‘It could be representing the battle of Issus … or Gaugamela’. In some places there is too confident an assertion where some doubt might be expressed: not everyone agrees that ‘the rich and poor lived in harmony with each other,’ and, ‘slave and master lived in social harmony’. Jongman for example takes quite the opposite view, ‘Pompeii was not a happy egalitarian society.’

The section of the book which makes up the Guide is a much more useful contribution to literature on Pompeii, but even here there are problems with the Latin (such as Fortuna August or farete linguis). There are also occasional infelicities: ‘bust’ of Diana (for statue); the ‘Augustine’ period; equestrian statues sitting on plinths; or the Macellum ‘embellished with at least five pediments (sic!) on which once stood honorary statues.’ There are some attractive plates, but they are not fully utilised. For example, the wall paintings showing the activities of the fuller are not referred to when the fullonica Stephani is described.

The description of the buildings is generally concise but informative. Each one is accompanied by a newly measured and drawn plan with clear labels linked to the text. More general explanations of the use of buildings are added where pertinent, covering topics such as funeral customs, bathing, baking and sacrifice. Here too there are signs of haste, as when the use of such vocabulary as ‘thrice’ or the use of unexplained Latin words like praefica suggest a partially digested source—in this case George Clarke’s Pompeii (1853). The section on sacrifice owes a considerable debt to Ogilvie’s The Romans and Their Gods (1969).

Despite the slips, most of which could be removed by proof reading, this book would be a welcome companion on site to draw attention to detail one might easily miss. But a thorough visit takes time, and the reader is quite rightly warned that a single day is not enough. Planning a visit could also be made easier with the help of the practical information and tour offered here. But if the second half and the supplementary material were to be published without the brief history, the result would be a much more portable and more user-friendly volume for the visitor.

Alan Beale