Vesuvius and Pompeii have a magical sound today. A lost city, found years later under a layer of ash -- what was it like before the volcano exploded? Who were the people there?

Mary Beard has written about "Pompeii Lost and Found" and corrected a few misconceptions along with an amusing and informative story.

Vesuvius buried Pompeii in 79 C.E. Excavations began in the mid seventeenth century. The city has been explored and documented and exploited, some "discoveries" conveniently made when visiting royalty happened to be there. Nevertheless, it is a place that has informed us about Roman art, architecture, and daily life.

"There is an old archaeological joke that Pompeii has died twice: first, the sudden death caused by the eruption; second the slow death that the city has suffered since it began to be uncovered, . . . the city is disintegration, weeds overgow many of the areas that are off-limits to visitors, some of the once brilliantly colored paintings left in place on the walls have faded to almost nothing."

In spite of that disheartening word, Beard draws a fascinating picture of what has and can be learned through exploration of the ruins. Many people fled the city before the massive eruption because of warning tremors that preceded it. Others have been found as they Stayed in their homes or as they tried to escape. Still others may have died when they returned to try to retrieve precious possessions.

Researchers have mapped Pompeii and named the houses and streets based on the evidence they could find. "This is an exciting, if dodgy, procedure." She cites examples that are surely right, like the house of a banker, identified by his archives. Others are less certain, based on one signet ring found or graffiti on the walls.

There is a disagreement about the age of the different sections of the city, since it was the center of a region composed of Romans, Greeks, and Indigenous people.

Beard devotes a chapter to street life and to the houses. Attention has been given to the impressive homes of the wealthy, but there were many very small houses. Interestingly, most were built around an atrium, but our idea of a family and visitors reclining around tables to dine would apply to very few. External windows were few and small. They tried to bring as much light as they could into dark places. Small light wells and holes in walls above doors were supplemented by thousands of lamps.

Romantic visions of the streets of Pompeii might be affected by Beard's comment -- "a smelly mixture of animal dung . . . rotting vegetables, and human excrement -- which was, just to complete the picture, no doubt covered in flies." Whatever the sanitary conditions, there was a variety of trades and businesses carried on in the town. Stone mills, large bread ovens, and the vats and troughs used by fullers in textile processing can be seen.

Another chapter is on "The Pleasures of the body: food, wine, sex, and baths." The famous baths "must have been a seething mass of bacteria." The reader can also learn about the dormouse holder and other possible foods. Games and the gods are not neglected. Bread has written an engrossing story about Pompeii. It is available at the Mary Willis Library.