"At a tavern in the Via di Nola, gladiators abandoned their...drinks and fled for their lives..." The eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79 quickly and completely buried all the materials of the inhabitants' daily lives under a sea of ash--ironically, preserving them intact for us to see today. Here is a picture of life in a Roman provincial town, from the graffiti on the walls to the fruit in the market stalls, from the arts to the trade, from the temples to the brothels...all frozen in death for 1,900 years.