The Last Morning in Pompeii
It is an ordinary market morning in Pompeii. Bread is in the oven, a dog is chained in a courtyard, someone is arguing over the price of fish. Write the hour before Vesuvius erupts — knowing what the characters cannot.
Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE, burying Pompeii and Herculaneum in ash. The ash preserved buildings, objects, and even the voids left by bodies, later cast in plaster.
Field notes
Did you know
- Loaves of bread were found carbonized but intact in Pompeii's ovens.
- Graffiti survives on the walls — election slogans, jokes, and love notes.
- Pliny the Younger described the eruption in letters; the 'Plinian' eruption type is named for him.
Key phrases
ash-fall · pumice · forum · amphora · the mountain breathing · an ordinary Tuesday
Chase this down
Look up: Pliny the Younger's letters; the plaster casts of Pompeii.
Craft tip
Dramatic irony is your engine here: the reader knows, the characters don't. Let small ordinary details ache.
Try this
Write it as a single unbroken paragraph with no full stops until the first tremor.