Pompeii was stunning. To walk into the town in the morning sun was quite astonishing (especially as we beat the rush).
We didn't actually see it, but there is evidence to suggest that Christians lived there (or at least those sympathetic to them - would there be a difference then?).
Pompeii felt very different from the rather (for me at least) "hostile" environment of much of Rome (I will spend eternity with people who did not have a happy final visit to the Colosseum). The houses, shops and other businesses were cheek by jowl and, even though the 79AD eruption ejected material that pushed the seafront back some 400 metres, a port is visible too.
The closeness of the buildings and the clear distinctions in terms of wealth and status are also obvious, which I find quite puzzling bearing in mind the stark divisions in the society. Sex, as they say, sells. And it seemed to have done then too. Up from the harbour is a house of ill repute with a rather functional design and graphic frescoes to boot. It seems the employees would have been slaves and external graffiti on the building would have advertised their race. The girls were slaves - not much of a life at the best of times. The obvious point here is the extent to which we live quite happily alongside the injustice and dehumanisation that is part of our own systems and world-views. Presumably for those young women the possibility of change was unthinkable.
But, as we now know, change came very quickly for these inhabitants - a little more slowly for the rest of Rome, but it came. Many died protecting their children as best they could from the inevitable, so there was humanity in these people too - just not as we know it.
Also really interesting was the law court area, with the layout and design that in later years Constantine would use as the template for his basilicas and which we still seem to think of as the normative design for a Church building.
Sadly no sign of a blue plaque commemorating the house where Lurcio lived. Salute.


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