Pompeii by Robert Harris
This 2004 novel is by the author of 'Fatherland' and 'The Second Sleep'. It is 79AD and a world is on the brink of destruction. Terrible danger is ignored. We see the odd alien world of ancient Rome. There is exposition and terrible omens and it is odd that the lead up and aftermath of the most famous volcano in history is so dull. But there you have it.
Best Lines:
“Lethal rages.”
“He was a good-looking lad, Ampliatus, and there was nothing he wouldn't do for his master. The old man was a lecher – I don't think he'd leave the dog alone. And Ampliatus looked after his wife for him, too, if you know what I mean.”
“Constant unease.”
“HE WILL PROVE WORTHY.”
“Calamitous defeat.”
“Stern values.”
“The pettiness and avarice of man!”
“I am putting the entire fleet to sea to evacuate survivors.”
“A grevious portent.”
“Wine bore.”
“Utter hopelessness,”
“Trees are pregnant in the spring.”
“Extend his ownership completely,”
“Dancing attendance on a great man since before dawn and knowing themselves doomed to disappointment.”
“Her own future being bargained away.”
“Dyspeptic dread.”
“A prince in its own little pond. Not any more.”
“All these sauces, all this elaboration, had gone out of fashion back in Claudius's time?”
“Cannot see how vulgar and ridiculous he is showing himself.”
“Felt suddenly maudlin.”
“A mule-dealer as Emperor,”
“His own ex-slave as his father in law!”
“Buy themselves a wife.”
“Her future had more or less disappeared along with her principal client.”
“A nothing that said everything.”
“That was all he seemed to do these days: watch other people leave.”
“He did not like this silence.”
“A ghastly thought.”
“The shame of them all.”
“Her wastral husband and his ghastly mistress.”
“She saw a town – our town – many years from now. A thousand years distant, maybe more...a city famed throughout the world. Our temples, our amphitheatre, our streets – thronging with people of every tongue...Long after the Caesars are dust and the Empire has passed away, what we have built here will endure.”