The Pirates of Pompeii
Encyclopedia
The Pirates of Pompeii is a children's
historical novel
set in Roman
times by Caroline Lawrence
. The novel is the third in the Roman Mysteries
series.
. Their friend Jonathan ben Mordecai is in a coma, and Nubia and Flavia search for a flower that his father who is a doctor needs for medicine. Scuto, Flavia's dog finds the precious flower, as well as a little girl, Julia all alone in a cave who says that her big brother Rufus was kidnapped by some “scary men” and told her to hide in the cave while he drew them off. He promised to come back but never did.
Returning to the refugee camp, Flavia and Nubia help to medicine Jonathan, who awakes from his coma. While he is recovering, Nubia meets a runaway slave named Kuanto, from the same region of Africa as she. He asks her to run away and be free with him, but she hesitates.
The four friends learn that children are disappearing everywhere, and Flavia guesses that some kind of organized kidnapping racket is going on. Hearing one of the refugees mutter “Felix just got luckier” with news of another disappearance, Flavia suspects the powerful local landlord Publius Pollius Felix, who happens to be her uncle Gaius’s patron
. Felix is in the refugee camp, ostensibly helping the Emperor
organize supplies for the refugees. By playing up Jonathan’s infirmity, Flavia contrives to have herself and the three friends invited to Felix’s villa to recover while the refugees are being sorted out. There they meet his beautiful but spoiled daughter Pulchra, his wife Polla, and his two younger daughters. Pulchra takes an instant liking to Jonathan.
The four friends live at Felix’s house for a while, slowly being taken in by its luxuries and Felix’s charisma. Flavia is initially appalled at seeing how Pulchra treats her own slave girl, Leda (including flogging her with a birch stick and making her stay huddled in a locked chest as punishment), but before long, she begins treating Nubia almost as poorly – Flavia does not abuse Nubia, but, in an effort to fit in with the way things are done at the house, begins ordering her around like a servant and then ignoring her like a piece of furniture.
Spying on various parts of the house, they notice suspicious signs; shortly after one of Felix’s clients comes begging the patron to help find his missing daughter, Lupus sees two men near the villa conferring on how to return her.
On the night of a sumptuous dinner party, Flavia tries to be a good guest by ordering Nubia to play her flute. The next day, she sees that Nubia has run away, after Pulchra beat her, stole her puppy, and broke her lotuswood flute. Flavia goes running to Felix to ask for his help, but Felix refuses, saying that, if Nubia were caught, the law would require her to be crucified
as a runaway.
Sickened at how she and the others have been taken in by the house and its seductive ways, Flavia is determined to find Nubia herself. She, Jonathan, and Lupus retrace her steps to a small shrine on a hilltop where they had a picnic, and find signs that Nubia has run away with Kuanto, who has followed her to the villa. Flavia then catches Pulchra and Leda, who have followed them, and the two girls begin fighting. Just then, all the children are seized by the kidnapping gang, who call themselves “The Pirates of Pompeii.” Lupus manages to get away without being seen.
Flavia, Jonathan, Pulchra, and Leda are taken to a seaside grotto, where they join a band of almost fifty kidnapped children. All of them receive a severe beating to keep them subdued, but Jonathan and Flavia tell the children jokes to keep their spirits up.
Lupus runs back to the house, but Felix is nowhere to be found. His wife, Polla, does not seem to comprehend Lupus’s urgent appeals for help. Polla tells Lupus that Felix is away at Rome, and Lupus runs back to the grotto to free the children himself. When he communicates this, Pulchra confides shamefully that her mother has spells of mental illness, and her father rarely leaves the house for that reason. Lupus cuts the children free, but just as they are about to escape, the pirates find them and seize Flavia, threatening to kill her if they don’t stand still. Lupus manages to get away again, and runs back to the villa, praying that Felix is there.
The pirates pour cold sea water all over Flavia as punishment for trying to escape. Flavia and Jonathan are then forced to lye on their backs on the floor of the grotto, and are tied up so that they cannot sit up.
Meanwhile, Nubia has joined Kuanto and several other runaway slaves, all of whom are fleeing abusive masters. Kuanto says he has hired a ship to take them to Alexandria
. But as soon as they board the ship, the crew are revealed to be the kidnappers, in league with Kuanto. The runaway slaves are taken prisoner and put with the children, except for Nubia, whom Kuanto says is with him.
Acting as though she does not recognize Flavia - she and Jonathan have been untied so that they would be able to walk to the ship and are now bound upright to the mast - and the others, she talks with Kuanto, who explains that he is a freedman of Felix’s whose job for the patron was leading posses to track down runaway slaves. Kuanto had the idea of selling the slaves instead of turning them into the law, and one of the other “pirates” suggested expanding into kidnapping after the volcano erupted, since there would be so many runaway slaves and lost children in the chaos. Felix doesn’t know anything about it; the pirates just use his name to intimidate the locals into doing what they want.
Playing along, Nubia serves the pirates cups of wine, drugged with a packet of sleeping powder that Jonathan brought with him.
The next morning, when the ship is at sea, on its way to meet a buyer for the slaves, the pirates begin sorting the children, picking out those with families who can pay a ransom for them. But then Kuanto recognizes Pulchra, and panics, knowing that Felix will hunt every last one of them down. Torn between selling the entire group of children as slaves, or throwing them overboard, the pirates suddenly begin to hallucinate
. Seeing terrible visions, they lose control of the boat and the children manage to overpower them. Jonathan ruefully realizes that he took the wrong powder from his father’s stores. Two of the pirates are badly injured by their hallucinations – one of them jumps from the crow’s nest to the deck, believing he has wings – and two jump overboard and drown.
As the children try to gain control of the boat, they spot the pirate ship Vespa coming, and on it the children's hated enemy, the slave-dealer Venalicius.
The children and runaway slaves hatch a plan, and the slaves pretend to be the pirates trading the children. When the slave traders board the ship, the children spill chickpeas onto the deck, causing them to slip and fall, while Jonathan and Nubia use gold coins as sling stones to knock them unconscious. When Venalicius tries to seize Nubia, Pulchra saves her by plowing her head into his stomach. A short time later, Felix arrives in his racing yacht, accompanied by Lucius and a gang of his bodyguards. They take the pirates and slave traders into custody, but Lupus shocks them all by trying to stab Venalicius to death with a knife. Felix stops him, and Lupus bursts into tears.
At the villa, Felix thanks Flavia and her friends for rescuing his daughter. He has arranged to return all the stolen children to their families, and has given the runaway slaves a place on his estate. To Nubia, Pulchra gives back her dog and a brand-new flute.
Flavia decides to free Nubia. At first Nubia is afraid that being free means she will have to leave her friends; when she is assured otherwise, she accepts. Just then, the first rainstorm since the volcanic eruption begins, and the rain washes away the layer of ash covering everything.
.
Children's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
historical novel
Historical novel
According to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is-Development:An early example of historical prose fiction is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history and left a lasting impact on Chinese culture.The...
set in Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
times by Caroline Lawrence
Caroline Lawrence
Caroline Lawrence is an English American author, best known for The Roman Mysteries series of historical novels for children. The series is about a Roman girl called Flavia and her three friends: Nubia , Jonathan and Lupus...
. The novel is the third in the Roman Mysteries
The Roman Mysteries
The Roman Mysteries is a series of historical novels for children by Caroline Lawrence. The first book, The Thieves of Ostia, was published in 2001, finishing with The Man from Pomegranate Street, published in 2009, and 17 more novels were planned, plus a number of "mini-mysteries" and companion...
series.
Plot
The story begins as Flavia and Nubia look over the devastation of Mount VesuviusMount Vesuvius
Mount Vesuvius is a stratovolcano in the Gulf of Naples, Italy, about east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is the only volcano on the European mainland to have erupted within the last hundred years, although it is not currently erupting...
. Their friend Jonathan ben Mordecai is in a coma, and Nubia and Flavia search for a flower that his father who is a doctor needs for medicine. Scuto, Flavia's dog finds the precious flower, as well as a little girl, Julia all alone in a cave who says that her big brother Rufus was kidnapped by some “scary men” and told her to hide in the cave while he drew them off. He promised to come back but never did.
Returning to the refugee camp, Flavia and Nubia help to medicine Jonathan, who awakes from his coma. While he is recovering, Nubia meets a runaway slave named Kuanto, from the same region of Africa as she. He asks her to run away and be free with him, but she hesitates.
The four friends learn that children are disappearing everywhere, and Flavia guesses that some kind of organized kidnapping racket is going on. Hearing one of the refugees mutter “Felix just got luckier” with news of another disappearance, Flavia suspects the powerful local landlord Publius Pollius Felix, who happens to be her uncle Gaius’s patron
Patronage in ancient Rome
Patronage was the distinctive relationship in ancient Roman society between the patronus and his client . The relationship was hierarchical, but obligations were mutual. The patronus was the protector, sponsor, and benefactor of the client...
. Felix is in the refugee camp, ostensibly helping the Emperor
Titus
Titus , was Roman Emperor from 79 to 81. A member of the Flavian dynasty, Titus succeeded his father Vespasian upon his death, thus becoming the first Roman Emperor to come to the throne after his own father....
organize supplies for the refugees. By playing up Jonathan’s infirmity, Flavia contrives to have herself and the three friends invited to Felix’s villa to recover while the refugees are being sorted out. There they meet his beautiful but spoiled daughter Pulchra, his wife Polla, and his two younger daughters. Pulchra takes an instant liking to Jonathan.
The four friends live at Felix’s house for a while, slowly being taken in by its luxuries and Felix’s charisma. Flavia is initially appalled at seeing how Pulchra treats her own slave girl, Leda (including flogging her with a birch stick and making her stay huddled in a locked chest as punishment), but before long, she begins treating Nubia almost as poorly – Flavia does not abuse Nubia, but, in an effort to fit in with the way things are done at the house, begins ordering her around like a servant and then ignoring her like a piece of furniture.
Spying on various parts of the house, they notice suspicious signs; shortly after one of Felix’s clients comes begging the patron to help find his missing daughter, Lupus sees two men near the villa conferring on how to return her.
On the night of a sumptuous dinner party, Flavia tries to be a good guest by ordering Nubia to play her flute. The next day, she sees that Nubia has run away, after Pulchra beat her, stole her puppy, and broke her lotuswood flute. Flavia goes running to Felix to ask for his help, but Felix refuses, saying that, if Nubia were caught, the law would require her to be crucified
Crucifixion
Crucifixion is an ancient method of painful execution in which the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead...
as a runaway.
Sickened at how she and the others have been taken in by the house and its seductive ways, Flavia is determined to find Nubia herself. She, Jonathan, and Lupus retrace her steps to a small shrine on a hilltop where they had a picnic, and find signs that Nubia has run away with Kuanto, who has followed her to the villa. Flavia then catches Pulchra and Leda, who have followed them, and the two girls begin fighting. Just then, all the children are seized by the kidnapping gang, who call themselves “The Pirates of Pompeii.” Lupus manages to get away without being seen.
Flavia, Jonathan, Pulchra, and Leda are taken to a seaside grotto, where they join a band of almost fifty kidnapped children. All of them receive a severe beating to keep them subdued, but Jonathan and Flavia tell the children jokes to keep their spirits up.
Lupus runs back to the house, but Felix is nowhere to be found. His wife, Polla, does not seem to comprehend Lupus’s urgent appeals for help. Polla tells Lupus that Felix is away at Rome, and Lupus runs back to the grotto to free the children himself. When he communicates this, Pulchra confides shamefully that her mother has spells of mental illness, and her father rarely leaves the house for that reason. Lupus cuts the children free, but just as they are about to escape, the pirates find them and seize Flavia, threatening to kill her if they don’t stand still. Lupus manages to get away again, and runs back to the villa, praying that Felix is there.
The pirates pour cold sea water all over Flavia as punishment for trying to escape. Flavia and Jonathan are then forced to lye on their backs on the floor of the grotto, and are tied up so that they cannot sit up.
Meanwhile, Nubia has joined Kuanto and several other runaway slaves, all of whom are fleeing abusive masters. Kuanto says he has hired a ship to take them to Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
. But as soon as they board the ship, the crew are revealed to be the kidnappers, in league with Kuanto. The runaway slaves are taken prisoner and put with the children, except for Nubia, whom Kuanto says is with him.
Acting as though she does not recognize Flavia - she and Jonathan have been untied so that they would be able to walk to the ship and are now bound upright to the mast - and the others, she talks with Kuanto, who explains that he is a freedman of Felix’s whose job for the patron was leading posses to track down runaway slaves. Kuanto had the idea of selling the slaves instead of turning them into the law, and one of the other “pirates” suggested expanding into kidnapping after the volcano erupted, since there would be so many runaway slaves and lost children in the chaos. Felix doesn’t know anything about it; the pirates just use his name to intimidate the locals into doing what they want.
Playing along, Nubia serves the pirates cups of wine, drugged with a packet of sleeping powder that Jonathan brought with him.
The next morning, when the ship is at sea, on its way to meet a buyer for the slaves, the pirates begin sorting the children, picking out those with families who can pay a ransom for them. But then Kuanto recognizes Pulchra, and panics, knowing that Felix will hunt every last one of them down. Torn between selling the entire group of children as slaves, or throwing them overboard, the pirates suddenly begin to hallucinate
Hallucination
A hallucination, in the broadest sense of the word, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus. In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid,...
. Seeing terrible visions, they lose control of the boat and the children manage to overpower them. Jonathan ruefully realizes that he took the wrong powder from his father’s stores. Two of the pirates are badly injured by their hallucinations – one of them jumps from the crow’s nest to the deck, believing he has wings – and two jump overboard and drown.
As the children try to gain control of the boat, they spot the pirate ship Vespa coming, and on it the children's hated enemy, the slave-dealer Venalicius.
The children and runaway slaves hatch a plan, and the slaves pretend to be the pirates trading the children. When the slave traders board the ship, the children spill chickpeas onto the deck, causing them to slip and fall, while Jonathan and Nubia use gold coins as sling stones to knock them unconscious. When Venalicius tries to seize Nubia, Pulchra saves her by plowing her head into his stomach. A short time later, Felix arrives in his racing yacht, accompanied by Lucius and a gang of his bodyguards. They take the pirates and slave traders into custody, but Lupus shocks them all by trying to stab Venalicius to death with a knife. Felix stops him, and Lupus bursts into tears.
At the villa, Felix thanks Flavia and her friends for rescuing his daughter. He has arranged to return all the stolen children to their families, and has given the runaway slaves a place on his estate. To Nubia, Pulchra gives back her dog and a brand-new flute.
Flavia decides to free Nubia. At first Nubia is afraid that being free means she will have to leave her friends; when she is assured otherwise, she accepts. Just then, the first rainstorm since the volcanic eruption begins, and the rain washes away the layer of ash covering everything.
Continuity
- Nubia’s real name, Shepenwepet, is revealed.
- Lupus's hatred for Venalicius is explained in the subsequent novel The Dolphins of LaurentumThe Dolphins of LaurentumThe Dolphins of Laurentum is a historical novel by Caroline Lawrence published on February 6, 2003 by Orion Books. It is the fifth novel in the The Roman Mysteries series.-Plot:...
. - In The Slave-girl from JerusalemThe Slave-girl from JerusalemThe Slave-girl from Jerusalem is a children's historical novel by Caroline Lawrence. The novel, the thirteenth in the Roman Mysteries series, was published in 2007. It is set in December A.D. 80 in and around Ostia, and deals with death, slavery and the Roman legal system.-Plot summary:Jonathan's...
, it is revealed that Nubia's manumissionManumissionManumission is the act of a slave owner freeing his or her slaves. In the United States before the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which abolished most slavery, this often happened upon the death of the owner, under conditions in his will.-Motivations:The...
was not legally completed in this novel.
Adaptation
The Pirates of Pompeii was one of the books adapted into an episode of the television seriesRoman Mysteries (TV series)
Roman Mysteries is a television series based on the series of children's historical novels by Caroline Lawrence. It is reportedly the most expensive British children's TV series to date at £1 million per hour....
.