"Eros looked up. His gaze was drawn to the north, toward Vesuvius. And what he saw filled his throat with fear. This was no earthquake. An enormous black cloud billowed from the summit of the mountain . . ."
On August 24, A. D. 79, a column of fiery ash and pumice shot into the air from the top of Mount Vesuvius. By the next day, the nearby Roman city of Pompeii was buried. More than 1,800 years later archaeologists excavated one of the city's most luxurious houses. Inside were wooden chests full of treasure—and the skeletons of two people. This is their story.