Pompeii: A Novel

At dawn, Attilius goes to the harbor to meet his team. Musa, Becco, Corvinus, and Polites are there but Corax is yet to arrive. The navy's oarsmen march to the ship, led by Torquatus, the captain of the Minerva. They load the engineering tools onboard and, when they are ready, Attilius is prepared to leave without Corax. As the ship departs from the harbor, Corax runs along the dock and leaps aboard. On the hill above the harbor, Pliny watches the Minerva depart. He thinks about Attilius as the "embodiment of muscular Roman virtues" (82). In his mansion, he keeps notebooks filled with "every interesting fact he [has] ever read or heard" (83) as well as many other strange and fascinating treasures. Before recording his most recent observations, he drafts a message to be sent to the recently-appointed Emperor Titus, who is known for his "lethal rages" (85).

The Minerva sails to Pompeii. Attilius sees Ampliatus's mansion on the hillside. It has been abandoned in the night, as Atia warned him it would be. On the ship, the men talk about how Ampliatus made his money in Pompeii in suspicious circumstances.