Pompeii: A Novel

Fate and Agency play an important role in Pompeii. Attilius feels beholden to fate. As the latest in a long line of engineers, he feels that working on the aqueducts of the Roman Empire is his calling. He is fated to be an engineer, just as his father and his grandfather were before him. Similarly, he has suffered negatively at the hands of fate. The deaths of his wife and child have caused him to reject religion and politics, but he cannot give up on the idea of fate. His conception of fate is a demonstration of his desire for agency. Without religion or politics to guide him, he throws himself on the mercy of fate and embraces his destiny to be an engineer. Attilius treats his chosen profession almost like a religion because it gives him a sense of agency and control. By learning the rules of engineering, he can predict the way the world works. A thorough knowledge of the aqueduct system—an essential part of everyday life in the Roman Empire—allows him to assert agency over his life and the lives of others. Engineering provides Attilius with a very clear, very reliable set of rules for the way the world works.