Work in progress! These lists will have their own pages eventually.

Animal Protagonist

  • Die wilden Hunde von Pompeii by Helmut Krausser (2004)
  • Adriano, Il Cane Di Pompei – Hadrian, the Dog of Pompeii by Matthew Frederick (2011)
  • Delta and the Lost City by Anna Fargher (2014)
  • The Baby Dragon of Vesuvius by M.C. Holliss (2020)

Modern Day

  • Apocalypse Pompeii – modern eruption!
  • New Pompeii by Daniel Godfrey
  • Poisoned in Pompeii by Zara Keane (2026)

LGBT

  • Promises in Pompeii by Violet Morley (2022) – FF historical romance spanning 20 years
  • Gladiator, Goddess by Morgan H. Owen (2025) – FF romantasy featuring a female gladiator
  • Vesuvius by Cass Biehn (2025) – YA MM romance

Reincarnation

  • Remember Pompeii

Historicals Not Set in 79 AD

  • Alvira, the Heroine of Vesuvius (1885)
  • The Vesuvius Club by Mark Gatiss (2004) – Edwardian England and Naples
  • The Marshal’s Lover by Jo Graham (2017) – 1800s, various locations including Pompeii
  • In the Shadow of Vesuvius by Tasha Alexander (2020) – Victorian mystery series

Time-Travel Via Artefact

  • Arria Marcella
  • In the Shadow of Vesuvius by J.L. Madore (2018), the protagonist has the gift of psychometry and is transported after touching a coin.

Aliens

  • Doctor Who: The Fires of Pompeii (2008). The Tenth Doctor and Donna face down stone aliens under Vesuvius, and must decide whether to change history or let the town die. A novelisation published in 2022, and a sequel short story published in Doctor Who: The Adventures After (2025). The Seventh Doctor and Ace also visit Pompeii in Big Finish audio drama The Fires of Vulcan (2000), and again briefly in The Algebra of Ice novel (2004).

“We Found a Scroll…”

The trope of finding an ancient scroll seems to be a common one in stories around Pompeii. Sometimes this scroll is found in Pompeii, but the story itself makes no further mention of it.

  • The Vestal
  • ?The Pompeii Scroll

Real People

We know quite a lot about the people of Pompeii, which is helpful for creators in populating their stories. The most prominent figure near the city at the time was Pliny the Elder, the naturalist and army commander who died during the eruption. His nephew, Pliny the Younger, provided the only surviving eyewitness account of the fateful day in his letter to the historian Tacitus some years later. We also know something of the political figures who lived there, plus a banker and a garum seller.

  • The Slave Girl of Pompeii (1887) – Briefly features the prominent political figure Caius Cuspius Pansa, and Paul the Apostle.
  • The Secrets of Vesuvius by Caroline Lawrence (2001) – Pliny the Elder is a prominent character, and invites the band of child sleuths over for tea!
  • Pompeii by Robert Harris (2003) – Pliny the Elder is a prominent character, possibly plus others (need to read this one again!)
  • Doctor Who: The Fires of Pompeii (2008) – We don’t meet Pliny here (which seems a wasted opportunity for the Doctor) but we do meet Lucius Caecilius Iucundus – or rather, Lobus Caecilius, a version of him inspired by the Cambridge Latin Course’s depiction.
  • Pompeii: a Tale of Murder in Ancient Rome by Robert Colton (2012) – This is the first in a series of books set in Pompeii, and the author clearly took pains to give nearly every character a name from the city. Most notable is Lucius Caecilius Iucundus, the banker.
  • The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper (2021) – The protagonist stays at Pliny the Elder’s home for a week. We also very briefly meet Aulus Umbricius Scaurus, the garum seller.