Pompei A.D. 79. La moneta verticale

The discovery of a bronze penny, strangely positioned vertically inside a block of cinerite, in turn incorporated in the lapillus of 79 AD, which occurred today, during an archaeological excavation near the Amphitheater of Pompeii, kicks off at the incipit of the story with which the mystery of the ‘vertical currency’ is revealed. The story develops in the two days preceding the eruption. The protagonist is Domitilla, a teenager from the first century after Christ, a street urchin ante litteram, who lives on a farm just outside the city walls. Domitilla is the leader of a band formed by the boys of the pagus, the rural area extended around the city, which goes to clash with the citizens of the same age in order to establish once and for all which group should prevail over the other.