Did you know a Roman bakery could explode like gunpowder?

I took this photo while visiting Pompeii. You are looking at the massive volcanic stone mills used to grind grain.

Specifically, you can see the hourglass-shaped top stone (the Catillus) which would rotate over the conical base (the Meta). These were so heavy they had to be turned by mules, often blindfolded so they wouldn't get dizzy walking in endless circles inside the cramped room.

Most people know the Great Fire of Rome (AD 64) destroyed the city. But few know where it started. Tacitus tells us it began in the shops lining the Circus Maximus. Specifically those selling "flammable goods."

In the 1st Century, a room like this wasn't just a kitchen. It was a bomb waiting for a spark. Stacked with dry timber for the ovens (see the brick arch on the right), stocked with olive oil, and filled with air thick with flour dust. Under the right conditions, that suspended dust is highly combustible. It doesn't just burn; it explodes.

In A Slave's Vengeance, my protagonist’s family owned one of these bakeries near the Circus Maximus. They were sitting on a powder keg and didn't even know it.

When the spark of AD 64 finally lit, it incinerated their livelihood and their safety. And when a Roman patriarch loses everything, desperation drives him to do the unthinkable...