Hercules founded Herculaneum, they say. The rectilinear town was badly damaged in the AD 62 earthquake. The Vesuvius eruption 17 years later completed its destruction but that bolt from the blue, constituted of ash and boiling lava, time-capsulated it. Surprising cameos of everyday life in a Roman new town or garden suburb, more sophisticated than Pompeii, include board games and toys, carpentry and kitchen work.