Exhaustingly hot August. The luxurious villas of the first rich people of the Roman Empire were located on the coast of the Gulf of Naples. The world's greatest navy lies quietly at anchor in Misenae. Vacationers flooded the seaside resorts - Bailly, Pompeii, Herculaneum. But suddenly the Aqua Augusta - a huge aqueduct running along the slope of Vesuvius, supplying water to half a million people - stops working. What is this? Technical malfunction or someone's malicious intent? Where does the imperial water line supervisor disappear to? Is he alive? And does his disappearance have anything to do with what happened? Marcus Attilius Prim, newly appointed to this post, really wants to understand this strange story, but first, we need to give people water. Work in Pompeii and its investigation begin on the morning of August 23, 1979...For the first time in Russian, an unexpected stylish detective novel in original ancient settings - from the author of "Fatherland" and "Enigma"!!