Ever since they were first discovered and explored in 1709, the ancient cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum have excited the historical imagination of the West. "Antiquity Recovered" presents thirteen diverse essays that trace how perceptions of the past have changed over the course of three centuries of excavations. The essays range in subject from a reassessment of the contents of the library at Herculaneum's Villa of the Papyri, to the symbolic appearance of the ancient world in such classic films as Roberto Rossellini's "Voyage in Italy" and Jean-Luc Godard's "Contempt".