The Very Old Folk

The so-called "Roman dream," excerpted from a letter to Donald Wandrei dated November 2, 1927. In this dream, Lovecraft was a quaestor in one of the Spanish provinces under Roman rule. In the town of Pompeii, an ancient people threatened the city, performing terrifying rituals every year on the eve of November. This dream, rich in details and frightening in its suggestiveness, was inspired in the writer by reading the Aeneid translated by James Rhodes.