The Last Days of Pompeii (1935)

As a Roman blacksmith claws his way from obscurity to wealth and power--a witness the cataclysmic events that will forever change his world--he is unaware that he is living in The Last Days of Pompeii. After his wife and child are killed, Marcus abandons his trade as blacksmith to gain fame and fortune through the only way open to him. Through his spectacular, merciless prowess in the arena, he rises to the top of his profession and travels throughout the empire. While in Jerusalem, he befriends Pontius Pilate, witnesses a subversive young rabbi's march to Calvary and adopts a young orphan, Flavius. But Marcus remains unmoved as the cult of the crucified rabbi spreads through the empire--until Flavius is sent to die in the arena as a Christian. Now, in Marcus' last act of bravery, he frees his son and undergoes a spiritual awakening just as one of the most destructive volcanic eruptions in recorded history destroys his Roman city