[Sweet Southern Freedom]

"Considering the eruption occurred in 79 AD, it's doubtful that there is any reference to Christ in the documents. Most of the early Christian writings occurred after that."

I wondered about the same thing. However by 79 AD there could have been much already written about Christ or the earliest roots of the Christian church since most of the Roman populace had heard of these by this time. at least on a colloquial basis..

[Quix]

We have parts of The Gospels from within 30-60 years of Christ's Ascension.

I think Josh McDowell's site has such data.

[joebuck]

"However by 79 AD there could have been much already written about Christ or the earliest roots of the Christian church since most of the Roman populace had heard of these by this time. at least on a colloquial basis."

I have read several scholars who believe the book of Acts was written somewhere between 75-100 AD. In addition I would love it if they found additional commentaries by Julius Ceasar - especially commentaries on his campaigns in Africa and Spain. Ceasar's commentaires on his Civil War campaign suddenly stop shortly before the civl war was over, around the time of the death of Pompey. Many have speculated that this is because Ceasar no long needed to justify his acts in the civil war after he became King of Rome so he stopped writing. I would love to discover that he continued his writing but it was just lost all these centuries.