In a remarkable confluence of classical scholarship and modern innovation, researchers have finally uncovered the author and title of a charred scroll that lay unread for nearly 2,000 years. Buried beneath the volcanic fury of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, this blackened relic from the Roman town of Herculaneum is rewriting history—without ever being unrolled. Known as PHerc. 172, the scroll is part of a collection discovered in the 18th century in what is believed to be the luxurious villa of Julius Caesar’s father-in-law. Preserved under layers of…