The Night Vesuvius Blew
Pliny was only about nine when his uncle left to go and help rescue the terrified townspeople of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
79
Pliny was only about nine when his uncle left to go and help rescue the terrified townspeople of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
79
On August 24th, 70, Mount Vesuvius on the Bay of Naples began to erupt. Pliny, a nine-year-old boy doing his homework in nearby Miseno, watched his uncle Pliny, the admiral, sail off to the disaster zone; later he learnt that Uncle Pliny had parted from the other boats to go and rescue Senator Pomponianus in Stabiae.
translated by William Melmoth (1746)
EMBRACING him [Senator Pomponianus] with tenderness, he encouraged and exhorted him to keep up his spirits. The more to dissipate his fears, he ordered his servants, with an air of unconcern, to carry him to the baths; and after having bathed, he sat down to supper with great, or at least (what is equally heroic) with all the appearance of cheerfulness.
In the meanwhile, the fire from Vesuvius flamed forth from several parts of the mountain with great violence, which the darkness of the night contributed to render still more visible and dreadful. But my uncle, in order to calm the apprehensions of his friend, assured him it was only the conflagration of the villages, which the country people had abandoned: after this, he retired to rest, and it is most certain, he was so little discomposed as to fall into a deep sleep; for, being corpulent, and breathing hard, the attendants in the antichamber actually heard him snore.