An aerial view of the Bay of Naples, with Mount Vesuvius clearly visible on the right. On that tragic night, the younger Pliny was with his mother in his uncle’s house in Mesino at the northwest of the bay: the boy’s father had died some years earlier, and the admiral was his guardian. Senator Pomponianus’s villa was in Stabiae, modern-day Castellammare, down on the southeast. Sailing down, the admiral would pass Herculaneum and then (further inland) Pompeii. All three towns were preserved as in a time-capsule until rediscovery in the 1730s and 1740s, but Stabiae never became a tourist attraction because the authorities insisted that excavations there be reburied.
Part 1 of 3
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.
Précis
In August 70, Pliny the Elder, a Roman admiral, went to help evacuate those fleeing the eruption of Vesuvius. His nephew Pliny, then about nine, later recalled how the admiral had gone to the house of Senator Pomponius, perilously close to the volcano, and tried to spread a little calm, even taking a relaxing bath before going comfortably to bed. (59 / 60 words)
Part Two
The bath-house in the Villa San Marco in Stabiae, preserved by the eruption of Vesuvius in August 70. The younger Pliny tells us that on reaching the villa of Pomponianus there in Stabiae, his uncle made a point of taking a relaxing bath in the hope of spreading a little calm. At this point, the eruption was not greatly troubling the town, apart from a fine rain of ash and powdered pumice. Things became worse overnight (though Uncle Pliny slept soundly through it all) and in the morning they decided to leave; Pomponianus had already sent his baggage on ahead. Sadly, it was too late for the admiral: he was morbidly overweight and in poor respiratory health, and succumbed to the fumes more easily than the others.
The court which led to his apartment being now almost filled with stones and ashes, it would have been impossible for him, if he had continued there any longer, to have made his way out; it was thought proper therefore to awaken him. He got up, and joined Pomponianus and the rest of the company, who had not been sufficiently unconcerned to think of going to bed.
They consulted together whether it would be most prudent to trust to the houses, which now shook from side to side with frequent and violent concussions, or flee to the open fields, where the calcined* stones and cinders, tho’ levigated* indeed, yet fell in large showers, and threatened them with instant destruction. In this distress they resolved for the fields, as the less dangerous situation of the two: a resolution which, while the rest of the company were hurried into by their fears, my uncle embraced upon cool and deliberate consideration. They went out then, having pillows tied upon their heads with napkins; and this was their whole defence against the storm of stones that fell around them.
* Something is ‘calcined’ if has been reduced to calx, an ashy, powdery residue formed by exposure to strong heat that neither melts nor fuses.
* Crushed to a fine powder.
Précis
The elder Pliny’s restful night was cut short when the household roused him, after realising that falling cinders would soon block his bedroom door. Family and guest then fell to discussing their options, and dawn found them hurrying out of the house with cushions tied upon their heads, to protect them from a rain of ash and cinders. (58 / 60 words)
Part Three
Part of a fresco in the Villa San Marco in Stabiae, showing a lady carelessly gathering spring flowers. Stabiae was home to Senator Pomponianus, who was reluctant to leave and the elder Pliny was so full of optimism and confidence that the Senator was persuaded to spend another night in the shadow of the angry mountain. For him and for his family it was a sleepless night, if not for the admiral, and in a hail of pumice they fled the following morning, with cushions tied to their heads.
It was now day every where else, but there a deeper darkness prevailed than in the blackest night; which however was in some degree dissipated by torches and other lights of various kinds. They thought it expedient to go down farther upon the shore in order to observe if they might safely put out to sea; but they found the waves still run extremely high and boisterous. There my uncle, having drunk a draught or two of cold water, laid himself down upon a sail-cloth which was spread for him; when immediately the flames, preceded by a strong smell of sulphur, dispersed the rest of the company, and obliged him to rise.
He raised himself up with the assistance of two of his servants, and instantly fell down dead; suffocated, I conjecture, by some gross and noxious vapour, as having always had weak lungs, and being frequently subject to a difficulty of breathing. As soon as it was light again, which was not till the third day after this melancholy accident, his body was found entire, and without any marks of violence, exactly in the same posture in which he fell, and looking more like a man asleep than dead.
Précis
The family reached the shore safely, but the winds were against any immediate attempt to leave by boat. Pliny, overweight and breathless, lay down to rest but a sulphurous cloud engulfed them, and they were compelled to move. Sadly, the fumes were too much for Pliny’s weakened lungs, and the others were compelled to leave him dead upon the beach. (60 / 60 words)
