Editing Mount Vesuvius (section)

====The two Plinys====
The only surviving eyewitness account of the event consists of two letters by Pliny the Younger to the historian [[Tacitus]].<ref name=epistularum>{{cite book|author=C. Plinii Caecilii Secundi|title= Epistularum|section=Liber Sextus; 16 & 20 |url=http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/pliny.ep6.html |publisher=The Latin Library}}</ref> Pliny the Younger describes, amongst other things, the last days in the life of his uncle, [[Pliny the Elder]]. Observing the first volcanic activity from [[Misenum]] across the Bay of Naples from the volcano, approximately {{convert|35|km}}, the elder Pliny launched a rescue fleet and went himself to the rescue of a personal friend. His nephew declined to join the party. One of the nephew's letters relates what he could discover from witnesses of his uncle's experiences.<ref name=Pliny1>{{cite book|author=Pliny the Younger|editor=Charles W. Eliot|chapter=LXV. To Tacitus |series=The Harvard Classics|year=2001|orig-year=1909–14|title=Vol. IX, Part 4: Letters|location=New York |publisher=Bartelby|chapter-url=http://www.bartleby.com/9/4/1065.html}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|author1=Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus ([[Pliny the Younger]])|title=LETTERS OF PLINY|page=LXV|website=Letters of Pliny |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2811/2811-h/2811-h.htm#link2H_4_0065|via=[[Project Gutenberg]] |access-date=3 October 2016 |date=September 2001}}</ref> In a second letter, the younger Pliny details his own observations after the departure of his uncle.<ref name=Pliny2>{{cite book|author=Pliny the Younger |editor=Charles W. Eliot|chapter=LXVI. To Cornelius Tacitus|series=The Harvard Classics|year=2001 |orig-year=1909–14|title=Vol. IX, Part 4: Letters|location=New York|publisher=Bartelby |chapter-url=http://www.bartleby.com/9/4/1066.html}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|author1=Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus ([[Pliny the Younger]])|title=LETTERS OF PLINY|page=LXVI|website=Letters of Pliny |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2811/2811-h/2811-h.htm#link2H_4_0066|via=[[Project Gutenberg]] |access-date=3 October 2016 |date=September 2001}}</ref>

The two men saw an extraordinarily dense cloud rising rapidly above the peak. This cloud and a request by a messenger for an evacuation by sea prompted the elder Pliny to order rescue operations in which he sailed away to participate. His nephew attempted to resume a normal life, but that night a tremor awoke him and his mother, prompting them to abandon the house for the courtyard. Further tremors near dawn caused the population to abandon the village and caused disastrous [[tsunami|wave action]] in the [[Bay of Naples]].

A massive black cloud with lightning obscured the early-morning light, a scene Pliny describes as [[sheet lightning]]. The cloud obscured Point Misenum near at hand and the island of Capraia ([[Capri]]) across the bay. Fearing for their lives, the population began to flee the shore along the road. An ash rain fell, causing Pliny to shake it off periodically to avoid being buried. Later that same day, the pumice and ash stopped falling, and the sun shone weakly through the cloud, encouraging Pliny and his mother to return to their home and wait for news of Pliny the Elder.

Pliny's uncle, Pliny the Elder, was in command of the [[Roman Navy|Roman fleet]] at Misenum and had meanwhile decided to investigate the phenomenon at close hand in a light vessel. As the ship was preparing to leave the area, a messenger came from his friend Rectina (wife of Tascius<ref>{{cite web|url=http://faculty.cua.edu/pennington/pompeii/PlinyLetters.htm|title=Pliny Letter 6.16|access-date=11 May 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150511070405/http://faculty.cua.edu/pennington/pompeii/PlinyLetters.htm|archive-date=11 May 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref>) living on the coast near the foot of the volcano, explaining that her party could only get away by sea and asking for rescue. Pliny ordered the immediate launching of the fleet galleys to the evacuation of the coast. He continued in his light ship to the rescue of Rectina's party.

He set off across the bay but, in the shallows on the other side, encountered thick showers of hot cinders, lumps of pumice and pieces of rock. Advised by the helmsman to turn back, he stated, "Fortune favors the brave" and ordered him to continue to [[Stabiae]] (about 4.5&nbsp;km from Pompeii).

Pliny the Elder and his party saw what they believed to be flames coming from several parts of the crater. After staying overnight, the party was driven from the building by an accumulation of material, presumably tephra, which threatened to block all egress. They woke Pliny, who had been napping and emitting loud snoring. They elected to take to the fields with pillows tied to their heads to protect them from the raining debris. They approached the beach again, but the wind prevented the ships from leaving. Pliny sat down on a sail that had been spread for him and could not rise, even with assistance, when his friends departed. Though Pliny the Elder died, his friends ultimately escaped by land.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://volcanology.geol.ucsb.edu/pliny.htm |author=Fisher, Richard V. |collaboration=and volunteers |title=Derivation of the name "Plinian" |department=The Volcano Information Center |publisher=University of California at Santa Barbara, Department of Geological Sciences |access-date=15 May 2010}}</ref>

In the first letter to Tacitus, Pliny the Younger suggested that his uncle's death was due to the reaction of his weak lungs to a cloud of poisonous, sulphurous gas that wafted over the group. However, Stabiae was 16&nbsp;km from the vent (roughly where the modern town of [[Castellammare di Stabia]] is situated), and his companions were unaffected by the volcanic gases. It is more likely that the corpulent Pliny died from another cause, such as a stroke or heart attack.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/history/lecture19/lec19.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120718082232/http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/history/lecture19/lec19.html |archive-date=18 July 2012 |title=Lecture 19: Greek, Carthaginian and Roman Agricultural Writers |work=History of Horticulture |year=2002 |first=Jules |last=Janick |publisher=Purdue University |access-date=15 May 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref> His body was found with no apparent injuries the next day, after dispersal of the plume.