Category: Pliny the Younger

Pliny the Elder: Eyewitness to the fury of Vesuvius

Jun 21, 2025

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by

Mark

in Everything Latin, Herculaneum, Mount Vesuvius, Pliny the Elder, Pliny the Younger, Pompeii, Roman Empire, Tacitus

A Plinian eruption is the name given to any volcanic eruption of the ferocity of the one which destroyed the ancient Roman cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii in 79AD, and which subsequently cost Pliny his life. He, his sister and nephew (Pliny the Younger) were living in a villa in Misenum, across the Bay of Naples from Mount Vesuvius at…