http://www.hr-rna.com/RNA/images/Essay%20pics/Pompeii%20balloon.jpg
This image of Pompeii unearthed seems unreal, unbelievable. Pliny the Elder was there at Pompeii back in the day. He had written a thirty seven volume treatise on the local world and its natural phenomena. He was out on the open water when the eruption started. I think he thought of it as luck. He could have turned toward safety. In an eyewitness report it was said that the great “column of smoke was like an umbrella pine.” He went toward the tremendous cloud and thought about trying to save some people. But then he apparently grew bored. Or hypnotized. Maybe some Vesuvian gas of some sort. The whole sky was blackened. Great stones were flailing down on the cities and towns. And in the midst of this Pliny got a blanket and went out under the bleak and stone dark heavens to take a nap. He slept. He died there. Some think he had a quiet heart attack.
http://www.hr-rna.com/RNA/Essay%20pages/Tsunami%20Essay%20page.htm
:’) Pliny the Elder was an admiral I think, anyway, he was or at least felt responsible for the safe evacuation, went ashore, and may have succumbed to a wave of poisonous fumes rolling down from Vesuvius. Those with him ran for their lives. Seems like the eyewitness report was written by Pliny the Younger? Dunno.
