Meanwhile, from many points of Mount Vesuvius, vast sheets of flame and tall columns of fire were blazing, the flashes and brightness of which were heightened by the darkness of night. My uncle, to soothe the terrors of those about him, kept telling them that these were fires which the frightened country people had left to burn, and that the deserted houses were blazing away all by them selves. Then he gave himself up to repose, and slept a perfectly genuine sleep, for his snoring (which in consequence of his full habit was heavy and loud) was heard by those in attendance about his door.
However, the courtyard from which this suite of rooms was approached was already so full of ashes mixed with pumice-stones that its surface was rising, and a longer stay in the bedchamber would have cut off all egress. On being aroused, he came forth and rejoined Pomponianus and the others who had kept watching. They consulted together whether to remain under cover or wander about in the open; for the walls nodded under the repeated and tremendous shocks, and seemed, as though dislodged from their foundations, to be swaying to and fro, first in one direction and then in another. On the other hand, in the open air, there was the fall of the pumice-stones (though they were light and burnt out) to be apprehended. However, a comparison of dangers led to the choice of the latter course. With my uncle indeed it was a case of one reason getting the better of another; while in the case of others fear overcame fear. They covered their heads with pillows tied round with cloths: this was their way of protecting themselves against the shower. By this time it was day elsewhere, but there it was night, the blackest and thickest of all nights, which, however, numerous torches and lights of various kinds served to alleviate. It was decided to make for the shore, in order to learn from the nearest point whether the sea was by this time at all available. A huge and angry sea still continued running. Here, reclining on a cloth which had been thrown on the ground, my uncle more than once called for a draught of cold water and swallowed it. Upon this, an outbreak of flame and smell of sulphur, premonitory of further flames, put some to flight and roused him. With the help of two slave-boys he rose from the ground, immediately fell back, owing (as I gather) to the dense vapour obstructing his breath and stopping up the access to his gullet, which with him was weak and narrow and frequently subject to wind. When day returned (the third from that which he had looked upon for the last time ) his body was found whole and uninjured, in the dress he wore; its appearance was that of one asleep rather than dead.
Meanwhile my mother and I at Misenum — however, this has nothing to do with history, nor did you wish to learn anything except what related to his death. So I will make an end. This alone I will add, that everything related by me has been either matter of personal observation or else what I heard on the spot, the time of all others when the truth is told. Do you select what you choose. For a letter is a different matter from a history; it is one thing to write to a friend and another to write for the world.
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17. — TO RESTITUTUS.
I can’t refrain from letting off by letter to you — since it is not my good luck to be able to do it in your presence — the touch of indignation experienced by me at a recitation held by a certain friend of mine. A production of a most finished kind was being read; and this, two or three of the company (learned persons, as they seemed to themselves and a few others) listened to, with the appearance of deaf and dumb people. They never parted their lips, they never moved a hand, they never rose from their seats, if it had been only from the fatigue of remaining seated. Whence all this solemnity and wisdom? Nay rather what dulness, arrogance, perversity, or more properly madness, to employ a whole day with the special object of offending and leaving as an enemy the man to whose house you have come as to a special friend! Are you a more learned man than he? So much the less room for envy, for he who is envious shows his inferiority. In short, whether you are worth more than him, or less than him, or the same as he is, praise him in his capacity of inferior, or superior, or equal; if your superior, because, unless he is worthy of praise, you yourself cannot be; if your inferior or equal, because it concerns your own reputation that the man whom you excel, or even are on a par with, should appear as great as possible. For my part I actually revere and admire all those who accomplish anything in literature. For it is a difficult, arduous, and fastidious pursuit, one which in its turn spurns those who spurn it: unless by chance you entertain a different opinion. And yet what individual has a greater respect for the pursuit than you, or where can there be a kindlier critic? And this is the consideration which has led me to inform you in particular of my indignation, as being the person most sure to share my feelings.
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18. — TO SABINUS.
You ask me to appear for the Firmani, in their State trial; and, though busied with numerous occupations, I will do my best for them. I desire indeed to lay under an obligation not only a most distinguished colony, by undertaking the office of their advocate, but also you yourself by a service which is so agreeable to you. For since, as you are in the habit of proclaiming, the friendship which exists between us is looked upon by you in the light of an advantage and a glory, there is nothing which I ought to deny you, particularly when you ask on behalf of your birth-place. What indeed can be more honourable than prayers prompted by duty, or more efficacious than those which spring from affection? Accordingly, plight my troth to your, or rather now to our, friends, the Firmani. Not only does their own distinction give promise that they are worthy of my efforts and zeal, but also especially this consideration, that those are likely to be men of great worth among whom such a one as you has arisen.
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19. — TO NEPOS.
Are you aware that the price of land has risen, and particularly of land near Rome? The cause of this sudden dearness is a matter which has been the subject of much discussion. At the last Comitia the Senate gave expression to an opinion which did it great honour: “that candidates should not give banquets, nor send presents, nor lodge money for the purpose of bribery,” of which practices the two former were carried on as openly as they were unstintedly, and the third, though done privately, was perfectly ascertained. Upon which my friend Homullus carefully availing himself of this consensus of the Senate when called on to vote, proposed a resolution that the Consuls should make known the universal wish to the Emperor, and should beg him, as he had done in the case of other abuses, to employ his sagacity in counteracting this one. He is counteracting it: by a bribery law he has restrained the former shameful and discreditable expenditure on the part of candidates: and he has ordered them to invest a third part of their fortunes in real estate, deeming it disgraceful, as indeed it was, that those who sought honours should look upon Rome and Italy, not as their country, but as a kind of inn or hostelry, like so many people on their travels. There is consequently a rush of candidates; they are bidding against each other for the purchase of whatever they hear is for sale, and in this way are the means of bringing fresh properties into the market. Accordingly, if you are tired of your farms in Italy, this is the time for selling, as also, by Hercules, for buying in the provinces, since these same candidates are selling there in order to buy here.
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20. — TO TACITUS. (Mount Vesuvius Eruption Account II)
You say that the letter I wrote you, at your request, on the subject of my uncle’s death has made you wish to know what I myself, when left behind at Misenum — for with the mention of this I broke off — had to go through, not merely in the way of alarms, but of actual adventures.
“Though memory shuns the theme, I will ‘begin.’”
After the departure of my uncle, I devoted what time was left to study (it was for that purpose that I remained behind); the bath shortly followed, then dinner, then a short and troubled sleep. There had been heavings of the earth for many days before this, but they
produced the less apprehension from being customary in Campania. On that night, however, they so much increased that everything seemed not so much to be in motion as to be turned upside down. My mother rushed into my room; I was similarly getting up with the intention of arousing her in case she were asleep. We sat down in a courtyard attached to the house, which separated by a small space the dwelling from the sea. I do not know whether to style it intrepidity or imprudence on my part, seeing that I was only in my eighteenth year; however, I called for a volume of Livy, and read it as though quite at my ease, and even made extracts from it, as I had begun to do. Upon this, a friend of my uncle’s, who had lately come to him from Spain, when he saw my mother and me seated, and me reading into the bargain, reproved her for her apathy and me for my insensibility to danger. None the less diligently did I devote myself to my book. It was now seven o’clock in the morning, yet still there was but a kind of sickly and doubtful light; now, too, that the surrounding buildings had been shaken, as the place in which we were, though not under cover, was of small dimensions, there was a great and unavoidable risk of our being overwhelmed. Then, at last, we decided on leaving the town. The mass of the inhabitants followed us terror-stricken, and (an effect of panic causing it to resemble prudence) preferring the guidance of others to their own, they pressed on us as we were making off, and impelled us forwards with their crowded ranks. When we had got beyond the buildings we stopped. There we experienced much that was strange, and many terrors. For the vehicles which we had ordered to be brought out, though standing on a perfectly level plain, were rocking from one side to the other, and would not remain still in the same place even when propped under with stones. Moreover, we saw the sea sucked back into itself, and repulsed as it were by the quaking of the earth. The shore had certainly encroached on the sea, and retained a number of marine animals on its dry sands. On the other side of us a black and terrible cloud, broken by the zig-zag and tremulous careerings of the fiery element, was parting asunder in long trains of flame: these were like lightning, but on a larger scale. Then, indeed, the above-mentioned friend from Spain became more urgent and pressing. “If,” said he, “your brother and your uncle is alive, it is his wish that you should be in safety; if he has perished, it was his wish that you should survive him. Why then hesitate to escape?” We replied that we could not so act as, while uncertain of his safety, to provide for our own. Without further delay he rushed off, and got out of reach of danger as fast as he could.
Not long after, the cloud in question descended on the earth and covered the sea. Already it had enveloped and hidden from view Capreæ, and blotted out the promontory of Misenum. Upon this my mother begged and prayed and even ordered me to make my escape as best I could, it being in my power as a young man to do so; as for herself, retarded by her years and her frame, she was well content to die provided she had not been the cause of my death. I, on the other hand, declared that I would not be saved except in her company, and clasping her hand I compelled her to quicken her pace. She obeyed with reluctance, blaming herself for delaying me. And now came a shower of ashes, though as yet but a thin one. I looked back: a dense mist was closing in behind us, and following us like a torrent as it streamed along the ground. “Let us turn aside,” said I, “while we can still see, lest we be thrown down in the road and trampled upon in the darkness by the crowd which accompanies us.” We had scarcely sat down when night came on, not such as it is when there is no moon, or when there are clouds, but the night of a closed place with the lights put out. One could hear the shrieks of the women, the cries for help of the children, the shouts of the men: some were calling for their parents, others for their young ones, others for their partners and recognising them by their voices. Some were lamenting their own case, others that of those dear to them. There were those who, through fear of death, invoked death. Many raised their hands to the gods, but the greater number concluded that there were no longer gods anywhere, and that the last eternal night of story had settled on the world. Nor were there wanting those who by imaginary and false alarms increased the real dangers. Some present announced that such and such a part of Misenum had been overthrown, or such another was in flames; falsely, yet to believing ears. There was a little light again, but this seemed to us not so much day-light as a sign of approaching fire. Accordingly there was fire, but it stayed at a considerable distance from us, then darkness again and a thick and heavy shower of ashes. We got up from time to time and shook these off us; otherwise we should have been covered with them and even crushed by their weight. I might make a boast of not having suffered to escape me either a groan or a word lacking in fortitude, in the midst of such perils, were it not for the fact that I believed myself to be perishing in company with all things, and all things with me, a miserable and yet a mighty consolation in death.
At last, this black mist grew thin, and went off into a kind of smoke or haze; soon came real day, and the sun even shone forth, luridly however, and with the appearance it usually wears under an eclipse. Our yet trembling eyes saw everything changed and covered with deep ashes as with snow. We returned to Misenum, and refreshed our persons as best we might, and there spent a night of suspense alternating between hope and fear. Fear prevailed, for the quaking of the earth continued, and many persons, crazy with terror, were sporting with their own and other’s misfortunes by means of the most appalling predictions. Yet not even then, after experiencing and still expecting perils, did we think of going away till news came of my uncle. All this, which is in no way worthy of history, will be for you to read, not to write about, and you must lay it to your own account (since it was you who called for the communication) if it should seem to you not even worthy of a letter.
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21. — TO CANINIUS.
I am one of those who admire the ancients, yet I do not, like some, disparage the intellects of our own time. For it is not true that nature, as though wearied and effete, no longer produces anything worthy of admiration. And indeed I lately heard Vergilius Rufus reading to a small company a comedy written after the model of the old comedy, and so well written that it may itself serve as a model some day. I do not know whether you are acquainted with the author, though you ought to be; for he is a man of mark owing to his high character, his refined genius, and his versatility as a writer. He has written “Mimiambi” with much delicacy, melody and grace, indeed masterpieces of their kind (for there is no kind of composition which, if carried to perfection, may not be styled a masterpiece); he has written comedies in imitation of Menander and other authors of the same age. You might rank them among the works of Plautus and Terence. Now, for the first time, though not with the air of a beginner, he exhibits himself in the old comedy. Vigour, grandeur, subtlety, pungency, sweetness, humour, none of these are wanting to him; he exalts virtue and lashes vice, employing fictitious names with good taste, and real ones with appropriateness. In my case only he has transgressed the bounds, through excess of complaisance, except for this indeed that poets are licensed to fib. To sum up, I shall squeeze the book out of him and send it to you to read, or rather to be learnt by heart, for I am sure you will not lay it down, if you once take it up.
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22. — TO TIRO.
An affair has taken place, which is of importance to all those who are destined to govern provinces, and of importance too to those who trust implicitly in their friends. Lustricius Bruttianus, having discovered Montanius Atticinus, one of his suite, in many delinquencies, reported him to Cæsar. Atticinus added to his former delinquencies by accusing the man whom he had deceived. An investigation was allowed, and I was among the assessors. Each party pleaded his own case; in a summary way, however, and touching only on the heads, a method by which the truth is at once brought to light. Bruttianus produced his will, which he declared to have been written by the hand of Atticinus; this showed the closeness of their intercourse and the necessity which had driven
him to complain of one whom he had loved so dearly. He enumerated certain disgraceful and palpable offences; which charges Atticinus, being unable to impair, retorted in such a way as to prove himself a mean knave by his defence and a scoundrel by his accusations. For by bribing one of the secretaries’ slaves, he had intercepted the Governor’s official minutes and mutilated them, and now with consummate rascality was trying to turn his own crime to account against his friend. Cæsar acted nobly. He called for our verdicts, not on Bruttianus but forthwith on Atticinus. The latter was convicted and banished to an island. Bruttianus received a perfectly merited acknowledgment of his integrity, and, in addition to this, obtained the credit due to his energy; for, after making short work of his own defence, he conducted his accusation with vigour, and showed that he was as spirited as he was good and honest.
Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Younger (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics) Page 20