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The eruption of Vesuvius
A timetable of 24/25 August AD 79
At the time of the eruption, three significant individuals were staying at Misenum, across the Bay of Naples from Vesuvius. Pliny the Elder, writer on natural history and commander of the Roman fleet, was being visited by his sister and her son, later known as Pliny the Younger.
Although he was only 18 years old when the disaster struck, what he experienced then made a deep impression on Pliny the Younger. Many years later, when he was asked by the Roman historian Tacitus to provide an eye-witness description of the calamity for his Historiae, Pliny produced a vivid, hour-by-hour account that has provided valuable clues for present-day volcanologists. They have been able to marry these with the latest research to come up with a new scientific account of the deaths of the thousands who were living in the shadow of Vesuvius on that fateful day - including Pliny the Elder.
To find out how the latest scientific thinking compares with this account, click on  button.
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Time
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Pliny the Younger's account
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1pm
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'About one in the afternoon, my mother desired him [Pliny the
Elder, the writer's uncle] to observe a cloud of very unusual
size and appearance... [It resembled] a pine tree, for it shot
up a great height in the form of a trunk, which extended itself
at the top into several branches... I imagine, a momentary gust
of air blew it aloft, and then failing, forsook it; thus causing
the cloud to expand laterally as it dissolved, or possibly the
downward pressure of its own weight produced this effect. It was
at one moment white, at another dark and spotted, as if it had
carried up earth or cinders.'
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2-3pm
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Pliny the Elder sails to get a better view of the disaster and
to rescue a friend whose villa is at the foot of Vesuvius (Pliny
the Younger decides to remain at Misenum, reading Livy's History
of Rome). 'Hastening to the place from whence others were
flying, he steered his direct course to the point of danger...
And now cinders, which grew thicker and hotter the nearer he approached,
fell into the ships, then pumice-stones too, with stones blackened,
scorched and cracked by fire, then the sea ebbed suddenly under
them, while the shore was blocked up by landslips from the mountains...
He said to the captain... "Fortune befriends the brave: carry
me to Pomponianus." Pomponianus was then at Stabiae, distant
by half the width of the bay [of Naples]...'
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^ top
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6pm
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Arriving at the house of his friend, Pliny the Elder goes to sleep
while the downpour continues. On waking: 'They consulted together
as to whether they should hold out in the house, or wander about
in the open. For the house now tottered under repeated and violent
concussions, and seemed to rock to and fro as if torn from its
foundations. In the open air, on the other hand, they dreaded
the falling pumice-stones, light and porous though they were;
yet this, by comparison, seemed the lesser danger of the two;
a conclusion which my uncle arrived at by balancing reasons, and
the others by balancing fears. They tied pillows upon their heads
with napkins; and this was their whole defence against the showers
that fell round them...'
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6pm-12am
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'It was now day everywhere else, but there a deeper darkness prevailed
than in the most obscure night... They thought proper to go down
upon the shore to observe from close at hand if they could possibly
put out to sea, but they found the waves still ran extremely high
and contrary. There my uncle, having thrown himself down upon
a disused sail, repeatedly called for, and drank, a draught of
cold water ·'
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^ top
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1am
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Pliny the Younger and his mother have stayed in Misenum, across
the Bay of Naples. 'That night they [the earthquakes] became so
violent that one might think that the world was not being merely
shaken but turned topsy-turvy. My mother flew to my chamber...
We sat down in the forecourt of the house...'
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2.15am
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6.00am
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'It was now six o'clock in the morning, the light still ambiguous
and faint. The buildings around us [Pliny the Younger and his
mother] already tottered, and though we stood upon open ground...
there was certain and formidable danger from their collapsing.
It was not till then we resolved to quit the town...'
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6.30am
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7.30am
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8.30am
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Pliny the Elder remains on the shore with his companions. '·
Flames, and a strong smell of sulphur, which was the forerunner
of them, dispersed the rest of the company to flight; him [Pliny]
they only aroused. He raised himself up with the assistance of
two of his slaves, but instantly fell; some unusually gross vapour,
as I conjecture, having obstructed his breathing and blocked his
windpipe... When day dawned again [three days later]... his body
was found entire and uninjured, and still fully clothed as in
life; its posture was that of a sleeping, rather than a dead man·'
Meanwhile, back at Misenum: '... A black and dreadful cloud bursting
out in gusts of igneous serpentine vapour now and again yawned
open to reveal long fantastic flames, resembling flashes of lightning
but much larger... Soon afterwards the cloud... began to descend
upon the earth, and cover the sea... Ashes now fall upon us, though
as yet in no great quantity. I looked behind me; gross darkness
pressed upon our rear, and came rolling over the land after us
like a torrent... We had scarce sat down, when darkness overspread
us, not like that of a moonless or cloudy night, but of a room
when it is shut up, and the lamp put out. You could hear the shrieks
of women, the crying of children, and the shouts of men...'
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^ top
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1pm
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'At last
this dreadful darkness was attenuated by degrees to a kind of
cloud or smoke, and passed away; presently the real day returned,
and even the sun appeared, though lurid as when an eclipse is
in progress. Every object that presented itself to our yet affrighted
gaze was changed, cover'd over with a drift of ashes, as with
snow...'
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