Imagine living the tragedy of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. It is almost too devastating to imagine. Such a terrible fate had fallen upon the people of Pompeii in 79 AD, nearly wiping all of them out.
- "Ab altero latere nubes atra et horrenda, ignei spiritus tortis vibratisque discursibus rupta, in longas glammarum gifuras hediscebat; fulguribus illae et similes et maiores erant." On the other side, the black and horrifying cloud, broken with a blast, with the air having been twisted and shaken by the fire, revealing forms of flames, with respect to lightning bolts, they were both similar and greater.
- "... densa caligo tergis imminebat, quae nos torrentis modo infusa terrae sequebatur." A dense darkness was threatening to our backs, which was followed in the way of a waterfall poured on our land.
- "Audires ulalatus feminarum, infantum quireitatus, clamores virorum..." You could hear the wailing of women, the crying of the infants, and shouting of the men...
- "... alii parentes alii liberos alii coniuges vocibus requirebant..." ... Some looking for the voices of parents, spouses, children, and others...
Pliny was there to witness this horrifying event in Pompeii alongside those who have past from this. He writes this letter from what he had seen from his own eyes of this eruption. He had seen the water receding back into the ocean and the shaking of the earth "Praeterea mare in se resorberi et tremore terrae quasi repelli videbamus." Even the flattest plane was being driven in opposite directions "... in planissimo campo, in contrarias agebantur..."
