MEMOIR OF PLINY. 39 



he distinguished himself so much by his eloquence, 

 that he and his friend Tacitus were reckoned the 

 two greatest orators of their age. 



The death of the elder Pliny occurred on the 24th 

 of August, in the fifty-sixth year of his age, and 

 seventy-ninth of the Christian era ; and the date i 

 remarkable as synchronizing the fatal eruption of the 

 same mountain which happened during the present year 

 (1834), with that which took place nearly eighteen 

 centuries ago. * Of his moral character we have 



* Although that mentioned here is the first great erup- 

 tion of Vesuvius on record, there is evidence of others hav- 

 ing occurred at some more remote period. After this the 

 mountain continued to burn for nearly a thousand years, 

 the fire then appeared to become extinct ; but since the be- 

 ginning of the sixteenth century, there have been eruptions 

 at intervals, the most remarkable of which happened in 

 1506 and 1783, which destroyed many towns and about 

 40,000 people ; and in the month of August of the present 

 year 1834, on the same day of the month on which Pliny 

 perished, which is represented as one of the most terrific ever 

 known. The following account of it, given in a private letter 

 from Naples, dated August 30th, deserves a place as a se- 

 quel to the interesting description of the younger Pliny. 



" What has been dreaded has at length come to pass in 

 the most melancholy manner. For several weeks past the 

 wells at Resina Ottajano, and other places at the foot of 

 Vesuvius, were dry, which is an infallible sign of an ap- 

 proaching eruption. On Sunday the 24th, a small opening 

 was perceived in the middle of the mountain, out of which 

 a very insignificant stream of lava flowed, in the direction 

 of Bosco Tre Case, but it ran with considerable rapidity. 

 At the same time a considerable noise and rustling were 

 heard in the interior of the volcano, and towards the direc- 

 tion of the hermits two or three other streams of lava broke 

 forth, without, however, passing beyond the waste space 



