Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/458

468 of the most beautiful buildings of the city were overthrown by an earthquake, which also visited several other cities in the neighborhood. The terrified inhabitants fled; but afterwards returned, took heart and re-erected the buildings which had been destroyed still more beautifully than before, especially the Forum and Amphitheatre. In the year 79, however, another eruption of Vesuvius occurred, accompanied by a deluge of ashes and pumice-stone which entirely buried Pompeii, Stabia Optentum, Retina, Herculaneum, and many other cities. The eruption lasted for three days. Pliny the younger has given, in a letter to Tacitus, an account of this terrible occurrence, from which I select the following passages:

“My uncle,” he says, “was then stationed at Misenum, where he had command of the Roman fleet. The eruption occurred on the 24th of August, and at about one o'clock, P. M. His mother called the attention of his uncle to a cloud of extraordinary size and form which appeared in the air. On this,” he says, “that his uncle went to a place whence he could obtain a better view. But it was difficult, at that distance, to ascertain from what mountain the cloud proceeded. Afterwards, it was found to be from Vesuvius. Its form resembled that of a tree, but rather that of a pine tree than any other, for it shot up a great height in the form of a trunk, extending above like branches, occasioned, I imagine, either by a sudden gust of air, which impelled it, and the force of which decreased as it advanced upwards, or the cloud, being pressed down again by its own weight, expanded in this manner. It appeared sometimes white and sometimes dark and