“Your request that I would send you an account of my uncle’s death, in order to transmit a more exact relation of it to posterity, deserves my acknowledgments; for, if this accident shall be celebrated by your pen, the glory of it, I am well assured, will be rendered forever illustrious. And notwithstanding he perished by a misfortune, which, as it involved at the same time a most beautiful country in ruins, and destroyed so many populous cities, seems to promise him an everlasting remembrance notwithstanding he has himself composed many and lasting works; yet I am persuaded, the mentioning of him in your immortal writings, will greatly contribute to render his name immortal. Happy I esteem those to be to whom by provision of the gods has been granted the ability either to do such actions as are worthy of being related or to relate them in a manner worthy of being read. My uncle was at that time with the fleet under his command at Misenum, in the Bay of Naples. On the 24th of August, about one in the afternoon, my mother desired him to observe a cloud which appeared of a very unusual size and shape. He had just taken a turn in the sun, and, after bathing himself in cold water, and making a light luncheon, had gone back to his books: he immediately arose and went out upon a piece of rising ground, where he could get a better sight of this very uncommon appearance. A cloud was ascending from a mountain, afterwards found to be Vesuvius, the appearance of which I cannot more accurately describe than by likening it to that of a pine tree, for it shot up to a great height in the form of a very tall trunk, spreading itself out at the top into a sort of branch. It appeared sometimes bright and sometimes dark and spotted, according as it was either more or less impregnated with earth and cinders.[2] This phenomenon seemed to a man of such learning and research as my uncle extraordinary and worth further looking into. He accordingly ordered a light vessel to be got ready, and gave me leave, if I liked, to accompany him. I preferred to go on with my work; and it so happened that he had himself given me something to write out. Just as he was coming out of the house, tablets in hand, he received a note from Rectina, the wife of Bassus, who was in the utmost alarm at the imminent danger which threatened her; as her villa lay at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, there was no way of escape but by sea; she earnestly entreated him therefore to come to her assistance. So he changed his first intention, and what he had begun from a philosophical, he now carried out in a noble and generous spirit. He ordered the galleys to put to sea, and went himself on board with an intention of assisting not only Rectina, but the several other towns which lay thickly strewn along that beautiful coast. Hastening then to the place from which others were fleeing in the utmost terror, he steered his course direct to the point