ness, therefore, that I execute your commands,
and should indeed have demanded the task if you had not enjoined it. He
was at that time with the fleet under his command at Misenum.

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, gone back to his books; he immediately arose
and went out upon a rising ground from whence he might get a better sight
of this very uncommon appearance.

A cloud, from which mountain was uncertain at this distance (but it was
found afterward to come from Mount Vesuvius), was ascending, the
appearance of which I cannot give you a more exact description of 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, which spread itself out at the top into a
sort of branches, occasioned, I imagine, either by a sudden gust of air
that impelled it, the force of which decreased as it advanced upward, or
the cloud itself being pressed back again by its own weight, expanded in
the manner I have mentioned; it appeared sometimes bright and sometimes
dark and spotted, according as it was either more or less impregnated with
earth and cinders.

The Elder Pliny's Heroism.

This phenomenon seemed to a man of such learning and research as my uncle
extraordinary and worth further looking into. He ordered a light vessel to
be got ready, and gave me leave, if I liked, to accompany him. I said I
had rather go on with my work, and it so happened he had himself given me
something to write out.

As he was coming out of the house he received a note from Rectina, the
wife of Bassus, who was in the utmost alarm at the imminent danger which
threatened her, for her villa lying at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, there
was no way of escape by sea; she earnestly entreated him, therefore, to
come to her assistance.

He accordingly 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 towns which lay
thickly strewn along the beautiful coast.

Hastening then to the place from whence others fled with the utmost
terror, he steered his course direct to the point of danger, and with so