e which
took place in 43 B.C., shortly before the death of Caesar, which it
was believed to portend. In 38 B.C. and 32 B.C. eruptions took place.

The next eruption of which we hear is that mentioned by Suetonius in
his life of Caligula. This was in 40 A.D. An eruption occurred in 72
A.D., after which AEtna was quiescent for nearly two centuries, but in
the year 253, in the reign of the Emperor Decius, a violent eruption
lasting nine days is recorded. According to Carrera and Photius, an
eruption occurred in the year 420. We now find no further record for
nearly four hundred years. Geoffrey of Viterbo states that there was
an eruption in 812, when Charlemagne was in Messina. After another
long interval, in this case of more than three centuries and a half,
the mountain again showed activity. In February, 1169, one of the most
disastrous eruptions on record took place. A violent earthquake, which
was felt as far as Reggio, destroyed Catania in the course of a few
minutes, burying fifteen thousand people beneath the ruins. It was the
vigil of the feast of St. Agatha, and the cathedral of Catania was
crowded with people, who were all buried beneath the ruins, together
with the bishops and forty-four Benedictine monks. The side of the
cone of the great crater toward Taormina fell into the crater.

There was a great eruption from the eastern side of the mountain in
1181. Lava descended in the same vicinity in 1285. In 1329 Speziale
was in Catania, and witnessed a very violent eruption, of which he has
left us an account. On the evening of June 28th, about the hour of
vespers, AEtna was strongly convulsed, terrible noises were emitted,
and flames issued from the south side of the mountain. A new crater,
Monte Lepre, opened above the rock of Musarra, and emitted large
quantities of dense black smoke. Soon after a torrent of lava poured
from the crater, and red-hot masses of rock were projected into the
air. Four years after the last eruption it is recorded by Silvaggio
that a fresh outburst took place. A manuscript preserved in the
archives of the cathedral of Catania mentions an eruption which took
place on August 6, 1371, which caused the destruction of numerous
olive groves near the city. An eruption which lasted for twelve days
commenced in November, 1408. A violent earthquake in 1444 caused the
cone of the mountain to fall into the great crater. An eruption of
short duration, of which we have no details, occurred in 1447