Vesuvius, which destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum. Not content to observe the disaster unfold before his eyes, he put himself in peril to help those trying to flee the volcano, launching the first humanitarian rescue mission in recorded history. That Time Nevada Executed a Prisoner With a Shooting Machine, STUXNET and the Rise of the Digital Weapon, That Time Albert Einstein Invented a New Refrigerator. He likely succumbed to his documented respiratory problems amidst suffocating smoke. LXV. According to Pliny the Younger's account, when his mother told Pliny the Elder to look at the ash cloud from the volcano, he decided to look further into it. He was stationed at Misenum, at the time of the great eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which destroyed and buried Pompeii and Herculaneum. The encyclopedia covered cosmography (Book 2), geography (Books 3-6), anthropology (Book 7), zoology (Books 8-11), botany (Books 12-19), medicine (20-32), metallurgy and mineralogy as well as painting and art history (Books 33-37). However, he may have also been one of the first wine critics. In 46 AD at the age of 23, he began a military career by serving in Germany under Pomponius Secundus, rising the rank of cavalry commander. Humiliated, Matrone sold off the jewels to unknown buyers (laws on conservation of archaeological treasures were more lax then) and reburied most of the bones, keeping only the supposed skull of Pliny and his sword, Russo said. On one hand, the XR lacks the high-resolution screen and dual-lens camera on the XS. Historian and naval commander Pliny the Elder attempted to rescue people from the AD 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Are you sure you want to mark this comment as inappropriate? He stood with the help of his servants, but at once fell down dead, suffocated, as I suppose, by some potent, noxious vapor. He developed an insatiable curiosity and passion for reading and writing, according to historians and nephew, the prolific author Pliny the Younger. 82.4, fol. The skull of this figure is on display at the Museum of the History of the Art of Medicine in Rome, and bow, the Italian newspaper La Stampa has brought the skull and to the attention of University of Camerino anthropologist Dr Isolina Marota. On August 24th [79 AD], about one in the afternoon, my mother asked him to look at a cloud of the most peculiar size and shape. But as he was leading a group of survivors to safety, he was overtaken by a cloud of poisonous gas, and died on the beach. Required fields are marked *, The SciHi Blog is made with enthusiasm by, Pliny the Elder and the Destruction of Pompeii. He also referenced plantings in Bordeaux that include the grape Balisca, now thought an ancestral relative to the Cabernet family. Once the money is found, obtaining the necessary permits and performing the research will take some months, she said. Peloton's hi-tech bike lets you stream live and on demand rides to your home - and it's one of the best examples of fitness technology out there - at a price. >> The real Ark of the Covenant may have housed pagan god >>. The Roman fleet made the 30-kilometer journey across the Gulf of Naples at full speed, launching lifeboats to collect the hundreds of refugees who had made their way to the beaches. The snow-covered peak of Mount Vesuvius volcano is seen from the archaeological excavations of Pompeii. Pliny the Elder was a devotee of all things fermented, namely wine and beer. It allows our most engaged readers to debate the big issues, share their own experiences, discuss real-world solutions, and more. He noted the high prices that bottles from Vienne (now Côte-Rôtie) achieved in Rome. “After climate, the next task is to discuss the influence of the earth (terra), a subject no easier to deal with,” wrote Pliny. 1909-14. Letters. A burnt Roman boat, possibly part of the rescue fleet, found on the coast near Herculaneum, one the towns destroyed in the Vesuvius eruption. But no rescue was possible - Pliny himself died during the eruption while on the beach. (Fortune favours the brave.) One of the bodies carried a golden triple necklace chain, golden bracelets and a short sword decorated with ivory and seashells. "We are not saying that this is Pliny, merely that there are many clues that suggest it, and we should test this theory scientifically," Cionci said. And when they did bury their dead, they did not embalm them like the Egyptians, who have left us a multitude of neatly labeled mummies of pharaohs and officials. but it is $250 cheaper and still get most of the other cutting-edge features found on the more expensive model. In the case of the Iceman, they managed to pinpoint the Alpine valley where he had spent his childhood. According to his nephew, Pliny the Younger, an author and lawyer in his own right who was also at Misenum and witnessed the eruption, Pliny the Elder's scientific curiosity was piqued by the dark, menacing clouds billowing from the volcano. Pliny the Elder, the famed author, naturalist, philosopher, and commander, died trying to rescue people stranded on the shores after the eruption of Mt. It was during this time that Pliny was serving as the commander of the Misenum fleet at nearby Campania. An account of Pliny’s death is given in a letter from his nephew to the historian Tacitus: Google Pixel 5 review: A good camera, terrible speakers and excellent battery life make the £599 'flagship'... Are you smarter than Amazon's AI? His greatest and only surviving work was his Naturalis Historia (Of Natural History): 37 books filled with a summation of ancient knowledge on astronomy, mathematics, medicine, painting, sculpture and many other fields of the sciences and arts. Pliny the Elder’s death was important to Tacitus because he was a famous author – his magisterial Natural History is still read today for its insights into the ancient world. His intense scientific curiosity as well as his natural compassion led to his conducting relief efforts for the evacuation of the citizens of Pompeii. When he saw a strange cloud (later found to be the result of the volcano's massive eruption), he heroically directed Rome's imperial fleet southward to Pompeii, where they planned to rescue survivors.