have gone; for Livy might have been read at any other time, and such
spectacles are not frequent. When I came out from my house, I found all
the inhabitants of Misenum flying to the sea. That I might assist them,
and all others who dwelt on the coast, I immediately commanded the whole
fleet to put out, and sailed with it all round the Bay of Naples,
steering particularly to those parts of the shore where the danger was
greatest, and from whence the affrighted people were endeavouring to
escape with the most trepidation. Thus I happily preserved some
thousands of lives, noting at the same time, with an unshaken composure
and freedom of mind, the several phenomena of the eruption. Towards
night, as we approached to the foot of Mount Vesuvius, our galleys were
covered with ashes, the showers of which grew continually hotter and
hotter; then pumice stones and burnt and broken pyrites began to fall on
our heads, and we were stopped by the obstacles which the ruins of the
volcano had suddenly formed, by falling into the sea and almost filling
it up, on that part of the coast. I then commanded my pilot to steer to
the villa of my friend Pomponianus, which, you know, was situated in the
inmost recess of the bay. The wind was very favourable to carry me
thither, but would not allow him to put off from the shore, as he was
desirous to have done. We were, therefore, constrained to pass the night
in his house. The family watched, and I slept till the heaps of pumice
stones, which incessantly fell from the clouds that had by this time been
impelled to that side of the bay, rose so high in the area of the
apartment I lay in, that if I had stayed any longer I could not have got
out; and the earthquakes were so violent as to threaten every moment the
fall of the house. We, therefore, thought it more safe to go into the
open air, guarding our heads as well as we were able with pillows tied
upon them. The wind continuing contrary, and the sea very rough, we all
remained on the shore, till the descent of a sulphurous and fiery vapour
suddenly oppressed my weak lungs and put an end to my life. In all this