DUSK had hast just descended when Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus was startled by what he saw. The eyes of the Roman lawyer, writer and philosopher, were transfixed on the sight of Mt. Vesuvius beyond the sea. Giant clouds like a casuarina tree spewed out from the volcanic mountain. Soon the clouds expanded to block the sunlight and conceal Vesuvius from view.

The date was August 24, AD 79. Gaius, better known as Pliny the Younger, felt the earth