Ashen sky

Describes the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79 and the survival of letters written by Pliny the Younger; profiles the lives of Pliny the Elder, Pliny the Younger, and Tacitus; and contains English translations of the two letters which chronicle the events surrounding the eruption and the death of Pliny the Elder, accompanied by reproductions of relief engravings by Barry Moser.