The shape that Vesuvius had before the eruption of 79 AD is uncertain: many believe that it had a single cone, others affirm that the inner peak had already formed and therefore already showed its twin shape. Other historical information comes from Seneca, a scholar of natural sciences, who spoke of the earthquake that devastated Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabia, and also Naples and the nearby cities, on February 5, 62 AD: an earthquake that had the cities on their knees destroying or severely damaging houses and public buildings.
The cataclysm of 79 AD instead is described to us by Pliny the Younger. In that year Vesuvius suddenly awoke, burying Pompeii, Stabia and Herculaneum in ashes and lapilli. Pompeii , Stabiae and those who lived there were destroyed by an enormous mass of ash and lapilli. In this amazing eruption, no lava appears to have come out.
Pompeii and Stabiae were buried by lapilli, Herculaneum by sands or ashes converted over time and with water into tufo. Above Herculaneum, in later times, he saw the lava, which therefore is over the buried city.
Pliny the Younger gives us a detailed and exact description of that dramatic event. In two letters sent to the historian Tacitus, he provides a detailed description of the events and also of the death of his uncle Pliny the Elder, naturalist and commander of the fleet moored at Capo Miseno, who had moved closely to observe the phenomenon and to come to help those who tried to escape the cataclysm.
Here are some particul\arly significant and dramatic passages taken from Pliny's correspondence:
"On the ninth day before the calends of September, about the seventh hour, my mother warns him that a cloud of extraordinary size appeared. Spending time in the sun, after taking a cold bath and lying down he studied the event: he asked for shoes and climbed in a place where the phenomenon could be clearly observed. A cloud rose from that mountain (later it was known to be Vesuvius) - whose appearance and conformation could be represented by a pine. In fact, it rose upwards as if a very long trunk, it opened into different branches, first pushed with a vigorous blow, then, weakened, it nearly stopped, overcome by its own weight, it lost in width, looking now candid white, now filthy and stained, for having raised earth and ashes. Already the ash was falling on the ships, hotter and denser as they went further and pumice and black stones burned and split by the fire; already a sudden shallow water and the collapse of the mountain prevented access to the coast. Meanwhile, fires were blazing with huge flames in many places from the top of Vesuvius. The roofs swayed due to frequent and large earthquakes ... outdoors the rain from the pumice was feared, however it was light and composed ".
This is how Pliny describes the eruption and the phenomena that accompanied it. The eruption of 79 AD is certainly the best known, due to the historical, archaeological and artistic importance that the findings of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae have assumed.
