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Translating Pliny’s letters about Vesuvius, pt. 8. The Smell of Sulfur
John Martin’s early 19th-c. vision of the beach at Stabiae (detail) 6.16.17-22: The Smell of Sulfur This post belongs to a serialized translation and commentary of Pliny the Younger’s letters (6.16 and...
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Translating Pliny’s letters about Vesuvius, pt. 9. Shuddering to Remember
The world turned topsy-turvy: detail of a relief from Pompeii depicting the earthquake of AD 62/3 toppling the Temple of Jupiter (see below for details) 6.20.1-3: Shuddering to Remember This post...
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Translating Pliny’s letters about Vesuvius, pt. 10. When in Doubt, Study
Angela Kauffmann, Pliny the Younger and his Mother at Misenum, 79 A.D. (1785) Princeton University Art Museum (detail; see full painting below) 6.20.4-6: When in Doubt, Study. This post belongs to a...
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Translating Pliny’s letters about Vesuvius, pt. 11. The Elements Torn Asunder
Drawback from the Boxing Day tsunami, 2004, Hat Rai Lay Beach, Thailand 6.20.7-9: The Elements Torn Asunder. This post belongs to a serialized translation and commentary of Pliny the Younger’s letters...
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Pliny and the Eruption of Vesuvius – publication March 2022
Pliny and the Eruption of Vesuvius (Routledge, March 2022) is in press. Here is how to order for your library at a 20% discount. My blog posts about the Vesuvius eruption are well obsolete, but I will...
View ArticleThe Date of the AD 79 Vesuvius eruption in the textual sources
20-min. lecture from 6 January 2022, Archaeological Institute of America Annual Meeting. All details and data to be published in March 2022:...
View ArticleHerculaneum Society: Pliny the Younger and the Date and Sequence of the...
Two talks for the Herculaneum Society, based at Oxford, 26 February 2022, now on YouTube: Professor Pedar Foss, DePauw University, on “Ashy Tuesday-Wednesday: The Date and Sequence of the AD 79...
View ArticleTwo Reviews of the Two Plinys and Vesuvius
Two reviews of Pliny and the Eruption of Vesuvius have come out, one by Margot Neger in BMCR, and one by Paolo Bernardini in La Provincia di Como (here is the PDF and a translation). I should note...
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Director General of Pompeii supports Aug. 24 date for the Eruption of...
Published today, an article led by Gabriel Zuchtriegel, Director General of the Pompeii Archaeological Park:...
View ArticleVesuvius Erupted, but When Exactly? (NY Times, & November colloquium in...
The New York Times on Mar. 2, 2025 ran a story about attempting to fix the precise date of the eruption of Vesuvius in AD...
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