Vesuvius Quotes (4 quotes)
A fearful black cloud was rent by forked and quivering bursts of flame, and parted to reveal great tongues of fire, like flashes of lightning magnified in size. … You could hear the shrieks of women, the wailing of infants, and the shouting of men. … Many besought the aid of the gods, but still more imagined there were no gods left and that the universe was plunged into eternal darkness for evermore.
Describing the eruption of Vesuvius which destroyed Pompeii. From Letter, Book 6, No. 20, to Tacitus, collected in Betty Radice (trans.) The Letters of the Younger Pliny (2003).
If there is a major eruption [of Vesuvius] with little warning and the winds are blowing toward Naples, you could have tremendous loss of life.
As quoted in Doug Stewart, 'Resurrecting Pompeii', Smithsonian Magazine (Feb 2006).
Man is wreaking a damage far greater than Vesuvius. The moment of Pompeii’s destruction was also the moment of its preservation. The public needs to understand that unless constant efforts are taken to arrest the decay, the site will, within decades crumble to nothing.
Expressing concern about the deterioration of Pompeii, in T. Hurley, P. Medcalf, et al., Antiquity 3 (2005), 65.
Vesuvius is actually inside the exploded skeleton of an older volcano. If you look at an aerial photograph, you can see the remaining ridge of a much larger volcano on the north side.
As quoted in Doug Stewart, 'Resurrecting Pompeii', Smithsonian Magazine (Feb 2006). Stewart adds, “It likely blew, violently, long before human settlement.”
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
