Shadow of Vesuvius

“A wonderfully rich, witty, insightful, and wide-ranging portrait of the two Plinys and their world.”―Sarah Bakewell, author of How to Live

When Pliny the Elder perished at Stabiae during the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD, he left behind an enormous compendium of knowledge, his thirty-seven-volume Natural History, and a teenaged nephew who revered him as a father. Grieving his loss, Pliny the Younger inherited the Elder’s notebooks―filled with pearls of wisdom―and his legacy.
At its heart, The Shadow of Vesuvius is a literary biography of the younger man, who would grow up to become a lawyer, senator, poet, collector of villas, and chronicler of the Roman Empire from the dire days of terror under Emperor Domitian to the gentler times of Emperor Trajan.
A biography that will appeal to lovers of Mary Beard books, it is also a moving narrative about the profound influence of a father figure on his adopted son. Interweaving the younger Pliny’s Letters with extracts from the Elder’s Natural History, Daisy Dunn paints a vivid, compellingly readable portrait of two of antiquity’s greatest minds.

„Un portret minunat de bogat, intelept, perspicace si larg, al celor doi Plini si al lumii lor.” - Sarah Bakewell, autorul cartii Cum sa traiesti Cand Pliniu cel Batran a pierit la Stabiae in timpul eruptiei Vezuvului in 79 d.Hr., a lasat in urma un enorm compendiu de cunostinte, Istoria sa naturala cu treizeci si sapte de volume si un nepot adolescent care l-a venerat ca tata.