This new edition of the two letters in which Pliny the Younger gives his eye-witness account of the most fabulous natural disaster ever fabled by mankind-the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in Italy and the destruction of "whole communities and cities," including Pompeii features the original Latin facing an exceptionally faithful translation in contemporary English and enhanced by superbly evocative and witty drawings of the events as they are described. The reader of Vesuvius will come away from these pages with a lively sense of what really happened in those harrowing days and hours during the eruption of the famous volcano. The book includes an introduction and endnotes by the translator.