<P> The early light was obscured by a black cloud through which shone flashes, which Pliny likens to sheet lightning, but more extensive . The cloud obscured Point Misenum near at hand and the island of Capraia (Capri) across the bay . Fearing for their lives the population began to call to each other and move back from the coast along the road . Pliny's mother requested him to abandon her and save his own life, as she was too corpulent and aged to go further, but seizing her hand he led her away as best he could . A rain of ash fell . Pliny found it necessary to shake off the ash periodically to avoid being buried . Later that same day the ash stopped falling and the sun shone weakly through the cloud, encouraging Pliny and his mother to return to their home and wait for news of Pliny the Elder . The letter compares the ash to a blanket of snow . Evidently the earthquake and tsunami damage at that location were not severe enough to prevent continued use of the home . </P> <P> Pliny's uncle Pliny the Elder was in command of the Roman fleet at Misenum, and had meanwhile decided to investigate the phenomenon at close hand in a light vessel . As the ship was preparing to leave the area, a messenger came from his friend Rectina (wife of Tascius) living on the coast near the foot of the volcano, explaining that her party could only get away by sea and asking for rescue . Pliny ordered the immediate launching of the fleet galleys to the evacuation of the coast . He continued in his light ship to the rescue of Rectina's party . </P> <P> He set off across the bay but in the shallows on the other side encountered thick showers of hot cinders, lumps of pumice, and pieces of rock . Advised by the helmsman to turn back he stated "Fortune favors the brave" and ordered him to continue on to Stabiae (about 4.5 km or 2.8 mi from Pompeii), where Pomponianus was . Pomponianus had already loaded a ship with possessions and was preparing to leave, but the same onshore wind that brought Pliny's ship to the location had prevented anyone from leaving . </P> <P> Pliny and his party saw flames coming from several parts of the mountain, which Pliny and his friends attributed to burning villages . After staying overnight, the party was driven from the building by an accumulation of material which threatened to block all egress . They woke Pliny, who had been napping and emitting loud snoring . They elected to take to the fields with pillows tied to their heads to protect them from rockfall . They approached the beach again but the wind had not changed . Pliny sat down on a sail that had been spread for him and could not rise even with assistance when his friends departed, escaping ultimately by land . Very likely, he had collapsed and died, which is the most popular explanation of why his friends abandoned him, although Suetonius offers an alternative story of his ordering a slave to kill him to avoid the pain of incineration . How the slave would have escaped to tell the tale remains a mystery . There is no mention of such an event in his nephew's letters . </P>

When did the two destructive eruptions of mount vesuvius occur