Chapter · Italy · History
Two letters, and a city
The only eyewitness of AD 79, and what he does not name
Two letters written twenty-five years after the eruption, at a historian's request. They are the only direct testimony we have, they always say where their information comes from, and they do not contain the word Pompeii once.
Context first
A lesson to read before the others, to set the scene.
- The place
- The era
- The people
The lessons in this chapter
- 1A cloud shaped like a pineTo describe a thing never described, he reaches for a tree: a pine, bare trunk and branches at the top. Then he offers two explanations, chooses neither, and says which mountain it came from was unknown.9 min
- 2Fortune favours the braveA fleet commander steers towards an eruption to save people, dictates his observations on the way, sleeps while the courtyard fills, and dies on a beach. His nephew marks where his own knowledge stops.10 min
- 3Those who invented newsIn the dark, a boy of seventeen notes that people invent false news and find others to believe them. He also notes that the earth had been shaking for days and nobody had paid it any mind.10 min
How these lessons are written
Each lesson starts from first-hand sources: Wikisource, Gallica, Persée, archives, museums and institutes. A fact without a source does not get written, and every lesson lists its own as direct links.
The rhythm
A lesson is five minutes of cards and four questions. Those questions then come back the next day, then at 3, 7, 21 and 60 days, and that return is what makes it stick. One a day is enough, and you can do several in a row.