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| From "Ashen Sky," illustrated by Barry Moser |
I'm continually surprised what I can slip into the paper. Such as a review of letters from Pliny the Younger, which I think about whenever someone says a version of "fortune favors the bold," and I have to bite back my retort: "You do realize ... or more likely, don't ... that the guy who said that was rewarded for his daring by being buried in ash?"
Fortune often favors the brave. Not always. I leapt to grab Ashen Sky, the new illustrated volume of Pliny the Younger's pair of all-too-brief letters describing the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius and the destruction of Pompeii.
Old Pliny has taken his family aboard a ship, seeking safety from the spouting volcano.
"Suddenly the water became shallow and the shore was blocked by the collapse of the mountain," Pliny the Younger writes. His uncle "hesitated a bit, wondering whether to turn back," but then turns to the helmsman who urged him to do so and said, " 'Fortune favors the brave,' "
In this case, boldness was fatal — Pliny the Elder was killed at his destination, on Aug. 25, 79 A.D.
Since you probably won't rush out to get the book — I merely bumbled across it — I'll tell you what struck me as the most poignant detail. Pliny the Younger notes the people fleeing around him in fear as burning pumice stones rained down from the sky.
"To protect themselves against falling objects, they tied pillows on their heads," he writes.
You can't make that kind of thing up, a reminder of the frequent pitifulness of human effort in the face of nature's fury.
— Originally published in the Sun-Times, Aug. 17, 2007
Fortune may indeed favor the brave but in the end good timing is everything.
ReplyDeleteFortunately, I'm not all that bold.
ReplyDeletePliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger.
ReplyDeleteFrom which came, decades ago, Daley the Elder and Daley the Younger.
Apparently, some folks in Chicago were awake during their history classes.
That pillow story is one I've never heard before. Reminds me of the folks down South, who used mattresses in their feeble attempts to shore up crumbling levees and dikes, during the great Mississippi River floods.
As one weatherman once said: "Mother Nature always bats last."
Looks like a cool book, and that's quite an illustration. A swell comment, Tony!
ReplyDeleteIf a single person cares about what follows, I'd be amazed. Yet, I persist.
If you google Pliny the Elder, the first reference is to the Wikipedia post about him. The second, though, is to a legendary, award-winning American beer named after him.
The Russian River Brewing Co. website notes: "According to our brewing references, he and his contemporaries either created the botanical name or at least wrote about Lupus Salictarius, or hops, currently known as Humulus Lupulus. That was a very early reference to an important part of any Double IPA!" Among other things, he was an amazing naturalist, after all.
Alas, the beer is only distributed in 7 states and the brewery is in Sonoma County, California, so I've never had a chance to try it, but I'd certainly like to. They also produce a beer called Pliny the Younger.
https://www.russianriverbrewing.com/brew/pliny-the-elder/
A few years ago a Chicago TV weather man forecasted a rainy day. He actually suggested holding a book on your head to stay dry. He was mercilessly mocked by Terry Boers and Dan Bernstein on the sports talk radio station WSCR. They would even bring it up years later.
ReplyDelete