Pliny, Letters 6.16

Who is writing, and to whom. Pliny the Younger (c. 61–113 CE), writing around 106 CE to the historian Tacitus, who has asked for an account of the death of Pliny's uncle so he can record it for posterity. The uncle, Pliny the Elder, was the Younger's guardian and adoptive father, commander of the fleet at Misenum, and author of the encyclopaedic Natural History.

What is happening. On 24 August 79 CE (the traditional date) Mt Vesuvius erupts across the Bay of Naples. From Misenum, at the north-west tip of the bay, the Elder sees a strange cloud, sets out first to observe it and then to rescue people from the shore, and lands at Stabiae — south of the mountain, in the path of the ash. He keeps up a show of calm through the night, sleeps while the courtyard fills with cinder, and dies on the shore the next morning; two days later his body is found unmarked. Pliny closes by telling Tacitus how a letter differs from a history.

How to read Pliny. He wrote these letters to be published: long periodic sentences, careful balance, frequent ellipsis of est / sunt and of subjects. But when the action starts he switches to the vivid historic present (poscit, ascendit, iubet, accipit) — translate it as past. Watch for indirect statement and for participles standing in for whole clauses.