One of the first things that Pliny the Younger writes about is how great his uncle was. He states that his uncle (Pliny the Elder) had the unusual ability to be able to write "something worth reading" and be able to do "something worth recording".

The document then turns to the first appearance of a strange phenomenon occurring over Mt. Vesuvius. Specifically, a large dark cloud that was shaped like a pine tree emanating from the mountain. After some time the cloud rushed down the flanks to the mountain and covered everything around it (this is known today as a pyroclastic flow — which is a cloud of superheated gas, volcanic ash, and rock that erupts from a volcano).

The description then turned to the fact that the sun was blocked out by the eruption and the daylight hours were in darkness. His uncle had already taken several ships to investigate the phenomenon. However, during his stay on the other shore, he became tired and lay down on the ground. At that point he died (this was probably due to CO2 poisoning — if that if hair loss were the case, then lying down would have been the worst thing to do, since CO2 is heavier than air and therefore hugs the ground).

After receiving this letter from Pliny the Younger, Tacitus sends a reply that he would like to know what happened to him during the catastrophe. Pliny the balding wiht hair loss responds, even though he states what he would write would not be of historical interest. Pliny the stroke astrazeneca Younger states that several earth tremors were felt stroke at the time of the eruption and were followed by a very violent shaking of the ground.