Pliny the Younger one to listen to today on BBC Radio 4 at 9 am

Ausbruch des Vesuvs, 1826

"Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of Pliny the Younger, famous for his letters. 

A prominent lawyer in Rome in the first century AD, Pliny later became governor of the province of Bithynia, on the Black Sea coast of modern Turkey. 

Throughout his career he was a prolific letter-writer, sharing his thoughts with great contemporaries including the historian Tacitus, and asking the advice of the Emperor Trajan. 

Pliny's letters offer fascinating insights into life in ancient Rome and its empire, from the mundane details of irrigation schemes to his vivid eyewitness account of the eruption of Vesuvius.

With, Catharine Edwards at Birkbeck, University of London
 Roy Gibson at the University of Manchester
 Alice König at the University of St Andrews"  BBC radio notes

Picture; Ausbruch des Vesuvs, 1826 by Johan Christian Dahl, Wikipedia Commons

Listen to it again at http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/iot