WORLD SOUNDSCAPE PROJECT
SOUND REFERENCES IN LITERATURE

 


633.

You might then have heard the shrieks of women, the moans of infants, and the outcries of men; some were calling for their parents, some for their children, some for their wives: their voices only made them known to each other. Some bewailed their own fate; others the fate of their relations. There were some, who even from a fear of death, prayed to die. Many payed their adorations to the Gods; but the greater number were of opinion, that the Gods no longer existed, and that this night was the final and eternal period of the world.

The Letters of Pliny the Younger, Vol. II, By John Earl of Orrery. London, Printed by James Bettenham, 1751, p. 54.

PLACE: Italy.

TIME: 79 A.D.

CIRCUMSTANCE: The eruption of Vesuvius.


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