Bajo la sombra del Vesubio

When Pliny the Elder, traveler, historian and admiral of the imperial fleet, died in Stabia during the famous eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, he left behind the thirty-seven books of his Natural History -a fabulous compendium covering knowledge about matters of every order, from the moon or the vegetable kingdom to the efficacy of centipedes in healing ulcers- and a teenage nephew who worshiped him. Pliny the Younger then inherited his uncle's notebooks -full of wisdom and brilliant insights- and would strive throughout his life to keep his legacy alive. A friend of the historian Tacitus, the biographer Suetonius and the poet Marcial, he was also a villa collector, lawyer, senator and chronicler of the Roman Empire, from the dark days of terror under Domitian to the more peaceful times of the emperor Trajan. Under the shadow of Vesuvius is a narrative and dual biography that, interweaving the letters of Pliny the Younger with extracts from the books of Pliny the Elder, brings life back to the father and the adopted son, the mentor and the disciple, two of the brightest minds of classical antiquity, while unfolding through his gaze the fascinating panorama of 1st century AD Rome.