Gaius Plinius Secundus is probably the most famous person ever to have been killed by a volcano. He was a soldier and a sailor by profession, but he was also a meteorologist of considerable repute.
He lived from AD 23 to 79, and we know him as Pliny the Elder, "the Elder" being added to distinguish him from his equally eminent nephew of the same name.
Although many of Pliny's ideas about the weather might nowadays seem quite bizarre, they were well respected in their time.
He was of the view, for example, that there is a regular recurring sequence of storms, heavy rains and other unpleasant weather phenomena - a cycle which has a four-year periodicity, each period beginning on a leap year at the rising of the Dog Star, Sirius.
"Nonsense!" today's meteorologists might say, but Pliny's writings were the accepted wisdom on meteorological matters for many, many centuries.
It was this curiosity about the ways of nature that did for Admiral Pliny in the end. In the summer of AD 79 he was commander of a Roman fleet anchored in the port of Misenum, not too far from Pompeii just beneath Vesuvius.
The sequence of events on the fateful day is recounted by Pliny the Younger - then 18 years of age and one of the entourage of his already famous uncle.
"In the early afternoon of August 24th. My uncle's attention was drawn to an unusually large cloud. Calling for his shoes, he climbed to a vantage point to get a better view of the eruption which it transpired was coming from a large mountain known as Vesuvius. The cloud was like an umbrella pine, which rose on a great trunk with branches splitting off."
Pliny then travelled into the city of Pompeii to observe the exciting phenomenon first hand, and stayed there overnight. "My uncle was awoken by his friends who feared they would all be buried alive. They decided to chance their safety in the open as the buildings were now shaking violently.
"Tying pillows to their heads as protection against falling stones, they ventured forth and made for the shore, but escape by this route was not possible. A sheet was spread out on the beach for my uncle to lie upon."
And that was the end of Pliny; when the volcanic activity had subsided on August 26th, Pliny's body was found unmarked upon the beach - looking, for all the world, like an old man asleep; he had been overcome by noxious fumes which emanated from Vesuvius.