Reports Pliny the Younger described as false
In the inspected letter LXVI, Pliny the Younger reports hearing claims that parts of Misenum had fallen or were burning, and says those reports were false.
What this does and does not establish
This is Pliny’s attributed evaluation of rumours, not an independent survey of all damage at Misenum.
- Quoted from a published English translation, not from the original-language text.
- Not listed under any year on this site.
- Region
- Mediterranean
- Theme
- Social life
- Kind of record
- No year assigned. Something a source reports, with no single year established.
How it is dated
- Date reference
- No absolute date adopted for the rumours in letter LXVI. The 24th of August date occurs in letter LXV for the initial cloud sighting, not these rumours.
- How we use it
- No absolute AD placement. A date for one scene in the letter is not a date for every scene.
The date reference is this project’s reading of the source’s date. It may give an era name, a reign or a calendar in a normalised form rather than in the source’s own words; the dating notes say what the source prints.
Dating notes from the research record
No absolute year adopted; the date is retained only as expressed in this historical translation.
File names and line numbers in these notes, and in the limits above, refer to the project’s retained copies of the cited sources. Names such as calendar_headers are the project’s calendar look-ups, and “the investigator” is the research step that prepared the record.
Sources and quoted text
Line and character numbers under “Location” refer to the project’s retained copy of the source. For database rows, “Edition” names the batch of rows that was fetched together.
Source 1 · Supports the statement
Letters of Pliny, LXV–LXVI
Pliny the Younger; translated William Melmoth; revised F. C. T. Bosanquet
Historical English translation
I remember some who declared that one part of Misenum had fallen, that another was on fire; it was false, but they found people to believe them.Source credit and reuse conditions recorded for this source: Source: Pliny, Letters LXV–LXVI, William Melmoth translation revised F. C. T. Bosanquet, Project Gutenberg 2811. This excerpt is whitespace-normalized; qualifications and translation attribution must remain. No Gutenberg logo or licence endorsement implied.
Exact source version
2d21d8aa3a57ba7b4b4d7c2c313ce405f8ccff9dd44b9ec668cd0257c0ca5d4eChecks and changes
Source checked 2026-11-04. An independent AI evidence review supports this bounded, attributed wording. That review does not guarantee historical truth. How records are checked
Before the first public release: separated the date of the initial cloud sighting from the later reported rumours.
Revision p05_01_3_r3
Exact revision fingerprint
a7df01914465ee5492eb749c7643650d5d83dfe05bc9a4dca21a2f4e2574a795