Pliny the Elder's death: Brave or stupid?

[The Mikado]

Pliny the Elder was the famous Roman author who wrote the longest book from Antiquity that survives in its entirety, the Natural History, a collection of every natural phenomenon he had ever heard of and a vivid description of it. It's a great resource for getting an idea of exactly what the state of science was in ancient Rome.

That's besides the point today.

Pliny was also a Roman naval officer. When he heard about the eruption at Vesuvius, he immediately thought of his dear friends, Pomponianus and his wife Rectina, who were trapped in the doomed city of Herculaneum. Leaving the safety of Misenum by boat, Pliny sailed down to the doomed city of Herculaneum, defying his crew when they told him that the literal rocks falling from the sky would sink the ship, saying "Fortune favors the brave; steer to where Pomponianus is." Predictably, upon arrival, while he was able to meet up with Pomponianus (Rectina seems to have perished), they were now ALL trapped because the ship couldn't sail back out. The group spent the night, but the fat and elderly Pliny was unable to even stand up the following day, weakened either by the toxic fumes from the volcano or a heart attack, depending on whom you believe, so the party abandoned him and made it through the falling ash and pumice to safety, leaving Pliny behind.

Pliny did not have to risk his life for his friends, and, in fact, it was suicidal of him to do so at his age in his physical condition. It's questionable whether or not his rescue mission even accomplished much good. Should he have just stayed home at the Bay of Naples and watched the eruption from a safe distance?

[dead0man]

I'm going to go with "both", but with a but...


Everybody is going to die.  Many of us will die in a hospital bed surrounded by loved ones, and that's fine and probably what most people want.  Some others want to die doing "a thing".  Maybe it's shooting at cops or being a stunt pilot.  For some it's something noble like how Pliny the Elder went out.  I'm guessing here, but sometimes we might not know we want that until it's staring us in the face.  It's a romantic idea.

So yeah, to an outside observer, Pliny's decision looks brave and stupid, and it might have even been stupid to Pliny at the time, but it was still the right decision to make.  Sometimes you have to die for a lost cause because it's the right thing to do.