Only Pliny the Younger's two famous letters to the Historian Tacitus: Letters 6.16 and 6.20.

In these accounts, Pliny describes the eruption as he witnessed it from Misenum (across the Bay of Naples from Pompeii). He also recounts the tragic death of his uncle, Pliny the Elder, who was overwhelmed by volcanic gasses as he attempted to rescue with people of Pompeii with ships from the Roman fleet.