Then the Earth began to tremble and quake, and the Concussions were so great that the ground seem'd to rise and boil up in some places, and in others the tops of the mountains sunk in or tumbled down. At the same time were great noises and sounds heard, some were subterraneous, like thunder within the Earth; others above ground, like groans or bellowings. The Sea roar'd, The heavens ratled with a fearful noise, and then came a sudden and mighty crack, as if the frame of Nature had broke, or all the mountains of the Earth had faln down at once. ... The day was turn'd into night, and light into darkness; and the frighted people thought the Gyants were making war against heaven, and fansied they see the shapes and images of Gyants in the smoak, and heard the sound of their trumpets.
Dion Cassius, quoted from Thomas Burnet, The Sacred Theory of the Earth, Book III Chapter IV, (1691), University of Southern Illinois Press, Carbondale, 1965, p. 275.
TIME: During the reign of Titus Vespatian
PLACE: Italy
CIRCUMSTANCE: Eruption of Vesuvius
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