Intrigued by the eruption of Vesuvius, which had been dormant for at least 300 years, Pliny the Elder scrambled a couple of galleys and went to have a closer look. When his helmsman suggested that it maybe wasn鈥檛 a great idea to sail wooden ships into a hail of rocks and hot cinders, he replied: Fortes fortuna iuvat: Pomponianum pete (鈥淔ortune favours the brave: steer for Pompeii鈥).
It didn鈥檛 favour old Pliny, though 鈥 he landed near the volcano and died when a pyroclastic flow (a wave of superheated ash and gases) engulfed the area 鈥
Bio:
Graeme Hunter is the author of Vital Forces: The Discovery of the Molecular Basis of Life (Academic Press) and Light Is a Messenger: The Life and Science of William Lawrence Bragg (Oxford University Press).