A Testamental Adoption

Believe It or Find Out Yourself Series : IV

Mt. Vesuvius erupted this month August 24 79 AD. For months before they were constant rumors of a major disaster that may inflict itself on Rome. Rome the citadel of western civilization had guided the lives of societies, advanced the civic process, established colonial administration in other lands, built roads, bridges and opened the door in the minds of western man that was to lead to modern societies.

The eruption wiped out Pompeii and killed a large portion of its population. Historians referred to the episode as the fall of Rome … meaning perhaps that it was the birth of modern civilization.

Our interest in the episode centers around the lives of two of its citizens. Pliny the elder was a close personal friend of the Emperor Vespasian. He was also the naval and army commander and a natural philosopher. Pliny never married and had no children and lived with his sister and nephew. He died in the eruption.

His will left his estate to his nephew, Pliny the younger, whom he willed in a ' testamental adoption ' as a son after his death. Pliny the younger was a magistrate. At the young age of 18, he had suddenly become a very wealthy citizen, occupying his uncle's properties in upscale Lake Cuomo district.

Sadly the period also saw the founding of Christianity and the young Pliny found that much of his work came to involve the persecution, imprisonment and execution of members of the Christian faith. It was the beginning of a shameful epoch for a civilization that represented hope for the world that was in the last throes of its own death.

' Death comes to us all and when it does it's always too soon ' says a Zen quote. It involves each of us in a different way. The young Pliny spent some years researching into how his uncle, Pliny the Elder died in the eruption and wrote of it in his letters. He had died trying to save some people in the aftermath of the explosion. No doubt young Pliny, in his lifetime, came to a valuable lesson about life and death … Believe it or find out yourself.

Reviews

[Sagar Waingankar]

I never had any idea about it, hence, belief is not my perception here. But yes I'm glad to find it myself through a person with much reading and knowledge. Thanks for sharing :-)

[Dayran]

Finding out from another person is an abstract experience, its indirect ... we can only refer to it as a theory or common view by society. To find it out yourself presents a greater opportunity to know ... only then.