He died in the same villa where his father had died before him, upon the Ides of
					September [the i3th of September]; two years, two months, and twenty days after
					he had succeeded his father; and in the one-and-fortieth year of his age. A. U. C. 834, A. D. 82 . As
					soon as the news of his death was published, all people mourned for him, as for
					the loss of some near relative. The senate assembled in haste, before they could
					be summoned by proclamation, and locking the doors of their house at first, but
					afterwards opening them, they gave him such thanks, and heaped upon him such
					praises, now he was dead, as they never had done whilst he was alive and present
					amongst them. Remarks on Titus TITUS FLAVIUS VESPASIAN, the younger, was the first prince who succeeded to the
					empire by hereditary right; and having constantly acted, after his return from
					Judaea, as colleague with his father in the administration, he seemed to be as
					well qualified by experience as he was by abilities, for conducting the affairs
					of the empire. But with respect to his natural disposition, and moral behaviour,
					the expectations entertained by the public were not equally flattering. He was
					immoderately addicted to luxury; he had betrayed a strong inclination to
					cruelty; and he lived in the habitual practice of lewdness, no less unnatural
					than intemperate. But, with a degree of virtuous resolution unexampled in
					history, he had no sooner taken into his hands the entire reins of government,
					than he renounced every vicious attachment. Instead of wallowing in luxury, as
					before, he became a model of temperance; instead of cruelty, he displayed the
					strongest proofs of humanity and benevolence; ard in the room of lewdness, he
					exhibited a transition to the most unblem 'bed chastity and virtue. In a word,
					so sudden and great a change was never known in the character of mortal; and he
					had the peculiar glory to receive the appellation of " the darling and delight
					of mankind." Under a prince of such a disposition, the government of the empire could not but
					be conducted with the strictest regard to the public welfare. The reform, which
					was begun in the late reign, he prosecuted with the most ardent application;
					and, had he lived for a longer time, it is probable that his authority and
					example would have produced the most beneficial effects upon the manners of the
					Romans. During the reign of this emperor, in the seventy-ninth year of the Christian era,
					happened the first eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which has ever since been
					celebrated for its volcano. Before this time, Vesuvius is spoken of, by ancient
					writers, as being covered with orchards and vineyards, and of which the middle
					was dry and barren. The eruption was accompanied by an earthquake, which
					destroyed several cities of Campania, particularly Pompeii and Herculaneum;
					while the lava, pouring down the mountain in torrents, overwhelmed, in various
					directions, the adjacent plains. The burning ashes were covered not only over
					the neighbouring country, but as far as the shores of Egypt, Libya, and even
					Syria. Amongst those to whom this dreadful eruption proved fatal, was Pliny, the
					celebrated naturalist, whose curiosity to examine the phenomenon led him so far
					within the verge of danger, that he could not afterwards escape.