Hundreds of ancient Romans fleeing the eruption of Vesuvius in AD79 were minutes away from being rescued on a boat sent by the historian Pliny the Elder when they perished, an expert has claimed.

The skeletons of 300 inhabitants of the coastal town of Herculaneum were discovered in the 1980s huddled with their jewellery on the town's beach, killed by a tide of boiling volcanic material as they waited to be saved.

Historians have suggested they were close to being picked up by a rescue mission ordered by Pliny, who was commander of the local naval fleet; Francesco Sirano, the director of the archaeological site at Herculaneum, says he may now have clinching proof of this.

Sirano said.

Herculaneum was buried under 20 metres of volcanic material that hardened into rock, allowing the preservation of wood, albeit carbonised, unlike at its more famous neighbour, Pompeii.

When the eruption was spotted by Pliny from Misenum, across the Bay of Naples, he , his nephew, Pliny the Younger, wrote. Pliny the Elder boarded one vessel, braving scalding rock crashing on the decks and telling his captain, before he died, possibly of a heart attack, after landing at the town of Stabiae.

On the beach at Herculaneum, which is now 500 metres inland, the remains of a nine-metre-long rowing boat thought to be military suggests that Pliny's ships also made it there.

Near to the boat lay skeleton No 26, a man aged between 40 and 45, in good health who was thrown face down into the sand by the force of the eruption.

Thought to be a regular soldier because of his sword and dagger, Sirano said that the latest research showed that he was probably from the elite Praetorian Guard.

The coins he carried - 12 silver denarii and two golden denarii - were equal to the month's salary paid to the Guards, he added.

Daivd adds:

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