Tom Fort writes:

Italian scientists are a few thousand euros and a test tube away from conclusively identifying the body of Pliny the Elder, the Roman polymath, writer and military leader who launched a navalrescue operation to save the people of Pompeii from the deadly eruption of Mt. Vesuvius 2,000 years ago.

If successful, the effort would mark the first positive identification of the remains of a high-ranking figure from ancient Rome, highlighting the work of a man who lost his life while leadinghistory's first large-scale rescue operation, and who also wrote one of the world's earliest encyclopedias.

The remains now believed to be Pliny's were found more than a century ago. But identifying the body has only recently become feasible, says Andrea Cionci, an art historian and journalist wholast week reported the findings in the Italian daily La Stampa.

To read the complete article, see:
Pompeii Hero Pliny the Elder May Have Been Found 2,000 Years Later (https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/1.809751)

To read an English translation of Pliny, see:
Pliny the Elder, The Natural History(http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D33%3Achapter%3D13)