e
so large a number of the fishes which were cast, already cooked, upon
their shores, that a distemper appeared which destroyed a large number
of people.

8. Four years later Katana was nearly destroyed by a new eruption. The
roofs of many of the houses were broken in by the weight of hot ashes
which fell upon them; but the lava stream turned aside near the city and
flowed into the sea. The lava is believed to have issued from a small
crater near Gravina, about 2-1/2 miles from Katana. The city was so much
injured by this eruption that the Romans granted the inhabitants an
immunity from all taxes for a space of ten years.

9. An eruption, of which we have no details, occurred during the civil
war between Caesar and Pompey.

10. Livy speaks of an eruption and earthquake which took place shortly
before the death of Caesar, which it was believed to portend.

11. In 38 B.C., during the civil war between Octavianus and Sextus
Pompeius, a violent eruption occurred on the east side of the mountain,
accompanied by fearful noises and outbursts of flame.

12. Six years afterwards an eruption of a less violent character took
place.

13. The next eruption of which we hear is that mentioned by Suetonius in
his Life of Caligula. The Emperor happened to be at Messina at the time,
and he fled from the town through fear of the eruption. This was in 40
A.D.

14. An eruption is said to have occurred in 72, in the second year after
the capture of Jerusalem by Titus.

15. Etna was now quiescent for nearly two centuries, but in the year
253, in the reign of the Emperor Decius, a violent eruption lasting nine
days occurred. The lava flowed in the direction of Catania, and the
inhabitants for the first time tested the efficacy of the veil of S.
Agatha, which afterwards stood them in such good stead on more than one
occasion. The Saint had been martyred the year before, and when the
frightened inhabitants saw the stream of lava approaching the city,
they rushed to the tomb, and removed the veil which covered her body.
This was carried to the edge of the descending torrent of lava, and is
asserted to have at once arrested its progress.

16. According to Carrera and Photius an eruption occurred in the year
420.

17. We now find no record of any volcanic action for nearly four hundred
years. Geoffrey of Viterbo states that an eruption occurred in 812, when
Charlemagne was in Messina.

18. After another long interval of more than thr