Talk:Pliny the Elder

Zirkle
"despite his rescue attempt, Pliny never came within miles of Mount Vesuvius"

Obviously not, since Stabiae is 10 miles from Vesuvius. So what's new here?

And is Zirkle an established/credible source for Pliny matters? 2A02:AA1:1629:6E2B:AC2C:7A63:B3E9:8D45 (talk) 10:52, 6 January 2024 (UTC)
 * I removed that para. Here it is:
 * In 1967, science historian Conway Zirkle similarly stated that "there is widespread and persisting misinformation" about Pliny's death. He suggested that despite his rescue attempt, Pliny never came within miles of Mount Vesuvius and no evidence has been found that shows he died from breathing in fumes, and like Bigelow, concluded that he died of a heart attack.
 * That isn't my para but was added. It looks like a plug for Zirkle and seems redundant. The heart attack theory was already covered. Anyway the statement about Pliny getting nowhere near Vesuvius reveals the profound ignorance of the writer. Does he reslly think Pliny had to be up on the volcano to get hurt?Botteville (talk) 21:09, 15 May 2024 (UTC)

Vespasian bust
It's very obviously not a contemporary work (as noted in the fine print on the media page). So why use it? And what does an image of Vespasian add anyway? 2A02:AA1:1629:6E2B:AC2C:7A63:B3E9:8D45 (talk) 10:58, 6 January 2024 (UTC)
 * OK I swapped out the bust. I want to say, what do you care anyway? But instead I have to say, thanks for your critique. Oh, I almost forgot. Pictures help the reader to focus on the topic. They relieve the tedium of straight text. I'm very much an advocate of pictures, and I think WP rejected the standard that all pictures of people have to be photographic. The bust of Vespasian is really an ancient opinion of the sculptor about what sort of a person he must have been. If you want to go around taking all the art out of Wikipedia, well, good luck with that. If our only objective is to inform what other people think and not to please or entertain, then what are we spending all this money on design for? Why not just a list of simple block paragraphs or bulleted items? Ciao.