• PugJesus@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
    33·
    2 days ago

    Explanation: Pliny the Elder was an ancient Roman author who wrote one of the most fantastic and extensive resources of antiquity - the Natural History, which attempted to cover every conceivable topic in the form of summaries of everything from mining to herbalism to history to medicine to chemistry to zoology and, interestingly enough, often citing the sources used for his conclusions. It’s a fantastic read, and if Pliny is not always correct in his musings, he still reflects an incredibly well-educated outlook and fascinating insight into the understanding of the Romans of the world around them. At the time of Pliny’s death, it lacked a final revision, but was published anyway as one of the most extensive scholarly works ever made 'til that point.

    He died while rescuing survivors from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which buried the city of Pompeii. When the ship’s captain objected, seeing the destruction wrought by the volcano, Pliny reportedly ordered, “Fortune favors the brave (FORTES FORTVNA IVVAT); take us to where Pomponianus (one of his personal friends whom he hoped to save) is.”

    He succeeded, but at the cost of his own life - the toxic fumes suffocated him, and at his advanced age, he could not make it back to the ship with the rest of the rescue party.

  • Danquebec@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    2·
    2 days ago

    I wonder what the reaction of someone who never heard of guns would be if you pointed a gun at them.

    I don’t think you could use it to compel them to do anything.

    • Shayeta@feddit.orgEnglish
      3·
      1 day ago

      Threat that comes from pointing a gun at someone mostly comes from the body language and the facial expression of the shooter, knowing what a gun does empowers the threat, it doesn’t truly create it on its own.

      Someone who doesn’t know what a gun is could definitely infer that it is a weapon, and that they are within its effective range. All that JUST from the body language of the shooter.

      • Danquebec@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        3·
        1 day ago

        Interesting thought. Indeed, the person might think it’s some sort of exotic bolt thrower.

        But I think it’s as likely they might think it’s a device held to be magical. And then it all depends on how effective they expect it to be.

        • PugJesus@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
          4·
          1 day ago

          Interesting thought. Indeed, the person might think it’s some sort of exotic bolt thrower.

          Pliny, as an extremely well-educated man, actually wrote a bit on chemical and incendiary weapons at the time. So while the notion of the chemicals being a propellant would be foreign to him, a warning shot from the smoke-and-thunder tube would probably give him a good basic idea of what he was facing - a machine that inflicted some form of harm via a projectile accompanied by fire and chemicals.

        • PugJesus@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
          2·
          1 day ago

          Interesting thought. Indeed, the person might think it’s some sort of exotic bolt thrower.

          Pliny: “Fascinating! May I see it? I’m interested in this machine’s functioning!”

          Me, overwhelmed by the interest of such an illustrious scholar: “Oh, of course!”

          Pliny: “How does it activate?”

          Me: “You just point it at what you want to kill and pull the trigger, which launches the projectile.”

          Pliny, pointing the pistol at me: “You are going to help me rescue Pomponianus.”