Was Pliny the Younger the first child journalist?

Pliny the Younger, also known as Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, was a well-known author, lawyer, and politician born in modern-day Italy and may have been the world's first child journalist.

In 79 AD, when Mount Vesuvius erupted, the 17-year-old Pliny was living with his mother and famous uncle Pliny the Elder, across the Bay of Naples near the volcano. He was an eyewitness to the event and saw the ancient city of Pompeii smothered with volcanic debris and pumice.

From a very young age, Pliny had a knack for writing. His mother, Plinia Marcella, was with her son and brother at their villa when she noticed smoke rising into the air. While Pliny the Elder set sail to investigate the strange clouds of smoke, Pliny the Younger stayed with his mother and wrote a detailed account of the volcano's eruption and the destruction of Pompeii.

In his letters, Pliny wrote, "Ashes were already falling, not as yet very thickly. I looked round: a dense black cloud was coming up behind us, spreading over the earth like a flood," describing the fumes as they engulfed entire cities across the bay.

Luckily, Pliny and his mother escaped safely, but his uncle perished. "What he had begun in a spirit of inquiry he completed as a hero," he wrote. Based on descriptions he heard from sailors, Pliny wrote in detail about his uncle's journey from Misenum to Pompeii and the events that led to his death. In his letters, he praised the heroic calmness of his uncle amid the sheer panic of the residents of Pompeii. He narrated every occurrence, from when the unusual cloud of smoke was seen at the beginning of the day until the city was covered in thick layers of ash.

Pliny's evocative description of panicked citizens, violent tremors of the earth, thick clouds of ashes falling from the sky almost like snow, and darkness where the sunlight shone as wanly during an eclipse can be deemed a sharp piece of news.

It is said that Pliny went on to become a lawyer at the age of eighteen and a magistrate later in his life. He eventually moved to Bithynia, Turkey, to become Emperor Trajan's financial advocate.

Pliny the Younger loved nature and owned many villas surrounded by beautiful gardens and orchards. This love was expressed vividly in his poems and prose. He lived a prosperous life until he passed away in Bithynia, Turkey at the age of 52.

Reporter's age: 17 | Dhaka