Roman patrician who served
briefly as a cavalry commander in Germany under Claudius,
procurator of Spain under Nero & commander of
the fleet at Naples under Vespasian. He was
killed by poisonous fumes while investigating the beginning of the
eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. For most of his life Gaius Plinius
Secundus was a reclusive scholar, who just 2 years before his death
published one of the most influential works of classical Latin literature:
-
Natural History -
37 volume study of "the nature of things." The world's first
encyclopedia. Each book was organized by topic in which the author
detailed information that he had learned both by reading &
personal observation. This is the first scholarly work whose
author methodically documented his sources of information. For some
1500 years Pliny's work was regarded as the ultimate authority for
observations about nature. Though it is no longer accepted as accurate
as a scientific text, it remains a valuable historical source for
information about the 1st c. Roman world & worldview.
[Edition used: Pliny. Natural History Book
5 (in Loeb Classical Library: Pliny
vol 2) Ed. H. Rackham. Cambridge
MA: Harvard University Press, 1942.]
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