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PLINY, THE ELDER
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See also:PLINY, THE See also:ELDER . Gains Plinius See also:Secundus (c. A.D. 23-79), the author of the Naturalis historia, was the son of a See also:Roman eques by the daughter of the senator See also:Gaius• See also:Caecilius of Novum Comum. He was See also:born at Comum, not (as is sometimes supposed) at See also:Verona: it is only as a native of Gallia Transpadana that he calls See also:Catullus of Verona his conterraneus, or See also:fellow-countryman, not his municeps, or fellow-townsman (Praef. § 1). Before A.D. 35 (N. H. See also:xxxvii. 8r) his See also:father took him to See also:Rome, where he was educated under his father's friend, the poet and military See also:commander, P. See also:Pomponius Secundus, who inspired him with a lifelong love of learning. Two centuries after the See also:death of the Gracchi Pliny saw some of their autograph writings in his See also:preceptor's library (xiii. 83), and he afterwards wrote that preceptor's See also:Life. He makes mention of the grammarians and rhetoricians, Remmius See also:Palaemon and Arellius Fuscus (xiv. 49, xxxiii. 152), and he may have been instructed by them. In Rome he studied See also:botany in the See also:garden of the aged See also:Antonius See also:Castor (See also:xxv. 9), and saw the See also:fine old See also:lotus-trees in the grounds that had once belonged to See also:Crassus (xvii. 5). He also viewed the vast structure raised by Caligula (See also:xxxvi. III), and probably witnessed the See also:triumph of See also:Claudius over See also:Britain (iii. 119; A.D. 44)• Under the See also:influence of See also:Seneca he became a keen student of See also:philosophy and See also:rhetoric, and began practising as an See also:advocate. He saw military service under See also:Corbulo in See also:Lower See also:Germany (A.D. 47), taking See also:part in the Roman See also:conquest of the Chauci and the construction of the See also:canal between the See also:Maas and the See also:Rhine (xvi. 2 and 5). As a See also:young commander of See also:cavalry (praefectus alae) he wrote in his See also:winter-quarters a See also:work on the use of missiles on horseback (de jasulatione equestri), with some See also:account of the points of a See also:good See also:horse (viii. 162). In See also:Gaul and See also:Spain he learnt the meanings of a number of See also:Celtic words (See also:xxx. 40). He .took See also:note of sites associated with the Roman invasion of Germany, and, amid the scenes of the victories of See also:Drusus, he had a See also:dream in which the See also:victor enjoined him to transmit his exploits to posterity (Plin. Epp. iii. 5, 4). The dream prompted Pliny to begin forthwith a See also:history of all the See also:wars between the See also:Romans and the Germans. He probably accompanied his father's friend, Pomponius, on an expedition against the See also:Chatti (A.D. 50), and visited Germany for a third See also:time (57) as a comrade of the future See also:emperor, See also:Titus (Praef. § 3). Under See also:Nero he lived mainly in Rome. He mentions the See also:map of See also:Armenia and the neighbourhood of the See also:Caspian See also:Sea, which was sent to Rome by the See also:staff of Corbulo in A.D. 58 (vi. 40). He also saw the See also:building of Nero's " See also:golden See also:house " after the See also:fire of 64 (xxxvi. III). Meanwhile he was completing the twenty books of his History of the See also:German Wars, the only authority expressly quoted in the first six books of the See also:Annals of See also:Tacitus (i. 69), and probably one of the See also:principal authorities for the Germania. It was superseded by the writings of Tacitus, and, See also:early in the 5th See also:century, See also:Symmachus had little See also:hope of finding a copy (Epp. xiv. 8). He also devoted much of his time to See also:writing on the comparatively safe subjects of See also:grammar and rhetoric. A detailed work on rhetoric, entitled Studiosus, was followed by eight books, Dubii sermonis (A.D. 67). Under his friend See also:Vespasian he returned to the service of the See also:state, serving as See also:procurator in Gallia Narbonensis (70) and Hispania Tarraconensis (73), and also visiting the Provincia Belgica (74). During his stay in Spain he became See also:familiar with the See also:agriculture and the mines of the See also:country, besides paying a visit to See also:Africa (vii. 37). On his return to See also:Italy he accepted See also:office under Vespasian, whom he used to visit before daybreak for instructions before proceeding to his See also:official duties, after the See also:discharge of which he devoted all the See also:rest of his time to study (Plin. Epp. iii. 5, 9). He completed a History of his Times in See also:thirty-one books, possibly extending from the reign of Nero to that of Vespasian, and deliberately reserved it for publication after his decease (N. H., Praef. 20). It is quoted by Tacitus (See also:Ann. xiii. 20, xv. 53; Hist. iii. 29), and is one of the authorities followed by Suetonius and See also:Plutarch. He also virtually completed his See also:great work, the Naturalis historia. The work had been planned under the See also:rule of Nero. The materials collected for this purpose filled rather less than 16o volumes in A.D. 23, when See also:Larcius Licinus, the praetorian See also:legate of Hispania Tarraconensis, vainly offered to See also:purchase them for a sum See also:equivalent to more than £3200. He dedicated the work to Titus in A.D. 77. Soon afterwards he.received from Vespasian the See also:appointment of See also:praefect of the Roman See also:fleet at See also:Misenum. On the 24th of See also:August A.D. 79 he was stationed at Misenum, at the time of the great eruption of See also:Vesuvius, which overwhelmed See also:Pompeii and See also:Herculaneum. A See also:desire to observe the phenomenon from a nearer point of view, and also to See also:rescue some of his See also:friends, from their perilous position on the See also:shore of the See also:Bay of See also:Naples, led to his launching his galleys and See also:crossing the bay to See also:Stabiae (Castellamare), where he perished, in the fifty-See also:sixth See also:year of his See also:age. The See also:story of his last See also:hours is told in an interesting See also:letter addressed twenty-seven years afterwards to Tacitus by the Elder Pliny's See also:nephew and See also:heir, the Younger Pliny (Epp. vi. 16), who also sends to another correspondent an account of his See also:uncle's writings and his manner of life (iii. 5): " He began to work See also:long before daybreak. . . . He read nothing without making extracts; he used even to say that there was no See also:book so See also:bad as not to contain something of value. In the countryit was only the time when he was actually in his See also:bath that was exempted from study. When travelling, as though freed from every other care, he devoted himself to study alone. . . . In See also:short, he deemed all time wasted that was not employed in study." The only See also:fruit of all this unwearied See also:industry that has survived to our own times is the Naturalis historia, a work which in its See also:present See also:form consists of thirty-seven books, the first book including a characteristic See also:preface and tables of contents, as well as lists of authorities, which were originally prefixed to each of the books separately. The contents of the remaining books are as follows: ii., mathematical and See also:physical description of the See also:world; iii.-vi., See also:geography and ethnography; vii., See also:anthropology and human See also:physiology; viii.-xi., See also:zoology; xii.-See also:xxvii., botany, including agriculture, See also:horticulture and materia medica; See also:xxviii.-xxxi., medical zoology; xxxiii.-xxxvii., See also:mineralogy, especially in its application to life and See also:art, including See also:chasing in See also:silver (xxxiii. 154-157), statuary in See also:bronze (xxxiv.), See also:painting (See also:xxxv. 15-149), modelling (151-158), and See also:sculpture in See also:marble (xxxvi.). He apparently published the first ten books himself in A.D. 77, and was engaged on revising and enlarging the rest during the two remaining years of his life. The work was probably published with little, if any, revision by the author's nephew, who, when telling the story of a tame See also:dolphin, and describing the floating islands of the Vadimonian See also:Lake, thirty years later (viii. 20, ix. 33), has apparently forgotten that both are to be found in his uncle's work (ii. 209, ix. 26). He describes the Naturalis historia, as a Naturae historia, and characterizes it as a " work that is learned and full of See also:matter, and as varied as nature herself." The See also:absence of the author's final revision may partly account for many repetitions, and for some contradictions, for mistakes in passages borrowed from See also:Greek authors, and for the insertion of marginal additions at wrong places in the See also:text. In the preface the author claims to have stated 20,000 facts gathered from some 2000 books and from 100 select authors. The extant lists of his authorities amount to many more than 400, including 146 of Roman and 327 of Greek and other See also:sources of See also:information. The lists, as a See also:general rule, follow the See also:order of the subject matter of each book. This has been clearly shown in Heinrich See also:Brunn's Disputatio (See also:Bonn, 1856).
Pliny's principal authority is See also:Varro. In the See also:geographical books Varro is supplemented by the topographical commentaries of See also:Agrippa which were completed by the emperor See also:Augustus; for his zoology he relies largely on See also:Aristotle and on See also:Juba, the scholarly Mauretanian See also: &c.) ; the notices of the successive developments of art, and the See also:list of workers in bronze and painters, to Xenocrates; and a large amount of See also:miscellaneous information to Antigonus. The last two authorities are named in connexion with See also:Parrhasius (xxxv. 68, hanc ei gloriam concessere Antigonus et Xenocrates, qui de pictura scripsere), while Antigonus is named in the Indices of xxxiii.-xxxiv. as a writer on the " toreutic " art. Greek epigrams contribute their See also:share in Pliny's descriptions of pictures and statues. One of the See also:minor authorities for books xxxiv.–xxxv. is See also:Heliodorus (fl 150 B.C.), the author of a work on the monuments of See also:Athens. In the Indices to xxxiii.–xxxvi. an important See also:place is assigned to See also:Pasiteles of Naples (fl. 88 B.C.), the author of a work in five volumes on famous See also:works of art xxxvi. 40), probably incorporating the substance of the earlier Greek See also:treatises; but Pliny's indebtedness to Pasiteles is denied by Kalkmann,who holds that PIiny used the See also:chronological work of See also:Apollodorus, as well as a current See also:catalogue of artists. Pliny's knowledge of the Greek authorities was probably mainly due to Varro, whom he often quotes (e.g. xxxiv. 56, xxxv. 113, 156, xxxvi. 17, 39, 41). Varro probably dealt with the history of art in connexion with See also:architecture, which was included in his Disciplinae. For a number of items See also:relating to works of art near the See also:coast of See also:Asia Minor, and in the adjacent islands, Pliny was indebted to the general, states-See also:man, orator and historian, Gaius See also:Licinius See also:Mucianus, who died before A.D. 77. Pliny mentions the works of art collected by Vespasian in the See also:Temple of See also:Peace and in his other galleries (xxxiv. 84), but much of his information as to the position of such works in Rome is due to books, and not to See also:personal observation. The See also:main merit of his account of See also:ancient art, the only classical work of its See also:kind, is that it is a compilation ultimately founded on the lost text-books of Xenocrates and on the See also:biographies of Duris and Antigonus. He shows no See also:special aptitude for art See also:criticism; in several passages, however, he gives See also:proof of See also:independent observation (xxxiv. 38, 46, 63, xxxv. 17, 20, 116 seq.). He prefers the marble See also:Laocoon in the See also:palace of Titus to all the pictures and bronzes in the world (xxxvi. 37) ; in the temple near the Flaminian See also:Circus he admires the See also:Ares and the See also:Aphrodite of See also:Scopas, " which would suffice to give renown to any other spot." " At Rome indeed (he adds) the works of art are See also:legion; besides, one effaces another from the memory and, however beautiful they may be, we are distracted by the overpowering claims of See also:duty and business; for to admire art we need leisure and profound stillness " (ibid. 26–27). Like many of the finest See also:spirits under the early See also:empire, Pliny was an adherent to the See also:Stoics. He was acquainted with their noblest representative, Thrasea Paetus, and he also came under the influence of Seneca. The Stoics were given to the study of nature, while their moral teaching was agreeable to one who, in his See also:literary work, was unselfishly eager to benefit and to instruct his contemporaries (Praef. 16, xxviii. 2, See also:xxix. I). He was also influenced by the Epicurean and the See also:Academic and the revived See also:Pythagorean See also:schools. But his view of nature and of See also:God is essentially Stoic. It was only (he declares) the weakness of humanity that had embodied the Being of God in many human forms endued with human faults and vices (ii. 148). The Godhead was really one; it was the soul of the eternal world, displaying its beneficence on the See also:earth, as well as in the See also:sun and stars (ii. 12 seq., 154 seq.). The existence of a divine See also:Providence was uncertain (ii. 19), but the belief in its existence and in thepunishment of wrong-doing was salutary (ii. 26); and the See also:reward of virtue consisted in the See also:elevation to Godhead of those who resembled God in doing good to man (ii. 18, See also:Deus est mortali juvare mortalem, et haec ad aeternam gloriam via). It was wrong to inquire into the future and do violence to nature by resorting to magical arts (ii. 114, xxx. 3); but the significance of prodigies and portents is not denied (ii. 92, 199, 232). Pliny's view of life is gloomy; he regards the human See also:race as plunged in ruin and in misery (ii. 24, vii. 130). Against luxury and moral corruption he indulges in declamations, which are so frequent that (like those of Seneca) they at last See also:pall upon the reader; and his rhetorical flourishes against practically useful inventions (such as the art of See also:navigation) are wanting in good sense and good See also:taste (xix. 6). With the proud See also:national spirit of a Roman he combines an admiration of the virtues by which the See also:republic had attained its greatness (xvi. 14, xxvii. 3, xxxvii. 201). He does not suppress See also:historical facts unfavourable to Rome (xxxiv. 139), and while he honours eminent members of distinguished Roman houses, he is See also:free from See also:Livy's undue partiality for the See also:aristocracy. The agricultural classes and the old landlords of the equestrian order (See also:Cincinnatus, Curius See also:Dentatus, Serranus and the Elder See also:Cato) are to him the pillars of the state; and he bitterly laments the decline of agriculture in Italy (xviii. 21 and 35, latifundia perdidere See also:Hallam). Accordingly, for the early history of Rome, he prefers following the prae-Augustan writers; but he regards the imperial See also:power as indispensable for the See also:government of the empire, and he hails the salutaris exortus Vespasiani (xxxiii. 51). At the conclusion of his literary labours, as the only Roman who had ever taken for his theme the whole See also:realm of nature, he prays for the blessing of the universal See also:mother on his completed work. In literature he assigns the highest place to See also:Homer and to See also:Cicero (xvii. 37 seq.); and the next to See also:Virgil. He takes a keen See also:interest in nature, and in the natural sciences, studying them in a way that was then new in Rome, while the small esteem in which studies of this kind were held does not deter him from endeavouring to be of service to his fellow countrymen (xxii. 15). The See also:scheme of his great work is vast and comprehensive, being nothing short of an See also:encyclopaedia of learning and of art so far as they are connected with nature or draw their materials from it. With a view to this work he studied the original authorities on each subject and was most assiduous in making excerpts from their pages. His indices auctorum are, in some cases, the authorities which he has actually consulted (though in this respect they are not exhaustive); in other cases, they represent the principal writers on the subject, whose names are borrowed second-handfor his immediate authorities. He frankly acknowledges his obligations to all his predecessors in a phrase that deserves to be proverbial (Praef. 21, plenum ingenui pudoris fateri per quos profeceris). He had neither the temperament for original investigation, nor the leisure necessary for the purpose. It is obvious that one who spent all his time in See also:reading and in writing, and in making excerpts from his predecessors, had none See also:left for mature and independent thought, or for patient experimental observation of the phenomena of nature. But it must not be forgotten that it was his scientific curiosity as to the phenomena of the eruption of Vesuvius that brought his life of unwearied study to a premature end; and any criticism of his faults of omission is disarmed by the candour of the See also:confession in his preface: nee dubitamus multa esse quae et nos praeterierint; homines enim sumus et occupati officiis. His See also:style betrays the unhealthy influence of Seneca. It aims less at clearness and vividness than at epigrammatic point. It abounds not only in antitheses, but also in questions and exclamations, tropes and metaphors, and other mannerisms of the silver age. The rhythmical and See also:artistic form of the See also:sentence is sacrificed to a See also:passion for emphasis that delights in deferring the point to the See also:close of the See also:period. The structure of the sentence is also See also:apt to be loose and straggling. There is an excessive use of the See also:ablative See also:absolute, and ablative phrases are often appended in a kind of vague " apposition " to See also:express the author's own See also:opinion of an immediately previous statement, e.g. xxxv. 8o, dixit (See also:Apelles) . . . uno se praestare, quod manum de tabula sciret tollere, memorabili praecepto nocere saepe nimiam diligentiam.
About the See also:middle of the 3rd century an abstract of the geographical portions of Pliny's work was produced by See also:Solinus; and, early in the 4th, the medical passages were collected in the Medicina Plinii. Early in the 8th we find See also:Bede in See also:possession of an excellent MS. of the whole work. In the 9th See also:Alcuin sends to See also: 825). Pliny's work was held in high esteem in the middle ages. The number of extant See also:MSS. is about 200; but the best of the more ancient MSS., that at See also:Bamberg, contains only books xxxii.–xxxvii. See also:Robert of See also:Cricklade, See also:prior of St Frideswide at See also:Oxford, dedicated to See also: 130), while his description of the notes of the See also:nightingale is an elaborate example of his occasional felicity of phrase (xxix. 81 seq.). Most of the See also:recent See also:research on Pliny has been concentrated on the investigation of his authorities, especially those which he followed in his chapters on the history of art—the only ancient account of that subject which has survived.
A See also:carnelian inscribed with the letters C. PLIN. has been re-produced by Cades (v. 211) from the original in the Vannutelli collection. It represents an ancient Roman with an almost completely bald forehead and a See also:double See also:chin; and is almost certainly a portrait, not of Pliny the Elder, but of See also:Pompey the Great. Seated statues of both the Plinies, clad in the garb of scholars of the year 15oo, maybe seen in the niches on either See also:side of the main entrance to the See also:cathedral See also: On Pliny's supposed portrait, see See also:Bernoulli, Rom. Ikonogr. i. 288; on the Defloratio Pliniana of Robert of Cricklade, K. Ruck, in S. Ber. of See also:Munich Acad., May 3, 1902, pp. 195—285 (1903). On Pliny's Authorities, see especially F. Miinzer, Beitrage zur Quellenkrilik (Berlin, 1897) and Detlefsen, Quellen and Forschungen zur See also:alien Gesch. and Geog. (1904 and 1908); on his See also:Religion, Vorhauser (See also:Innsbruck, 1860); his Cosmology, Friese (See also:Breslau, 1862) ; his Botany, Brosig (Gaudenz, 1883) ; See also:Sprengel (See also:Marburg, 1890, and in Rhein. MI's., 1891) ; Renjes (See also:Rostock, 1893) ; Abert (Burghausen, 1896) ; and Stadler (Munich, 1891) ; his Mineralogy, Nies (See also:Mainz, 1884); his History of Art, O. See also:Jahn, in Sachsische Berichte (See also:Leipzig, 1850) ; A. Brieger (Greifswald, 1857) ; Wustmann, Rhein. See also:Mus. (1867) ; H. Brunn (Bonn, 1856, and Munich, 1875); Th. See also:Schreiber (Leipzig, 1872, and in Rhein. Mus.,1876) ; See also:Furtwangler, in See also:Fleckeisen's Jahrb., Suppi.(1877)vol. ix. ; Blumner, in Rhein. Mus. (1877) ; L. Urlichs (See also:Wurzburg, 1878) ; Oehmichen (See also:Erlangen, 1880) ; Dalstein (See also:Metz, 1885) ; H. Voigt (See also:Halle, 1887) ; H. L. Urlichs (Wurzburg, 1887) ; Holwerda, in Mnemos. (1889) ; F. Mi nzer, in See also:Hermes (1895, and Berlin, 1897) ; Kalkmann (Berlin, 1898). The fragments of the eight books, Dubii sermonis, have been collected by J. W. See also:Beck (Leipzig, 1894). For further See also:bibliographical details, see See also:Mayor, See also:Lat. Lit. (1875), 136—138; and Schanz, Rom. Litt. (Munich, 1901), §§ 490-494. (J. E. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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