Plinius in Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities

Gaius Plinius Secundus, called the Elder. A Roman representative of encyclopaedic learning, born A.D. 23, at Novum Comum (Como), in Upper Italy. Although throughout his life he was almost uninterruptedly occupied in the service of the State, yet at the same time he carried on the most widely extended scientific studies to which he laboriously devoted all his leisure hours, and thus gained for himself the reputation of the most learned man of his age. Under Claudius he served as commander of a troop of cavalry (praefectus alae) in Germany; under Vespasian, with whom he was in the highest favour, he held several times the office of imperial governor in the provinces, and superintended the imperial finances in Italy. Finally, under Titus, he was in command of the fleet stationed at Misenum, when in A.D. 79, at the celebrated eruption of Vesuvius, his zeal for research led him to his death. For a detailed account of this event, as well as of his literary labours, we have to thank his nephew, the Younger Pliny (Epist. iii. 5; vi. 16). Besides writings upon military, grammatical, rhetorical, and biographical subjects, he composed two greater historical works-a history of the Germanic wars in twenty books, and a history of his own time in thirty-one books. His last work was the Natural History (Historia Naturalis), in thirtyseven books, which has been preserved to us. This was dedicated to Titus, and was published in A.D. 77; but he was indefatigably engaged in amplifying it up to the time of his death. This encyclopaedia is compiled from 20,000 notices, which he had extracted from about 2000 writings by 474 authors. Book i. gives a list of contents and the names of the authors used; ii. is on astronomy and physics; iii.-vi., a general sketch of geography and ethnography, mainly a list of names; vii.-xix., natural history proper (vii., anthropology; viii.-xi., zoölogy of land and water animals, birds, and insects; xii.-xix., botany); xx.-xxxii., the pharmacology of the vegetable kingdom (xx.-xxvii.) and of the animal kingdom (xxviii.-xxxii.); xxxiii.xxxvii., mineralogy and the use of minerals in medicine and in painting, sculpture, and the engraving of gems, besides valuable notices upon the history of art. A kind of comparative geography forms the conclusion. Considering the extent and varied character of the undertaking, the haste with which the work was done, the defective technical knowledge and small critical ability of the author, it cannot be surprising that it includes a large number of mistakes and misunderstandings, and that its contents are of very unequal value, details that are strange and wonderful, rather than really important, having often unduly attracted the writer's attention. Nevertheless, the work is a mine of inestimable value in the information it gives us respecting the science and art of the ancient world; and it is also a splendid monument of human industry. Even the unevenness of the style is explained by the mosaic- like character of the work. At one time it is dry and bald in expression; at another, rhetorically coloured and impassioned, especially in the carefully elaborated introductions to the several books. On account of its bulk, the work was in early times epitomized for more convenient use. An epitome of the geographical part of Pliny 's encyclopaedia, belonging to the time of Hadrian, and enlarged by additions from Pomponius Mela and other authors, forms the foundation of the works of Solinus and Martianus Capella. Similarly the Medicina Plinii is an epitome prepared in the fourth century for the use of travellers. About two hundred manuscripts of Pliny are in existence, divided into two general classes-the vetustiores, all more or less incomplete, but truer to the original, and the recentiores, which are less fragmentary, but also less accurate. Of the former the best is the Codex Bambergensis of the tenth century, containing only bks. xxxii.-xxxvii. The recentiores are all of the same "family," going back to a single archetype now lost. See Fels, De Codicibus Plinianis (Göttingen, 1861). Editions are those with notes by Barbari (Rome, 1492); by J. F. Gronovius, 3 vols. (Leyden, 1669); by Hardouin (Paris, 1685); by Franz, 10 vols. (Leipzig, 1778-91); by Sillig, with critical notes and indices, 8 vols. (Gotha, 1853-55); by Jan, 6 vols. (Leipzig, 1854-65); 2d ed. by Mayhoff (1870 foll.); and by Detlefsen, 6 vols. (Berlin, 1866-73). There is a Chrestomathia Pliniana by Urlichs (Berlin, 1857); a good French translation by Grandsagne with notes by various scholars, 20 vols. (Paris, 1829-33); and a fair English one with good index in the Bohn Library (London, 1856). On the language and style of Pliny , see Wannowski, Pliniana (Posen, 1847); Grasberger, De Usu Pliniano (Würzburg, 1860); J. Müller, Der Stil des älten Plinius (Innsbruck, 1883); and Thüssing (Prague, 1890).