Pliny
Plln'y [Fr. Punk, plen ; It. Plinio, plee'ne-o] THE
Elder, (or, more fully, Ca'ius Plin'ius Secun'dus,)
a celebrated Roman naturalist, was born at Verona, or,
according to some authorities, Novum Comum, (the
modern Como,) in 23 a.d. He served in the army in
Germany, under Lucius Pomponius, and returned to
Rome about the age of thirty. He studied law, and
practised as a pleader for a few years. He was afterwards
procurator in Spain in the reign of Nero, and
became a friend and favoured officer of Vespasian. We
possess but little other information of his public life,
except that at the time of his death he had command
of a fleet stationed at Misenum. In August, 79 a.d.,
occurred a great eruption of Vesuvius. Observing the
immense cloud of smoke which arose in the form of a
tree from the volcano, he embarked at Misenum on a
vessel and approached nearer to the scene of danger.
He calmly noted the variations of the portentous phenomenon,
amidst the shower of cinders and pumicestones
which fell around his vessel, and landed at Stabia.
In the ensuing night he attempted to return to the vessel,
but he perished on land, suffocated by ashes or sulphurous
exhalations. This was probably the eruption
which destroyed the cities of Pompeii and Herc'tilanetim.
He left historical and grammatical works, which are
lost. The only work of Pliny that has come down to us
is his " Natural History," (" Naturae Historiarmn Libri
XXXVII.,") which is thus characterized by Cuvier, (in
the "
Biographie Universelle :")
" It is at the same time
Be of the most precious monuments that antiquity has left
4
* o«e 01
ityfojj us, and the evidence of an erudition very wonderful
in
~-i.%
v% *arrfer and statesman. In order to appreciate justly
r* ;;trii^va$A'£nd celebrated composition.it is necessary to
ejr# 1
p-t;
,t oag attention to the plan, the facts, and the style.
./, ,^'?r|jjTOpla*v5s\jrtjmen.se. . . . He includes
astronomy,
#>6|*-al yV geography, agriculture, commerce medicine, and
the arts, as well as natural history properly
so called. . . . Pliny was not an observer like Aristotle;
still less was he a man of genius, capable, like that great
philosopher, of tracing the laws and relations in accordance
with which the works of nature are formed
and arranged, (co-ordonnee.) In general, he is only a
compiler. ... A comparison of his extracts with the
originals which are extant, especially with Aristotle,
convinces us that Pliny did not prefer to take from the
authors he consulted that which was most important
or most exact. In general, he prefers the singular and
marvellous. ... If Pliny has for us little merit as a
naturalist and critic, it is far otherwise in respect to his
talent as a writer, and the vast treasury of Latin terms
and locutions which have made his work one of the richest
depositories of the language of the Romans." He
was a decided pantheist, and had no faith in the future
existence of the human soul. His style is vigorous,
condensed, pointed, and abounds in antithesis. Among
the best editions of Pliny is that published bv Sillig,
Hamburg.
" His profound erudition," says Buffon, "is
enhanced by elevation of ideas and nobleness of style.
He not only knew all that could be known in his time,
but he had that large faculty of thinking which multiplies
science, he had that delicacy (finesse) of reflection
on which depend elegance and taste, and he imparts to
his reader a certain freedom of spirit and boldness of
thought, which is the germ of philosophy."
See Salmasius,
" Exercitationes Plinianze," 1629; A. Jos. a
Turrs Rezzonico,
"
Disquisitiones Plinianae," 2 vols., 1763-07;
Paul Ebhr,
"
Dissertatio de Vita C. Plinii," 1556; A. U A. Fee,
"
Eloge de Pline le Naturaliste," 1S21 ; Baiir,
"
Gesclliclite der
Rdtnischen Literatur:" "Nouvelle Biographie GeWrale."
Read More
Autocrates was an Ancient Athenian poet of the old comedy. One of his plays is mentioned by Suidas and Aelian.[1] He also wrote several tragedies. [2]
The Autocrates quoted by Athenaeus[3] seems to have been a different person.
Read More
Gaius Plinius Secundus (23 AD – August 25, 79), better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural
philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian.
Spending most of his spare time studying, writing or investigating natural and geographic phenomena in the field, he wrote an
encyclopedic work, Naturalis Historia, which became a model for all such works written subsequently. Pliny the Younger, his
nephew, wrote of him in a letter to the historian Tacitus:
For my part I deem those blessed to whom, by favour of the gods, it has been granted either to do what is worth writing of, or
to write what is worth reading; above measure blessed those on whom both gifts have been conferred. In the latter number will
be my uncle, by virtue of his own and of your compositions.[1]
Pliny is referring to the fact that Tacitus relied on his uncle's now missing work on the History of the German Wars. Pliny
the Elder died on August 25, 79 AD, while attempting the rescue by ship of a friend and his family from the eruption of Mount
Vesuvius that had just destroyed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The prevailing wind would not allow his ship to leave
the shore. His companions attributed his collapse and death to toxic fumes, but they were unaffected by the fumes, suggesting
natural causes...
Read More
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).
Read More
