Pliny the Elder (Caius Plinius Secundus) (plĭ`nē), c.A.D. 23–A.D. 79, Roman naturalist, b. Cisalpine Gaul. He was a friend and fellow soldier of Vespasian, and he dedicated his great work to Titus. He died of asphyxiation in the neighborhood of Vesuvius, having gone to investigate the eruption. His one surviving work is an encyclopedia of natural science (Historia naturalis). It is divided into 37 books and, after a preface, deals with the nature of the physical universe; geography; anthropology; zoology; botany, including the medicinal uses of plants; curatives derived from the animal world; and mineralogy, including an account of the uses of pigments and a history of the fine arts. Pliny's industry was immense and his knowledge of sources extensive, but his information is mostly secondhand and quite useless as science.

Bibliography

See Selections from the History of the World, ed. by P. Turner (1962).

His nephew and ward,

Pliny the Younger (Caius Plinius Caecilius Secundus), A.D. 62?–c.A.D. 113, was an orator and a statesman. He was quaestor (A.D. 89), tribune (A.D. 91), and praetor (A.D. 93) and subsequently held treasury posts. He was consul (A.D. 100) and died in his proconsular province of Pontus-Bithynia. His fame rests on his letters, written probably for publication, which are an excellent mirror of Roman life.

Bibliography

See his Letters and Panegyricus, tr. by B. Radice (2 vol., 1969); studies by S. E. Stout (1954) and A. N. Sherwin-White (1966).

Pliny the Elder

Latin Gaius Plinius Secundus

(born AD 23, Novum Comum, Transpadane Gaul—died Aug. 24, 79, Stabiae, near Mt. Vesuvius) Roman scholar. Descended from a prosperous family, Pliny pursued a military career, held official positions (including procurator of Spain), and later spent years in semiretirement, studying and writing. His fame rests on his Natural History (AD 77), an encyclopaedic work of uneven accuracy that was the European authority on scientific matters up to the Middle Ages. Six other works ascribed to him were probably lost in antiquity. He died while observing the great eruption of Vesuvius.