1. Birth-family
Gaius Secundus Plinius was born in 24 or 24 AD at Novum Comum in northern Italy thus he could boast that he was a co-citizen of Catullus.1 He came from a rich family of eques, which helped him get his education in Rome. He enlisted in the army at a young age and then went to Germany with a cavalry unit. Occasionally he served as a judicial orator.
2. Work
Notwithstanding his aforementioned occupations, he spent the greater part of his life devoted in reading books and writing. He began his career as an author at a young age with an essay on cavalry tactic. He also wrote books on grammar, history, rhetoric and 31 books which continue the Roman History of Aufidius Bassus. None of these works has survived.
Of the 102 volumes he wrote, only his last work, the Natural History (Naturalis Historia), survives.2 The 37 books of this work are an epitome of the ancient scientific knowledge and are based on observation.
In the introduction, Pliny notes that he had to study 2,000 books of various authors3 and estimates the events mentioned in his work to 20,000. The introduction comprises the 1st book and is dedicated to emperor Titus. In the 2nd book a general description of the universe is entailed. In the 3rd and 4th books he deals with the geography and ethnology of Europe and in books 5-6 he studies the countries and the people of Syria, Asia Minor and Africa. The 7th book is dedicated to the human body. Books 8-11 concern zoology, followed by books 12-19, which constitute a long treatise on botany. Books 20-27 refer to the use of plants in medicine, while books 28-32 refer to medical substances which originate from the animal kingdom. The last five books (33-37) deal with mineralogy and metallurgy and describe how minerals were used in the arts and more especially in painting and sculpture.
The publication of the Natural History and the final classification of the material was conducted after the author’s death by Pliny the Younger.4
3. Death
He died in 79 BC, when he was a commander at the naval base at Misenum, because of the great explosion of Vesuvius, as he was disembarking in a location very close to the crater, to have a closer look of the phenomenon and to offer help to whomever was in danger. His nephew Pliny the Younger narrates his death in his letters to the historian Tacitus.5
4. Evaluation-Judgement
Pliny did not critically evaluate his material, he was hasty and credulous. He also did not have any specialized knowledge. Thus, he depended to such a great extent on the material he used that in essence he produced a simple documentation of notes based on each of his sources, and as a result he is considered one of the worst scribers.
Nevertheless, since his work extends from lost works of art to popular witchcraft, it is a basic source of information for future generations. His surviving texts focus on research of nature, but also include a large amount of information about historical events, literature, customs and much more.
1. Rose H.J., A handbook of Latin literature: From the earliest times to the death of St. Augustine, London 1958, p. 150.
2. This is the title accepted now, but Pliny the Younger, Epistulae 3.5.6, alludes that the initial work bore the title Naturae historiarum.