Pliny the Elder: an imaginative 19th Century portrait. No contemporary depiction of Pliny has survived.
'Gaius Plinius Secundus', (
AD 23 –
August 24, AD
79), better known as 'Pliny the Elder', was an ancient
author,
natural philosopher and naval and military commander of some importance who wrote ''
Naturalis Historia''. He believed that ''"true glory consists of doing what deserves to be written, and writing what deserves to be read"''.
He was the son of a
Roman ''
eques'' by the daughter of the
Senator Gaius Caecilius of
Novum Comum. He was born at
Como, not (as is sometimes supposed) at
Verona: it is only as a native of ''Gallia Transpadana'' that he calls
Catullus of Verona his ''conterraneus'', or fellow-countryman, not his ''municeps'', or fellow-townsman.
[1] A statue of Pliny on the facade of the Duomo of Como celebrates him as a native son.
Life
Student and lawyer
Before AD
35 [2] Pliny's father took him to
Rome, where he was educated under his father's friend, the poet and military commander,
Publius Pomponius Secundus, who inspired him with a lifelong love of learning. Two centuries after the death of the
Gracchi, Pliny saw some of their autograph writings in his preceptor's library,
[3] and he afterwards wrote that preceptor's ''Life''.
He mentions the
grammarians and
rhetoricians,
Remmius Palaemon and
Arellius Fuscus,
[4] and he may have been their student. In Rome he studied
botany in the ''
topiarius'' (garden) of the aged
Antonius Castor,
[5] and saw the fine old
lotus trees in the grounds that had once belonged to
Crassus.
[6] He also viewed the vast structure raised by
Caligula,
[7] and probably witnessed the triumph of
Claudius over
Britain in
44.
[8] Under the influence of
Seneca the Younger he became a keen student of
philosophy and
rhetoric, and began practicing as an
advocate.
Junior officer
He saw military service under
Corbulo in
Germania Inferior in
47, taking part in the Roman conquest of the
Chauci and the construction of the canal between the rivers
Maas and
Rhine.
[9] As a young commander of
cavalry (''praefectus alae'') he wrote in his winter-quarters a work on the use of
missiles on horseback (''De jaculatione equestri''), with some account of the points of a good
horse.
[10]
In
Gaul and
Spain he learned the meanings of a number of
Celtic words.
[11] He took note of sites associated with the Roman invasion of Germany, and, amid the scenes of the victories of
Drusus, he had a dream in which the victor enjoined him to transmit his exploits to posterity.
[12] The dream prompted Pliny to begin forthwith a history of all the
wars between the Romans and the Germans.
He probably accompanied his father's friend Pomponius on an expedition against the
Chatti (
50), and visited Germany for a third time (50s) as a comrade of the future
emperor,
Titus Flavius.
[13]
Literary interlude
Under
Nero Pliny lived mainly in Rome. He mentions the map of
Armenia and the neighbourhood of the
Caspian Sea, which was sent to Rome by the staff of Corbulo in
58.
[14] He also saw the building of Nero's "golden house" after the fire of
64.
[7]
Meanwhile he was completing the twenty books of his ''History of the German Wars'', the only authority expressly quoted in the first six books of the ''
Annals'' of
Tacitus,
[16] and probably one of the principal authorities for the ''
Germania''. It was superseded by the writings of Tacitus, and, early in the
5th century,
Symmachus had little hope of finding a copy.
[17]
He also devoted much of his time to writing on the comparatively safe subjects of
grammar and rhetoric. A detailed work on rhetoric, entitled ''Studiosus'', was followed by eight books, ''Dubii sermonis'', in
67.
Senior officer
Under his friend
Vespasian he returned to the service of the state, serving as
procurator in ''
Gallia Narbonensis'' (
70) and ''
Hispania Tarraconensis'' (
73), and also visiting the province of ''
Gallia Belgica'' (
74). During his stay in Spain he became familiar with the
agriculture and the
mines of the country, besides paying a visit to
Africa.
[18] On his return to Italy he accepted office under Vespasian, whom he used to visit before daybreak for instructions before proceeding to his official duties, after the discharge of which he devoted all the rest of his time to study.
[19]
Famous author
He completed a ''History of His Times'' in thirty-one books, possibly extending from the reign of Nero to that of Vespasian, and deliberately reserved it for publication after his death.
[20] It is quoted by Tacitus,
[21] and is one of the authorities followed by
Suetonius and
Plutarch.
He also virtually completed his great work, the ''
Naturalis Historia'', an
encyclopedia into which Pliny collected much of the knowledge of his time. The work had been planned under the rule of Nero. The materials collected for this purpose filled rather less than 160 volumes, which
Larcius Licinus, the
praetorian legate of Hispania Tarraconensis, vainly offered to purchase them for a sum equivalent to more than £3,200 (''1911 estimated value'') or £200,000 (''2002 estimated value''). Aside from minor finishing touches, the work in 37 books was completed in 77 CE.
[22] Pliny dedicated the work to the emperor
Titus Flavius Vespasianus in
77.
Vesuvius
Soon afterwards he received from Vespasian the appointment of ''
praefect'' of the
Roman Navy at
Misenum. On
August 24,
79 A.D., he was stationed at Misenum, at the time of the great
eruption of
Mount Vesuvius, which overwhelmed
Pompeii and
Herculaneum. A desire to observe the phenomenon directly, and also to rescue some of his friends from their perilous position on the shore of the
Bay of Naples, led to his launching his galleys and crossing the bay to
Stabiae (near the modern town of
Castellammare di Stabia). His nephew,
Pliny the Younger, provided an account of his death, and suggested that he collapsed and died through inhaling poisonous gases emitted from the volcano.
[23] However, Stabiae was 16 km from the vent and his companions were apparently unaffected by the fumes, and so it is more likely that the corpulent
[24] Pliny died through a different cause, such as a
stroke or
heart attack.
[25] His body was found with no apparent injuries on
26 August, after the plume had dispersed sufficiently for daylight to return.
The story of his last hours is told in an
interesting letter addressed twenty-seven years afterwards to Tacitus by the Elder Pliny's nephew and heir, Pliny the Younger,
[26] who also sends to another correspondent an account of his uncle's writings and his manner of life:
[27]
"He began to work long before daybreak.…He read nothing without making extracts; he used even to say that there was no book so bad as not to contain something of value. In the country it was only the time when he was actually in his bath that was exempted from study. When travelling, as though freed from every other care, he devoted himself to study alone. In short, he deemed all time wasted that was not employed in study."
Pliny is still remembered in
vulcanology where the term ''
plinian'' (or ''plinean'') refers to a
very violent eruption of a volcano marked by columns of smoke and ash extending high into the stratosphere. The term ''ultra-plinian'' is reserved for the most violent type of plinian eruption such as the
1883 destruction of
Krakatoa.
The Natural History
His only writings to have survived to modern times is the ''Naturalis historia''. It was used as an authority over the following centuries by countless scholars, for natural history literally but also in its relation to ancient medicine. In his treatment of plants, he was able to compound medicinal herbal remedies and put them to use through internal fumigation (painful), clysters (healing liquids in orafices) and pessaries, as well as countless other means.
Literature
At the conclusion of his literary labours, as the only Roman besides
Lucretius who had ever taken for his theme the whole realm of nature, he prays for the blessing of the universal mother on his completed work.
In literature he assigns the highest place next to
Homer,
Cicero and
Virgil.
He takes a keen 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.
[28]
The scheme of his great work is vast and comprehensive, being nothing short of an encyclopedia 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-hand for his immediate authorities. He frankly acknowledges his obligations to all his predecessors in a phrase that deserves to be proverbial,
[29]
:''"plenum ingenni pudoris fateri per quos profeceris"''.
He had neither the temperament for original investigation, nor the leisure necessary for the purpose.
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 confession in his preface:
:''"nec dubitamus multa esse quae et nos praeterierint; homines enim sumus et occupati officiis"''.
Style
His style betrays the 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 artistic form of the sentence is sacrificed to a passion for emphasis that delights in deferring the point to the close of the period. The structure of the sentence is also apt to be loose and straggling. There is an excessive use of the
ablative absolute, and
ablative phrases are often appended in a kind of vague "apposition" to express the author's own opinion of an immediately previous statement, e.g.
[30],
:''"dixit (Apelles) ... uno se praestare, quod manum de tabula sciret tollere, memorabili praecepto nocere saepe nimiam diligentiam"''.
Manuscripts
About the middle of the
3rd century an abstract of the geographical portions of Pliny's work was produced by
Solinus; and early in the
4th century the medical passages were collected in the ''Medicina Plinii''. Early in the
8th century we find
Bede in possession of an excellent manuscript of the whole work. In the
9th century Alcuin sends to
Charlemagne for a copy of the earlier books;
[31] and
Dicuil gathers extracts from the pages of Pliny for his own ''Mensura orbis terrae'' (ca.
825).
Pliny's work was held in high esteem in the
Middle Ages. The number of extant manuscripts is about 200; but the best of the more ancient manuscripts, that at
Bamberg, contains only books xxxii-xxxvii.
Robert of Cricklade,
prior of
St. Frideswide's Priory at
Oxford, dedicated to
Henry II a ''Defloratio'' consisting of nine books of selections taken from one of the manuscripts of this class, which has been recently recognized as sometimes supplying us with the only evidence for the true text. Among the later manuscripts, the ''codex Vesontinus'', formerly at
Besançon (
11th century), has been divided into three portions, now in Rome,
Paris, and
Leiden respectively, while there is also a transcript of the whole of this manuscript at Leiden.
Highlights
A special interest attaches to his account of the manufacture of the
papyrus,
[32] and of the different kinds of
purple dye,
[33] while his description of the notes of the
nightingale is an elaborate example of his occasional felicity of phrase.
[34]
Some of Pliny's wisest and most famous adages include:
:"Among these things, one thing seems certain - that nothing certain exists and that there is nothing more pitiful or more presumptuous than man."
:"Because of a curious disease of the human mind, it pleases us to enshrine in history records of bloodshed and slaughter, so that those ignorant of the facts of the world may become acquainted with the crimes of mankind."
Research after 1500
Sir
Thomas Browne expressed a wholesome skepticism about Pliny's dependability in his ''
Pseudodoxia Epidemica'' (
1646):
[35]
:''"Now what is very strange, there is scarce a popular error passant in our days, which is not either directly expressed, or diductively contained in this Work; which being in the hands of most men, hath proved a powerful occasion of their propagation. Wherein notwithstanding the credulity of the Reader is more condemnable then the curiosity of the Author: for commonly he nameth the Authors from whom he received those accounts, and writes but as he reads, as in his Preface to Vespasian he acknowledgeth."''
Most of the recent 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
carnelian inscribed with the letters C. PLIN. has been reproduced by Cades (v.211) from the original in the
Vannutelli collection. It represents an ancient Roman with an almost completely bald forehead and a double chin; and is almost certainly a portrait, not of Pliny the Elder, but of
Pompey the Great. Seated statues of both the Plinies, clad in the garb of scholars of the year
1500, may be seen in the niches on either side of the main entrance to the
cathedral church of Como.
The elder Pliny's anecdotes of Greek artists supplied
Vasari with the subjects of the
frescoes which still adorn the interior of his former home at
Arezzo.
Pliny in popular culture
★ Pliny is a significant character in the novel ''Pompeii'' by
Robert Harris.
★ Pliny is the namesake of a
double IPA, brewed by the
Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa, CA. Additionally, Russian River Brewing features a seasonal Triple IPA, named for Pliny's nephew, Pliny the Younger.
Notes
1. ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html#1 Praef. §1
2. ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html#81 N.H. xxxvii.81
3. ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html#83 xiii.83
4. ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html#4 xiv.4; ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html#152 xxxiii.152
5. ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html#9 xxv.9
6. ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html#5 xvii.5
7. ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html#111 xxxvi.111
8. ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html#119 iii.119
9. xvi. ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html#2 2 and ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html#5 5
10. ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html#162 viii.162
11. ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html#40 xxx.40
12. Plin. Epp. iii.5, 4
13. ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html#3 Praef. §3
14. ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html#40 vi.40
15. ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html#111 xxxvi.111
16. 1.69
17. Epp. xiv.8
18. ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html#37 vii.37
19. Plin. Epp. iii.5, 9
20. ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html#20 N. H., Praef. 20
21. Ann. xiii.20, xv.53; Hist. iii.29
22. ''The New Encyclopædia Britannica'' 15th Edition (1977), Vol. 14, p. 572a
23. ''Derivation of the Name Plinian''
24. Greek, Carthaginian, and Roman Agricultural Writers Jules Janick, Purdue University
25. Derivation of the name "Plinian"
26. Epp. vi.16
27. iii.5
28. ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html#15 xxii.15
29. ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html#21 Praef. 21
30. ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html#80 xxxv.80
31. Epp. 103, Jaffé
32. ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html#68 xiii.68 seq.
33. ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html#130 ix.130
34. ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html#81 xxix.81 seq.
35. Available at the [1] University of Chicago site
See also
★
Como
★
Vesuvio
★
Pliny the Younger
External links
Primary sources
★
A complete Latin transcription of the ''Naturalis Historia'' and a
Complete 1855 English translation
Secondary material
★
Pliny the Elder Biography and summary of ''Natural History''
★
Origin of the term Plinian with notes about Pliny's cause of death (UCSB Volcano Information Center)'
★
The Death of Gaius Plinius Secundus article by Conway Zirkle in 1967 issue of ''ISIS'' (subscription required)
★
Pliny the Elder entry in historical sourcebook by Mahlon H. Smith
References
★
★
The elder Pliny on the human animal: Natural History, Book 7, Beagon, Mary (translator), , , Oxford University press, 2005,
★
Pliny the Elder's Natural History: the Empire in the Encyclopedia, , Trevor, Murphy, Oxford University Press, 2004,
★
Plinio il Vecchio e la tradizione storica di Roma nella Naturalis historia, , Laura Cotta, Ramosino, Edizioni del'Orso, 2004,
★
Pliny's Catalogue of Culture: Art and Empire in the Natural history, , Sorcha, Carey, Oxford University press, 2006,
★
Pliny the Elder on science and technology, , John F., Healy, Oxford University Press, 1999,
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