C. Plinius Secundus of Novum Comum (43 – 79 CE)
Wrote Naturalis Historia (NH), a 37-volume compendium of knowledge about the natural
world, medicine, technology, and art, offering a universal index of the world as known and
imagined by the educated classes of early imperial Rome.
Life: Born in Novum Comum in 23 or 24 CE, Pliny had a career typical of the wealthy
equestrian class to which he was born. As a young man, he served in the army (47– 52 CE) as
military tribune and commander of a cavalry unit; a decorative roundel (phalera) bearing his
name has been recovered at Xanten. He participated in campaigns in the frontier provinces
of Upper and Lower Germania, under Domitius Corbulo against the Chauci (47 CE), and
against the Chatti under Pomponius Secundus (50– 51 CE). In military life, he befriended
the future emperor T. F V, the future dedicatee of NH. In civilian life, he
acted as a forensic orator and wrote prolifically. Beside NH, his works included a biography
of Pomponius Secundus; a manual on throwing javelins from horseback; a history of
Rome’s wars with the Germanic tribes (inspired by a dream-vision of Nero Claudius
Drusus, hero of A’ German campaigns); a book on the education of orators; a
book on linguistic problems (an apolitical choice dictated by the dangers of life under Nero);
and a history of his times.
After Nero’s death and the Flavians’ ascent to power (69 CE), Pliny became a man of
importance. Between 70– 76 CE, Pliny took procuratorships in several provinces including
Hispania Tarraconensis, Africa, and probably both Gallia Narbonensis and Belgica. Eventually he
was recalled to Vespasian’s court as an imperial adviser (amicus principum), and finally was
appointed commander of the Roman fleet at Misenum on the Bay of Naples. From his
house at Misenum, as described by his nephew (Pliny the Younger, Letters 6.16), Pliny saw
the eruption of Vesuvius of 79 CE, August 24. Having taken a galley to Stabiae to observe
the eruption and rescue others in the neighborhood, he died when asphyxiated by volcanic
gas (some scholars prefer to adduce a heart-attack).
Pliny the Younger described his uncle’s work-habits in detail (Letters 3.5). Reducing his sleep
to an austere minimum, he spent his waking hours either at official duties or studying. While
listening to a reader, he dictated whatever caught his interest to scribe, keeping reader and
scribe employed even at meals; rather than suspend note-taking while walking, he traveled
by litter. No book was so bad, he said, that some part of it might not be somehow useful. In
this way he produced the raw materials of his enormous books: 20 volumes on Rome’s wars
against the Germani, 31 volumes of contemporary history, and the 37 volumes of NH.
Wo rk : Pliny is of major significance as a pioneer in the encyclopedic tradition. For
historians of science, Pliny’s importance lies more in the concept and outline of Nature
implicit in the structure of his book than in original theories or first-hand observations, of
which there are few.
Pliny dedicates NH (Pr.1) to Titus, Emperor Vespasian’s son and co-ruler – a measure
of Pliny’s ambitions. There follows an extended table of contents or index-list, setting out
his topics by book and subsection; for each book Pliny gives a total sum of facts contained
(consistently undercounted) as well as authors consulted, listing Roman authors separately
from foreigners. NH begins with cosmology, including astronomy and geology (Book 2);
there follow a geographical gazetteer of the known world (Books 3–6); man (7); creatures of
land, sea, and air (8–10); insects and comparative anatomy (11); botany (12–19); medicine
and pharmacology (20–32); and finally minerals, including long subsections on pigments,
painting, sculpture, architecture, and gems (33–37).
C. PLINIUS SECUNDUS OF NOVUM COMUM