Pliny the Elder

Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus
19th-century illustration of Pliny
BornAD 23 or 24
DiedAD 79 (aged 55)
Stabiae, Italia, Roman Empire
CitizenshipRoman
EducationRhetoric, grammar
Occupation(s)Lawyer, author, natural philosopher, historian, naturalist, military commander, provincial governor
Notable workNaturalis Historia
ChildrenPliny the Younger (nephew, later adopted son)
Parent(s)Gaius Plinius Celer and Marcella

Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 – AD 79), called Pliny the Elder (/ˈplɪni/),[1] was a Roman author, naturalist, natural philosopher, naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic Naturalis Historia (Natural History), which became an editorial model for encyclopedias. He spent most of his spare time studying, writing, and investigating natural and geographic phenomena in the field.

Among Pliny's greatest works was the twenty-volume Bella Germaniae ("The History of the German Wars"), which is no longer extant. Bella Germaniae, which began where Aufidius Bassus' Libri Belli Germanici ("The War with the Germans") left off, was used as a source by other prominent Roman historians, including Plutarch, Tacitus, and Suetonius. Tacitus may have used Bella Germaniae as the primary source for his work, De origine et situ Germanorum ("On the Origin and Situation of the Germans").[2]

Pliny the Elder died in AD 79 in Stabiae while attempting the rescue of a friend and his family from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.[3]

  1. ^ Melvyn Bragg (8 July 2010). "Pliny the Elder". In Our Time (Podcast). BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  2. ^ Gudeman, Alfred (1900). "The Sources of the Germania of Tacitus". Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association. 31: 93–111. doi:10.2307/282642. JSTOR 282642.
  3. ^ Katherine J. Wu (27 January 2020). "This 2,000-Year-Old Skull May Belong to Pliny the Elder". Smithsonian Magazine.

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