PLINY THE ELDER

(Caius Plinius Secundus)plĭˈnē, 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.

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.

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

____________________

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright© 2004, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V. All rights reserved.

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Questia Books and Articles on: Pliny the Elder
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books on: Pliny the Elder  - 1754 results

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1.
Pliny the Elder's Natural History: The Empire in the Encyclopedia
Book by Trevor Murphy; Oxford University Press, 2004
Subjects: Pliny--The Elder--Naturalis Historia, Rome--History--Empire, 30 B.C.-284 A.D
...COMMODITY Instead of the Natural History of Pliny the Elder, we might well have had the Natural History...consul AD 103, the portrait of the life of Pliny the Elder we have discussed above, his nephew Pliny the Younger tells the story of how his uncle...
2.
Roman Nature: The Thought of Pliny the Elder
Book by Mary Beagon; Clarendon Press, 1992
Subjects: Human beings, Philosophy of nature, Pliny--the Elder--Knowledge--Science, Pliny--the Elder--Naturalis historia, Science, Ancient, Science--Europe--History
...activity complements Pliny the Elders own words in the preface to...ironic that we should remember Pliny for the manner of his death...and detailed account given by Pliny the Younger Ep. 6. 16 has...Haywood, "The Strange Death of Pliny the Elder", Class. Week. 46 1952...
3.
The Letters of Pliny: A Historical and Social Commentary
Book by A. N. Sherwin-White; Clarendon Press, 1966
Subjects: Pliny--The Younger--Correspondence, Pliny--The Younger--Criticism And Interpretation
...credidisses . This well fits Pliny the Elder, who tells a shorter version...one verbal echo, s. 9 n. Pliny contradicts his uncle on a...Plinys details occur in the Elders other dolphin stories, and Pliny may have concocted this version...
4.
Masterpieces of Latin Literature: Terence: Lucretius: Catullus: Virgil: Horace: Tibullus: Propertius: Ovid: Petronius: Martial: Juvenal: Cicero: Caesar: Livy: Tacitus: Pliny the Younger: Apuleius; with Biographical Sketches and Notes
Book by Gordon Jennings Laing; Houghton Mifflin and Company, 1903
Subjects: Latin Literature--Translations Into English, Rome--Literary Collections
...suggested that possibly the Cornelius Tacitus mentioned by the elder Pliny as procurator of Belgic Gaul was the historians father...hear of him as associated with his friend the younger Pliny in the indictment of Marius Priscus for extortion in the...
5.
Natural History of Pliny - Vol. 2
Book by John Bostock, H. T. Riley; H. G. Bohn, 1855
...opinion, in fine, that either Pliny or some of the authors from...evident from this passage, that Pliny is speaking of a little fish...on Natural History, to which Pliny frequently alludes, and which...His school was attended by the elder Seneca, who had then recently...appeared on the stage, in his old age, as an actor of mimes...
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journal articles on: Pliny the Elder  - 151 results

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1.
Castigating Livy: The Rape of Lucretia and 'The Old Arcadia.'
Journal article by Debora Shuger; Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 51, 1998
Subjects: Harvey, Gabriel--Criticism, interpretation, etc., History of Rome (Book)--Criticism, interpretation, etc., Livy--Criticism, interpretation, etc., Rome (Ancient)--History, Sidney, Philip--Criticism, interpretation, etc., The Old Arcadia (Book)--Criticism, interpretation, etc.
...that hinges on the relative worth of the old armigerous nobility and the "new men...marrying either a German princess or the eldest daughter of William of Orange, possibilities...in 1589, could not have influenced The Old Arcadia, its political morality is strikingly...mind . . . is so necessarie . . . that the old Emperour sayd, that he knew not wel how...
2.
Bruegel the Elder, Pieter Aertsen, and the Beginnings of Genre
Journal article by Margaret A. Sullivan; The Art Bulletin, Vol. 93, 2011
Subjects: Artists, Innovations, Painting, Protestant Reformation, Religion, Skating, Studies
...a 1545 print by Heinrich Vogtherr the Elder, as I. Bergstrom has noted, but Bruegel...by comparing the modest repasts of the old days with the lavish consumption of food...needs? The cane suggests his companion is older. Do his money bags indicate he is avaricious, the sin associated with old age, or is he being properly cautious...offered new opportunities. Bruegel the Elders Ice Skating before lite Cale of St. George...
3.
Cheese Gives You Nightmares: Old Hags and Heartburn
Journal article by Caroline Oates; Folklore, Vol. 114, 2003
Subjects: Cheese--Folklore, legends, etc., Indigestion--Folklore, legends, etc., Nightmares--Folklore, legends, etc., Witchcraft--Folklore, legends, etc.
...fullest expositions, an older, wiser companion arrives...features of the "Mare" or "Old Hag" type of nightmare...3:156-7; this is Old Norse higr, which in...thoughts throughout Europe (Pliny 1855-7, XXVIII: 5...1993-4):391-422. Pliny, the Elder. Natural History. Translated...
4.
The Spread of Malaria to Southern Europe in Antiquity: New Approaches to Old Problems
Journal article by Robert Sallares, Abigail Bouwman, Cecilia Anderung; Medical History, Vol. 48, 2004
...Antiquity: New Approaches to Old Problems by Robert Sallares...approaching 100,000 years old, although it has undergone...Since the forest ecotype is the oldest ecotype of A. gambiae, highly...but could easily be much older and involve earlier species...malariae) were endemic in the Old World from Greece to as far...described as pestilential by Pliny the Younger in the first century...contemporary author, Cato the Elder, relates to Graviscae, the...
5.
The Fiery Furnace in the Book of Daniel and the Ancient near East
Journal article by Tawny L. Holm; The Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 128, 2008
Subjects: Bible. Old Testament. Daniel (Sacred work)--Criticism and interpretation, Middle East--History, Middle East--Religious aspects
...the wife of a gardener), and Pliny the Elder alludes to the story of a blind pharaoh...Syriac, Arabic, Armenian, Ethiopie, Old Turkish, Greek and Slavonic Versions...The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in English, vol. 2 (Oxford...
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magazine articles on: Pliny the Elder  - 74 results

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1.
Glory Be!
Magazine article by Leonard E. Read; The Freeman, Vol. 48, December 1998
Subjects: History, Philosophers, Philosophy, Pliny the Elder (23-79)
Glory Be! by Leonard E. Read The Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder was born in 23 A.D. When he passed away at the age...anthropology, zoology, botany, and other related subjects. Pliny did, indeed, leave the world happier and better for...
2.
Old Age in Ancient Rome: Mary Harlow and Ray Laurence Look at What It Meant to Become a Senior Citizen in Ancient Rome, and How This Early Model Has a Bearing on Our Attitudes towards Ageing Today
Magazine article by Mary Harlow, Ray Laurence; History Today, Vol. 53, April 2003
Subjects: Aged--Social aspects, Life cycle, Human--Demographic aspects, Life cycle, Human--Physiological aspects, Life expectancy
...images reflected an ideology that held older men in high esteem and assumed respect...This ideology assumed respect for the older male in society and was underpinned...defining feature of Roman society. The eldest male in a family held legal power over...infancy by providing for their parents in old age. This social idea that the older generation deserved increasing respect...entitled him to. The work, Cato the Elder on old age, (Cato maior de senectute...
3.
Oh, Gods! Religion Didn't Begin to Wither Away during the Twentieth Century, as Some Academic Experts Had Prophesied. Far from It. and the New Century Will Probably See Religion Explode-In Both Intensity and Variety. New Religions Are Springing Up Everywhere. Old Ones Are Mutating with Darwinian Restlessness. and the Big "Problem Religion" of the Twenty-First Century May Not Be the One You Think
Magazine article by Toby Lester; The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 289, February 2002
Subjects: Religion and culture--Analysis, Religion and sociology--Analysis, Religions--Identification and classification, Sociology of religion--Analysis
...Are Springing Up Everywhere. Old Ones Are Mutating with Darwinian...religions are born all the time. Old ones transform themselves dramatically...the religious establishment: Pliny the Younger wrote to the Roman...which is what people in the older denominations usually think...field is only a few decades old, but already it has made its...
4.
Bacon, Brought Home
Magazine article by Stephen Jay Gould; Natural History, Vol. 108, June 1999
Subjects: Bacon, Francis (1561-1626), Cognition & reasoning, Philosophy, Psychology, Science, Scientists
...of impediments, based on older systems of thought. We will...unquestioned fealty to the "old-time religion" of Genesis...Classical authors, particularly Pliny in his Natural History, spoke...to dichotomize. Pliny the Elder, the great Roman statesman...recognized that even when old theories (idols of the theater...final barriers to solving the old problem of the nature of hysteroliths...conceived. The retention of older categories of classification...fortune of Caius Plinius the elder, who lost his life by trying...
5.
By Any Other Name
Magazine article by Elizabeth Barlow Rogers; New Criterion, Vol. 24, April 2006
Subjects: Books--Book reviews, The Naming of Names: The Search for Order in the World of Plants (Book)--Book reviews
...recipes are included in many old herbals). Initially written...some of her chapter titles: "Pliny the Plagiarist" deals with the great natural historian Pliny the Elder (23-79 A.D.), and...attributes the famous letter of Pliny the Younger (62-c. 115 A...
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newspaper articles on: Pliny the Elder  - 55 results

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1.
OK,old Bean, Here's the Bad News YOU'RE FIRED... Now the Good News YOU'RE HIRED; Maverick Tory MP Boris Johnson Has Resigned as Editor of the Spectator to Concentrate on Politics. Here, as the Magazine Awaits the Arrival of Its New Chief, an Insider Describes the Bizarre World of 'The Sextator'., REVIEW
Newspaper article; The Mail on Sunday (London, England), January 8, 2006
Subjects: Legislators--Political activity, Legislators--Political aspects, Periodical editors--Political activity, Periodical editors--Political aspects, Periodicals--Political aspects
OK,old Bean, Heres the Bad News YOURE FIRED...Sextator., REVIEW. Byline: LLOYD EVANS Hi, old bean. Boris here. Got a wheeze for you...plastic bag full of baking soda into one of his old rugby trophies at The Spectator, I was being...
2.
Good Old Gossip; A Book That Captures the Scandalous Chat of the Ancients Fascinates Richard Edmonds
Newspaper article; The Birmingham Post (England), August 14, 2009
Subjects: Books
Good Old Gossip; A Book That Captures...they invaded Egypt. However, Pliny and Plutarch left behind both...whether it was to the Serpent of old Nile or the head of the Roman...Augustus Caesar, as he grew older, was certainly witty in his...the prophesy were often smelly old hags who lived apart from the...
3.
'Deceptions'; Illusionary Art at National Gallery
Newspaper article; The Washington Times, October 26, 2002
...beginnings, the Roman historian Pliny the Elder was one of the first to write...C. Greek painter Zeuxis. Pliny wrote in his "Natural History...pictures of the show, the elder Peale painted two of his sons...models. Raphaelle, Peales eldest son, holds palette and brushes...
4.
A Very Bawdy Ballad; ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS
Newspaper article; The Daily Mail (London, England), June 23, 2010
...references to dark falernina. Frequently referenced were the wines alcoholic strength: Pliny the Elder even claimed it was the only wine that could be set alight. Pliny also bemoaned, in the 1st century AD, a commitment in the area to quantity over...
5.
An Italian Sing-a-Long; ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS
Newspaper article; The Daily Mail (London, England), June 23, 2010
...references to dark falernina. Frequently referenced were the wines alcoholic strength: Pliny the Elder even claimed it was the only wine that could be set alight. Pliny also bemoaned, in the 1st century aD, a commitment in the area to quantity over...
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encyclopedia articles on: Pliny the Elder  - 14 results

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1.
Pliny the Elder
Encyclopedia article; The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2009
PLINY THE ELDER (Caius Plinius Secundus)pli ne, c.a.d. 23 a.d. 79, Roman naturalist...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...
2.
Latin Literature
Encyclopedia article; The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2009
...introduced the hexameter into Latin; Cato the Elder opposed the hellenizing group, to which Ennius...their satiric writings. Petronius , Frontinus , Pliny the Elder , Pliny the Younger (see under Pliny the Elder ), and Tacitus were the chief writers...
3.
Martial
Encyclopedia article; The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2009
...years, winning fame by his wit and poetic gifts. He enjoyed the patronage of Titus , Domitian , and Pliny the Younger (see under Pliny the Elder ) and the friendship of Juvenal and Quintilian . He wrote more than 1,500 epigrams, most of which...
4.
Bithynia
Encyclopedia article; The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2009
...after Pompeys rearrangement of the empire it was combined with western Pontus as a single province. Pliny the Younger (see under Pliny the Elder ) was governor of the province (c.a.d. 110) under the emperor Trajan. The reign of Hadrian...
5.
Vesuvius
Encyclopedia article; The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2009
...earliest recorded eruption (a.d. 79) was described by Pliny the Younger in two letters to Tacitus; the eruption...Herculaneum , and Stabiae under cinders, ashes, and mud. Pliny the Elder was killed by the eruption, which he had come to investigate...
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