PLINY THE ELDER.
(1) LIFE.
There is a very brief life of Pliny by Suetonius, but most of our information about him is derived from his own writings and the letters of his nephew (Plin. Ep. iii. 5; v. 8; vi. 16; vi. 20).
C. Plinius Secundus was born A.D. 23 or 24, for at the time of his death in A.D. 79 he was in his fifty-sixth year (Plin. Ep. iii. 5, 7, ‘decessisse anno sexto et quinquagesimo’). His birthplace was Comum in Cisalpine Gaul, according to Sueton. vit. Plin. In an anonymous Life he is styled ‘Veronensis,’ probably on account of the phrase in N.H. praef. 1, ‘Catullum conterraneum meum,’ where, however, terra means Gallia, the province, not the city.
Pliny was the son of an eques, and had a sister married to L. Caecilius of Novum Comum (see [p. 139]). He came to Rome not later than A.D. 35 (N.H. xxxvii. 81, ‘Servilii Noniani quem consulem vidimus’), and was trained in poetry and literature, probably by P. Pomponius Secundus[82]; his instructors in rhetoric are not known, but he mentions as rhetoricians Remmius Palaemon (xiv. 49) and Arellius Fuscus (xxxiii. 152). In botany he learned much from Antonius Castor (xxv. 9).
At the beginning of the reign of Claudius, Pliny was an eye-witness of the building operations at the harbour of Ostia, A.D. 42 (ix. 14): in 44 he practised in the law courts. Having decided on a military career, he would begin, according to the regulation of Claudius (Sueton. Claud. 25), with the command of a cohort of infantry. He was next praefectus alae (Plin. Ep. iii. 5, 3) under Corbulo, who was legatus of Germania Inferior, A.D. 47, in his campaign against the Chauci: cf. N.H. xvi. 2, ‘Sunt vero in septemtrione visae nobis Chaucorum [gentes]’; and in A.D. 50 fought under Pomponius against the Chatti. His ‘castrense contubernium’ with Titus (born A.D. 41) was probably in 55 or 56, when he was in the army of Pompeius Paulinus: cf. xxxiii. 143, ‘Pompeium Paulinum XII pondo argenti habuisse apud exercitum ferocissimis gentibus oppositum scimus.’ Personal knowledge of Germany appears in several passages of the N.H., e.g. xii. 98, ‘extremo in margine imperii, qua Rhenus adluit, vidi’; xxii. 8, ‘quem morem etiam nunc durare apud Germanos scio.’
Pliny was present at the festivities at Lake Fucinus in A.D. 52 (xxxiii. 63). During Nero’s reign he spent some time in Campania (ii. 180) and Cisalpine Gaul (xxxv. 20), was a spectator at the Vatican games in A.D. 59, and saw the building of Nero’s golden house after the fire of A.D. 64 (xxxvi. iii).
Under Vespasian Pliny was procurator in Italy, and in several of the provinces: Sueton. vit., ‘Procurationes splendidissimas et continuas summa integritate administravit.’ (a) Hispania Tarraconensis: Plin. Ep. iii. 5, 17, ‘cum procuraret in Hispania’; (b) Gallia Narbonensis: N.H. ii. 150, ‘ego vidi in Vocontiorum agro’; (c) Gallia Belgica: xviii. 183, ‘nec recens subtrahemus exemplum in Treverico agro tertio ante hoc anno compertum’; (d) Africa: vii. 36, ‘ipse in Africa vidi.’ For his intimacy with Vespasian cf. Plin. Ep. iii. 5, 9, ‘ante lucem ibat ad Vespasianum imperatorem ... inde ad delegatum sibi officium.’
In A.D. 79 Pliny was in command of the fleet at Misenum, when his scientific interest in the eruption of Vesuvius led him to approach too near the volcano, with the result that he was suffocated by the ashes (24th August). For a detailed account of his death, see Plin. Ep. vi. 16 (to Tacitus). Cf. Sueton. vit., ‘Periit clade Campaniae. Cum enim Misenensi classi praeesset, et flagrante Vesuvio ad explorandas propius causas liburnica pertendisset, neque adversantibus ventis remeare posset, vi pulveris ac favillae oppressus est, vel, ut quidam existimant, a servo suo occisus, quem aestu deficiens ut necem sibi maturaret oraverit.’
(2) WORKS.
A chronological list of Pliny’s writings is given by his nephew (Ep. iii. 5).
1. De iaculatione equestri.—‘Hunc, cum praefectus alae militaret, pari ingenio curaque composuit.’ This manual on the javelin as a cavalry weapon is mentioned by Pliny himself, N.H. viii. 162, ‘Nos diximus in libro de iaculatione equestri condito.’
2. De vita Pomponii Secundi, in two Books, a tribute to the memory of a valued friend, the tragic poet Pomponius. Cf. N.H. xiv. 56, ‘referentes vitam Pomponii Secundi vatis.’
3. Bella Germaniae, in twenty Books, a narrative of the Roman wars in Germany; begun by Pliny when serving in that country, the apparition of Drusus having besought him to rescue his name from oblivion (so Pliny the younger). Cf. Tac. Ann. i. 69, ‘Tradit C. Plinius, Germanicorum bellorum scriptor.’
4. Studiosus, in three Books or six parts, a treatise on rhetoric from the very rudiments. Quintilian, though surprised at some of Pliny’s views (xi. 3, 143; 148), numbers him among the more careful exponents of the subject (iii. 1, 21, ‘accuratius scripsit’). The book contained models of good style: Gell. ix. 16, 1, ‘refert plerasque sententias quas in declamandis controversiis lepide arguteque dictas putat.’
5. Dubius Sermo, in eight Books, published A.D. 67, towards the end of Nero’s reign, when purely technical subjects alone could be treated without danger to an author. Cf. N.H. praef. 28, ‘libellos quos de grammatica edidi.’
6. A fine Aufidii Bassi, in thirty-one Books. At what point Bassus’ history ended and Pliny’s began is not known: but the latter certainly dealt with the closing years of Nero’s reign (N.H. ii. 199, ‘anno Neronis principis supremo, sicut in rebus eius exposuimus’), as well as with the times of Vespasian and Titus (N.H. praef. 20, ‘Vos omnes, patrem te fratremque diximus opere iusto, temporum nostrorum historiam orsi a fine Aufidii Bassi’). The work was completed in A.D. 77, but not published till after the author’s death. His nephew says he wrote with scrupulous care: Ep. v. 8, 5, ‘historias et quidem religiosissime scripsit.’ The book was used by Tacitus (Ann. xiii. 20; xv. 53; Hist. iii. 28).
7. Naturae Historiae, in thirty-seven Books, is Pliny’s only extant work. As he speaks of Titus as ‘sexies consul,’ the date of its presentation to him was A.D. 77. Book i. consists of a dedicatory epistle to Titus and a table of contents. The body of the work is arranged as follows: Book ii., the universe and the elements; iii.-vi., geography of Europe, Asia, and Africa; vii., anthropology and human physiology; viii.-xi., zoology; xii.-xix., botany; xx.-xxvii., the use of vegetable substances in medicine; xxviii.-xxxii., the use of animal substances in medicine; xxxiii.-xxxvii., mineralogy applied to medicine and the fine arts.
This work, which was meant not for continuous perusal, but for consultation as a book of reference, contained twenty thousand facts; and its preparation involved the reading of about two thousand volumes by one hundred authors (see N.H. praef. 17). The extracts he had made from these sources Pliny bequeathed to his nephew in one hundred and sixty volumes. He makes a point of acknowledging his obligations to other writers (praef. 21, ‘in his voluminibus auctorum nomina praetexui, est enim benignum ... et plenum ingenui pudoris fateri per quos profeceris’); cf. the lists of authorities, Roman and foreign, prefixed to the work. Such devotion to natural science was unusual in men of Pliny’s class, and not generally appreciated; cf. xxii. 15, ‘Plerisque ultro etiam irrisui sumus ista commentantes atque frivoli operis arguimur.’ As a scientific writer Pliny fails because he is not an original investigator, and because he lacks the critical faculty. For his method of working see Plin. Ep. iii. 5.
Politically, Pliny recognizes the necessity of the empire, but his heroes are old Romans such as Cincinnatus and Cato. His Roman and Italian feeling is intense: cf. xxxvii. 201, ‘In toto orbe ... pulcherrima omnium est in rebusque merito principatum naturae obtinet Italia, rectrix parensque mundi altera.’
His view of life is gloomy (N.H. ii. 25, ‘nec quidquam miserius homine’), and through the Naturae Historiae there runs a monotonous strain of condemnation of the immorality of his day. He is uncertain as to divine providence, but considers the belief in it salutary, and he accepts portents (ii. 92). His tendency is, in the main, Stoic; he was probably acquainted with Paetus Thrasea, who corresponded with Pomponius.