Portions of this entry contributed by Michel Barran

Gaius Plinius Cecilius Secundus, known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman scholar, encyclopedist, and nationalist who was born in Novum Comum in Gallia Cisalpine (today Como, Italy). He completed his studies in Rome where he received education in literature, oratory, and law, as well as military training. At the age of 23, he began a military career by serving in Germany under Pomponius Secundus, rising the rank of cavalry commander. Twelve years later, he returned to Rome. Legal advocate during the reign of Nero (died in 68) he gained favor under Vespasian and assumed various official positions : he served as a procurator in Gaul, Africa and Spain, where he gained a reputation for integrity. He also served on the imperial council for both Vespasian and Titus.

Despite his active public life, Pliny the Elder still found time to write enormous amounts of material. He was the author of at least 75 books, not to mention another 160 volumes of unpublished notebooks. His books included volumes on cavalry tactics, biography, a history of Rome, a study of the Roman campaigns in Germany (twenty books), grammar, rhetoric, contemporary history (thirty-one books), and his most famous work, his one surviving book, Historia Naturalis (Natural History), published in A.D. 77. Natural History consists of thirty-seven books including all that the Romans knew about the natural world in the fields of cosmology, astronomy, geography, zoology, botany, mineralogy, medicine, metallurgy, and agriculture. The unifying thread of this work was anthropocentrism.

A novel feature of the Natural History was the care taken by Pliny in naming his sources. Book 1 consists of an index of topics and authorities for each of the succeeding thirty-six books. In it, he cited nearly four thousand authors. Book 2 deals with cosmography, meteorology and terrestrial phenomena. It is followed by books 3-6 (geography), 7 (man), 8-11 (animals), 12-17 (botany), 18-19 (agriculture), 20-27 (materia medica from botanical sources), 28-32 (materia medica from animal sources) and 33-37 (metals, stones and their uses in medicine and architecture).

With the decline of the ancient world and the loss of the Greek texts on which Pliny had so heavily depended, the Natural History became a substitute for a general education in the European Middle Ages. Pliny's works were widely plagiarized by later encyclopedists, despite the fact that his compilation was rather undiscriminating and tended to emphasize the curious. The Natural History, despite its flaws, remains a key source on Roman life.

Much information covering Pliny the Elder came from his nephew and adopted son, the writer Pliny the Younger (62-113), including the story of his death: Pliny's last assignment was that of commander of the fleet in the Bay of Naples. Learning of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius (which was responsible for the burying of Pompeii), Pliny went ashore to ascertain the cause and to reassure the terrified citizens. He was overcome by the fumes resulting from the volcanic activity, and died in August, A.D. 79.

Additional biographies: Greek and Roman Science and Technology