Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder wrote the first encyclopaedia and died investigating the eruption of Vesuvius. Born at Como around AD 23 into a wealthy equestrian family, he served as a cavalry officer in Germany, wrote a history of the German wars and a manual on throwing the javelin from horseback, and practised law. He kept out of public life under Nero and returned to service under Vespasian, whom he had known in Germany, holding a series of procuratorships in Gaul, Africa and Spain and finally command of the fleet at Misenum. His nephew records that he worked constantly: he read or was read to at meals, in the bath and while travelling by litter, kept a secretary at his side with notebooks, and slept very little. He left 160 volumes of notes written in a minute hand. The Natural History, published around AD 77, is thirty-seven books covering astronomy, geography, ethnography, zoology, botany, agriculture, medicine, mineralogy, painting and precious stones. He cites some four hundred authors and claims twenty thousand facts. It includes accurate observation, folk remedies, and material that is plainly wrong, and it is the principal source for what the Romans knew about the natural world — and for their art history. On 24 August AD 79 he was at Misenum when Vesuvius erupted. He ordered ships launched, partly to observe and partly to rescue people trapped on the shore, crossed the bay, dictated notes on the phenomenon, and reassured his hosts by bathing and dining. He collapsed on the beach at Stabiae, probably from the fumes.
- Lived: 23 CE – 79 CE
- Nationality: Roman
- Roles: admiral, scholar, naturalist, writer
