Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/235

Rh PLINY 225 world, in giving which the author makes no mention of Strabo. Book vii. contains a physical treatise on man, his form, the laws of his birth, age, mental qualities, &c. Book viii. treats of the larger beasts, as elephants, lions, tigers, camels, descending to Book ix. includes marine animals of all kinds, fishes, shells, crustaceans, sponges, &c. Book x. is on birds, xi. on insects, the latter half being devoted to an anatomical description of animals generally. Book xii. is on trees ; xiii. on their products, fruit, gums, perfumes, &c. ; xiv. on the grape and the making of wine ; xv. on the olive, fig, apple, and other luscious fruits ; xvi. on forest trees, canes, and reeds, kinds of timber, and different ages of trees. Book xvii. treats chiefly of the culture of trees, their diseases, and the arts of pruning, manuring, training, &c. Book xviii. is on farming and cereal crops ; xix. on other kinds of produce, including horticulture ; xx. on the medicinal properties of plants ; xxi. on flowers, bees, honey, and on botanical distinctions as to leaves, thorns, and times of flowering. Book xxii. treats of all kinds of herbs used in medicine and in cookery ; xxiii. the medicinal properties of cultivated trees ; xxiv. the same of forest trees, and their useful products generally. (These two books are chiefly derived from Greek authorities, and include the names and properties of a vast number of species.) Books xxv. to xxvii. inclusive treat of the properties of plants, and these books also are chiefly from Greek sources, Cornelius C elsus being the principal Roman authority. Books xxviii. to xxx. discuss the medicinal properties residing in animals ; xxxi. and xxxii. those in fishes. These books are full of the most extraordinary and nonsensical superstitions, including discussions on magic in book xxx. Book xxxiii. is on the nature and use of the precious metals ; xxxiv. on the different kinds of bronze, on lead, iron, and the oxides generally. Book xxxv. is on the origin and practice of painting ; xxxvi. on the different kinds of stone and marble, includ ing lime, sand, and gypsum ; xxxvii. on precious stones. It will be observed that, though there is no scientific classifica tion in this long work, a kind of sequence, not altogether unphilo- sophical, is observed. The amount of matter and the number of subjects treated of in each book are always recorded at the end of the epitome (book i. ), just before the list of authors, in the formula, &quot; Summa : reset historic et observationes MDCYI.&quot; &c. ; but in the medical books, in place of res, &quot;subjects,&quot; medicinal, &quot;prescriptions,&quot; is used. By histories he means &quot;inquiries,&quot; or &quot;the results of inquiries,&quot; as distinguished from observationes, &quot; remarks. &quot; With all its faults, inevitable to the infant state of science, Pliny s work is an astounding monument of in dustry. It is believed to have been published about two years before his death. He wrote, besides several other treatises, 1 a history of the wars from the first in Germany, 2 in twenty books, and a continuation of the history of Aufidius Bassus down to his own times, in thirty-one books all now lost. He is said to have been a great student, an early riser, abstemious and temperate in his meals. 3 In his later days he appears to have grown somewhat unwieldy and asth matic, for Pliny the younger, in describing his uncle s death by suffocation from the fumes in the eruption of Vesuvius, 79 A.D., says that his breathing &quot;propter ampli- tudinem corporis gravior et sonantior erat.&quot; 4 Pliny s intimate friendship with Vespasian may be inferred from his custom of attending the morning levee ; he seems to have first known him in the German wars in the time of Claudius. Besides his published works, the elder Pliny left, as his nephew tells us, one hundred and sixty note-books of extracts (electorum commentaries clx.), written in a very small hand on both sides of the page. So valuable were these volumes considered that Pliny assured his nephew he could have sold them in Spain for 3500, even before the full number had been made up. He acted as procu- 1 Three books, in six volumes, were entitled &quot;Studiosus,&quot; and eight books bore the title &quot; Dubius Sermo. &quot; To this last he probably refers, Prxf. 28, &quot; audio Epicureos quoque parturire adversus libullos quos de grammatica edidi.&quot; 2 Belloruni Germanic viginti (librH, quibus omnia qua? cum Germauis gessimus bella collegit (Pliny, Ep. iii. 5, 4). A treatise on throwing the lance from horseback, &quot; De jaculatione equestri,&quot; is mentioned here as his first work, written when he was in command of a squadron of cavalry (prsefectus ake). 3 Pliny, Hp. iii. 5, 16 ; see ibid. 8-10. 4 Kpist. vi. 16, 13, rator in Spain in 71, and was recalled to Rome by the death of his brother-in-law Caius Csecilius, who by will appointed him guardian of the younger Pliny. At the time of his death, the elder Pliny had the command of the Roman fleet at Misenum. He fell a victim to his imprudent curiosity in advancing within the range of the thickly- falling ashes during the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Pliny s influence on the nomenclature and the popular ideas about common objects long continued to be very extensive, and survived till the dawn of the age of more exact science. The knowledge he gives us of the writings and opinions of so large a number of lost authors opens a view of the whole cycle of the science of the period. The best editions of the Natural History are those by Julius Sillig (Leipsic, 1831-36, in 5 vols. 12mo), and by Louis Janus (Teubner, Leipsic, 1854-59, in 6 vols.), which is virtually a revised reprint of it, the whole of the last volume being occupied with. copious and accurate indices of authors and subjects. These may be called critical editions ; two French editions with scientific com mentaries had preceded, by Hardouin (1685 and 1723). and by Panckoucke (1-829-33), in twenty volumes with a French transla tion. (F. A. P.) PLINY THE YOUNGER (Gl-c. 115 A.D.). Caius Csecilius Secundus, commonly called Pliny the Younger, was the nephew and heir of the elder Pliny, the naturalist. He was born 61 A.D. at Comum (Como) on the southern shore of Lake Larius in northern Italy, near to which, on the east side, stood the spacious and beautiful family villa. 5 He took the name of Caecilius from his father, who had married Plinia, the elder Pliny s sister. At ten years of age he was left to the care of Virginius Rufus, a distinguished man and thrice consul. 6 Pliny was a man of refined taste, highly accomplished, devoted to literature, kind and indulgent to his freedmen and his slaves, gentle and considerate in all his family relations, just in his dealings, munificent in the use of his wealth, humane and forgiving to all who had offended him. 7 By profession an advocate, and a pupil of the famous Quintilian (ii. 14), he was a frequent and very popular pleader at the courts of the centumviri held in the Julian basilica, as well as occasionally in the senate and in public prosecutions (vi. 29). His fame in centumviral trials, which were chiefly con cerned with will cases, is attested by Martial (x. 19, 17). whose epigram he quotes in lamenting the poet s death (iii. 21). But, though himself somewhat ambitious of praise as a pleader (for he seems to have regarded Cicero as his model in everything), he sternly reproved the arts of bribery and flattery which were commonly adopted by patrons to secure the applause of their clients. &quot; For half-a-crown a head,&quot; he complains, &quot;you may fill the benches with any number of shouters and bawlers of your praises.&quot; Fond as he was of eloquence, he seems to have given up legal practice from some feeling of disgust at these abuses, and to have devoted himself to the duties of the state-offices. He was appointed augur and prsefect of the treasury in the temple of Saturn, and rose in due course through the offices of quaestor, praetor, and tribune of the people, finally attaining to the consulship, 100 A.D. His inaugural address to the emperor Trajan, a long and finished but rather pedantic oration in Ciceronian 5 &quot; Quid agit Comum, tua3 mercque delicise ? &quot; he writes to Cam nius Rufus, Ep, i. 3. He had several country houses on this estate (plure s villa?, Ep. ix. 7). Two of these, his especial favourites, he playfully called &quot; Tragedy and Comedy,&quot; comparing the low and the lofty site to the soccus and the cothurnus of the actors. 6 Pliny speaks of him with great regard in ii. 1, S : &quot; Ille rnihi tutor relictus adfectum parentis exhibuit. &quot; 7 His motto was &quot; to pardon others as if one daily needed pardon oneself, and to abstain from sins as if one viewed sin as unpardonable,&quot; viii. 22. In Ep. 2 of the same book he finely says, &quot; Mihi egregium in primis videtur, ut foris ita domi, ut in magnis ita in parvis ut in alienis ita in suis, agitare justitiam.&quot; XIX. 29
 * nakes, crocodiles, and the smaller and domesticated animals.