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 of Italy, and settled in Rome at an early period of his life. At the beginning of his career he served for some time in the army in Germany, and upon his return to Rome practiced as a pleader. Subsequently he held various official positions which gave him the opportunity of visiting other countries of Europe. He perished at Stabiae (near the modern Castellamare, on the Gulf of Naples) in 79 A. D., at the age of fifty-six years, while watching the eruption of Vesuvius, which overwhelmed Herculaneum and Pompeii. He was in command of the Roman fleet at the time.

Pliny was indefatigable as a writer and as a gatherer of knowledge of all sorts, and he and Celsus are well named the Encyclopaedists. He is said to have written twenty books on the war with the Germans, an unknown number on rhetoric and grammar, and thirty-seven on natural history. The latter books alone have come down to our time. Pliny's nephew, who is known as Pliny the Younger, and who edited the great work of his uncle on natural history, furnishes us, in a letter addressed to the historian Tacitus, with some interesting details regarding the elder Pliny's manner of life. It appears from this account, that the latter read almost incessantly. During his meals and while he was taking his bath, an attendant read aloud to him. He also took his books with him on his travels and was always accompanied by a person who could write rapidly under dictation. He continued this practice upon his return to Rome and dictated to his amanuensis even while he was being carried about in a sedan chair. Books 20-27 of his great work on natural history are devoted to the subject of remedial agents belonging to the vegetable kingdom, books 28-32 deal with those which belong to the animal kingdom, and books 33-37 treat of mineralogy with special reference to medicine, painting and sculpture. Pliny was a compiler and not an original investigator. Some idea of the popularity of his treatise on natural history may be gathered from the fact that it was the second book to be printed after the invention of printing, the Bible being the first. Another interesting fact connected with Pliny's treatise is mentioned by Neuburger, viz., that the