The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 1 (of 6)Pliny, the Elder
History
The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 1 (of 6)
Pliny, the Elder
Natural history -- Pre-Linnean works
a person asleep than of a corpse. In the meantime my mother and myself
were at Misenum—that however has nothing to do with the story, as it
was only your wish to know the details connected with his death. I
shall therefore draw to a conclusion. The only thing that I shall add
is the assurance that I have truthfully related all these facts, of
which I was either an eye-witness myself, or heard them at the time of
their occurrence, a period when they were most likely to be correctly
related. You of course will select such points as you may think the
most important. For it is one thing to write a letter, another to write
history;—one thing to write for a friend, another to write for the
public. Farewell.”
Of the mode of life pursued by Pliny, and of the rest of his works, an
equally interesting account has been preserved by his nephew, in an
Epistle addressed to Macer[9]. We cannot more appropriately conclude
than by presenting this Epistle to the reader:—“I am highly gratified
to find that you read the works of my uncle with such a degree of
attention as to feel a desire to possess them all, and that with this
view you inquire, What are their names? I will perform the duties of
an index then: and not content with that, will state in what order
they were written: for even that is a kind of information which is by
no means undesirable to those who are devoted to literary pursuits.
His first composition was a treatise ‘on the use of the Javelin by
Cavalry,’ in one Book. This he composed, with equal diligence and
ingenuity, while he was in command of a troop of horse. His second
work was the ‘Life of Q. Pomponius Secundus,’ in two Books, a person
by whom he had been particularly beloved.—These books he composed as
a tribute which was justly due to the memory of his deceased friend.
His next work was twenty Books on ‘the Wars in Germany,’ in which he
has compiled an account of all the wars in which we have been engaged
with the people of that country. This he had begun while serving in
Germany, having been recommended to do so in a dream. For in his sleep
he thought that the figure of Drusus Nero[10] stood by him—the same
Drusus, who after the most extensive conquests in that country, there
met his death. Commending his memory to Pliny’s attentive care, Drusus
conjured him to rescue it from the decaying effect of oblivion. Next
to these came his three books entitled ‘The Student’[11], divided,
on account of their great size, into six volumes. In these he has
given instructions for the training of the orator, from the cradle to
his entrance on public life. In the latter years of Nero’s reign, he
wrote eight books, ‘On Difficulties in the Latin Language[12];’ that
being a period at which every kind of study, in any way free-spoken
or even of elevated style, would have been rendered dangerous by the
tyranny that was exercised. His next work was his ‘Continuation of the
History of Aufidius Bassus,’ in thirty-one books; after which came
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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