For the author's attacks on superstition, cf. ll. 91-3, 'Debita carminibus libertas ista; sed omnis in vero mihi cura: canam quo fervida motu aestuet Aetna novosque rapax sibi congerat ignes.' A version of the _Phaenomena_ of Aratus is extant, the author of which is called in the MSS. 'Claudius Caesar,' or 'Germanicus.' He is generally identified with Germanicus, the adopted son of Tiberius (so Jerome and Lactantius), though in modern times the poem has been ascribed to Domitian, who had the title of 'Germanicus' from A.D. 84. There are also fragments of _Prognostica_, which are independent of Aratus. PLINY THE ELDER. (1) LIFE. There is a very brief life of Pliny by Suetonius, but most of our information about him is derived from his own writings and the letters of his nephew (Plin. _Ep._ iii. 5; v. 8; vi. 16; vi. 20). C. Plinius Secundus was born A.D. 23 or 24, for at the time of his death in A.D. 79 he was in his fifty-sixth year (Plin. _Ep._ iii. 5, 7, 'decessisse anno sexto et quinquagesimo'). His birthplace was Comum in Cisalpine Gaul, according to Sueton. _vit. Plin._ In an anonymous Life he is styled 'Veronensis,' probably on account of the phrase in _N.H._ praef. 1, 'Catullum conterraneum meum,' where, however, _terra_ means Gallia, the province, not the city. Pliny was the son of an _eques_, and had a sister married to L. Caecilius of Novum Comum (see p. 139). He came to Rome not later than A.D. 35 (_N.H._ xxxvii. 81, 'Servilii Noniani quem consulem vidimus'), and was trained in poetry and literature, probably by P. Pomponius Secundus[82]; his instructors in rhetoric are not known, but he mentions as rhetoricians Remmius Palaemon (xiv. 49) and Arellius Fuscus (xxxiii. 152). In botany he learned much from Antonius Castor (xxv. 9). At the beginning of the reign of Claudius, Pliny was an eye-witness of the building operations at the harbour of Ostia, A.D. 42 (ix. 14): in 44 he practised in the law courts. Having decided on a military career, he would begin, according to the regulation of Claudius (Sueton. _Claud._ 25), with the command of a cohort of infantry. He was next _praefectus alae_ (Plin. _Ep._ iii. 5, 3) under Corbulo, who was _legatus_ of Germania Inferior, A.D. 47, in his campaign against the Chauci: cf. _N.H._ xvi. 2, 'Sunt vero in septemtrione visae nobis Chaucorum [gentes]'; and in A.D. 50 fought under Pomponius against the Chatti. His 'castrense contubernium' with Titus (born A.D. 41) was probably in 55 or 56, when he was in the army of Pompeius Paulinus: cf. xxxiii. 143, 'Pompeium Paulinum XII pondo argenti habuisse apud exercitum ferocissimis gentibus oppositum scimus.' Personal knowledge of Germany appears in several passages of the _N.H._, e.g. xii. 98, 'extremo in margine imperii, qua Rhenus adluit, vidi'; xxii. 8, 'quem morem etiam nunc durare apud Germanos scio.'