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Gaius Plinius 23 - 79 (56)

No mortal man is wise at all moments.


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Gaius Plinius Secundus, better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman natural philosopher and historian, also a commander of the Roman Empire. He was born in Como, in 23 AD, the son of a Roman aristocrat and the daughter of a senator. His family moved to Rome so Gaius would obtain a better education, near the most famous Greek and Roman teachers. From an early age he was taught botany, rhetoric, philosophy from Seneca the younger and began to practice as a lawyer. At 23 he joined the army and served as an officer in Germany and in Syria until he was appointed governor of Spain. While serving his country, in various regions of the world, he also studied the natural environment and kept notes. During the reign of Nero, he lived away from military offices, mainly in Rome, where he finished his History of the German Wars, which, however, it was overshadowed by the work of Tacitus, so that by 400 AD no copy of it could be found. He also spent a lot of time writing about grammar and rhetoric. With his friend Emperor Vespasian in power, Pliny returned to active duty, in southern Gaul (70) and Spain (73). No matter in which office he was, he never stop writing. He completed a "History of Age" in 31 books, which probably extended from the period of Nero to the Vespasian, and left command to be published only after his death.

His greater work though was the "Natural History» (Naturalis Historia), an essential encyclopedia where Gaius recorded much of the knowledge that existed in his time. It consisted of 37 volumes and contained information which recorded after having read more than 2,000 books. The material was collected for this project filled almost 160 volumes. Fortunately, he cited a very detailed list of the main sources of the thousands of book titles and hundreds of author’s names that at least by name, have come down to us. He dedicated this work to the emperor Titus in 77, that same year he was appointed by Vespasian, as the commander of Roman fleet at Cape Miseno. On August 24, 79 occurred the great eruption of Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii. His strong desire to observe the phenomenon from close and also to rescue some people from the coast of the Gulf of Naples, led him to cross the bay until Stavies. His nephew, Pliny the Younger, wrote that he saw him collapsing “after inhaling poisonous gases from the volcano”, however Stavies abstained 16 kilometers from the crater and his companions didn’t hurt at all, so it is most likely that he died of other cause, myocardial infarction or stroke. The corpse of Pliny was found with no visible injuries two days later, when the smoke cloud from the explosion had begun to unravel. From letters of his nephew we learn about his life, he was starting to work every day before dawn and did not read anything without taking notes. He used to say that there was no book so bad as not to contain something of value. At home the only time he didn’t study was in the bathroom. Thus, despite his military and political obligations, he found time to write 102 volumes, of which, unfortunately, only 37 of the Natural History have survived up to the present day.