Pliny the Elder’s Natural History
Pliny the Elder dedicated to Titus his Natural History — thirty-seven books on the heavens, lands and peoples, animals, plants, medicines, metals and art — one of the largest works to survive from the Roman Empire and the model for later encyclopedias.
- Date
- 77year known
- Place
- Rometoday: Rome, Italy · Western and Central Europe
- Participants
- Pliny the Elder, Titus, Vespasian
- Threads
- Europe in the Roman age (1st–5th c.)
- Also known as
- Naturalis Historia; Historia Naturalis; Естествознание
Pliny, an army and naval commander, historian and imperial procurator and a friend of the emperor Vespasian, compiled the work in the hours he could spare from his duties, mostly at night. By his own account it brought together some 20,000 facts from about 2,000 books by a hundred principal authors, and its first book lists the contents and the sources of all the others. Pliny released the first ten books in 77 — the dedication to Titus, “six times consul”, points to that year — and was still revising the rest when he died in the eruption of Vesuvius in 79; the remaining books were published by his nephew Pliny the Younger.
Moving from the heavens down to the stones of the earth, the Natural History preserves a wealth of information — on Roman mining methods and water mills — together with the only surviving ancient account of the history of art, alongside stories of fabulous peoples at the edges of the world. Excerpted by Solinus and used by Isidore of Seville and Bede, it remained one of the chief sources of learning throughout the Middle Ages, and in 1469 it became one of the first classical texts to be printed, in Venice.
Connections
Related events
- Reign of Juba II in Mauretania25 BC – between 23 and 24 · AfricaPliny often cites the writings of Juba II
- Dioscorides’ De materia medicabetween 50 and 70 · Balkans and Anatoliatwo contemporary compendia of knowledge about plants and medicines; some passages coincide almost word for word, probably from common sources
- Nero’s expedition to the sources of the Nilebetween 61 and 62 · AfricaPliny the Elder is one of the two sources on the expedition
- Eruption of Vesuviusbetween 24 August and 1 November 79 · Western and Central EuropePliny died in the eruption while still revising the work
Same participants
- Siege of JerusalemApril 70 – 8 September 70 · Middle East and Egyptvia Titus
- Inauguration of the Colosseum80 · Western and Central Europevia Vespasian
Same place
- Great Fire of Rome19 July 64 – c. 27 July 64 · Western and Central Europe
- Martyrdom of Peter and Paul in Romebetween 64 and 68 · Western and Central Europe
- Nero crowns Tiridates I in Rome66 · Western and Central Europe
- Antonine Plague165–180 · Western and Central Europe
- Constitutio Antoniniana212 · Western and Central Europe
- Crisis of the Third CenturyMarch 235 – 20 November 284 · Western and Central Europe
- Aurelian Walls271–275 · Western and Central Europe
- Battle of the Milvian Bridge28 October 312 · Western and Central Europe
- Sack of Rome by the Visigoths24–27 August 410 · Western and Central Europe
- Vandal sack of Rome2–16 June 455 · Western and Central Europe
- Gothic War (535–554)535–554 · Western and Central Europe
- Coronation of Charlemagne25 December 800 · Western and Central Europe
- Imperial coronation of Otto I2 February 962 · Western and Central Europe
- Fourth Council of the Lateran11–30 November 1215 · Western and Central Europe
- “Summa Theologica” by Thomas Aquinas1265–1274 · Western and Central Europe
- Sack of Rome (1527)6 May 1527 · Western and Central Europe
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Eastern Europe
- Zarubintsy culturec. 200 BC – c. 200
Middle East and Egypt
- Hero of Alexandria’s aeolipilebetween 50 and 100
- Reign of Vologases I51–78
- Periplus of the Erythraean Sea40s … 70s
Africa
- Adulis and Aksum in the Periplus40s … 70s
Central and Northern Asia
- Ban Chao’s campaigns in the Tarim Basin73–102
- The burials of Tillya Tepe (the Bactrian Gold)between 16 and 100
South Asia
- Heyday of Indo-Roman trade: Muziris and Arikameduc. 30 BC – c. 250
- Gandharan art: the first images of the Buddhabetween 30 BC and AD 100
East Asia
- The Book of Han is writtenc. 54 – 111
Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Founding of Funan: Kaundinya and Queen Liuyebetween 1 and 100
- Óc Eo, the port of Funanbetween 1 and 100 – between 601 and 700
- Sa Huỳnh culturec. 1000 BC – c. 200
North America
- Hopewell traditionbetween 200 and 100 BC – c. 500
- Late Basketmaker II erac. 50 – c. 500
Latin America
- Monte Albán II: the Zapotec state expandsc. 100 BC – c. 200
- Rise of Teotihuacanc. 1 – c. 250
- Nazca culture and the Nazca Linesbetween 200 and 100 BC – between 500 and 800
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Natural History (Pliny)
- Wikipedia (English): Pliny the Elder
- Wikipedia (Russian): Естественная история (Плиний)
- Wikipedia (Russian): Плиний Старший
- Healy J. F. Pliny the Elder on Science and Technology. — Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
- Doody A. Pliny’s Encyclopedia: The Reception of the Natural History. — Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
- Wikidata: Q442