Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Elder Read online

  The Complete Works of

  PLINY THE ELDER

  (AD 23-AD 79)

  Contents

  The Translations

  NATURAL HISTORY

  The Latin Text

  CONTENTS OF THE LATIN TEXT

  The Biographies

  THE LIFE OF PLINY by Suetonius

  INTRODUCTION TO PLINY THE ELDER by H. Rackham

  The Delphi Classics Catalogue

  © Delphi Classics 2015

  Version 1

  The Complete Works of

  GAIUS PLINIUS SECUNDUS

  ↓↓By Delphi Classics, 2015

  COPYRIGHT

  Complete Works of Pliny the Elder

  First published in the United Kingdom in 2015 by Delphi Classics.

  © Delphi Classics, 2015.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

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  United Kingdom

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  The Translations

  Como, Lombardy, Italy — Pliny the Elder’s birthplace

  NATURAL HISTORY

  Translated by John Bostock and Henry Thomas Riley, 1855

  One of the largest single works to have survived antiquity, Pliny’s Natural History is an early encyclopaedia, not only limited to what is today understood by the term natural history, but covering many different subjects, which the author himself defined as “the natural world or life”. Divided into 37 books, these subjects include astronomy, mathematics, geography, ethnography, anthropology, human physiology, zoology, botany, agriculture, horticulture, pharmacology, mining, mineralogy, sculpture, painting and precious stones. The Natural History became a model for later encyclopaedias and scholarly works as a result of its sheer breadth of subject matter, its referencing of original authors and its index method. Pliny dedicated the book to the emperor Titus, the son of his close friend, the emperor Vespasian, in the first year of Titus’s reign. It is the only work by Pliny to have survived and the last that he published. He began the Natural History in AD 77, and had not made a final revision at the time of his death during the 79 eruption of Vesuvius.

  Pliny combined his scholarly activities with a busy career as an imperial administrator for Vespasian and a majority of his writing was completed at night, as daytime hours were spent working for the emperor, which he explains in the dedicatory preface. As for the nocturnal hours spent writing, these were not regarded as loss of sleep, but as an addition to life: for, as he states, Vita vigilia est, “to be alive is to be watchful”, in a military metaphor of a sentry keeping watch in the night.

  Nature for Pliny was divine, a pantheistic concept inspired by the Stoic philosophy underlying much of his thought. But the deity in question was a goddess whose main purpose was to serve the human race: “nature, that is life” is human life in a natural landscape. After an initial survey of cosmology and geography, Pliny commences his treatment of animals with the human race, “for whose sake great Nature appears to have created all other things”. This teleological view of nature was common in antiquity and is crucial to the understanding of Pliny’s work. The components of nature are not only described in and for themselves, but also with a view to their role in human life. Pliny devotes a number of the books to plants, with a focus on their medicinal value; the books on minerals include descriptions of their uses in architecture, sculpture, painting and jewellery.

  Pliny’s work frequently reflects Rome’s imperial expansion, which brought new and exciting things to the capital: exotic eastern spices, strange animals to be put on display or herded into the arena, even the alleged phoenix sent to the emperor Claudius in AD 47 – although, as Pliny admits, this was generally acknowledged to be a sham. Pliny repeated Aristotle’s maxim that Africa was always producing something new. Nature’s variety and versatility were claimed to be infinite: “When I have observed nature she has always induced me to deem no statement about her incredible.” This led Pliny to recount rumours of strange peoples on the edges of the world. These monstrous races — the Cynocephali or Dog-Heads, the Sciapodae, whose single foot could act as a sunshade, the mouthless Astomi, who lived on scents – were not strictly new. They had been mentioned by the Greek historian Herodotus in the 5th century BC, but Pliny made them better known.

  Pliny studied the original authorities on each subject, taking great care to make excerpts from their pages. His indices auctorum sometimes list the authorities he actually consulted, though not exhaustively; in other cases, they cover the principal writers on the subject, whose names are borrowed second-hand for his immediate authorities. He acknowledges his obligations to his predecessors: “To own up to those who were the means of one’s own achievements.” In his preface, he claims to have stated 20,000 facts gathered from some 2,000 books and from 100 select authors. The extant lists of his authorities cover more than 400, including 146 Roman and 327 Greek and other sources of information. The lists generally follow the order of the subject matter of each book.

  Pliny’s writing style emulates Seneca, aiming less at clarity and vividness than at epigrammatic point. His writing contains many antitheses, questions, exclamations, tropes, metaphors and other mannerisms typical of the Latin Silver Age. His sentence structure is often loose and straggling, adopting the heavy use of the ablative absolute, while ablative phrases are often appended in a kind of vague “apposition” to express the author’s own opinion of an immediately previous statement.

  Pliny wrote the first ten books of his magnum opus in AD 77 and was engaged on revising the rest during the two remaining years of his life. The work was probably published with some revision by the author’s nephew Pliny the Younger, who, when telling the story of a tame dolphin and describing the floating islands of the Vadimonian Lake thirty years later, had apparently forgotten that both are to be found in his uncle’s work.

  The absence of the author’s final revision explains many errors, including why the text bears a disjointed order and corrupt state. There are approximately 200 extant manuscripts, but the best of the more ancient manuscripts, held at Bamberg State Library, contains only books XXXII–XXXVII. Natural History was one of the first classical manuscripts to be printed, at Venice in 1469 by Johann and Wendelin of Speyer.

  Vespasian (AD 9-79) was Roman Emperor from AD 69 to 79. He founded the Flavian dynasty that ruled the Empire for twenty-seven years. The emperor originally came from an equestrian family that rose into the senatorial rank under the Julio–Claudian emperors.

  The Emperor Titus (AD 39–81) was the son of Vespasian, Pliny’s good friend, and Domitilla the Elder. Pliny’s ‘Natural History’ was dedicated to Titus.

  CONTENTS

  BOOK I.

  BOOK II. AN ACCOUNT OF THE WORLD AND THE ELEMENTS.

  BOOK III. AN ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, NATIONS, SEAS, TOWNS, HAVENS, MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, DISTANCES, AND PEOPLES WHO NOW EXIST OR FORMERLY EXISTED.

  BOOK IV. AN ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, NATIONS, SEAS, TOWNS, HAVENS, MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, DISTANCES, AND PEOPLES WHO NOW EXIST OR FORMERLY EXISTED.

  BOOK V. AN ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, NATIONS, SEAS, TOWNS, HAVENS, MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, DISTANCES, AND PEOPLES WHO NOW EXIST OR FORMERLY EXISTED.

  BOOK VI. AN ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, NATIONS, SEAS, TOWNS, HAVENS, MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, DISTANCES, AND PEOPLES WHO NOW
EXIST, OR FORMERLY EXISTED.

  BOOK VII. MAN, HIS BIRTH, HIS ORGANIZATION, AND THE INVENTION OF THE ARTS.

  BOOK VIII. THE NATURE OF THE TERRESTRIAL ANIMALS.

  BOOK IX. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF FISHES.

  BOOK X. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS.

  BOOK XI. THE VARIOUS KINDS OF INSECTS.

  BOOK XII. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF TREES

  BOOK XIII. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF EXOTIC TREES, AND AN ACCOUNT OF UNGUENTS.

  BOOK XIV. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FRUIT TREES.

  BOOK XV. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FRUIT-TREES.

  BOOK XVI. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FOREST TREES.

  BOOK XVII. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE CULTIVATED TREES.

  BOOK XVIII. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF GRAIN.

  BOOK XIX. THE NATURE AND CULTIVATION OF FLAX, AND AN ACCOUNT OF VARIOUS GARDEN PLANTS.

  BOOK XX. REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE GARDEN PLANTS.

  BOOK XXI. AN ACCOUNT OF FLOWERS. AND THOSE USED FOR CHAPLETS MORE PARTICULARLY.

  BOOK XXII. THE PROPERTIES OF PLANTS AND FRUITS.

  BOOK XXIII. THE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE CULTIVATED TREES.

  BOOK XXIV. THE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE FOREST TREES.

  BOOK XXV. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF WILD PLANT

  BOOK XXVI. A CONTINUATION OF THE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM PLANTS, CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO PARTICULAR DISEASES.

  BOOK XXVII. A DESCRIPTION OF PLANTS, AND OF THE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THEM.

  BOOK XXVIII. REMEDIES DERIVED FROM LIVING CREATURES.

  BOOK XXIX. REMEDIES DERIVED FROM LIVING CREATURES.

  BOOK XXX. REMEDIES DERIEVED FROM LIVING CREATURES.

  BOOK XXXI. REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE AQUATIC PRODUCTION

  BOOK XXXII. REMEDIES DERIVED FROM AQUATIC ANIMALS.

  BOOK XXXIII. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF METALS.

  BOOK XXXIV. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF METALS.

  BOOK XXXV. AN ACCOUNT OF PAINTINGS AND COLOURS.

  BOOK XXXVI. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF STONES.

  BOOK XXXVII. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF PRECIOUS STONES.

  DETAILED TABLE OF CONTENTS

  The title page of the 1669 edition

  Laocoon and his Sons — a sculpture greatly admired by Pliny

  BOOK I.

  DEDICATION.

  C. PLINIUS SECUNDUS TO HIS FRIEND TITUS VESPASIAN.

  THIS treatise on Natural History, a novel work in Roman literature, which I have just completed, I have taken the liberty to dedicate to you, most gracious Emperor, an appellation peculiarly suitable to you, while, on account of his age, that of great is more appropriate to your Father; —

  “For still thou ne’er wouldst quite despise

  The trifles that I write;”

  if I may be allowed to shelter myself under the example of Catullus, my fellow-countryman, a military term, which you well understand. For he, as you know, when his napkins had been changed, expressed himself a little harshly, from his anxiety to show his friendship for his dear little Veranius and Fabius. At the same time this my importunity may effect, what you complained of my not having done in another too forward epistle of mine; it will put upon record, and let all the world know, with what kindness you exercise the imperial dignity. You, who have had the honour of a triumph, and of the censorship, have been six times consul, and have shared in the tribunate; and, what is still more honourable, whilst you held them in conjunction with your Father, you have presided over the Equestrian order, and been the Prefect of the Prætorians: all this you have done for the service of the Republic, and, at the same time, have regarded me as a fellow-soldier and a messmate. Nor has the extent of your prosperity produced any change in you, except that it has given you the power of doing good to the utmost of your wishes. And whilst all these circumstances increase the veneration which other persons feel for you, with respect to myself, they have made me so bold, as to wish to become more familiar. You must, therefore, place this to your own account, and blame yourself for any fault of this kind that I may commit.

  But, although I have laid aside my blushes, I have not gained my object; for you still awe me, and keep me at a distance, by the majesty of your understanding. In no one does the force of eloquence and of tribunitian oratory blaze out more powerfully! With what glowing language do you thunder forth the praises of your Father! How dearly do you love your Brother! How admirable is your talent for poetry! What a fertility of genius do you possess, so as to enable you to imitate your Brother! But who is there that is bold enough to form an estimate on these points, if he is to be judged by you, and, more especially, if you are challenged to do so? For the case of those who merely publish their works is very different from that of those who expressly dedicate them to you. In the former case I might say, Emperor! why do you read these things? They are written only for the common people, for farmers or mechanics, or for those who have nothing else to do; why do you trouble yourself with them? Indeed, when I undertook this work, I did not expect that you would sit in judgement upon me; I considered your situation much too elevated for you to descend to such an office. Besides, we possess the right of openly rejecting the opinion of men of learning. M. Tullius himself, whose genius is beyond all competition, uses this privilege; and, remarkable as it may appear, employs an advocate in his own defence:— “I do not write for very learned people; I do not wish my works to be read by Manius Persius, but by Junius Congus.” And if Lucilius, who first introduced the satirical style, applied such a remark to himself, and if Cicero thought proper to borrow it, and that more especially in his treatise “De Republica,” how much reason have I to do so, who have such a judge to defend myself against! And by this dedication I have deprived myself of the benefit of challenge; for it is a very different thing whether a person has a judge given him by lot, or whether he voluntarily selects one; and we always make more preparation for an invited guest, than for one that comes in unexpectedly.

  When the candidates for office, during the heat of the canvass, deposited the fine in the hands of Cato, that determined opposer of bribery, rejoicing as he did in his being rejected from what he considered to be foolish honours, they professed to do this out of respect to his integrity; the greatest glory which a man could attain. It was on this occasion that Cicero uttered the noble ejaculation, “How happy are you, Marcus Porcius, of whom no one dares to ask what is dishonourable!” When L. Scipio Asiaticus appealed to the tribunes, among whom was Gracchus, he expressed full confidence that he should obtain an acquittal, even from a judge who was his enemy. Hence it follows, that he who appoints his own judge must absolutely submit to the decision; this choice is therefore termed an appeal.

  I am well aware, that, placed as you are in the highest station, and gifted with the most splendid eloquence and the most accomplished mind, even those who come to pay their respects to you, do it with a kind of veneration: on this account I ought to be careful that what is dedicated to you should be worthy of you. But the country people, and, indeed, some whole nations offer milk to the Gods, and those who cannot procure frankincense substitute in its place salted cakes; for the Gods are not dissatisfied when they are worshiped by every one to the best of his ability. But my temerity will appear the greater by the consideration, that these volumes, which I dedicate to you, are of such inferior importance. For they do not admit of the display of genius, nor, indeed, is mine one of the highest order; they admit of no excursions, nor orations, nor discussions, nor of any wonderful adventures, nor any variety of transactions, nor, from the barrenness of the matter, of anything particularly pleasant in the narration, or agreeable to the reader. The na- ture of things, and life as it actually exists, are described in them; and often the lowest department of it; so that, in very many cases, I am obliged to use rude and foreign, or even barbarous terms, and these often require to be introduced by a kind of preface. And, besides this, my road is not a beaten track, nor one which the mind is much disposed to travel over. There is no one among us who has ever attempted it, nor is there any one individual
among the Greeks who has treated of all the topics. Most of us seek for nothing but amusement in our studies, while others are fond of subjects that are of excessive subtilty, and completely involved in obscurity. My object is to treat of all those things which the Greeks include in the Encyclopædia, which, however, are either not generally known or are rendered dubious from our ingenious conceits. And there are other matters which many writers have given so much in detail that we quite loathe them. It is, indeed, no easy task to give novelty to what is old, and authority to what is new; brightness to what is become tarnished, and light to what is obscure; to render what is slighted acceptable, and what is doubtful worthy of our confidence; to give to all a natural manner, and to each its peculiar nature. It is sufficiently honourable and glorious to have been willing even to make the attempt, although it should prove unsuccessful. And, indeed, I am of opinion, that the studies of those are more especially worthy of our regard, who, after having overcome all difficulties, prefer the useful office of assisting others to the mere gratification of giving pleasure; and this is what I have already done in some of my former works. I confess it surprises me, that T. Livius, so celebrated an author as he is, in one of the books of his history of the city from its origin, should begin with this remark, “I have now obtained a sufficient reputation, so that I might put an end to my work, did not my restless mind require to be supported by employment.” Certainly he ought to have composed this work, not for his own glory, but for that of the Roman name, and of the people who were the conquerors of all other nations. It would have been more meritorious to have persevered in his labours from his love of the work, than from the gratification which it afforded himself, and to have accomplished it, not for his own sake, but for that of the Roman people.