Caius, a Roman writer on natural history and other subjects, was born A.D. 23, in the tenth year of Tiberius, and died August 25, A.D. 79, in the first year of Titus. His birth-place has been the subject of considerable discussion; but the weight of testimony is thought to incline in favour of Norum Comum, now Como, in Cisalpine Gaul, in preference to Verona or (as suggested by Hardouin) Rome. His earlier years were passed probably at his native place; but while a youth he was enabled, by the influence of his family, to remove to Rome, and attend the lectures of the grammarian Apion and other teachers of eminence. It was in his early life, probably, that he visited the provinces of Africa, Egypt, and Greece. In about his twenty-third year he served in Germany, under the legatus Pomponius Secundus, in command of a troop of cavalry. At this period he travelled over a great part of that country, visiting the sources of the Danube, the country of the Chauci (modern Oldenburg and Hanover), Belgic Gaul, and the shores of the German Ocean. It was in Germany, too, that he wrote his first work, a treatise, now lost, On the Use of the Javelin by Cavalry. In A.D. 52 he returned to Rome, and for a short time turned his attention to forensic pursuits,—a vocation in which he probably gained little or no distinction. On the death of Pomponius, who was equally celebrated as a general and as a poet, Pliny wrote his Life, in two books. During the earlier years of Nero's reign, he lived in retirement, and devoted the whole of his time probably to literary pursuits. It was at this period, or somewhat earlier, that he completed a History of the Wars in Germany, in twenty books, which he had commenced while in that country (in obedience, the younger Pliny says, to the injunctions of a vision), and which, like his Life of Pomponius Secundus, is no longer extant. His next composition was a voluminous work, entitled The Student, in three books, and which, like most of his other works, has perished. It purported to be a manual for the training of an orator from infancy to his entrance upon public life. In the latter part of Nero's reign he wrote a treatise, in eight books, of which some fragments still survive, On Ambiguities of Language,—a work which, he informs us (Hist. Nat., b. i.), made a great sensation among certain Stoics, logicians, and grammarians, but the doctrines of which they had not hitherto attempted to refute.

Towards the close of the same reign, Pliny was appointed imperial Procurator in Narar Spain, and, not improbably, at the same period was raised to equestrian rank. About A.D. 70 or 71 he returned to Rome, and, having been previously acquainted with the Emperor Vespasianus, was soon admitted into the number of his most intimate friends, and honoured with an appointment near his person, the nature of which is now unknown. During this reign, he completed his Continuation of the Roman History of Ausidius Bassus, in thirty-one books,—a work which he had previously commenced, but the publication of which, he says (Hist. Nat., b. i.), he had determined to postpone until after his decease. No portion of it, unfortunately, has survived. It was in A.D. 77, probably, that he published his most important work, and the only one that has come down to us, his Historia Naturalis. From a remark in b. xix., c. 19, it would appear that he contemplated writing another work,—an intention probably which he did not live to realize.

In A.D. 78 or 74 Pliny had been appointed Prefectus of the Roman fleet stationed at Misenum, on the western coast of Italy; and to this he owed, remotely, his singular death, the details of which we learn from a letter of his nephew, the younger Pliny, to Tacitus the historian (b. vi., Ep. 16). Being at Misenum, and having his attention drawn to a cloud of unusual appearance arising from Mount Vesuvius, Pliny ordered a light vessel to be got ready, and, taking his tablets with him, embarked. Amid showers of ashes and pumice, he made his way into the midst of the danger, observing and noting down every change in the appearance of the phenomenon. It being found impossible to land at Retina, a village near Herculaneum, and the pilot advising him to return to Misenum, "Fortune favours the bold" was his answer; and he gave orders to steer for Stabiae, in order to join Pomponianus there. On his arrival at Stabiae, where for the moment the danger was not so imminent, he found his friend on the point of setting sail. Pliny prevailed upon him, however, to forego his intention, and requested the servants to conduct him to the bath. He then took his place at table, and dined, to all appearance without the least apprehension of danger. After again encouraging his friends and soothing their fears, he retired to rest, and soon fell asleep. Pomponianus, however, and the others, who in the meantime had sat up, finding the peril becoming more and more imminent, ordered him to be aroused; which done, they betook themselves to the open fields, tying pillows upon their heads to protect themselves from the falling stones. The sea being too tempestuous to allow of their embarking, Pliny now lay down upon a sail. Alarmed afresh, however, by the nearer approach of the flames, and making an effort to rise, he fell to the ground and expired, suffocated by the vapours no doubt, his chest being naturally contracted and his lungs weak. It was this eruption also which overwhelmed Herculaneum and Pompeii.

Of Pliny's habits, an interesting account has been preserved by his nephew in a letter addressed to Macer (b. ii., Ep. 5); from which we learn that but few moments of his life were left unemployed in literary pursuits. In summer he was in the habit of sitting up to a late hour at his studies; while in winter he would set to work at one or two in the morning, and sometimes at midnight even. After waiting upon the Emperor before daybreak, and executing his commissions, it was his practice to return home and resume his studies. Taking an early meal, he would, in summer, recline for a few moments in the sun, some book being read to him, and he making extracts in the meanwhile. Indeed this was his constant practice, for it was a favourite maxim with him, that "There was no book so bad but that some good might be got out of it." He would then take a cold bath, and, after a slight refreshment of food and rest, continue his literary pursuits till the evening meal. During this repast as well, some book was usually read to him, he making comments from time to time. Such was his mode of life when at Rome; and in the country there was no relaxation from his application to study. When on a journey his secretary was always by his side, ready to take down what he might dictate. By this economy of his time he amassed 160 volumes of notes, closely written on both sides; and for a portion only of which, when in Spain, one Largius Licinius offered him 400,000 sesterces. Pliny died unmarried.

For an insight into Pliny's sentiments upon religion and philosophy, virtue and vice, men and manners, we must have recourse to his Natural History, as our only source of information; and here even, not unfrequently, we are precluded from coming to any satisfactory conclusion, owing to the contradictions and obscurities that, equally from the compilatory nature of the work, the curtness of his style, the corruptness of the text, and the unsettled state of his opinions, so frequently present themselves. We have every reason to believe, however, that he was a man of high moral principles, and a lover, so far as his light extended, of virtue for its own sake. Impressed with great and noble sentiments, expressing his horror of bloodshed, debauchery, and drunkenness, and detesting that falsehood, meanness, and profligacy which so fearfully characterized imperial Rome, he loses no opportunity—to the extent of prejudice even—of proclaiming himself a laudator temporis acti, of extolling the simplicity of the olden times, and of leading us to suppose that he looked upon the elder Cato as his ideal of perfection, and considered his precepts to be little short of oracular. His religious and philosophical opinions were evidently of an unsettled character. In common with Lucretius and the Epicureans, he denies the existence of a Providence and the immortality of the soul; while, on the other hand, he adopts the Pythagorean notion of the harmony of the spheres, and agrees with the Stoics in considering the universe, or Nature, to be identical with the Deity, and in the belief that the world will ultimately be destroyed by fire. Pliny, it is evident, was not a rigid adherent of any sect of philosophy; but we may feel assured that he was a decided pantheist, and least unfavourable perhaps, as a whole, to the tenets of Epicurus. He appears, however, to have taken but a gloomy view of human existence and the dealings of God with man; so much so, that did we not learn from other sources that he had experienced no want of success in life, was in affluent circumstances, and enjoyed ample means for gratifying his literary tastes and caprices, we should have concluded that he was an eminently disappointed man, and that hence arose the dissatisfaction, which he omits no opportunity of expressing, with the terms upon which life has been granted to us. At the very earliest moment that the plan of his work will admit of his expressing the opinion (b. vii., c. 1), "It is far from easy to determine," says he, "whether Nature has proved to man a kind parent or a merciless stepmother,"—a complaint which is immediately followed up by repinings at the sad lot of man,—"The only tearful animal," he says. Then, again (b. vii., c. 51), man's liability to disease is a blemish in the economy of Nature; and life is too short, and its tenure too uncertain. So sensitive is he upon the injustice of man being born to sorrow, that he expresses it as his conviction (b. vii., c. 41) that "no pleasure whatever can possibly compensate for the slightest grief." As life has not been granted on his own terms, he thinks it unworthy of his acceptance, and the sooner it is got rid of the better. Nature, in his opinion, has bestowed no greater blessing on man than a short life; sudden death he regards as a singular phenomenon, and as the supreme happiness of the human race; and the highest privilege that has been conferred upon us is the power that has been given to every one of putting an end to his own existence (b. xxviii., c. 2). "After burial," says he (b. vii., c. 66), "come the quiddities about the Manes (Manum ambagies). All men, after their last day, return to what they were before the first; and after death there is no more sensation left in the body or in the soul than there was before birth." The doctrines of the immortality of the soul, of transmigration, and of a place for departed spirits, find equally little favour with him.

The faults presented by his work, valuable as it is, are of two kinds,—the one, the natural result of his own unsettled opinions on most matters of a speculative nature; the other, the consequence of his determination to embrace every subject included in the "encyclopedia" of the Greeks (b. i.), his want of discrimination, his ignorance of many of the subjects upon which he treats, his imperfect acquaintance probably with the language of his originals, and his unconscious prepossession for all that is strange, startling, and marvellous. Prone to censure credulity in others; equally averse, as he professes to be, to superstition and to scepticism; and a believer, as he says, in omens, astrology, and magic,—there is nothing, it would appear, in some instances, that he is not ready, with a most astounding credulity, to believe; while, again, on other occasions, with an equally singular waywardness, he refuses to give credit where there is nothing in reality that ought in any way to stagger belief. Induced probably by the example of the elder Cato, his great prototype, he loses no opportunity of manifesting the strongest aversion to the Greeks, and brings repeated charges against them of viciousness, vanity, and lying; and yet to these same Greeks is he avowedly indebted for the larger and by far the more valuable part of his information upon most of the subjects of which he treats! A hater, too, of servility in others, he makes no scruple of falling in with the adulation of the day, whenever his subject leads him to mention his friend and patron the Emperor Vespasianus, and his sons Titus and Domitianus. Compiled, as his work is, from upwards of 2000 volumes, some errors might naturally be expected, and would be as readily forgiven; but so anxious is he for a large accumulation of facts, and those of as singular a nature as possible, that he inserts statements which a moment's consideration would have convinced the most credulous even must be destitute of all reasonable foundation. The result, too, of his own ignorance of many of his subjects is, that he is incapable of correcting the errors of those from whom he has borrowed, or of determining the relative value of the facts which he selects and of those which he omits. Much must have been left to his amanuenses, no doubt; and it is either to their carelessness and ignorance, or, what is equally probable, to his own imperfect knowledge of the language, that we must attribute his numerous incorrect translations from the Greek,—the works of Theophrastus in particular.

Pliny, in short, appears to have been actuated by a thirst for acquiring knowledge, from books, from oral information, and from personal observation, as ardent perhaps as that which influenced either Aristotle or our Lord Bacon, but without a particle of their genius, their powers of discernment, or their capacity for turning their acquisitions to practical account. The result is, that his Historia Naturalis cannot be viewed as a "Natural History" in our sense of the term, but as a vast compilation merely of asserted facts in meteorology, geography, zoology, botany, mineralogy, and therapeutics, and in the various arts more or less remotely connected with them. His work, however, is of inestimable value in many respects, and Cuvier, a man better qualified perhaps than any one else to give an opinion on the subject, while fully sensible of its imperfections, has awarded it a high rank among the most valuable productions of antiquity ("Biogr. Univers.", vol. xxxv.). "This great work," he says, "is one of the most precious monuments left to us by antiquity, and a proof of the astonishing learning of a warrior and a statesman. To appreciate with justice this vast and celebrated composition, we must consider the plan, the facts, and the style. The plan is immense: it is his object to write, not merely a Natural History in our present restricted sense of the term—not a treatise, more or less detailed, on animals, plants, and minerals; but a work which embraces astronomy, physics, geography, agriculture, commerce, medicine, and the fine arts, in addition to natural history properly so called; while at the same time he continually interweaves with his narrative information relative to man considered metaphysically, and the history of nations,—so much so, indeed, that in many respects this work may be called the Encyclopedia of its age. It was impossible that, in treating, however cursorily, of such a prodigious number of subjects, the writer should not have recorded a multitude of remarkable facts; which to us are the more valuable as he is the only author extant who mentions them. Unhappily, the manner in which he has collected and arranged them causes them to lose much of their value; from his mixture of truth and fable, and more especially from the difficulty, and in some cases the impossibility, of discovering exactly of what objects he is speaking. Pliny was not an observer, like Aristotle; still less was he a man of genius, capable, like that philosopher, of seizing the laws and relations according to which Nature has regulated her productions. In general, he is only a compiler, and, indeed, mostly a compiler who, having no idea himself of the subjects on which he collects the testimonies of others, cannot appreciate the truth of those testimonies, nor even always understand what they mean. A comparison of his extracts with the original authors still extant, and especially with Aristotle, shows us that he was far from selecting either what was most important or most exact. In general, he prefers whatever is singular and marvellous, or what may help him in establishing the contrasts in which he so much delights, or the reproaches he is so fond of uttering against Providence. It is true that he does not give the same degree of faith to everything that he mentions, but it is quite by chance that he believes or doubts; and it is by no means the most childish stories that always provoke his incredulity. But if Pliny possesses little merit as a critic and a naturalist, it is far otherwise with his talent as a writer, and the immense treasury which he opens to us of Latin terms and forms of expression; these, from the very abundance of the subjects upon which he treats, render his work one of the richest repositories of the Roman language. Wherever he finds it possible to give expression to general ideas or to philosophical views, his language assumes considerable energy and vivacity, and his thoughts present a certain novelty and boldness which greatly tend to relieve the dryness of his enumerations, and, with the majority of his readers, excuse the deficiencies of his scientific information. He is always grave and noble, and everywhere shows a love of justice and virtue, a horror of that cruelty and baseness of which he had such frightful examples before his eyes, and a contempt for that unbridled luxury Pliny, which in his time had so deeply corrupted the Roman people. For these great merits Pliny cannot be too highly praised; and, in spite of the faults which we cannot but recognize in him when viewed as a naturalist, we must nevertheless allow that he is one of the most meritorious of the Roman writers, and among the most worthy to be ranked in the number of the classics after the reign of Augustus."

The style of Pliny is often harsh, and always elliptical; so much so, that the brevity and conciseness which he seems more particularly to aim at not unfrequently degenerate into obscurity; relieved, however, by his general elevation of tone, his fondness for point and contrast, and touches of keen irony every now and then. With wit or genuine humour he seems to have had but little acquaintance, and we have but two or three faint traces of them throughout the work. Occasionally the context has the appearance of being little more than rough notes, hastily put together by himself, or left to the mercy of his scribes, and subjected to no revision before publication. This, combined with the corruptness of the text, renders it next to impossible, in some instances, to divine his meaning.

The following is a brief outline of the thirty-seven books into which the Historia Naturalis is divided:—The first contains the dedication to Titus, with a sketch of the plan proposed, and concludes with a summary of the contents of the other thirty-six, and a list of the authorities consulted in each. The second treats of the Deity, the universe, the earth, sun, moon, stars, and elements. In the next four books we have a geographical description (in most instances a bare recital of names) of the earth as known to the ancients; the sixth book, more particularly, being valuable for a detailed account of India, including Taprobane, the modern Ceylon. The seventh treats of man,—his organization, generation, and destiny; his virtues and vices, and his progress in the various arts and inventions. An account of beasts, fishes, birds, reptiles, and insects, with a sketch of human and comparative anatomy, forms the subject of the next four books. Botany is the main subject of the next sixteen books, which, though maritistically put together, are made to include a large amount of interesting information upon numerous subjects,—among them, perfumes, wines, oils, resins, fruits, trees, cabinet-woods, grafting, the culture of the vine and of the cereals, prognostics derived from various sources, flax, tissues, vegetables, garden-plants, chaplets, and chaplet-flowers; with an elaborate account, in books xxii.—xxviii., of the remedies derived from every portion of the vegetable world, and a description of the various diseases then known. In b. xxviii. he treats—and with much revolting detail—of the medicaments derived from the human body. In the next two books he describes the remedies derived from other living creatures, branching off into an account of the history of medicine and magic (which last he looks upon as an offshoot of the medical art), with some notices of the more current superstitions of the day. B. xxxi. and b. xxxii. are devoted to an account of medicinal waters, and the remedies derived from fish and other aquatic animals and productions. In b. xxxiii. and b. xxxiv. he gives a description of the various metals, with a large amount of miscellaneous information more or less remotely connected with them; his digressions embracing money, jewels, plate, bronzes, statues, and statuaries of all nations, with a correct table of their dates. B. xxxv. contains an account of mineral pigments and the art of painting, with copious notices of the more eminent painters, and of the various eras of the art. In b. xxxvi. he passes on to a description of stone and the other materials employed in building; the use of marble for the purposes of sculpture, the history of that art and of the more eminent sculptors and their works, the most remarkable buildings and works of art at Rome and elsewhere, concluding with a history of the invention and manufacture of glass. In b. xxxvii. he gives an account of gems, murrhine, amber, and precious stones; and concludes the work with a patriotic eulogium upon Italy, her productions, her fertility, her beauties, and her elevated rank among nations.

The earliest edition of the Historia Naturalis was published by J. De Spira, at Venice, 1469. The first edition of critical merit is that by Hardouin (Paris, 1685 and 1723). The most valuable critical edition is that by Siliig (Hamburg and Gotha, 1851–55, 6 vols. 8vo), the last six books being rendered additionally valuable by the new readings of a manuscript of the tenth or eleventh century, discovered at Bamberg, which has been admirably collated by M. Jan. In many passages previously looked upon as hopelessly corrupt, or else not at all suspected of being so, this manuscript supplies words and sentences which greatly tend to alter or elucidate the meaning; and by the aid of them Siliig has been enabled to rewrite these books in a great degree. Twenty-two lines have also been added, from this manuscript, at the end of the work; before the discovery of which, both Jan and Siliig had expressed it as their opinion that the proper termination was wanting; and even now, notwithstanding the comparative completeness of the restored text, Bernhardy (Grundriss d. Rom. Lit., p. 644, 2d ed.) is of opinion that there is still something wanting. From a perusal of these new readings, we may feel assured that the text of the earlier books is defective in the extreme; and much, no doubt, of the alleged obscurity of Pliny's style may be attributed to this cause. The best illustrated editions of the text are those published by Lemaire (Paris, 1827–33, 10 vols. 8vo), under various editors; and by Panckoucke (Paris, 1829–33, 20 vols. 8vo), with a French translation by Ajasson de Grandaigne, and notes by Cuvier, Fée, Parisot, and other learned men.

There are English translations of this work, by Philemon Holland (London, 1601, 2 vols. folio); and by Dr Bostock and H. T. Riley (London, 1855–57, 6 vols. 8vo), with copious illustrations of the text.

Plinius Cecilius Secundus, Caesius, commonly known as the "Younger Pliny," was the son of Caius Cecilius, a person of equestrian rank, and of Plinia, the sister of the elder Pliny. His native place was probably Norum Comum, now Como; though Verona has been suggested. He was born A.D. 61 or 62; for we learn, from a letter of his to Cornelius Tacitus (b. vi., Ep. 20), that he was in his eighteenth year at the decease of his uncle, in A.D. 79. The time of his death is not known, but it is thought to have been towards the close of the reign of Trajanus, who died A.D. 117. Losing his father in early life, he was adopted by his uncle, then in Spain; upon whose return to Rome, A.D. 70 or 71, he was, with his mother, received under his roof. His education was conducted under the supervision of his uncle and his guardian Verginius Rufus, a person of consular rank, and of whom (b. ii., Ep. 1) he speaks in terms of grateful remembrance. In his fourteenth year he wrote a Greek tragedy, of which he does not speak in very flattering terms in after life (b. vii., Ep. 4). At Rome, he studied eloquence under Quintilianus and Nicetes Sacerdos. With his mother, he was residing with the elder Pliny at Misenum at the period of the great eruption of Vesuvius, and his death. At the age of nineteen he appeared as an advocate in the Forum, and was frequently employed in a similar capacity in the court of the Centumviri; as also in prosecutions before the Roman senate. While young he served as military tribune in Syria, where he met with Euphrates, the Stoic philosopher, and Artemidorus. After his return to Rome, he was appointed Questor Caesaris, and was Praetor about A.D. 93. Towards the end of the reign of Domitianus, he drew upon himself the resentment of that emperor for his support of the cause of Helvidius, who was put to death. In A.D. 100 he was Pliny appointed Consul, upon which occasion he composed his Panegyric upon the Emperor Trajanus. In A.D. 103 he became Pro-prator of the province of Pontica. He filled other offices also; and it is inferred from his letters (b. iii., Ep. 20; b. iv., Ep. 25) that he attained senatorial rank. His latter years were probably spent in retirement in Italy, his constitution being weak and his health delicate. He was twice married; his first wife dying about A.D. 96, the following year he married Calpurnia, who was considerably younger than himself,—a highly accomplished woman, and a member of an illustrious family. He had no children by either wife, born alive.

His character may be inferred from his letters. Somewhat credulous and superstitious, he was evidently an amiable man,—frugal, temperate, and in general humane; a promoter of learning, and on terms of intimacy with most of the literary men of his day. Possessing several villas on the banks of the Lake of Como, he was in the enjoyment of affluence; and he spent his money liberally, for the benefit of others as well as the improvement of his estates. He has been accused, however, of being jealous of the reputation of some of his friends; and that he was somewhat vain of his own acquirements, there is reason to believe.

The only extant works of Pliny are his Panegyric upon Trajanus, and his Epistles, in ten books. Very different estimates have been put upon the former. By some scholars it has been styled a work of surpassing excellence, and a model of eloquence; while by others it is stigmatized as a fulsome composition, and of little merit. Indeed, we are bound to admit that, in point of flattery, it oversteps modern notions of propriety, and that its style is too studied and formal: its chief value probably consists in what little information it gives us about the author and his times. The first nine books of the Epistles are addressed to various persons, and furnish the chief materials for Pliny's Life, with much interesting information about his contemporaries. The tenth book contains his letters to Trajanus during his government in Asia Minor, together with the Emperor's answers; an interesting series, which, it has been suggested, though on insufficient grounds, was not the genuine production of Pliny. Be this as it may, the collection forms a valuable accession to ancient literature, the merits of which are well described by Erasmus.—"The letters of Pliny," he says, "are redolent of wit, elegant, and appropriate: in them we read nothing but what pertains to everyday life, and everything is purely Latin, clastic, and ably described."

The two letters descriptive of the death and literary habits of the elder Pliny, and those addressed to Trajanus, with the answers, form the most interesting portions of the work. From the time of Tertullian, peculiar interest has been attached by the Christian world to Pliny's name, from the testimony which he bears (b. x., Ep. 97) relative to the character and tenets of the early Christians of his day,—the followers, as he calls them, of "a perverse and extravagant superstition." The conduct of Pliny, who was otherwise a humane man, towards the Christians of Bithynia, seems to have been cruel and intolerant; and his object is to ask the Emperor's advice as to his future proceedings, more particularly with the view of putting down their secret meetings. The Emperor's answer (b. x., Ep. 98), advising him to be lenient, and not too searching in his inquiries, is tempered with a spirit of mercy and justice, which unfortunately has not at all times characterized professing Christians themselves in their differences upon religion.

The first edition of the Epistle is that of Naples, 1476, folio; and of the Panegyricus and Epistulae, that of Venice, 1485, 4to. The best edition of the entire works is that of Gierig (Leipsic, 1806, 2 vols. 8vo). The edition of the Epistolae by Cortius and Longolius (Amst., 1734, 4to) is highly commended. There is also a very elaborate Life of Pliny by Masson (Amst., 1709, 8vo). There are two English translations of the Epistolae,—one by Lord Orrery, the other by W. Melmoth; the latter probably the more meritorious of the two.