MEMOIR OF PLINY. 



THE life of PLINY, like that of most men whose 

 days are spent in study and retirement, is meagre 

 of incident. Although he appears to have travelled 

 over a great part of Europe in the service of the 

 state ; to have visited Africa, and perhaps Egypt and 

 Palestine, yet no record of these adventures has been 

 preserved ; and had it not been for the occasional 

 notices that occur in his own writings, and especially 

 the information respecting his private habits and li- 

 terary labours, contained in the Epistles of his ne- 

 phew and namesake, Pliny the Younger, posterity 

 would have known nothing of the biography of this 

 great historian of Nature, except the era in which 

 he flourished, the works he produced, and the re- 

 markable circumstances attending his death. Of the 

 different accounts of this illustrious author which we 

 possess, the most ancient is that ascribed to Sueto- 

 nius, the most ample is given by Count Rezzonico 

 . VOL. ix. B 



