MEMOIR OF PLINY. 19 



as her own. As the two places, however, are not 

 very distant from each other, and as it is certain that 

 the Plinian family were settled at Comum, where 

 they possessed large property, and where various in- 

 scriptions have heen found relative to several of its 

 members, the presumption is, notwithstanding the 

 appellation bestowed on Catullus, that his birthplace 

 was the usual residence of his ancestors. It was at 

 Comum, too, that his nephew, the Younger Pliny, 

 was born, so well known by his Letters. 



Without farther pursuing this controversy, which 

 has elicited much erudite disquisition, we shall proceed 

 to state that at an early age the Naturalist was sent 

 to Rome, where he attended the lectures of Appion. 

 By this time the Emperor Tiberius had withdrawn 

 to Caprese, for the more secure enjoyment of his 

 luxuries and unlawful pleasures ; and it does not ap- 

 pear that Pliny ever saw him. But it has been sup- 

 posed that he assisted occasionally at the Court of 

 Caligula ; and we have his own authority that he had 

 seen the Empress Lollia Paulina, of whose extrava- 

 gance in jewellery, he gives so amusing an account, 

 that we shall present it in the quaint style of Dr 

 Philemon Holland, the only translation (to the shame 

 of British literature be it spoken) which our language 

 possesses. The passage, moreover, will serve to give 

 us some idea of the female fashions of Rome at that 

 period, and the costly passion of the ladies for foreign 

 ornaments. " Our dames take a great pride in 

 brauerie, to haue pearles not only hung dangling at 



