INTRODUCTION 



when the famous eruption of Vesuvius took place on 

 August 23 and 24, overwhelming the little towns of 

 Herculaneum and Pompeii. Pliny as a man of science 

 sailed across the bay to obtain a nearer view ; he 

 landed at Stabiae, and there was killed by poisonous 

 fumes. The circumstances are recorded by his 

 nephew in a letter to Tacitus (Pliny, Epp. VI. xvi). 

 Vespasian had died and had been succeeded as 

 Princeps by his son Titus two months before. 



Pliny's earher writings were on subjects suggested 

 by his professional experiences, e.g., the use of the 

 javehn by cavalry, a history of the German wars, 

 the training of the orator. During his retirement he 

 produced Dubius Sermo, a treatise on grammar, and 

 later a continuation dowTi to his own time of the 

 history of Rome by Aufidius Bassus ; and lastly 

 Natural History, the largest and most important of 

 his works and the only one that has survived, although 

 his historical -vvritings on the defence of the German 

 frontier and on the events of his own period were 

 clearly works of value, the loss of which is much to be 

 regretted. The substance of both, however, is 

 doubtless largely incorporated in the writings of 

 Tacitus and Suetonius, the former indeed repeatedly 

 citing PHny as his authority both in Annals and in 

 Histories. 



Natural History is dedicated to Titus, who is 

 referred to in the Preface, § 3, as * sexies consul ' ; 

 this dates the completion of the work at a.d. 77, 

 two years before the author's death and the accession 

 of Titus. It is an encyclopaedia of astronomy, 

 meteorology, geography, mineralogy, zoology and 

 botany, i.e. a systematic account of all the material 

 objects that are not the product of man's manu- 



viii 



