SCIENCE OF THE ROMAN PERIOD 



shall see, is it treated with greater respect by the other 

 writers of the period. 



TWO FAMOUS EXPOSITORS PLINY AND PTOLEMY 



While Strabo was pursuing his geographical studies 

 at Alexandria, a young man came to Rome who was 

 destined to make his name more widely known in 

 scientific annals than that of any other Latin writer 

 of antiquity. This man was Plinius Secundus, who, 

 to distinguish him from his nephew, a famous writer 

 in another field, is usually spoken of as Pliny the Elder. 

 There is a famous story to the effect that the great 

 Roman historian Livy on one occasion addressed a 

 casual associate in the amphitheatre at Rome, and on 

 learning that the stranger hailed from the outlying 

 Spanish province of the empire, remarked to him, 

 "Yet you have doubtless heard of my writings even 

 there." "Then," replied the stranger, "you must be 

 either Livy or Pliny." 



The anecdote illustrates the wide fame which the 

 Roman naturalist achieved in his own day. And the 

 records of the Middle Ages show that this popularity 

 did not abate in succeeding times. Indeed, the Natural 

 History of Pliny is one of the comparatively few bulky 

 writings of antiquity that the efforts of copyists have 

 preserved to us almost entire. It is, indeed, a remark- 

 able work and eminently typical of its time; but 

 its author was an industrious compiler, not a creative 

 genius. As a monument of industry it has seldom 

 been equalled, and in this regard it seems the more 

 remarkable inasmuch as Pliny was a practical man of 

 affairs who occupied most of his life as a soldier fight- 



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