Pline the Old one

Pline Old the (in Latin Caius Plinius Secundus ) is an important author and Roman naturalist , author in particular of monumental a Encyclopédie entitled Natural history .

He was born in 23 after J. - C. with Novum Comum (current the Like) and died in 79 with Stabies (Latin Stabia), close to Pompéi, at the time of the eruption of the Vesuvius. He adopts his nephew who takes the name of Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus (Pline the Young person) in 79 after J. - C.

the Natural history , which counts 37 volumes, is the only work of Pline the Old one which arrived to us. This document was a long time the reference as regards scientific knowledge and techniques. Pline compiled the knowledge of its time on subjects as varied as the Natural science, the Astronomie, the Anthropologie, the Psychologie or the Métallurgie.

Biography

Its birthplace

Pline the Old one was born under the consulate from Caïus Asinius Pollion and Caïus Antistius Vetus of 23 from the Christian era (either the year of Rome 776). There is uncertainty on the place of its birth, placed by the ones in Vérone and others with Like (Novocomum). What makes believe that Pline is of Vérone, it is that manuscripts carry Plinius Veronensis indeed, and that Pline itself, in its foreword, calls of a military word Catulle its country ( conterraneus ); however Catulle was of Vérone. In favor of Like, one notices that Eusèbe de Césarée, in his Chronicle, joint in the name of Pline the epithet of Novocomensis; but Eusèbe and the posterior writers a long time confused Pline the author of the Natural history and Pline the Young person, his nephew, the author of the Letters and the Panegyric of Trajan. The most considerable argument in favor of Like, these are the inscriptions that one found in this city, inscriptions where the name of Pline often returns: they are not admittedly relative to our Pline, but at least they show that with As this name was common, and one draws from it the conclusion which our author was also of this city. Ultimately, this point does not appear likely of a total solution.

Its formation

Pline the Old one is member of the social class of the Roman knights ( eques ) by his mother, girl of the senator Gaius Caecilius de Novum Comum. Before 35 ( NR. h. , XXXVII, 81), his/her father takes it along to Rome, where he entrusts his education to one of his friends, the poet and general Publius Pomponius Secundus. Pline acquires there the taste to learn, which it preserves all its life. Two centuries after the death of the Gracques, the young man can admire some their manuscripts autographs in the library of his tutor. He devotes a biography later to them. Pline mentions the grammairiens and rhetoricians Remmius Palaemon and Arellius Fuscus in its Naturalis historia (XIV, 4; XXXIII, 152) and is undoubtedly their pupil. With Rome, he studies the Botanique with the Topiaire of Antonius Castor and sees old “the Arbre lotus” on the grounds which had belonged before to Crassus. He can also contemplate the vast structure built by Caligula (XXXVI, 3) and probably assists with the triumph of Claude I {{er}} on Great Britain in 44 (III, 119). Under the influence of Sénèque, it becomes student impassioned Philosophie and of Rhétorique and starts to exert the lawyer function.

Its military career

It is used under the orders as Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo in Germanie in 47, taking part in the Roman conquest of the Chauques, Germanic tribe of the North-western littoral and with the construction of the channel between the the Rhine and the Meuse. As a young commander of a body of cavalry ( praefectus alae ), it writes in its winter quarters a test on the art of launching the javelin to horse ( of jaculatione equestri ).

In Gaulle and Spain, he learns the significance from a certain number of Celtic words . He notes the sites associated with the Roman invasion of Germanic; on the spot of the victories of Drusus, he dreams that the winner him enjoigne to transmit his exploits to the posterity (Plin. Epp., III, 5,4). Its dream requires of him to report the history of all the wars between Romains and German. It accompanies probably Pomponius, friend of its father, in forwarding against the Chattes (50) and visits the Germanic one for the third time as a companion of the future emperor Titus Flavius (Praef. § 3).

Its research

Under Néron, he lives mainly in Rome. He mentions the chart of Arménie and the accesses of the Caspian Sea which was yielded to Rome by the personnel of Corbulo in 59 (VI, 40). He also assists with the construction of the Domus Aurea of Néron after the large fire of 64 (XXXVI, 111).

Meanwhile, it supplements the twenty books of its “History of the Germanic wars”, only reference book quoted in the first six books of the Annales of Tacite (I, 69). This work is probably one of the independent sources of information on the Germanic one until the writings of Tacit. At the beginning of the 5th century, Symmaque had a small hope to find a copy ( Epp. , XIV, 8).

It devotes much of its time to subjects relatively surer, like the Grammaire and the Rhétorique. Studiosus , a work detailed on rhetoric is followed of the eight books of Dubii sermonis (67).

With the service of the State

Under the reign of his friend Vespasien, it turns over to the service of the State like Procurateur in Gaulle Narbonnese (70) and in Hispanie Roman (73). He visits also the Gaulle Belgium (74). During its stay in Spain, it is familiarized with the Agriculture and the mines of the country, in addition to visiting Africa (VII, 37). On its return in Italy, it accepts a load at Vespasien, which consults it with the dawns before being occupied with its official occupations. At the end of its mandate, it devotes the essence of its time to its studies ( Pun. Epp. , III, 5,9).

It supplements a Histoire of its Time in 31 pounds, treating reign of Néron until that of Vespasien, which it wants to let appear only after its death ( NR. H. , Praef. 20). This work is quoted by Tacite ( Ann. , XIII, 20; XV, 53; Hist. , III, 29), and influences Suétone and Plutarque.

It finishes almost its great work Naturalis historia , a Encyclopédie in which Pline collects most of the knowledge of its time, work planned under the direction of Néron. Information which it collects for this purpose does not fill less than 160 volumes in the year 23, when Larcius Licinus, the legate Préteur of Hispania Tarraconensis , vainly tries to buy them for the equivalent of more than: 200000 £ (value estimated in 2002). It dedicates its work to Titus Flavius in 77.

The August 24th 79, at the time of the eruption of the Vesuvius which buries Pompéi and Herculanum, it is in Misène. Wanting to observe the phenomenon with nearest and wishing to carry help to some of his friends in difficulty on the beaches of the Bay of Naples, it leaves with its galères, crossing bay until Stabies (today Castellammare di Stabia) where it dies, probably choked, at 56 years.

The eruption was described by its nephew Pline the Young person whose name is retained in old Volcanologie: “eruption plinienne”.

The account of its last hours is reported in an interesting letter that Pline the Young address, 27 years after the facts, with Tacite ( Epp. , VI, 16). It also sends, with another correspondent, a talk on the writings and the lifestyle of his uncle (III, 5): It started to work well before the paddle… It did not read anything without making some of summary; he even said that there did not exist any book, if bad is there, which does not contain some value. With the country, only the hour of the bath exempted it to study. On a journey, when it was discharged from other obligations, it was devoted only to the study. In short, he regarded as wasted the time which was not devoted to the étude. The only fruit of its tireless labor which persists nowadays is its Naturalis Historia which was used as reference during many centuries by innumerable pupils.

Works

Pline the Young person in one of his letters quotes all its works.

I am very happy that the reading of the books of my uncle impassions you at the point to want to have them all and to claim the complete listing of it. I will fulfill the role of catalog and even I will indicate the order of their composition to you, because this knowledge does not displease either with curious about lettres.

the Art of launching the javelin to horse (in 1 book): it composed it with as much talent than care, when it was with the armies as commander of a wing of cavalerie.

Life of Pomponius Secundus (in 2 books): he was particularly liked by it; he wrote this work like discharging a debt towards the memory of sound ami.

Wars of Germanic (in 20 books): it told there all the wars which we supported against the German ones. He began them during his service into Germanic; a dream gave him the idea of it; during its sleep he saw upright in front of him the phantom of Drusus Néron, which, after having subjected most of Germanic, died there; he recommended to him to take care on his memory and requested it to save it of an abusive oubli.

the Man of letters (in 3 books, divided into 6 volumes because of their extent): it takes there the speaker with the cradle and the conduit with its perfection.

Difficulties of grammar (in 8 books): he wrote it during the last years of the reign of Néron, when all the kinds of a little free and a little serious studies had been made perilous by the servitude.

the Continuation of Aufidius Bassus (in 31 pounds).

the Natural history (in 37 pounds): extended work, erudite, almost as varied as nature itself.

Works of only one Pline arrived to us, his Natural history . It is not, strictly speaking, which in our modern language we would understand by a similar title. Here the plan of this book: the author starts by exposing concepts on the world, the ground, the sun, planets, and the remarkable properties of the elements. From there it passes to the geographical description of the known parts of the ground of old. After the geography comes what we would call the natural history, namely, history of the terrestrial animals, fish, the insects and the birds. The botanical part which follows is very considerable, more especially as Pline introduces many information on arts, such as the manufacture of the wine and oil, the culture of cereals, and various industrial applications. The finished botanical part, it returns on the animals to enumerate the remedies which they provide; finally it passes to the mineral substances, and there (what is one of the most interesting parts of its book) it makes at the same time the history of the processes of extraction of these substances, and that of painting and the sculpture at the old ones. It is seen that to tell the truth the work of Pline is a kind of encyclopedia.

Its principal interests

Philosophy

As much of cultivated people of the beginning of the Roman Empire, Pline is follower of the Stoïcisme. It is dependant with its nobler representing, Publius Clodius Thrasea Paetus and is subject to also the influence of Sénèque. This Stoical which is devoted to the study of the nature and whose morals teaches to him to be pleasant with the others, unceasingly seeks in its literary work to be beneficial and to inform its contemporaries ( Praef. 16, XXVIII, 2; XXIX, I).

It is also influenced by the epicureanism, the academism and reappearing it school pythagorician. But its vision of nature and the Gods remains primarily stoical. According to him, it is the weakness of the humanity which locks up the deity under human forms sullied with faults and defects (II, 148). The divinity is real: it is the heart of the world eternal, exempting his benevolence as well on ground as on the sun and the stars (II, 12 sqq., 154 sqq.). The existence of the Divine Providence is dubious (II, 19) but the belief in its existence and in the punishment of the misdeeds is salutary (II, 26); and rewards it for the virtue consists of rise with the divinity in those which resembled a god by making the good for humanity (II, 18,). It is bad to enquérir future and to force nature by having recourse to arts of the magic (II, 114; XXX, 3) but the importance of the wonders and of predict is not rejected (II, 92,199,232).

The vision that Pline has life is dark: he sees the human race plunged in the ruin and misery (II, 24; VII, 130). Against the luxury and moral corruption, it is devoted to so frequent declamations (as those of Sénèque) which they end up wearying the reader. Its rhetoric practically flowers against useful inventions (as the art of navigation) in waiting of the good sense and the taste (XIX, 6).

With the spirit of national pride of the Romain, it combines the admiration of the virtues which led the republic to its size (XVI, 14; XXVII, 3; XXXVII, 201). It does not elude the unfavourable historical facts in Rome (XXXIV, 139) and even if it honors the eminent members with the distinguished Roman houses, it is free undue partiality of Tite-Live for the Aristocratie. The agricultural classes and the old lords of the equestrian class (Cincinnatus, Curius Dentatus, Serranus and Caton Old the) are for him the pillars of the state and he deplores bitterly the decline of agriculture in Italy (XVIII, 21 and 35,). In the same way, for the History of the beginnings of Rome, he prefers to follow the pre-augustéens authors; however he sees the imperial capacity like essential to the government of the empire and he greets the salutaris exortus of Vespasien (XXXIII, 51).

Literature and science

At the end of its literary work, as an only Romain to have chosen like topic the entirety of the world of nature, he beseeches the blessing of the universal mother on all his work.

In literature, it allots the highest place to Homère and Cicéron (XVII, 37 sqq.) then in the second place Virgile. It was influenced by research of the king Juba II of Numidie and which it called “my Master”

He dedicates a deep interest with nature and the natural science, the student in a new way for this time in the Roman world. In spite of the little of regard which one carries for this kind of studies, he always endeavors to be with the service of his fellow-citizens (XXII, 15).

The scale of its work is vast and complete, an encyclopedia of all knowledge and arts as long as they are related to nature or that they draw their materials from them. To this end, he studies all that makes authority in each one of these subjects and does not fail to quote extracts of them. Its indices auctorum is, in certain cases, the authorities which he itself consulted (although that is not exhaustive) sometimes these names represent the principal authors on the subject who are known only of second hand. He frankly recognizes his obligations with all his predecessors in a sentence which deserves to be proverbial (Praef. 21,). It does not have on the other hand the temperament or the leisure to go to inquire itself.

It is obvious that somebody who spends all his time to read, write and examine extracts of his predecessors, does not have any more for one independent thought or for an experimental observation has patience of the natural phenomena. But it is its scientific curiosity for the phenomena of the eruption of the Vesuvius which brings its life of untiring study to its premature end and very critical of its defects of omission is disarmed by the frankness of its confession in its foreword: .

Its style betrays an influence of Sénèque. It aims less to clearness than with the epigram. It is full with Antithèse S, questions, exclamations, Trope S, Métaphore S, and others Maniérisme S of the age of money of the Roman literature (the first two centuries). The rhythmic and artistic form of the sentence is sacrificed to a passion for the Emphase which enchants by the carryforward of the argument towards the end. The structure of the sentence is also often Erratique and décousue. One notes also an excessive use of the Ablative absolute and sentences with the ablative are often put in affixing to express the opinion of the author on a statement which precedes immediately. For example: XXXV, 80.

About the middle of the 3rd century, a summary of the geographical parts of the work of Pline is carried out by Solinus and at the beginning of the 4th century, the medical passages are joined together in the Medicina Plinii . At the beginning of the 8th century, Bède Worthy the has a manuscript of all work. To the 9th century, Alcuin sends to Charlemagne a specimen of the first books (Epp. 103, Jaffé) and Dicuil joins together extracts of the pages of Pline for its Mensura orbis terrae (C, 825).

Work of Pline is held in great regard with the Middle Ages. The number of remaining manuscripts is approximately 200, but most interesting among oldest, that of Bamberg, contains only books xxxii to xxxvii. Robert de Cricklade, superior of St Frideswide in Oxford, addresses to the king Henry II a Defloratio , containing nine volumes of selections taken of one of the manuscripts of this class and which is, recently, recognized like sometimes giving the only valid indication of the initial text. Among the older manuscripts, the codex Vesontinus , formerly in Besancon (11th century), are separate in three parts, from now on in Rome, with Paris, and the last with Leiden (where there exists also a transcription of the total manuscript).

Art

It is interested especially in manufacture of papyrus (XIII, 68-38) and in the various kinds of dyeings of Pourpre (IX, 130), whereas its description of the song of the Rossignol is an elaborate example of the sometimes splendid character of its prose (XXIX, 81 sqq.)

The majority of the recent studies on Pline concentrate on the study of its fields of expertise, especially those presented in its chapters on the Histoire of art (books XXXIII to XXXVII) - the oldest talk on this subject having survived. Its sources are the treaties lost on the bronze sculpture and the painting of the sculptor Xénocrate of Athens () and the Roman scholar Varron ().

One can see statues of both Pline in sitting position, and covered dress of the scholars of the years 1500, in the main entrance of the cathedral of Like.

The anecdotes of Pline the Old one concerning the Greek artists inspire in Vasari the subjects frescos which still decorate the walls with its old house with Arezzo.

Gastronomy and wine

Pline is an inexhaustible mine of information on food and manners épulaire S of the Romans. " After Columelle, Pline is of all the Latin authors that to which we owe the most data on the various species of vines and known wines of old. Book XIV of the Natural history is devoted to this topic; it account 22 chapters which cover subject in its least details, since the various species of vines, the nature of the ground, the part which plays the climate, the wine in general, the various wines of Italy and overseas known since the most moved back times, until the enumeration of the most famous drunkards of Greece and of Rome. It also provides invaluable information on the odorous plants, the fruit trees, the corn, agriculture, the gardening, the medicinal plants, the meats, fish, game, the Apiculture, bakery, the vegetables.

Ornithology

Book X is devoted to the Oiseau X and opens on the Autruche. Pline regards it as the point of passage of the Mammifère S with the birds. It approaches very many species and is delayed particularly on the eagle S and other raptors like the sparrowhawk S.

Although it borrows many passages from Aristote, its work is lower to him, and the most fabulous accounts cohabit with more realistic facts.

Editions

• the first printed edition of the work of Pline appears in 1469 with hundred specimens.

• Naturalis Historiae opus, ab innumeris mendis has D. Johan. Caesaio Juliacen. , vindicatum… Apud Sanctam Ubiorum Coloniam Agrippinam, Eucharii Cervicorni, 1524. It is the text of Philippe Beroalde corrected by Jean Caesarius. This last claims to have corrected: 4000 passages. The Natural history of Pline is the deposit of all knowledge of Antiquity. It is the most complete table of human industry since the times most moved back until the first century of our era.
• Historiae Naturalis libri XXXVII. Quos recensuit and motis illustravit Gabriel Brottier, Paris, J. Barbou, 1779

See too

Related articles

• the Natural history .

External bonds

• Latin Text of the Natural history , put on line in text mode by

the university of Chicago.

• French Translation of Littré, put on line in text mode on the site of Philippe Remacle (not all books)

• Latin/French Bilingual Text (Littré) of the project Medic@ (inter-University library of medicine and odontology) (all books, but in mode scann JPEG)

• the virtual Museum of the wormwood: Although the plant of wormwood is mentioned several times in the Bible (in particular in the Revelation of Jean Saint, chapter 8, towards 11), the first detailed description of its use and its therapeutic virtues is in the great compendium of the knowledge of the Antiquity which of Pline the Old one is the Natural history.

• Pline the young person: The death of Pline Old the

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