Pliny
Pliny names 5 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Pliny plin'i (23-79 A
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
plin'i (23-79 A. D.), a Roman naturalist. In the field of natural history Pliny is to Roman scholarship what Aristotle is to Greece. He held various official positions, chiefly military or executive. At the time of the great eruption of Mount Vesuvius he was commander of the Roman fleet in that vicinity, and lost his life in venturing too near. Many of his writings have been lost, but a very interesting treatise on natural history in thirty-seven books remains. It is a sort of encyclopedia of animals and plants, but gives bits of information on every conceivable topic from a test for addled eggs to the nature, cause, and cure of sickness. Farmers were told how to manage animals and how to rotate their crops. His writings give valuable information that would otherwise be lost, and they are interesting as an exhibit of what was known in his day; but Pliny is not altogether trustworthy. He related, for instance, that a dog will not attack a person who promptly sits down; that some people are possessed of an evil eye with the power of killing those on whom they fix their gaze in anger, and that a certain fish in the Mediterranean, though but six inches long, had the power to hold back a ship propelled by 300 oarsmen. All this seems nonsensical now, but it is no more so than a popular notion still held that if a person be bitten by a dog, and the dog should go mad years afterward, the person would go mad also. A nephew, called Pliny the Younger, left a volume of letters valuable for the light they throw on the private life of the Romans. See Vesuvius
Pliny THE YOUNGER (Caius Plinius Cæcilius Secundis)
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
THE YOUNGER (Caius Plinius Cæcilius Secundis), nephew of the preceding; born in Como A. D. 62. He studied under Quintilian, and in his 18th year began to plead in the forum. Soon after this he went as military tribune to Syria. He settled at Rome; was promoted to the consular dignity by by Trajan, in praise of whom he pronounced a famous oration, which is extant. He PLINY THE YOUNGER was afterward made proconsul of Bithynia, from whence he wrote to Trajan his curious and well-known account of the Christians, and their manner of worship. The "Epistles of Pliny" are agreeably written, and very instructive; they were translated into English by Lord Orrey and Mr. Melmoth. He died after 112. PLIOCENE or PLEIOCENE, the epithet applied by Sir Charles Lyell to the most modern of the three periods into which he divided the Tertiary. Its distinguished character is that the larger part of the fossil shells are of recent species. Lyell divides it into the Older and the Newer Pliocene. In the Older, the extinct species of shells form a large majority of the whole; in the Newer, the shells are almost all of living species. There is a rich Pliocene flora in Italy. Mr. Gaudin and the Marquis Strozzi enumerate pine, oak, evergreen oak, plum, plane, elder, fig, laurel, maple, walnut, birch, buckthorn, etc. In the British Pliocene or Crag, Etheridge enumerates 328 genera, and 1,103 species of animals; 30 genera, and 57 species are mammalia. Both Vesuvius and Etna were in operation. The climate, at first temperate was becoming severe, and the Newer Pliocene was contemporaneous with part of the GLACIAL PERIOD (q. v.).
Pliny THE ELDER (Caius Plinius Secundus)
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
THE ELDER (Caius Plinius Secundus), one of the most celebrated writers of ancient Rome; born in Verona or Como A. D. 23, served in the army of Germany, afterward became an advocate , and was ultimately procurater in Spain. As an inquirer into the works of nature PLINY THE ELDER he was indefatigable. Being at Misenum with a fleet, which he commanded, on the 24th of August, A. D., 79, his sister desired him to observe a remarkable cloud that had just appeared. Pliny discovering that it proceeded from Mount Vesuvius, ordered his galleys to sea, to assist the inhabitants on the coast , while he himself steered as near as possible to the foot of the mountain, which now sent forth vast quantities of burning rock and lava. Pliny and his companions landed at Stabiæ, but were soon obliged to leave the town for the fields. Pliny, who was very corpulent, fell down dead , suffocated probably by the noxious vapors. The eruption which caused his death was that in which the cities of
Pliny THE YOUNGER Herculaneum and Pompeii were destroyed
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
THE YOUNGER Herculaneum and Pompeii were destroyed, in the first year of the Emperor Titus. He wrote several works, which have perished, but his name and fame are preserved by his great work entitled "Natural History," in 37 books. It is a laborious compilation, on almost all branches of natural science, fine arts, inventions, and other subjects. It has been translated into most European languages, and even into Arabic, and has been republished a very great number of times.
Pliny THE ELDER attempt to cut his way through the in- through its center
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
THE ELDER attempt to cut his way through the in- through its center, this line and the vesting Russian army, he was compelled, provisions and ammunition running short, to capitulate with 42,000 men and 77 guns. The siege cost the Russians 55,000 men, the Rumanians 10,000 and the Turks 30,000. Pop. about 25,000 .
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The outlines both accounts give still stand: the Natural History in 37 books survives, and the Younger Pliny's letter to Trajan from Bithynia remains the earliest detailed pagan description of Christian worship. The firmest change is the date Collier's gives so confidently in 1921 — "the 24th of August, A. D. 79" — which is now widely doubted; a charcoal inscription uncovered at Pompeii in 2018 appears to be dated 17 October, supporting long-standing arguments from autumn fruit remains and warm clothing among the victims for an eruption later in the year. Aiton's 1910 aside that only a "popular notion" links a dog going mad years later to its earlier bite has itself dated: rabies is now known to be a virus whose incubation in humans can run for months, though Pasteur's vaccine was already twenty-five years old when that was written. Where Pliny the Elder was long treated chiefly as an unreliable compiler, scholars now read him more sympathetically, as evidence for how Romans organised knowledge rather than as a failed scientist.
Written for this edition, 2026.