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Naturalis Historia



 
 
Naturalis Historia (Latin for "Natural History") is an encyclopedia
Encyclopedia

An encyclopedia is a comprehensive written compendium that holds information from either all branches of knowledge or a particular branch of knowledge....
 written circa
Circa

Circa means "in approximately", generally referring to a year. It is widely used in genealogy and historical writing, when the dates of events are approximately known....
 AD 77 by Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient author, naturalist or natural philosopher and naval and military commander of some importance who wrote Natural History ....
. It is one of the largest single works to have survived from the Roman empire
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
 to the modern day, and was one of the first reference works developed in the Classical period to examine natural and man-made objects, both organic and mineral, as well as many natural phenomena.






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Naturalishistoria
Naturalis Historia (Latin for "Natural History") is an encyclopedia
Encyclopedia

An encyclopedia is a comprehensive written compendium that holds information from either all branches of knowledge or a particular branch of knowledge....
 written circa
Circa

Circa means "in approximately", generally referring to a year. It is widely used in genealogy and historical writing, when the dates of events are approximately known....
 AD 77 by Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient author, naturalist or natural philosopher and naval and military commander of some importance who wrote Natural History ....
. It is one of the largest single works to have survived from the Roman empire
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
 to the modern day, and was one of the first reference works developed in the Classical period to examine natural and man-made objects, both organic and mineral, as well as many natural phenomena. It became a model for all later encyclopedias in terms of the breadth of subject matter examined, the need to reference original authors, and a comprehensive index
Index

An index is a system used to make finding information easier.Index may also refer to:* Index , a detailed list, usually arranged alphabetically, of the specific information in a publication...
 list of the contents. The work was dedicated to Titus
Titus

Titus Flavius Vespasianus, commonly known as Titus , was a Roman Emperor who briefly reigned from 79 until his death in 81. Titus was the second emperor of the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Roman Empire between 69 and 96, encompassing the reigns of Titus's father Vespasian , Titus himself and his younger brother Domitian ....
. It is the only work by Pliny to have survived.

Table of contents

In its present form the Natural History consists of 37 books,

  • I: Preface and tables of contents, lists of authorities,
  • II: mathematical and physical description of the world;
  • III-VI: geography
    Geography

    Geography is the study of the Earth and its lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth"....
     and ethnography
    Ethnography

    Ethnography is a genre of writing that uses fieldwork to provide a descriptive study of human societies. Ethnography presents the results of a holism research method founded on the idea that a system's properties cannot necessarily be accurately understood independently of each other....
    ;
  • VII: anthropology
    Anthropology

    Anthropology is the study of humans and humanity in its totality. Anthropology has origins in the natural sciences, and the humanities. In Great Britain it was originally divided into physical anthropology and cultural anthropology, which itself was divided into archaeology, technology, ethnology and sociology ....
     and human physiology
    Physiology

    Physiology is the study of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of living organisms. Physiology has traditionally been divided between plant physiology and animal and all living things physiology but the principles of physiology are universal, no matter what particular organism is being studied....
    ;
  • VIII-XI: zoology
    Zoology

    Zoology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of animals. The most common pronunciation of "zoology" is ; however, an alternative pronunciation is ....
    ;
  • XII-XXVII: botany
    Botany

    Botany, plant science, phytology, or plant biology is a branch of biology and is the Scientific method of plant life and development....
    , including agriculture
    Agriculture

    Agriculture refers to the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of civilization, with the animal husbandry of domestication animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more Population density and Social stratification societies....
    , horticulture
    Horticulture

    'Horticulture' is the industry and science of plant cultivation. Horticulturists work and conduct research in the disciplines of plant propagation and cultivation, Crop , plant breeding and genetic engineering, plant biochemistry, and plant physiology....
     and pharmacology
    Pharmacology

    Pharmacology is the study of drug action. More specifically it is the study of the interactions that occur between a living organism and exogenous chemicals that alter normal biochemical function....
    ;
  • XXVIII-XXXII: pharmacology
    Pharmacology

    Pharmacology is the study of drug action. More specifically it is the study of the interactions that occur between a living organism and exogenous chemicals that alter normal biochemical function....
    ;
  • XXXIII-XXXVII: mining
    Mining

    Mining is the extraction of value minerals or other geology materials from the earth, usually from an ore body, vein or seam. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, Sodium chloride and potash....
     and mineralogy
    Mineralogy

    Mineralogy is an Earth Science focused around the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical properties of minerals. Specific studies within mineralogy include the processes of mineral origin and formation, classification of minerals, their geographical distribution, as well as their utilization....
    , especially in its application to life and art, including gold
    Gold

    Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and atomic number 79. It is a highly sought-after precious metal, having been used as money, as a store of value, in jewelry, in sculpture, and for ornamentation since the beginning of recorded history....
    , chasing in silver
    Silver

    Silver is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal....
     (xxxiii.154–751), statuary
    Sculpture

    Sculpture is Three-dimensional space artwork created by shaping or combining hard and or plastic material, sound, and or text and or light, commonly Stone sculpture , metal, glass, or wood....
     in bronze
    Bronze sculpture

    Bronze is the most popular metal for Casting metal sculptures; a cast bronze sculpture is often called simply a "bronze".Common bronze alloys have the unusual and desirable property of expanding slightly just before they set, thus filling the finest details of a mold....
     (xxxiv), painting
    Painting

    Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . In art, the term describes both the act and the result, which is called a painting....
     (xxxv.15–941), modelling (151–851), and sculpture in marble
    Marble sculpture

    Marble sculpture is the art of creating three-dimensional forms from marble. Sculpture is among the oldest of the arts. Even before painting cave walls, early humans fashioned shapes from stone....
     (xxxvi), precious stones and gems (xxxvii).


Production and sources

Pliny
Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient author, naturalist or natural philosopher and naval and military commander of some importance who wrote Natural History ....
 apparently published the first ten books himself in 77, and was engaged on revising and enlarging the rest during the two remaining years of his life. The work was possibly published with little, if any, revision by the author's nephew Pliny the Younger
Pliny the Younger

Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, born Gaius Caecilius or Gaius Caecilius Cilo , better known as Pliny the Younger, was a lawyer, author, and natural philosopher of Ancient Rome....
, who, when telling the story of a tame dolphin
Dolphin

File:Bottlenose_Dolphin_KSC04pd0178.jpgDolphins are marine mammals that are closely related to whales and porpoises. There are almost forty species of dolphin in seventeen genus....
, and describing the floating islands of the Vadimonian Lake, thirty years later (viii. 20, ix. 33), has apparently forgotten that both are to be found in his uncle's work (ii. 209, ix. 26). He describes the Naturalis historia, as a Naturae historia, and characterizes it as a "work that is learned and full of matter, and as varied as nature herself."

The possible absence of the author's final revision may partly account for many repetitions, and for some contradictions, for mistakes in passages borrowed from Greek
Greeks

The Greeks , also known as Hellenes, are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions, who can also be found in Greek diaspora communities around the world....
 authors, and for the insertion of marginal additions at wrong places in the text. Alternatively (or in addition) the work has been transcribed many times and the chances of poor copying can only have increased as copies multiplied.

In the preface the author claims to have stated 20,000 facts gathered from some 2,000 books and from 100 select authors. The extant lists of his authorities amount to many more than 400, including 146 of Roman and 327 of Greek and other sources of information. The lists, as a general rule, follow the order of the subject matter of each book. This has been clearly shown in Heinrich Brunn
Heinrich Brunn

Heinrich Brunn was a German archaeologist.Brunn studied archaeology and philology in Bonn. In 1843 he received his doctorate degree with the work Artificum liberae Graeciae tempora and moved to Italy....
's Disputatio (Bonn
Bonn

Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located about 20 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the Capital of Germany West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
, 1856).

The scheme of his great work is vast and comprehensive, being nothing short of an encyclopedia
Encyclopedia

An encyclopedia is a comprehensive written compendium that holds information from either all branches of knowledge or a particular branch of knowledge....
 of learning and of art so far as they are connected with nature or draw their materials from nature. He admits that

My subject is a barren one - the world of nature, or in other words life; and that subject in its least elevated department, and employing either rustic terms or foreign, nay barbarian words that actually have to be introduced with an apology. Moreover, the path is not a beaten highway of authorship, nor one in which the mind is eager to range: there is not one of us who has made the same venture, nor yet one Greek who has tackled single-handed all departments of the subject.


And he admits the problems of writing such a work:

It is a difficult task to give novelty to what is old, authority to what is new, brilliance to the common-place, light to the obscure, attraction to the stale, credibility to the doubtful, but nature to all things and all her properties to nature.
Marcus Agrippa Louvre Portrait
One of Pliny's authorities is Varro
Marcus Terentius Varro

Marcus Terentius Varro , also known as Varro Reatinus to distinguish him from his younger contemporary Varro Atacinus, was a Ancient Rome scholar and writer....
. In the geographical books Varro is supplemented by the topographical commentaries of Agrippa which were completed by the emperor Augustus; for his zoology
Zoology

Zoology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of animals. The most common pronunciation of "zoology" is ; however, an alternative pronunciation is ....
 he relies largely on Aristotle
Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greeks philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, Poetics , theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology and zoology....
 and on Juba
Juba II

Juba II or Juba II of Numidia was a king of Numidia and then later moved to Mauretania. His first wife was Cleopatra Selene II, the last Ptolemaic dynasty Monarch and daughter to Greece Ptolemaic Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt and Roman triumvir Mark Antony....
, the scholarly Mauretania
Mauretania

In Antiquity, Mauretania was originally an independent Berber people monarchy on the Mediterranean coast of north Africa , corresponding to western Algeria, northern Morocco and Spain Plazas de soberan?a....
n king, studiorum claritate memorabilior quam regno (v. 16). Juba is one of his principal guides in botany; Theophrastus
Theophrastus

Theophrastus , a Greek native of Eressos in Lesbos Island, was the successor of Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. His interests were wide-ranging, extending from biology and physics to ethics and metaphysics....
 is also named in his Indices, and since Theophrastus's botanical work survives, it is possible to see the extent to which Pliny uses him, translating (and occasionally mistranslating) Theophrastus's difficult Greek into Latin. Another work by Theophrastus, On Stones was a useful source of information on ores
Orés

Or?s is a municipality in the Cinco Villas, in the province of Zaragoza , in the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It belongs to the comarca of Cinco Villas....
 and minerals. He made use of all of the Greek histories available at the time, such as those of Herodotus
Herodotus

Herodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greeks historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture....
 and Thucydides
Thucydides

Thucydides was a Greeks history and author of the History of the Peloponnesian War, which recounts the 5th century B.C. war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 B.C....
, as well as the famous Bibliotheca historica
Bibliotheca historica

[Image:AlexandreLouvre.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Bust of Alexander...
 of Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus

Diodorus Siculus , was a Roman Greece historian who flourished in the 1st century BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agira in Sicily ....
.

Working method


We are fortunate to have a description of his methods of work on the Naturalis Historia
Naturalis Historia

Naturalis Historia is an encyclopedia written circa AD 77 by Pliny the Elder. It is one of the largest single works to have survived from the Roman empire to the modern day, and was one of the first reference works developed in the Classical period to examine natural and man-made objects, both organic and mineral, as well as many natura...
 through his nephew, Pliny the Younger
Pliny the Younger

Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, born Gaius Caecilius or Gaius Caecilius Cilo , better known as Pliny the Younger, was a lawyer, author, and natural philosopher of Ancient Rome....
:

Does it surprise you that a busy man found time to finish so many volumes, many of which deal with such minute details? You will wonder the more when I tell you that he for many years pleaded in the law courts, that he died in his fifty-seventh year, and that in the interval his time was taken up and his studies were hindered by the important offices he held and the duties arising out of his friendship with the Emperors. But he possessed a keen intellect; he had a marvellous capacity for work, and his powers of application were enormous. He used to begin to study at night on the Festival of Vulcan, not for luck but from his love of study, long before dawn; in winter he would commence at the seventh hour or at the eighth at the very latest, and often at the sixth. He could sleep at call, and it would come upon him and leave him in the middle of his work. Before daybreak he would go to Vespasian-- for he too was a night-worker--and then set about his official duties. On his return home he would again give to study any time that he had free. Often in summer after taking a meal, which with him, as in the old days, was always a simple and light one, he would lie in the sun if he had any time to spare, and a book would be read aloud, from which he would take notes and extracts. For he never read without taking extracts, and used to say that there never was a book so bad that it was not good in some passage or another. After his sun bath he usually bathed in cold water, then he took a snack and a brief nap, and subsequently, as though another day had begun, he would study till dinner-time. After dinner a book would be read aloud, and he would take notes in a cursory way. I remember that one of his friends, when the reader pronounced a word wrongly, checked him and made him read it again, and my uncle said to him, "Did you not catch the meaning?" When his friend said "yes," he remarked, "Why then did you make him turn back? We have lost more than ten lines through your interruption." So jealous was he of every moment lost.


Highlights

The work divides neatly into the organic world of plants and animals, and the realm of inorganic matter, although there are frequent digressions in each section. He is especially interested in not just describing the occurrence of plants, animals and insects, but also their exploitation (or abuse) by man, especially Romans. The description of metal
Metal

In chemistry, a metal is a chemical element whose atoms readily lose electrons to form positive ions , and form metallic bonds between other metal atoms and ionic bonds between nonmetal atoms....
s and mineral
Mineral

A mineral is a naturally occurring solid formed through Geology processes that has a characteristic chemical composition, a highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties....
s is particularly detailed, and valuable for the history of science
History of science

Science is a body of empirical knowledge, theory, and Procedural knowledge knowledge about the Nature, produced by a global community of researchers making use of scientific methods, which emphasize the observation, experimentation and scientific explanation of real world phenomenon....
 as being the most extensive compilation still available from the ancient world.

Organic world

Murex Sp
A special interest attaches to his account of the manufacture of papyrus
Papyrus

Papyrus is a thick paper material produced from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland Cyperaceae that was once abundant in the Nile Delta of Egypt....
,and the various grades of papyrus available to Romans. Different types of trees and the properties of the wood from them receives a vigorous treatment. He describes the olive
Olive

The Olive is a species of small tree in the family Oleaceae, native to the coastal areas of the eastern Mediterranean region, from Lebanon, Syria and the maritime parts of Turkey and northern Iran at the south end of the Caspian Sea....
 tree in some detail, praising its virtues as one might expect. Botany
Botany

Botany, plant science, phytology, or plant biology is a branch of biology and is the Scientific method of plant life and development....
 is well discussed by Pliny, using Theophrastus
Theophrastus

Theophrastus , a Greek native of Eressos in Lesbos Island, was the successor of Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. His interests were wide-ranging, extending from biology and physics to ethics and metaphysics....
 as one of his sources. One of his favourite topics is spices, such as pepper
Black pepper

Black pepper is a flowering plant vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning....
, ginger
Ginger

Ginger is a spice which is used for cooking and is also consumed whole as a delicacy or medicine. It is the rhizome of the Zingiber, Zingiber officinale....
 and cane sugar. The latter, rather surprisingly, is used only as a medicine
Medicine

Medicine is the art and science of healing. It encompasses a range of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
. He mentions several different varieties of pepper, complaining of their cost, comparable with that of gold and silver. Pliny is critical of luxury but yet spends much time describing rare and expensive products popular with the rich and famous of Rome, and is particularly scathing about perfume
Perfume

Perfume is a mixture of fragrant essential oils and aroma compounds, fixatives, and solvents used to give the human body, animals, objects, and living spaces a pleasant smell....
s:

Perfumes are the most pointless of luxuries, for pearls and jewels are at least passed on the one's heirs, and clothes last for a time, but perfumes lose their fragrance and perish as soon as they are used.


But he does give a summary of their ingredients such as attar of roses, which he says is the most widely used base. Other substances added are myrrh
Myrrh

Myrrh is a reddish-brown resinous material, the dried Plant sap of a number of trees, but primarily from Commiphora myrrha, native to Yemen, Somalia, the eastern parts of Ethiopia and Commiphora gileadensis, native to Jordan....
, cinnamon
Cinnamon

Cinnamon is a small evergreen tree 10?15 metres tall, belonging to the family Lauraceae, and is native to Sri Lanka.The leaf are ovate-oblong in shape, 7?18 cm long....
, and balsam
Balsam

Balsam is a term used for various pleasantly scented plant products. These are oily or gummy oleoresins, usually containing benzoic acid or cinnamic acid, obtained from the exudates of various trees and shrubs and used as a base for some botanical medicines....
 to mention but a few. In zoology
Zoology

Zoology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of animals. The most common pronunciation of "zoology" is ; however, an alternative pronunciation is ....
, he mentions the different kinds of purple
Purple

Purple is a general term for the range of shades of color occurring between red and blue. It occurs by mixing the primary colors red and blue in varying proportions, with possibly a very small quantity of the third primary color ....
 dye, especially the murex
Murex

Murex is a genus of medium to large sized predatory tropical sea snails. These are carnivore marine gastropod molluscs in the family Muricidae, the murexes or rock snails....
 snail which was the highly-prized source of Tyrian purple
Tyrian purple

Tyrian purple , also known as royal purple, imperial purple or imperial dye, is a purple-red dye which was first produced by the ancient Phoenicians in the city of Tyre, Lebanon....
. He describes the elephant
Elephant

Elephants are large land mammals of the order Proboscidea and the family Elephantidae. There are three living species: the African Bush Elephant, the African Forest Elephant and the Asian Elephant ....
 and hippopotamus
Hippopotamus

The hippopotamus or hippo is a large, mostly herbivore African mammal, one of only two Extant taxon species in the scientific classification Hippopotamidae ....
 in detail, as well as the value and origin of the pearl
Pearl

A pearl is a hard, roundish object produced within the soft tissue of a living animal shelled mollusk. Just like the shell of mollusks, a pearl is made up of of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, which has been deposited in concentric layers....
 and the invention of fish farming
Fish farming

Fish farming is the principal form of aquaculture, while other methods may fall under mariculture. It involves raising fish commercially in tanks or enclosures, usually for food....
 and oyster farming
Oyster farming

Oyster farming is an aquaculture practice in which oysters are raised for human consumption. Oyster farming most likely developed in tandem with Pearl#The history of pearl hunting and pearl farming farming, a similar practice in which oysters are farmed for the purpose of developing pearls....
. Aquaria
Aquaria

Aquaria may refer to:*The plural of Aquarium*Aquaria , a 2D sidescrolling computer game*Aquaria , a symphonic power metal band from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil...
were popular pastimes of the rich, and Pliny provides several amusing anecdotes of the problems of owners becoming too closely attached to their fishes. The discussion of the origin of amber
Amber

Amber is fossil tree resin, which is appreciated for its color and beauty. Good quality amber is used for the manufacture of ornamental objects and jewelry....
 is especially incisive, and he correctly identifies the source as being the fossilised resin
Resin

Resin is a hydrocarbon secretion of many plants, particularly Pinophyta. It is valued for its chemical constituents and uses, such as varnishes and adhesives, as an important source of raw materials for organic synthesis, or for incense and perfume....
 of pine trees. One piece of evidence is that some samples exhibit encapsulated insects, a feature which is readily explained if the original material is a viscous resin. He refers to the way in which it will exert a charge when rubbed, a property well known to Theophrastus
Theophrastus

Theophrastus , a Greek native of Eressos in Lesbos Island, was the successor of Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. His interests were wide-ranging, extending from biology and physics to ethics and metaphysics....
. Pliny devotes considerable space to bees, which he admires for their industry and organisation, and of course their honey
Honey

Honey is a sweet fluid produced by honey bees , and derived from the nectar of flowers. According to the United States National Honey Board and various international food regulations, "honey stipulates a pure product that does not allow for the addition of any other substance?this includes, but is not limited to, water or other sweeteners...
. Pliny relies on many previous authors, and describes the use of smoke by beekeepers at the hive to collect the honeycomb
Honeycomb

A honeycomb is a mass of hexagonal waxcells built by honey bees in their beehive to contain their larva and stores of honey and pollen.beekeeping may remove the entire honeycomb to harvest honey....
s. He also discusses the queen bee
Queen bee

The term queen bee is typically used to refer to an adult, mated female that lives in a honey bee colony or hive; she is usually the mother of all the bees in the hive....
 and her crucial role in the swarm.

His description of the song of the nightingale
Nightingale

The Nightingale , also known as Rufous and Common Nightingale, is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the Thrush family Turdidae, but is now more generally considered to be an Old World flycatcher, Muscicapidae....
 is an elaborate example of his occasional felicity of phrase.

Inorganic world

Native Gold Nuggets
Pliny has an extensive discussion of metal
Metal

In chemistry, a metal is a chemical element whose atoms readily lose electrons to form positive ions , and form metallic bonds between other metal atoms and ionic bonds between nonmetal atoms....
s including gold
Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and atomic number 79. It is a highly sought-after precious metal, having been used as money, as a store of value, in jewelry, in sculpture, and for ornamentation since the beginning of recorded history....
, silver
Silver

Silver is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal....
, copper
Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity....
, mercury
Mercury (element)

Mercury , also called quicksilver or hydrargyrum , is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. A heavy, silvery d-block metal, mercury is one of six elements that are liquid at or near room temperature and pressure....
, lead
Lead

Lead is a main-group Chemical element with symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal, also considered to be one of the heavy metal ....
, tin
Tin

Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn and atomic number 50. Tin is obtained chiefly from the mineral cassiterite, where it occurs as an oxide, SnO2....
 and iron
Iron

Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. Iron is a Group 8 element and period 4 element. Iron is lustrous and silvery in color....
 as well as their many alloys such as electrum
Electrum

Electrum is a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver, with trace amounts of copper and other metals. It has also been produced artificially....
, bronze
Bronze

Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive, but sometimes with other chemical element such as phosphorus, manganese, aluminium, or silicon....
, pewter
Pewter

Pewter is a malleable metal alloy, traditionally between 85 and 99 percent tin, with the remainder commonly consisting of copper, antimony and lead....
, and steel
Steel

Steel is an alloy consisting mostly of iron, with a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.14% by weight , depending on grade. Carbon is the most cost-effective alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten....
. He devotes much space to a long diatribe about the greed for gold, such as the "criminal act" of first using the metal for coins in the early Republic. He gives several examples of the way rulers proclaimed their prowess by exhibiting gold loot from their campaigns, such as that by Claudius
Claudius

Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus or Claudius I was the fourth Roman Emperor, a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, ruling from January 24, AD 41 to his death in AD 54....
 after conquering Britain
Great Britain

Great Britain is an island lying to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the List of islands by area, and the largest in Europe. With a population of 58.9 million people it is List of islands by population....
, as well as relating the stories of Midas
Midas

In Greek mythology, Midas or King Midas is popularly remembered for his ability to turn everything he touched into gold: the Midas touch....
 and Croesus
Croesus

Croesus was the Monarch of Lydia from 560/561 BC until his defeat by the Persian Empire in about 547 BC. The fall of Croesus made a profound impact on the Greeks, providing a fixed point in their calendar....
. However, he then proceeds to discuss why the metal is unique in its malleability and ductility
Ductility

Ductility is a mechanical property used to describe the extent to which materials can be deformed deformation without fracture.In material science, ductility specifically refers to a material's ability to deform under tensile stress; this is often characterized by the material's ability to be stretched into a wire....
 being far greater than any other metal. The examples given are its capability of being beaten into fine foil with just one ounce producing 750 leaves four inches square. And fine gold wire can be woven into cloth, although imperial clothes usually combined it with natural fibres like wool. He once saw Agrippina the Younger
Agrippina the Younger

Julia Agrippina; known as Agrippina Minor , was a great granddaughter of Emperor Augustus, great niece and adoptive granddaughter of Emperor Tiberius, sister to Emperor Caligula, wife of Emperor Claudius and mother of Emperor Nero....
, wife of Claudius
Claudius

Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus or Claudius I was the fourth Roman Emperor, a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, ruling from January 24, AD 41 to his death in AD 54....
 at a public show on the Fucine Lake
Fucine Lake

The Fucine Lake was a large lake in central Italy. It was drained in 1875....
 involving a naval battle, wearing a military cloak made of gold.

Gold is the most resistant of all materials to heat and corrosive fluids, so worthy of its high status. Given its value and importance to the Romans, its occurrence and extraction receives a long section of text, and starts with a rejection of the ideas initiated by Herodotus
Herodotus

Herodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greeks historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture....
 of Indian gold obtained by ants or dug up by griffin
Griffin

The griffin is a fantasy creature with the body of a lion and the head and often wings of an eagle. As the lion was traditionally considered the king of the beasts and the eagle the king of the birds, the griffin was thought to be an especially powerful and majestic creature....
s in Scythia
Scythia

The Scythians or Scyths were an Eastern Iranian languages of Equestrianism nomadic pastoralists who dominated the Pontic steppe throughout Classical Antiquity....
. The section is discussed in more detail below. Silver
Silver

Silver is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal....
 comes next in Pliny's pantheon of greed. It does not occur in native form and has to be mined, usually occurring with lead
Lead

Lead is a main-group Chemical element with symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal, also considered to be one of the heavy metal ....
 ores. Spain
Spain

Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
 produced the most silver in his time, many of the mines having been started by Hannibal. One of the largest had galleries running for between one and two miles into the mountain, "water-men" (which he calls "aquatini") draining the mine, and they
stood night and day in shifts measured by lamps, bailing out water and making a stream.
Pliny is probably referring to the drainage machines operated by treadmill and found in Roman mines in the 1920s. Britain
Great Britain

Great Britain is an island lying to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the List of islands by area, and the largest in Europe. With a population of 58.9 million people it is List of islands by population....
 he says is very rich in lead, which is found on the surface at many places, and thus very easy to extract; production was so high that a law was passed attempting to restrict mining.

Fraud and forgery

Another of Pliny's obsessions is with fraud
Fraud

In the broadest sense, a fraud is a deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction....
 and forgery
Forgery

Forgery is the process of making, adapting, or imitating objects, statistics, or documents , with the intent to deception. The similar crime of fraud is the crime of deceiving another, including through the use of objects obtained through forgery....
, and in particular coin counterfeiting
Coin counterfeiting

Coin counterfeiting occurs regularly in the antique coin market, but there are various modern forgeries that make it into general circulation.Counterfeit antique coins are generally made to a very high standard so that they can fool collectors; this is not easy and many coins still stand out....
 by mixing copper with silver, or even admixture with iron. Tests had been developed for counterfeit coins and proved very popular with the victims, most ordinary people. In the same section, he deals with the liquid metal mercury
Mercury (element)

Mercury , also called quicksilver or hydrargyrum , is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. A heavy, silvery d-block metal, mercury is one of six elements that are liquid at or near room temperature and pressure....
, which is also found in silver mines. He correctly says it is toxic, and amalgamates
Amalgam (chemistry)

An amalgam is a substance formed by the reaction of some other substance with mercury .For the alkali metals, amalgamation is distinctly exothermic, and distinct chemical forms can be identified, such as KHg and KHg2....
 with gold, so is used for refining and extraction method of that metal. He says mercury is used for gilding
Gilding

Gilding is the technique of applying a thin layer of gold to a surface. Gilding is performed through a mechanical process, known as leafing, or using one of many chemical processes....
 copper. Antimony
Antimony

Antimony is a chemical element with the symbol Sb and atomic number 51. A metalloid, antimony has four allotropy forms. The stable form of antimony is a blue-white metalloid....
 is found in silver mines, and is used as an eyebrow
Eyebrow

The eyebrow is an area of thick, delicate hairs above the eye that follows the shape of the lower margin of the Supraorbital ridge. Their main function is to protect the eye, but they are also important to human communication and facial expression....
 cosmetic
Cosmetic

Cosmetic may refer to:*Cosmetics, or make-up, substances to enhance the beauty of the human body, apart from simple cleaning*Cosmetic, an adjective describing beauty, aesthetics, or appearance, especially concerning the human body...
. The main ore of mercury is cinnabar
Cinnabar

Cinnabar, sometimes written cinnabarite, is a name applied to red mercury sulfide , or native vermilion, the common ore of mercury . The name comes from the Greek language - "kinnabari" - used by Theophrastus, and was probably applied to several distinct substances....
, long used as a pigment by painters. He says that the colour is similar to that of the cochineal
Cochineal

'Cochineal' is a scale insect insect in the suborder Sternorrhyncha, from which the crimson-colored dye, carmine, is derived. There are other species in the genus Dactylopius which can be used to produce cochineal extract, but they are extremely difficult to distinguish from D....
 insect. The dust is very toxic, so workers handling the material wear face-masks of bladder-skin. Copper
Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity....
 and bronze
Bronze

Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive, but sometimes with other chemical element such as phosphorus, manganese, aluminium, or silicon....
 are, says Pliny, most famous for their use in statues, of which there were many in Rome. Their most extravagant use was in colossi, gigantic statues which were as tall as towers; the most famous being the Colossus of Rhodes
Colossus of Rhodes

The Colossus of Rhodes was a statue of the Greek god Helios, erected on the Greece island of Rhodes by Chares of Lindos between 292 and 280 BC....
. He personally saw the massive statue of Nero
Nero

Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus , born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, also called Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus, was the fifth and final Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty....
 in Rome, which was later removed after the emperor committed suicide. The face of the statue was modified shortly after Nero’s death during Vespasian
Vespasian

Titus Flavius Vespasianus, commonly known as Vespasian , was a Roman Emperor who reigned from 69 A.D. until his death in 79 A.D. Vespasian was the founder of the short lived Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Roman Empire between 69 A.D....
’s reign to make it truly a statue of Sol. Hadrian
Hadrian

Publius Aelius Hadrianus , as emperor Imperator Caesar Divi Traiani filius Traianus Hadrianus Augustus, and Divus Hadrianus after his apotheosis, known as Hadrian in English language, was Roman Emperor of Roman Empire from AD 117 to 138, as well as a Stoicism and Epicureanism philosopher....
 moved it, with the help of the architect Decrianus and 24 elephants, to a position next to the Flavian Amphitheater. This building took the name Colosseum
Colosseum

The Colosseum or Roman Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheatre , is an elliptical amphitheatre in the center of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire....
 in the Middle Ages, after the statue nearby.

He gives a special place to iron
Iron

Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. Iron is a Group 8 element and period 4 element. Iron is lustrous and silvery in color....
, distinguishing the hardness of steel
Steel

Steel is an alloy consisting mostly of iron, with a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.14% by weight , depending on grade. Carbon is the most cost-effective alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten....
 from what we now call wrought iron
Wrought iron

Wrought iron is commercially pure iron. In contrast to steel, it has a very low carbon content. It is a fibrous material due to the slag Inclusion ....
, a softer grade with (we know now) a smaller carbon
Carbon

Carbon is a chemical element with chemical symbol C and atomic number 6. As a member of group 14 on the periodic table, it is nonmetallic and tetravalence?making four electrons available to form covalent bond chemical bonds....
 content. He is scathing about the use of iron:
and yet in other places we dig with sheer recklessness when iron is needed - a metal even more welcome than gold amid the bloodshed of war.


Gems

Rough Diamond
He describes many different mineral
Mineral

A mineral is a naturally occurring solid formed through Geology processes that has a characteristic chemical composition, a highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties....
s and gemstone
Gemstone

A gemstone or gem, also called a precious or semi-precious stone, is a piece of attractive mineral, which — when cut and polished — is used to make jewellery or other adornments....
s, building on works by Theophrastus
Theophrastus

Theophrastus , a Greek native of Eressos in Lesbos Island, was the successor of Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. His interests were wide-ranging, extending from biology and physics to ethics and metaphysics....
 and other authors. The topic concentrates on the most valuable gemstone
Gemstone

A gemstone or gem, also called a precious or semi-precious stone, is a piece of attractive mineral, which — when cut and polished — is used to make jewellery or other adornments....
s, because it gives him yet another opportunity to criticize the obsession with luxury products.
Usda Mineral Flourite 93c3962
He provides a thorough discussion of the properties of fluorspar, noting that it is carved into vases and other decorative objects. It is often banded with purple colours, which is presumable why the Romans regarded it so highly.

He accurately describes the octahedral shape of the diamond
Diamond

In mineralogy, diamond is the Allotropes of carbon where the carbon atoms are arranged in an isometric-hexoctahedral crystal lattice. After graphite, diamond is the second most stable form of carbon....
, and proceeds to mention that diamond dust is used by engravers to cut and polish other gems owing to its great hardness. His recognition of the importance of crystal
Crystal

A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituent atoms, molecules, or ions are arranged in an orderly repeating pattern extending in all three spatial dimensions....
 shape is a precursor to modern crystallography
Crystallography

Crystallography is the experimental science of determining the arrangement of atoms in solids. In older usage, it is the scientific study of crystals....
, while mention of numerous other minerals presages mineralogy
Mineralogy

Mineralogy is an Earth Science focused around the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical properties of minerals. Specific studies within mineralogy include the processes of mineral origin and formation, classification of minerals, their geographical distribution, as well as their utilization....
. He also recognises that other minerals have characteristic crystal shapes, but in one example, confuses the crystal habit
Crystal habit

In mineralogy, shape and size give rise to descriptive terms applied to the typical appearance, or habit of crystals.The many terms used by mineralogists to describe crystal habits are useful in communicating what specimens of a particular mineral often look like....
 with the work of lapidaries. Rock crystal is valuable for its transparency and hardness, he says, and can be carved into vessels and implements. Pliny relates the story of a woman who owned a ladle made of the mineral, paying the sum of 150,000 sesterces for the item.

Nero
Nero

Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus , born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, also called Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus, was the fifth and final Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty....
 deliberately broke two crystal cups when he realised that he was about to be deposed, so denying anyone else of their use.

Pliny returns to the problem of fraud and the detection of false gems using several tests, including the scratch test where counterfeit gems can be marked by a steel file, and genuine ones not. Perhaps it refers to glass imitations of jewellery
Jewellery

Jewellery is an item of personal adornment, such as a necklace, ring , brooch or bracelet, that is worn by a person. It may be made from gemstones or precious metals, but may be from any other material, and may be appreciated because of geometric or other patterns, or meaningful symbols....
 gemstones
Gemstones

Gemstones is the third solo album by Adam Green , released in 2005. The album is characterised by the heavy presence of Wurlitzer electric piano piano, whereas its predecessor relied on a string section in its instrumentation....
. He refers to using one hard mineral to scratch another, the first allusion to what is now the Mohs hardness scale. Diamond
Diamond

In mineralogy, diamond is the Allotropes of carbon where the carbon atoms are arranged in an isometric-hexoctahedral crystal lattice. After graphite, diamond is the second most stable form of carbon....
 sits at the top of the series because, Pliny says, it will scratch all other minerals.

Art History

Pliny's chapters on ancient Art are especially valuable because his work is virtually the only classical source of information on the subject.

In the History of Art the original Greek authorities are Duris of Samos
Duris of Samos

Duris of Samos ; probably born around 350 BC; died after 281 BC) was a Greeks historian and was at some period tyrant of Samos Island....
, Xenocrates of Sicyon, and Antigonus of Carystus
Antigonus of Carystus

Antigonus of Carystus , Greek literature writer on various subjects, flourished in the 3rd century BC. After some time spent at Athens and in travelling, he was summoned to the court of Attalus I of Pergamum....
. The anecdotic element has been ascribed to Duris (xxxiv. 61, Lysippum Sicyonium Duris begat nullius fuisse discipulum etc.); the notices of the successive developments of art, and the list of workers in bronze and painters, to Xenocrates; and a large amount of miscellaneous information to Antigonus. The last two authorities are named in connection with Parrhasius
Zeuxis and Parrhasius

Zeuxis was a Painting who flourished during the 5th century BC....
 (xxxv. 68, hanc ei gloriam concessere Antigonus et Xenocrates, qui de pictura scripsere), while Antigonus is named in the indices of xxxiii - xxxiv. as a writer on the "toreutic art", or the art of embossing metal, or working it in ornamental relief or intaglio
Intaglio

Intaglio may refer to:*Intaglio , a printmaking technique with an incised image*Intaglio , a similar effect in jewelry*Intaglio , a similar effect in burial mounds...
.

Greek epigram
Epigram

An Epigram is a brief, clever, and usually memorable statement. Derived from the "to write on - inscribe", the literary device has been employed for over two millennia....
s contribute their share in Pliny's descriptions of pictures and statues. One of the minor authorities for books xxxiv - xxxv is Heliodorus of Athens
Heliodorus of Athens

Heliodorus of Athens was an ancient author who wrote fifteen books on the Acropolis of Athens, possibly about 150 BC...
, the author of a work on the monuments of Athens
Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
. In the indices to xxxiii - xxxvi an important place is assigned to Pasiteles
Pasiteles

Pasiteles was a Neo-Attic school sculptor from Ancient Rome at the time of Julius Caesar. Pasiteles is said by Pliny the Elder to have been a native of Magna Graecia, and to have been granted the Roman citizenship....
 of Naples, the author of a work in five volumes on famous works of art (xxxvi. 40), probably incorporating the substance of the earlier Greek treatises; but Pliny's indebtedness to Pasiteles is denied by Kalkmann, who holds that Pliny used the chronological work of Apollodorus
Apollodorus

Apollodorus of Athens son of Asclepiades, was a Greeks scholar and grammarian. He was a pupil of Diogenes of Babylon, Panaetius, and the grammarian Aristarchus of Samothrace....
, as well as a current catalogue of artists. Pliny's knowledge of the Greek authorities was probably mainly due to Varro, whom he often quotes (e.g. xxxiv. 56, xxxv. 173, 156, xxxvi. 17, 39, 41). Varro probably dealt with the history of art
History of art

The history of art usually refers to the history of the visual arts of painting, sculpture and architecture as well as architecture. It is the history of one of the fine arts, others of which are the performing arts and literary arts....
 in connexion with architecture
Architecture

The term architecture can refer to a process, a profession or documentation.As a process, architecture is the activity of designing and construction buildings and other physical structures by a person or a computer, primarily to provide shelter....
, which was included in his Disciplinae.

For a number of items relating to works of art near the coast of Asia Minor, and in the adjacent islands, Pliny was indebted to the general, statesman, orator and historian, Gaius Licinius Mucianus
Mucianus

Gaius Licinius Mucianus was a general, statesman, and writer of ancient Rome.His name shows that he had passed by adoption from the Mucius to the Licinius gens....
, who died before 77. Pliny mentions the works of art collected by Vespasian
Vespasian

Titus Flavius Vespasianus, commonly known as Vespasian , was a Roman Emperor who reigned from 69 A.D. until his death in 79 A.D. Vespasian was the founder of the short lived Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Roman Empire between 69 A.D....
 in the Temple of Peace and in his other galleries (xxxiv. 84), but much of his information about the position of such works in Rome is from books, and not personal observation. The main merit of his account of ancient art, the only classical work of its kind, is that it is a compilation ultimately founded on the lost text books of Xenocrates
Xenocrates

Xenocrates of Chalcedon was a Ancient Greece philosopher, mathematician, and leader of the Platonic Academy from 339 to 314 BC. His teachings followed those of Plato's, which he attempted to define more closely, often with mathematical elements....
 and on the biographies of Duris and Antigonus
Antigonus

Antigonus, a Greek people name meaning "comparable to his father" or "worthy of his father", may refer to:* Three Macedonn kings of the Antigonid dynasty that succeeded Alexander the Great in Asia:...
. He shows no special aptitude for art criticism; in several passages, however, he gives proof of independent observation (xxxiv. 38, 46, 63, xxxv. 17, 20, 116 seq.). He prefers the marble Laocoön and his Sons
Laocoön and his Sons

The statue of Laoco?n and His Sons, also called the Laoco?n Group, is a monumental marble sculpture now in the Vatican Museums, Rome....
 in the palace of Titus (now in the Vatican
Vatican City

Vatican City , officially the State of the Vatican City , is a Landlocked country sovereignty city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, the Capital of Italy....
) to all the pictures and bronzes in the world (xxxvi. 37). The statue is attributed by Pliny to three sculptors from the island of Rhodes: Agesander, Athenodoros
Athenodoros

Athenodoros or Athenodorus was the name of several figures in the ancient Hellenistic world:* Athenodoros of Kleitor , sculptor who made statues of Zeus and Apollo which the Lacedaemonians erected at Delphi...
 and Polydorus
Polydorus

In Greek mythology, Polydorus referred to several different people.#An Argive, son of Hippomedon. Pausanias lists him as one of the Epigoni, who attacked Thebes, Greece in retaliation for the deaths of their fathers, the Seven Against Thebes, who died attempting the same thing....
. It shows the Trojan priest Laocoön and his sons Antiphantes and Thymbraeus being strangled by sea serpents. The priest had tried to expose the Trojan horse
Trojan Horse

The "Trojan Horse" refers to the stratagem that allowed the Greeks to finally enter the city of Troy during the Trojan War. In the best-known version of this Bronze Age story, after a fruitless 10-year siege of Troy, the Greeks built a huge figure of a horse, in which a select force of men hid....
 by attacking it with a spear, but the Gods were displeased and sent a snake to prevent him achieving his task.

In the temple near the Flaminian Circus he admires the Ares
Ares

In Greek mythology, Ares is the son of Zeus and Hera. Though often referred to as the Twelve Olympians God of warfare, he is more accurately the god of bloodlust, or slaughter personified: "Ares is apparently an ancient abstract noun meaning throng of battle, war."...
 and the Aphrodite
Aphrodite

Aphrodite is the classical Greek mythology goddess of love, sex, and beauty. According to Greek oral poet Hesiod, she was born when Uranus was castrated by his son Cronus....
 of Scopas
Scopas

Scopas or Skopas was an Ancient Greece sculpture and architect, born on the island of Paros. Scopas worked with Praxiteles, he sculpted parts of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, especially the reliefs....
, which would suffice to give renown to any other spot.

He adds:

At Rome indeed the works of art are legion; besides, one effaces another from the memory and, however beautiful they may be, we are distracted by the overpowering claims of duty and business; for to admire art we need leisure and profound stillness (ibid. 26–72).


Roman Technology

Pliny provides lucid descriptions of many areas of Roman technology, some of which have been verified by scholarly research and archaeology
Archaeology

Archaeology, archeology, or arch?ology is the science that studies Homo cultures through the recovery, documentation, analysis, and interpretation of material remains and environmental data, including architecture, Artifact , features, Biofact s, and cultural landscape....
. Thus he gives a clear description of gold mining
Gold mining

Gold mining consists of the processes and techniques employed in the resource extraction of gold from the ground. There are several techniques by which gold may be extracted from the Earth....
, which includes large scale use of water to scour alluvial gold
Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and atomic number 79. It is a highly sought-after precious metal, having been used as money, as a store of value, in jewelry, in sculpture, and for ornamentation since the beginning of recorded history....
 deposits. The description probably refers to mining in Northern Spain, especially at Las Médulas
Las Médulas

Las M?dulas, located near the town of Ponferrada in the region of El Bierzo , used to be the most important gold gold mining in the Roman Empire....
, shown at right, and the remains of water tanks and numerous Roman aqueduct
Roman aqueduct

Romans constructed numerous aqueducts to supply water to cities and industrial sites. These aqueducts were amongst the greatest engineering feats of the ancient world, and set a standard not equaled for over a thousand years after the fall of Rome....
s has been verified on the ground at this vast site. Fieldwork in the surrounding area has discovered many more Roman mines where similar techniques were used on a large scale. At another location, Montefurado on the river Sil, the river itself was diverted to expose placer deposit
Placer deposit

In geology, a placer deposit or placer is an accumulation of valuable minerals formed by deposition of dense mineral phases in a trap site....
s in the bed of the river. It is likely that Pliny saw the operations of gold extraction himself since the sections in Book xxxiii read like an eye witness report. He was a Procurator
Promagistrate

A promagistrate is a person who acts in and with the authority and capacity of a Roman Magistrates, but without holding a magisterial office. A legal innovation of the Roman Republic, the promagistracy was invented in order to provide Rome with governors of overseas territories instead of having to elect more magistrates each year....
 in Hispania Tarraconensis
Hispania Tarraconensis

Hispania Tarraconensis was one of three Roman provinces in Hispania. It encompassed much of the Mediterranean coast of Spain along with the central plateau and the north coast, and part of northern Portugal....
 in the later years of his life, so would have had access to the many mines of the region. However, similar remains have been found in Britain, especially at Dolaucothi in west Wales
Wales

native_name = Cymru|conventional_long_name = Wales|common_name = Wales|image_flag = Flag of Wales 2.svg|national_motto = ...
, where excavations in the modern village have confirmed the presence of a fort and settlement, as well as a bath-house nearby. Field work
Field work

Field work is a general descriptive term for the collection of raw data. The term is mainly used in the natural science and social sciences studies, such as in biology, ecology, environmental science, geology, geography, geophysics, paleontology, archaeology, anthropology, ethnomusicology, linguistics, and sociology, although it is also used...
 has also established the extensive use of hydraulic mining
Hydraulic mining

Hydraulic mining, or hydraulicking, is a form of mining that employs water to dislodge rock material or move sediment. Previously, the use of a large volume of water had been developed by the Romans to remove overburden and then gold-bearing debris as in Las M?dulas of Spain, and Dolaucothi in Great Britain....
 to prospect for gold by construction of several aqueduct
Aqueduct

File:Tomar December 2008-4.jpgAn aqueduct is a water supply or navigable canal constructed to convey water. In modern engineering, the term is used for any system of pipes, ditches, canals, tunnels, and other structures used for this purpose....
s and many water reservoirs and tanks at the minehead, just as Pliny describes. The water supply was used for hushing
Hushing

Hushing is an ancient mining method using a flood or torrent of water to reveal mineral veins. The method was applied in several ways, both in prospecting for ores, and for their exploitation....
 the deposits, by releasing a full tank, the water wave scouring the ground below. Alternatively, the aqueduct stream could be simply released onto the deposit, the water wearing it down if of a soft and alluvial nature. Hard rock veins could be worked by fire-setting
Fire-setting

Fire-setting is a method of mining used mostly in antiquity. Fires were set against a rock face to heat the Rock , which was then doused with water causing the stone to fracture by thermal shock....
 with the water used to scour away the rock debris. The same water supplies were probably used in a controlled way to drive watermill
Watermill

A watermill is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as flour, lumber or textile production, or metal shaping ....
s to crush the ore, and to wash the resultant powder for extraction of the gold dust.

His work supplements the De Architectura
De architectura

File:De Architectura027.jpg is a treatise on architecture written by the Ancient Rome architect Vitruvius and dedicated to his patron, the emperor Caesar Augustus as a guide for Caesar Augustus#Building projects....
 of Vitruvius
Vitruvius

File:Vitruvius.jpgMarcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Ancient Rome writer, architect and engineer , active in the 1st century BC. By his own description Vitruvius served as a Ballista , the third class of arms in the military offices....
 who describes many devices and engines for construction of buildings and aqueduct
Aqueduct

File:Tomar December 2008-4.jpgAn aqueduct is a water supply or navigable canal constructed to convey water. In modern engineering, the term is used for any system of pipes, ditches, canals, tunnels, and other structures used for this purpose....
s, as well as dewatering machines such as reverse overshot water-wheel
Reverse overshot water-wheel

Frequently used in mines and probably elsewhere , the reverse overshot water wheel was a Roman innovation to help remove water from the lowest levels of underground workings....
s and the use of the Archimedean screw. They were used in deep mining when shafts penetrated the water table
Water table

The water table is the level at which the ground water pressure is equal to atmospheric pressure. It may be conveniently visualized as the 'surface' of the Groundwater in a given vicinity....
, and examples have been found in many Roman mines when re-entered by modern mining attempts. The system found at the Rio Tinto (river) copper mines in Spain
Spain

Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
 comprised a set of 16 such wheels arranged in pairs in a vertical sequence with a total lift of 96 feet. The wheels were worked as treadmills by workers standing on the tops, and lifting would have needed careful co-ordination to remove the water effectively. Pliny describes methods of underground mining, including the use of fire-setting
Fire-setting

Fire-setting is a method of mining used mostly in antiquity. Fires were set against a rock face to heat the Rock , which was then doused with water causing the stone to fracture by thermal shock....
 to attack the gold-bearing rock and so extract the ore. It involved creating a fire against a hard rock working to weaken it sufficiently to be able to remove it effectively followed by quenching with water or vinegar
Vinegar

Vinegar is an acidic liquid processed from the fermentation of ethanol in a process that yields its key ingredient, acetic acid . It also may come in a diluted form....
. The method was fraught with problems, not least of which was the formation of large volumes of toxic gases, so ventilation was essential in the confined galleries. One way of achieving a good flow of air was by means of adit
Adit

An adit is a type of entrance to an underground mine which is horizontal or nearly horizontal. Adits are usually built into the side of a hill or mountain, and often occur when a measure of coal or an ore body is located inside the mountain but above the adjacent valley floor or coastal plain....
s which would not only drain excess water but also allow air to circulate freely through the mine. Three such adits were driven through barren rock at Dolaucothi direct to the workings. Two remain open to this day, and the method was used widely in later mines in Britain
Great Britain

Great Britain is an island lying to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the List of islands by area, and the largest in Europe. With a population of 58.9 million people it is List of islands by population....
. That it was widespread is attested by Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus

Diodorus Siculus , was a Roman Greece historian who flourished in the 1st century BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agira in Sicily ....
 describing the gold mines of Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an Ancient history civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile in what is now the modern nation of Egypt....
.

In another part of his work, Pliny describes the use of undermining to gain access to the veins, but it probably refers to opencast rather than underground mining, given the dangers to the miners in confined spaces.

Manuscripts

About the middle of the 3rd century
3rd century

The 3rd century is the period from 201 to 300 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era/Common Era.In this century, the Roman Empire sees a Crisis of the Third Century, marking the beginning of Late Antiquity....
 an abstract of the geographical portions of Pliny's work was produced by Solinus; and early in the 4th century
4th century

As a means of recording the passage of time, the 4th century was that century which lasted from 301 to 400....
 the medical passages were collected in the Medicina Plinii
Medicina Plinii

The Medicina Plinii or Medical Pliny is an anonymous Latin compilation of pharmacology dating to the early 4th century A.D. The excerptor, saying that he speaks from experience, offers the work as a compact resource for travelers in dealing with hucksters who sell worthless drugs at exorbitant prices or with know-nothings only intereste...
. Early in the 8th century
8th century

The 8th century is the period from 701 to 800 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era/Common Era....
 we find Bede
Bede

Bede , , was a monasticism at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria....
 in possession of an excellent manuscript of parts of the work. Bede used the work in his own book "De Rerum Natura", especially the sections on meteorology
Meteorology

Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the Earth's atmosphere that focuses on weather processes and forecasting . Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the eighteenth century....
 and gems
Gems

Gems or GEMS can refer to:*gemstones, or*Gems , the 1988 album by Aerosmith.*Gems, a 1994 studio album by Patti LaBelle...
. However, he updated and corrected Pliny on the tides.

In the 9th century
9th century

The 9th century is the period from 801 to 900 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era/Common Era....
 Alcuin
Alcuin

Alcuin of York or Ealhwine, nicknamed Albinus or Flaccus was a scholar, ecclesiastic, poet and teacher from York, Northumbria....
 sends to Charlemagne
Charlemagne

Charlemagne was List of Frankish kings from 768 to his death. He expanded the Franks kingdoms into a Carolingian Empire that incorporated much of Western Europe and Central Europe....
 for a copy of the earlier books; and Dicuil
Dicuil

Dicuil was an Irish monk and geographer, born in the second half of the 8th century; date of death unknown. He may be the same person as Hibernicus exul....
 gathers extracts from the pages of Pliny for his own Mensura orbis terrae (ca. 825
825

Events...
).

Pliny's work was held in high esteem in the Middle Ages
Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
. The number of extant manuscripts is about 200; but the best of the more ancient manuscripts, that at Bamberg
Bamberg

Bamberg is a town in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in Upper Franconia on the river Regnitz, close to its confluence with the river Main. Bamberg is one of the few cities in Germany that was not destroyed by World War II bombings because of a nearby Artillery Factory that prevented planes from getting near to Bamberg....
, contains only books xxxii-xxxvii. Robert of Cricklade, prior
Prior

Prior is a title, derived from the Latin adjective for 'earlier, first', with several notable uses....
 of St. Frideswide's Priory at Oxford
Oxford

Oxford is a City status in the United Kingdom, and the county town of Oxfordshire, in South East England. It has a population of 151,000. The rivers River Cherwell and River Thames run through Oxford and meet south of the city centre....
, dedicated to Henry II
Henry II of England

Henry II, called Curtmantle ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France....
 a Defloratio consisting of nine books of selections taken from one of the manuscripts of this class, which has been recently recognized as sometimes supplying us with the only evidence for the true text. Among the later manuscripts, the codex Vesontinus, formerly at Besançon
Besançon

Besan?on , is the capital and principal city of the Franche-Comt? Regions of France in eastern France, with approximately 220,000 inhabitants in the aire urbaine in 1999....
 (11th century
11th century

As a means of recording the passage of time, the 11th century is the period from 1001 to 1100 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era/Common Era....
), has been divided into three portions, now in Rome, Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
, and Leiden
Leiden

Media:Nl-Leiden.ogg is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland in the Netherlands and has 118,000 inhabitants. It forms a single urban area with Oegstgeest, Leiderdorp, Voorschoten, Valkenburg, Rijnsburg and Katwijk, with 254,000 inhabitants....
 respectively, while there is also a transcript of the whole of this manuscript at Leiden.

Despite, or perhaps because of the multiplicity of texts which were in circulation, many were in a poor state. Thus when Petrarch
Petrarch

Francesco Petrarca , known in English language as Petrarch, was an Italy scholar, poet and one of the earliest Renaissance humanism. Petrarch is often popularly called the "Father of Humanism"....
 bought a copy in Mantua
Mantua

Mantua is a city in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the Province of Mantua of the same name.Mantua is surrounded on three sides by artificial lakes created during the 12th century....
 in 1350, he wrote:
What would Cicero, or Livy, or the other great men of the past, Pliny above all, think if they could return to life and read their own works?
He answered his own rhetorical question that they would scarcely recognise them, owing to corruptions and errors which had over the years built up in the texts, an inevitable result of multiple hand copying. Petrarch went on to correct some of the most barbarous texts, but translation was difficult owing to the way Pliny for example introduced non-Latin words, or described techniques long since lost or forgotten.

Renaissance

The work was one of the first classical manuscripts to be printed, at Venice
Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy, the capital city of the Italian regions Veneto, a population of 271,251 . Together with Padua, Italy, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area ....
 in 1469 by Johann and Wendelin of Speyer
Johann and Wendelin of Speyer

The brothers Johann and Wendelin of Speyer were German printers in Venice from 1468 to 1477.They were among the first of those who came to Italy from Mainz, after 1462, to introduce printing....
, but the text was in the words of J F Healy, "distinctly imperfect". The next important edition is Philemon Holland
Philemon Holland

Philemon Holland was an English translator.His father, John Holland, was a clergyman who fled the Kingdom of England during the persecutions of Mary I of England....
s much improved translation of 1601, and further versions multiplied as Pliny's reputation grew during the Renaissance
Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe....
. It inspired many scholars to look again at the achievements of the classical world, and the ways Nature could be studied. It helped revive interest in minerals and mining
Mining

Mining is the extraction of value minerals or other geology materials from the earth, usually from an ore body, vein or seam. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, Sodium chloride and potash....
 for example, and Pliny is much quoted by Georg Agricola
Georg Agricola

Georgius Agricola was a Germany scholar and scientist. Known as "the father of mineralogy", he was born at Glauchau in Saxony. His real name was Georg Pawer; Agricola is the Latinised version of his name, Pawer/ meaning farmer....
 in his magnum opus De Re Metallica
De re metallica

De re metallica is a book cataloging the state of the art of mining, refining, and smelting metals, published in 1556. The author was Georg Bauer, whose pen name was the Latinized Georgius Agricola....
.

Sir Thomas Browne
Thomas Browne

Sir Thomas Browne was an England author of varied works which disclose his wide learning in diverse fields including medicine, religion, science and the esoteric....
 expressed a wholesome skepticism about Pliny's dependability in his Pseudodoxia Epidemica
Pseudodoxia Epidemica

Sir Thomas Browne's vast work refuting the common errors and superstitions of his age, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, first appeared in 1646 and went through five subsequent editions, the last revision occurring in 1672....
 (1646):
"Now what is very strange, there is scarce a popular error passant in our days, which is not either directly expressed, or diductively contained in this Work; which being in the hands of most men, hath proved a powerful occasion of their propagation. Wherein notwithstanding the credulity of the Reader is more condemnable then the curiosity of the Author: for commonly he nameth the Authors from whom he received those accounts, and writes but as he reads, as in his Preface to Vespasian he acknowledgeth."

Rediscovery of Laocoön

Some research on Pliny has concentrated on the investigation of his authorities, especially those which he followed in his chapters on the history of art
History of art

The history of art usually refers to the history of the visual arts of painting, sculpture and architecture as well as architecture. It is the history of one of the fine arts, others of which are the performing arts and literary arts....
 - the only ancient account of that subject which has survived. One artwork in particular inspired many artists in the Renaissance when it was rediscovered: Laocoön and his Sons
Laocoön and his Sons

The statue of Laoco?n and His Sons, also called the Laoco?n Group, is a monumental marble sculpture now in the Vatican Museums, Rome....
. It was the same statue described by Pliny, and which was probably originally commissioned for the home of a wealthy Roman. It was unearthed in 1506 near the site of the Golden House of the Emperor Nero
Nero

Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus , born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, also called Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus, was the fifth and final Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty....
 (who reigned from 54 to 68 AD), and it is possible that the statue belonged to Nero himself. It was acquired by Pope Julius II
Pope Julius II

Pope Julius II , nicknamed Il Papa Terribile , was born Giuliano della Rovere. He was Pope from 1503 to 1513. His reign was marked by an aggressive foreign policy, ambitious building projects, and patronage for the arts....
, an enthusiastic classicist, soon after its discovery and was placed in the Belvedere Gardens at the Vatican
Apostolic Palace

The Apostolic Palace, also called the Sacred Palace, the Papal Palace or the Palace of the Vatican, is the official residence of the Pope in the Vatican City....
, now part of the Vatican Museums
Vatican Museums

The Vatican Museums , in Viale Vaticano in Rome, inside the Vatican City, are among the greatest museums in the world, since they display works from the immense collection built up by Roman Catholic Church throughout the centuries....
.

When the statue was discovered, Laocoön's right arm was missing, along with part of the hand of one child and the right arm of the other. Artists and connoisseurs debated how the missing parts should be interpreted. Michelangelo
Michelangelo

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance Painting, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer....
 suggested that the missing right arms were originally bent back over the shoulder. Others, however, believed it was more appropriate to show the right arms extended outwards in a heroic gesture. The Pope held an informal contest among sculptors to make replacement right arms, which was judged by Raphael
Raphael

Raphael Sanzio, usually known by his first name alone was an Italy Painting and architect of the High Renaissance, celebrated for the perfection and grace of his paintings and drawings....
. The winner, in the outstretched position, was attached to the statue. In 1957, however, the original right arm of Laocoön himself, with a snake coiled about his wrist, was found by L. Pollack in a builder's yard in Rome, and was in the position which had been suggested by Michelangelo. The arm has now been rejoined to the statue.

The discovery of the Laocoön made a great impression on Italian sculptors and significantly influenced the course of Italian Renaissance art. Michelangelo is known to have been particularly impressed by the massive scale of the work and its sensuous Hellenistic aesthetic, particularly its depiction of the male figures. The influence of the Laocoön is evidenced in many of Michelangelo's later works, such as the Rebellious Slave and the Dying Slave, created for the tomb of Pope Julius II. The tragic nobility of this statue is one of the themes in Gotthold Lessing's essay on literature and aesthetics, Laokoön, one of the early classics of art criticism.

Quotations

Some of Pliny's wisest and most famous adages include:
Among these things, one thing seems certain - that nothing certain exists and that there is nothing more pitiful or more presumptuous than man.


Because of a curious disease of the human mind, it pleases us to enshrine in history records of bloodshed and slaughter, so that those ignorant of the facts of the world may become acquainted with the crimes of mankind.


Bibliography

  • H. Rackham, W.H.S. Jones & D.E. Eichholz (translators), Pliny - Natural History, 10 volumes, Loeb Classical Library, 1938-1962.
  • Lewis, P. R. and G. D. B. Jones, "Roman gold-mining in north-west Spain," Journal of Roman Studies 60 (1970): 169-85.
  • Lewis, P. R., "The Ogofau Roman gold mines at Dolaucothi," The National Trust Year Book 1976-77 (1977).
  • Barry C. Burnham, "Roman Mining at Dolaucothi: the Implications of the 1991-3 Excavations near the Carreg Pumsaint", Britannia 28 (1997), 325-336
  • Healy, J. F., Pliny the Elder on Science and Technology, Clarendon Press (1999)
  • Hodge, A.T. (2001). Roman Aqueducts & Water Supply, 2nd ed. London: Duckworth.
  • Isager, Jacob, Pliny on Art and Society, Odense University Press (1991).
  • French, Roger and Greenaway, Frank, Science in the Early Roman Empire: Pliny the Elder, his Sources and Influence, Croom Helm (1986).


See also

  • Dolaucothi
  • Las Médulas
    Las Médulas

    Las M?dulas, located near the town of Ponferrada in the region of El Bierzo , used to be the most important gold gold mining in the Roman Empire....
  • Mining
    Mining

    Mining is the extraction of value minerals or other geology materials from the earth, usually from an ore body, vein or seam. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, Sodium chloride and potash....
  • Pliny the Younger
    Pliny the Younger

    Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, born Gaius Caecilius or Gaius Caecilius Cilo , better known as Pliny the Younger, was a lawyer, author, and natural philosopher of Ancient Rome....
  • Roman art
    Roman art

    Roman art includes the visual arts produced in Ancient Rome, and in the territories of the Roman empire. Major forms of Roman art are Roman architecture, painting, sculpture and mosaic work....
  • Roman architecture
    Roman architecture

    The Architecture of Ancient Rome adopted the external Greek Architecture for their own purposes, which were so different from Greek buildings as to create a new architecture style....
  • Roman aqueducts
  • Roman engineering
    Roman engineering

    The Roman Empire are generally famous for their advanced engineering accomplishments, although some of their own inventions were improvements on older ideas, concepts and inventions....
  • Roman mining
  • Roman sculpture
    Roman sculpture

    Roman sculpture refers to the sculpture of Ancient Rome. Roman sculpture often involved copying of Ancient Sculpture of Ancient Greece. Much Roman sculpture survives, although some of it is damaged....
  • Roman technology
    Roman technology

    Roman technology is the engineering practice which supported Roman civilization and made the expansion of Roman commerce and Roman military possible over nearly a thousand years....
  • Theophrastus
    Theophrastus

    Theophrastus , a Greek native of Eressos in Lesbos Island, was the successor of Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. His interests were wide-ranging, extending from biology and physics to ethics and metaphysics....
  • Johann and Wendelin of Speyer
    Johann and Wendelin of Speyer

    The brothers Johann and Wendelin of Speyer were German printers in Venice from 1468 to 1477.They were among the first of those who came to Italy from Mainz, after 1462, to introduce printing....


External links


Text

  • First English translation by Philemon Holland
    Philemon Holland

    Philemon Holland was an English translator.His father, John Holland, was a clergyman who fled the Kingdom of England during the persecutions of Mary I of England....
    , 1601
  • Second English translation by John Bostock
    John Bostock (physician)

    John Bostock MD FRS was a physician, scientist and geologist from Liverpool. After graduating in Medicine at the University of Edinburgh and practising medicine in Liverpool, he moved to London in 1817 where he concentrated on general science....
     and H. T. Riley, 1855;


Secondary material

  • from the Skeptical Inquirer