Pliny the Elder (23-79) was a Roman encyclopedist. His greatest and only surviving work, the Natural History, has been called one of the most influential books ever written in Latin. Pliny whose full name was Gaius Plinius Secundus, was born at Comum...

Life is uigilia, wrote C. Plinius Secundus in Historia naturalis (Natural History, pref. 18), by which the old soldier meant that life is being on watch and on duty. The highest duty and the path of divinity was to help one's fellow mortals (HN 2.18,...

23-79 Roman Scholar Although only one of his works, Natural History, has survived, Pliny the Elder became famous for that work. Natural History was a 37-volume encyclopedia that covered topics ranging from anthropology, astronomy, and mineralogy to...

23-79 Roman scholar and writer who produced a comprehensive encyclopedia of zoology and botany, as well as astronomy, geography, and other topics. In the encyclopedia, Historia Naturalis (Natural History), Pliny compiled information gathered from some...

This article is part of the series on: Military of ancient Rome (portal)800 BC–AD...

Comic-book artist who drew for 'Mad' magazine and co-created 'Little Annie Fanny' for 'Playboy' The American satirist and comic-book artist Will (at times Bill) Elder was one of the last surviving denizens of the Crypt of Terror - sometimes the Vault of Horror,...

God FOUND ME-found all of us-the year of my twelfth birthday. We used a twenty-two to shoot Joseph and Josephine and abandoned a life that had not been a bad life. But Arthur Backstrom promised better. This was 1971, the year of...

Ever whacked your thumb with a hammer, or wrenched your back after lifting a heavy box, and blamed the full moon? It's a popular notion, but there's no cosmic connection, Austrian government researchers said Tuesday.Robert Seeberger, a physicist and astronomer at the Ministry of Economic...

Ever whacked your thumb with a hammer, or wrenched your back after lifting a heavy box, and blamed the full moon? It's a popular notion, but there's no cosmic connection, Austrian researchers said.Robert Seeberger, a physicist and astronomer at Austria's Ministry of Economic Affairs, said...

In the following excerpt, Beagon offers a study of Pliny's religious skepticism, examining his belief in the importance of the human relationship with nature and his conclusion that "Nature is what we mean by God."

In the essay that follows, Bruere attempts to define Pliny's attitude toward the Roman poet Virgil by examining his references to Virgil's writings.

In the essay that follows, Wallace-Hadrill defends Pliny against his detractors by arguing that his words must be read within the context of Roman civilization and that his writings offer valuable insight into the role of science and social status in imperial Rome.