SOURCE: Richard T. Bruere, "Pliny The Elder and Virgil," in Classical Philology, Vol. 51, No. 4, October, 1956, pp. 228-46.

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 Introduction to his edition of the Georgics (Paris, 1914), P. Lejay incidentally remarks "Pline a, dans plusieurs endroits de son Histoire naturelle, une attitude de sourde hostilite a l'egard de Virgile" (p. xxxvii). The suggestion that a covert malignancy accompanies the high esteem for the Roman national poet that Pliny, patriot and imperial functionary, more than once expresses in his encyclopedia is a paradoxical one, and warrants investigation. This paper will assemble and discuss the passages of the Natural History in which Pliny makes explicit or implicit reference to Virgil, with the purpose of defining and explaining his attitude toward the poet.

The Natural History contains many...