Pliny the Elder, the Roman naturalist of the first century CE, wrote the Natural History, an encyclopedia of what his age knew and believed. I keep running into him wherever my research touches rivers, rare metals, strange creatures and the Essenes. These are the pages where I wrote about him.
Pliny the geographer
On 7 Rivers of the Nile I use Book V of the Natural History for the branches of the Nile Delta:
The river Nile, after flowing through the length of Egypt, divides into seven different channels, which form the Delta.
Pliny the Elder, Natural History
On Account of Menes I note that Pliny credits Menes with bringing writing to Egypt. On Babylon’s connection with Atlantis he describes how the once great city had become deserted and ruined by his time, and on Why Is the Dead Sea Called the Sea of Death? he names the lake Asphaltites for its bitumen and places the Essenes on its west shore. On The Essenes: an ancient mystical movement originating around 200-300 BCE I quote Claire Heartsong’s Anna, Grandmother of Jesus, which names him with Josephus and Philo as the classical writers whose comments were the only ones the early western world had about the Essenes.
Metals, spices and wonders
On Orichalcum I note that Pliny refers to orichalcum as a metal once in high demand that had since become scarce. On Ancient cinnamon he reports cinnamon carried around Arabia on rudderless, oarless rafts with the winter trade winds, and a price of up to 1,500 denarii for a Roman pound. On Phoenix he describes the bird as native to Arabia, living 500 years, with only one alive at a time. On Nereids are beings often depicted as half-human, half-fish creatures he collects sailors’ stories of nereids and tritons, while doubting the reports of captured specimens.
Atlantis and his death
Where Was Atlantis lists Pliny among the classical authors who referred to Atlantis, and Popular History of America 1881 says that Strabo and Pliny both mention a mysterious island like Plato’s. On 5 New Archaeological Discoveries of 2024 a Roman villa near the Bay of Naples is suggested as his, and the summary recalls that he died in the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE, as his stepson Pliny the Younger recorded.
Related pages
- 7 Rivers of the Nile
- Account of Menes
- Babylon’s connection with Atlantis
- Why Is the Dead Sea Called the Sea of Death?
- Orichalcum
- Ancient cinnamon
- Phoenix
- Nereids are beings often depicted as half-human, half-fish creatures
- 5 New Archaeological Discoveries of 2024
For every page I tagged with Pliny, see the Pliny tag archive.
