Pliny the Elder, Gaius Plinius Secundus (23CE-August 25th, 79CE) was a Naval and Army commander and friend of the emperor Vespasian. Pliny’s last text was the “Naturalis Historia” completed in 77CE. It is an encyclopaedia of available knowledge and comprises History, Geography, Botany, Zoology, Astronomy, Geology and Mineralogy.
Unfortunately his sudden and unexpected death whilst endeavouring to rescue persons trapped by the eruptive force of Vesuvius meant that this text was both perhaps his greatest and last.
The geographical fragments included there-in, are from many sources; each is attributed to the original author and traveller as the case may be. These people generally existed just before our common era, but also as far back as Eratosthenes (285-194BCE), and thus provide a marvellous insight into the Geography of that age. It pre-dates the work of Marinus the Tyrian and Claudius Ptolemy, who were active from the end of the first century to the latter part of the second century CE, but, it is contemporaneous with the “Geography” of Strabo. However, it appears that Pliny was not aware of that text.
This text is not a comprehensive analysis of Pliny’s work, but a selective overview to establish the overall extant world view that appertained in the first century of our common era. It is also the pre-cursor of a second text, cgPl2, which investigates the map or maps available to and studied by Pliny.
23 A4 pages and 21 full colour diagram maps