Pliny’s Natural History is a credible historical document that provides information on Roman scientific and cultural information. This has also influenced other Europeans in their fields. His accounts can also help us analyze the Roman culture and understand the objectives of his work.
One aspect of Roman culture that Pliny considered was religion. He brought out an argument which relates nature and life. From the document, the Romans believed in the existence of divine power that controlled the universe and in the existence of a spirit in the world (Swanton et al, 2002). More important to the Romans, was the Creator (eNatura artifex). The Creator treasured the mankind more than any other of his creations and placed a human in the center it of his creation. According to Pliny, there existed a hierarchy of beings. Arranged in a descending order, the heaven tops the list, followed by earth, animals, plants, medicine from plants, medicine from animals and finally metals and minerals. Notably, humans were more important than animals hence the list descended from humans, to land animals, sea creatures, birds, and ended at the insects. Medicine was very important in the history of the Romans and defined their culture.
The Romans had a moral writing culture that greatly distinguished the urban and rural life. The rural life was not as complex as the urban one. The Romans upheld the culture of their civilization which strengthened the empire. Pliny praised the superiority of the Romans to the above trait. Superiority came from focusing on conquering vast parts of Europe due to the military power. However, the Roman culture sometimes led the empire to the extravagancy. This later caused the raising of taxes to compensate the wasted resources.
Pliny wrote this work when events were taking place. This made his historical record of events reliable (Overfield, 2012). Through this text, Pliny clearly defines the culture of the Romans. He also shows the contribution of the Romans to the field of medicine though he does not fail to criticize some negative practices of the Romans undermining the moral integrity. This text asserts that it is all about the Romans and their role in the civilization of the world.