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Encyclopedia entry: Pliny
- Article from:
- The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature
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Copyright© The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature 1996, originally published by Oxford University Press 1996. (Hide copyright information)
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Pliny.
1.
Pliny the Elder
(Gaius Plinius Secundus) (AD 23/4–79), Roman writer on natural history. He was born at Cōmum (Como) in north Italy of an equestrian family and probably educated at Rome. From the age of about twenty-three to thirty-five he spent his life in military service, mostly with the armies of the Rhine, being at one time the comrade-in-arms of the future emperor Titus. He returned to Italy in 57 or 58 and it was perhaps at this time that he spent a period (mentioned by his nephew Pliny the Younger) as an advocate at the bar. After the accession of the emperor Vespasian in AD 69 his fortunes improved and he held a succession of procuratorships in Gaul, ...