The elder Pliny on the human animal

by Pliny the Elder

"The seventh book of Pliny's Natural History, his magisterial survey of nature, records his researches into the human race. Book 7 encapsulates the core of the complex and ambivalent relationship between nature and her human prodigy. Although structured around the human natural life cycle, Pliny's enquiries go far beyond a purely biological description to reveal the cultural belief system of the Roman world in the first century A.D. with a detail and variety unmatched by any other ancient record. The present study, the first detailed commentary on Book 7, is intended to highlight the cultural importance of Pliny's text. While giving due emphasis to Pliny's comments on 'mainstream' historical data involving well-known individuals and events, it focuses in particular on the off-beat, the curious, and the obscure, where investigation frequently reveals a complex substratum of ancient beliefs and ideas. As a result, fresh light is shed on the popular cultural heritage of Pliny's era, much