Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus, known as Pliny the Elder, was born in AD 23 or 24 at Novum Comum, now Como, in northern Italy, into a wealthy family of the equestrian class. As a young man he served as a cavalry officer on the German frontier, and he wrote a history of Rome's wars with the Germans. Under the emperor Vespasian, a personal friend, he held high posts as a provincial administrator. He was famous for his industry: according to his nephew, Pliny the Younger, one servant would read aloud to him while another wrote down the extracts he dictated, even while he was bathing. His only surviving work, the Natural History, in 37 books, dedicated to the future emperor Titus in AD 77, gathers knowledge from hundreds of earlier writers on astronomy, geography, people, animals, plants, medicine, metals and art. It became a standard reference for many centuries. In AD 79, while commanding the Roman fleet at Misenum, near Naples, he saw the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and sailed to study it and to rescue people; he died on the shore at Stabiae.

Pliny the Elder is also an author in the library: author page and works.

Faith: Faith not well documented. Source: Wikipedia