Dacia (modern Romania), 88, 207, 208–9, 237
Danube, 88, 175, 209–10
Darius III, 84
Darwin, Charles, 132
de Alcubierre, Rocque Joaquin, 41
death and mortality: ghosts, 77–80; Pliny and posterity, 212–13, 230; Pliny the Elder on life-after-death, 76–77; Sleep and Death as brothers, 57–58, 78, 98; Stoic view of, 98–99, 100; suicide, 53, 98–100, 140, 141–42, 188–89
Decebalus (Dacian king), 88, 208
Decius, Emperor, 227
Demosthenes, 46
Dendy, W.C., 79
Descent of Man, The (Darwin), 132
Dickens, Charles, 70, 78, 79
Diocletian, Emperor, 218, 228–29
Dolce, Lodovico, 162
dolphins, 138–39
Domitia Longina, 91, 170
Domitian, Emperor, 25; assassination of (AD 96), 169–70, 174, 179, 271n24; background of, 87; Dacian expedition and, 88, 207; damnatio memoriae of, 179–80, 229; and death of Titus, 85–86; expulsion of philosophers from Italy, 144, 147, 148, 149, 173, 223, 237; German Wars and, 87–88, 237; legal system and, 91, 144–49; Pliny and, 27, 28, 86–87, 88–90, 101, 144–49, 170–72, 179–80, 208, 229; rule of, 86–90, 101, 144–49, 157, 170–71, 179, 197–98; sexual behaviour of, 91–92, 172; treatment of Christians, 147–48, 222, 223; and trial of Stoics, 146, 171–72, 173, 237; Vestal Virgin buried alive by, 89–90, 91–92, 257n40
dreams, 67–69, 78, 171
drunkenness, 197
Drusus (son of Livia), 21, 23, 24, 54, 78, 235
earthquakes, 8–10, 243n28; during AD 79 eruption, 8–10, 11, 13, 243n27
Eco, Umberto, 38
education, 133–36, 233
Egypt, 15, 54, 158, 205
Elephantis (author), 184
elephants, 71–72, 71n
Epicureanism, 77, 92, 129n
equestrian class, 20n, 27, 28, 30, 66, 82, 124, 157, 185, 192, 263n14
Etna, Mount, 4, 5
Etrurians of central Italy, 191
Euphrates (Stoic philosopher), 94–96, 99, 100, 149, 176
Euripides, 90
Eusebius (Christian historian), 226, 228, 244n2
evolutionary science, 132
Fabatus, Calpurnius (grandfather of Calpurnia), 185, 186, 228
Fabris, Pietro, 40
Fannia (Arria’s granddaughter), 142, 144–45, 146–47, 148, 173, 175
fig trees, 106–7, 108
Fiorelli, Giuseppe, 41–42, 80
fire-fighting equipment, 221
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, 130
Flavia Domitilla (Domitian’s niece), 147, 169
Flavio Biondo, 19, 245n7
fleet, Roman imperial, 3–4, 6–7, 24
Florence, 158, 160–61
flowers and trees, 20–21, 73, 106–9, 116, 156–57, 167, 190, 194–95
food: first fruits of spring, 106–9; fish sauces, 195; Musonius Rufus on, 96; olives, 194–95; at Pliny’s occasional dinners, 61–62; seafood, 30, 64–66; see also agriculture
Francesco I de’Medici, 158, 159–60
Frankenstein (Shelley), 117, 118
Franklin, Benjamin, 35
Freud, Sigmund, 68
Frisians (Germanic tribe), 22
Galba, Emperor, 53, 236
Gannascus (Chauci leader), 246n22
Gatsby, Jay, 130
Gauls, 108, 191
Germania, 20, 21–24, 52, 54–55, 87–88, 158, 236
Ghiberti, Lorenzo, 162
ghosts, 77–80
Giovio, Benedetto, 19–20, 125, 126–27, 281n5; Historiae Patriae, 128, 232
Giovio, Paolo, 19, 125, 126, 128, 263n10
grain imports, 205
Granius Marcellus, Marcus, 178–79, 272n4, 273n7
grapes, 196–98
Guarini, Guarino, 245n5
gynaecological health, 183–85
Hadrian, Emperor, 67, 229, 237, 251n7, 280n43
Hamilton, Sir William, 40–41
Hannibal, 108
Heaney, Seamus, 190
Hector, 3
Hecuba (Euripides), 90
Helvidius Priscus, 92, 142, 143
Herculaneum, 11–12, 41, 42, 77
Hermes, 57
Herod Agrippa, King, 52, 236
Herodotus, 15n, 212
Hesiod, 107, 192, 193, 195
hetaeriae (political clubs), 221, 224
Historiae Patriae (Giovio), 128, 232
Homer, 29n, 47, 57–58, 69
homes and estates of Pliny: in Como, 32, 126–28; garden at Laurentum, 105, 107; home on Esquiline Hill, 32, 59, 141, 193; Pliny’s inheritance of, 29, 178–79; villa at Laurentum, 71, 72–75, 76, 105, 106–7, 116, 153, 165, 192; see also Tuscan villa and estate (near Perugia)
Horace, 105, 193
horse-racing, 157
Hortensius (orator), 71
Housman, A.E., 106, 112
hunting, 72, 124, 165, 194
Icaria (Aegean island), 112
Iliad (Homer), 29n, 47, 57, 69
inheritability, notion of, 132
Interpretation of Dreams (Freud), 68
James I, 38
Jerusalem, 52, 55, 222, 225, 226, 236, 251n5
Jewish War (Josephus), 52
Jews and Judaism: Caligula and, 225; Claudius and, 222, 224; destruction of Temple of Jerusalem (AD 70), 55, 226; Masada siege (AD 73–4), 55, 251n7; Romans’ conflation of Judaism with Christianity, 147, 169, 222; Tiberius’ expelling of Jews from Rome (AD 19), 222, 236; uprising in Judaea (AD 66–74), 52–53, 55, 85, 141–42, 174, 236
John the Apostle, 147
Josephus, 52–53, 55
Jotapata (Yodfat), siege of, 52
Joyce, James, 129
Judaea, 52–53, 54, 55, 85, 141–42, 174, 222, 225, 226, 235, 236
Julia (Domitian’s niece), 86, 91, 256n4
Julian Calendar, xiv
Jupiter, 14, 123, 129, 157, 177, 205, 280n43
Juvenal, 83, 147
Lais (doctor and/or sex worker), 184
Lang, Andrew, 79
Larius (Como’s lake), 116–20, 122, 124, 126–28, 140, 149
Laurentum, 71, 72–75, 76, 105, 116, 149, 165
Lavinia, 73
legacy hunting (captatio), 49
legal system: board of ‘Ten Men,’ 44; Centumviral Court, 44–46, 48–50, 68, 91, 100, 134, 167; Domitian and, 91, 144–49; juries, 44, 45–46; Pliny as lawyer, 44–46, 47–48, 49, 67, 68, 81–83, 99, 100, 134, 167; senatorial trials, 81–83, 144–48, 173; trial of Stoics under Domitian, 144–47, 171–72, 173
Leonardo da Vinci, 116, 159, 168, 234
Leoniceno, Niccolò, 234, 253
letters of Pliny: account of AD 79 eruption, 18, 37–38, 40, 100; to Calpurnia, 114–15, 186–87; Como and, 23, 125, 126; on the courtrooms, 45; discovery of manuscript (c.1500), 18, 245n4; dolphin story in, 138–39; on Domitian, 28; first printed edition (1471), 18, 245n5; as great chronicle, 27–28, 229–30; ideas on life he wishes to lead, 31–32; on occasional dinners, 61; as pagan source on Christianity, 28–29, 225–26; poetry in, 114–15; published by himself, 32, 247n56; on Stoicism, 95; Suetonius in, 67–69; to Tacitus, 3, 35–36, 37–38, 40, 48, 74, 165–67; to Trajan, 28, 36, 219–20, 222–23, 225–27, 228
Leviticus, 216
Licinius Sura (senator), 119
Lives of the Caesars (Suetonius), 25, 26, 66, 85, 86, 147, 169, 222, 257n40
Livia (Augustus’ third wife), 21, 235
Livy, 10, 79
Lucan, 27, 236
Lucretius (poet), 77
Lucullus (Roman general), 106
Ludovico Sforza, 126
Macer, Aemilius, 19
malarial infection, 154, 155
Mantegna, Andrea, 162
Manutius, Aldus, 18, 245n4
Marcus Aurelius, Emperor, 92
Marley, Jacob, 79
Martial, 59–60, 119, 133, 217, 236
Masada, siege of (AD 73�
�4), 55, 236, 251n7
Matociis, Giovanni de, 18
Matrone, Gennaro, 131
Mauricus, 146
Medicina Plinii (Pliny the Elder), 31
medicine: distrust of doctors, 180–82; foreign, 31, 181; gynaecological health, 183–85; iced baths, 85–86; natural remedies, 31, 140–41, 181, 188
menstruation, 184
Messalina (third wife of Claudius), 94
Metamorphoses (Ovid), 153, 159
Milan (Mediolanum), 36, 123
Misenum, cape of, 3–4, 6, 10, 11, 12–13, 15, 16, 37
Mithridates VI Eupator, 98n
Mona (Anglesey), 88
Montaigne, Michel de, 62–63
Montanus, Senator, 49
Morandini, Francesco, 160
Musonius Rufus (Stoic), 94, 96, 99, 149, 259n60
mythology: Bacchus, 5; bones of Orestes, 14–15, 15n; earthquakes and volcanoes, 15; fall of Troy, 13, 57; Odysseus, 47, 69; Prometheus, 160–61; Sarpedon’s death, 57–58, 98; Sleep and Death as brothers, 57–58, 78, 98; Virgil’s Aeneas, 3, 4, 13, 15, 24, 46, 69
Natural History (Pliny the Elder): aim of, 93; composition of, 17; dedicated to Titus, 58; frontispiece of, 18–19; humanist reactions to, 233–34; ‘in a nutshell’ phrase, 29n; influence on Darwin, 132; and Montaigne’s roof beams, 62–63; Percy Shelley and, 117; Pliny the Elder’s description of, 214; Renaissance printed editions, 18, 159, 161–62; as seminal achievement, 29–30, 58; structure of, 30; survival of, 230; work started on, 52
Natural History (subjects): agriculture, 193–94; antidotes to poison, 98n; art collectors, 130–31; bees, 116; Campania, 4–5, 196; Cicero, 206; Cleopatra’s pearls, 159–60; contraceptive advice, 31; Curio’s theatre in Rome, 167; danger from shrews, 155; dangers and ubiquity of seafood, 63–66; dangers of materiality, 30–31, 96, 108; dangers of mushrooms, 25, 109; death of Claudius, 24–25; distrust of doctors, 181; dolphins, 138–39; drunkenness, 197; earthquakes, 8; elephants, 71–72; end of the world fears, 14; eyes and light, 75; fabulous creatures, 139; figs, 106, 108; finger rings, 158, 158; flowers and trees, 20–21, 106, 108; fortune following disaster, 106; gigantic ancient corpses, 14; gout, 188; gynaecology, 183–85; hot springs, 23–24; Judaea, 55–56; loss of faces from history, 180; moles, 75; natural remedies, 31, 140–41, 181, 188; nightingales, 138; notion of life after death, 76–77; olives, 195; oysters, 30, 64–66; paper manufacture, 17; perfume, 83–84; plunder of the earth, 30, 96–97; preordained fate, 78; Romans as conquerors conquered, 84; sculpture and art, 130–31, 161–62; sexuality, 90–91, 183; snow, 62–64; suicide, 97–98; summer solstice, 190–91; the Tiber, 203; volcanoes, 4; wine, 197–98
natural world: Aristotle and, 71–72; ‘Dal male nasce il bene,’ 105; flowers and trees, 20–21, 73, 106–9, 116, 156–57, 167, 190, 194–95; ‘lucky Campania,’ 5; Pliny’s view of, 47–48, 98, 101, 109, 137–39, 230; Pliny the Elder as naturalist, 4, 20–21, 30–31, 96–97, 101, 105, 106, 109, 230; Pliny the Elder on plundering of, 30–31, 96–97; spring, 105–8, 109, 116; Stoic view of, 92, 96–97; see also earthquakes; volcanoes
Neoptolemus (son of Achilles), 90
Nepos, Cornelius, 19, 129n
Neptune, 4, 14, 123, 179
Nero, Emperor, 25–26, 30, 49, 52, 146, 185, 223, 227, 236; death of (AD 68), 53, 56, 94, 236; murder of wife (Poppaea), 25, 143; persecution of Christians, 26, 147, 223; Petronius as ‘arbiter of excellence’ for, 27, 130, 134; plot against (AD 65), 27, 96, 99; Thrasea Paetus and, 142–44
Nerva, Emperor, 27, 172, 173–75, 204–5, 237
Nicene Creed of the Church, 228
Nicomedia (modern Izmit), 218, 220–21
nightingales, 138
Nile (river), 205, 210
Odysseus, 47, 69, 207
olive trees, 194–95
Olympias (female doctor), 184
On Throwing the Javelin from Horseback (Pliny the Elder), 23
Orata, Sergius, 65
oratory and rhetoric, 28, 44–48, 134, 173, 206, 207–9; Pliny’s Panegyricus (speech, AD 100), 28, 206, 207–9, 211, 214; relation to history, 214; Tacitus’ funeral oration for Verginius Rufus, 36–37
Orestes, 14–15, 15n
Orion, 14
Orpheus, 71
Orrery, 5th Earl of, 154–55
Ortelius, Abraham, 127–28
Otus, 14
Oufentina tribe, 73
Ovid, 105–6, 114, 153, 159, 177
Paetus, Caecina, 142
Panaetius (philosopher), 92
Panegyricus speech (Pliny the Younger), 28, 206, 207–9, 211, 214, 237
pantomimes, 208
Parrhasius of Ephesus, 161, 162
Parthian empire, 208
Pater, Walter, 121
Penelope, 47, 69
Perotti, Niccolò, 19, 245n7
Peter, 222
Petrarch, 19, 128, 245n7
Petronius (satirical writer), 27, 130, 134, 236
Philostratus (writer), 86
Pisanello, 162
Piso, Gaius Calpurnius, 27, 250n49
Plato’s Academy, 156
Plinia (Pliny’s mother), 3, 4, 6, 10, 11, 12–13, 15, 16, 37
Pliniana (villa on Lake Como), 117–18, 262n58
Pliny the Elder: as admiral of the fleet, 4, 6–7, 18, 56; The Ambiguities of Grammar, 27; Como as birthplace of, 20, 232–33, 236; creative mind of, 44; curiosity of, 20–21; death of, 12, 12n, 13, 17, 29, 37, 38, 39, 230, 237, 243n27; dispute over birthplace of, 18–20, 232; German Wars and, 21, 23; as historian, 4, 18, 24–25, 52; Matrone claims skeleton find of, 131–32, 265n9; Medicina Plinii, 31; military service in Germania, 20, 21, 22, 23–24, 54–55, 87, 91, 246n20; as more celebrated than Pliny, 229–30; as naturalist, 4, 20–21, 30–31, 96–97, 101, 105, 106, 109, 230; ‘procuratorships’ overseas, 56; as relentless worker, 51–52, 57; small handwriting of, 29, 29n; social background of, 20; at Stabiae, 7–8, 9, 10–11, 12; statues in Verona and Como of, 19, 231–32, 234; Stoicism and, 92–93, 96–97; On Throwing the Javelin from Horseback, 23; Titus and, 54, 55, 57, 58, 111; Vespasian and, 56; villa near Perugia, 155, 162–63, 178–79; vita vigilia est idea, 57–58, 69; see also Natural History (Pliny the Elder)
Pliny the Younger: and AD 79 eruption, 3, 6, 10, 11, 12–14, 15–16, 18, 100; ambition of, 59; as ardent gardener, 109, 156–57; belief in ghosts, 78–80; candidates for father of, 123, 262n6, 263n9; Christianity and, 28–29, 221–29, 232–33, 237; Como as birthplace of, 31, 116, 122, 236; confused with elder namesake, 17–18, 244n2; conscious of time slipping by, 211–13; as consul, 206, 237; and Corellius Rufus’ death, 188–89; Curator of Tiber and Rome’s sewers, 210; death of, 229, 237; death of first wife, 172, 188; disdain for animal entertainments, 72; disdain for shellfish, 66; dispute over birthplace of, 18–20, 126–28, 232; Domitian and, 27, 28, 86–87, 88–90, 101, 144–49, 170–72, 179–80, 208, 229; education as important to, 133–36, 233; eye problems, 75, 76, 78, 165; first marriage of, 68, 113, 172, 188, 237, 260n39; friendship with Tacitus, 35–36, 37, 74, 135, 165–67, 229; gifts and generosity to Como, 129, 133–36, 232, 233, 265n26; as great chronicler, 27–28, 230; harbour at Centum Cellae and, 210; history-writing and, 213–14; as ‘imperial legate’ to Bithynia, 216–28, 232–33; influence/legacy of uncle, 29–30; inheritability notion and, 132; inheritance from uncle, 29, 32; as Interpreter of Bird Signs, 206; ius trium liberorum honour to, 217; as lawyer, 44–48, 49, 67, 68, 81–83, 99, 100, 134, 167; as less celebrated than uncle, 229–30; mean-heartedness over Regulus’ boy, 132–33, 138; on merits of variety, 62, 109, 116; as meticulous and pedantic, 44; Mettius Carus’ list of accusations against, 148–49, 171, 179; military service in Syria, 94, 96, 112; on Natural History, 93; Odysseus as model for, 47; oratory of, 28, 44–48, 173, 206, 207–9, 211, 214; Panegyricus speech, AD 100, 28, 206, 207–9, 211, 214, 237; poetry and, 110–13, 114–16, 163; posterity and, 212–13, 230; as praetor, 92; on pre-eruption tremors, 8; as prefect of the Treasury of Saturn, 168–69, 175–76, 204, 237; a
nd properties of stone, 211; as provincial governor, 81, 216–28; rigorous working routine of, 60, 62, 107; second marriage of, 113–14, 163, 164, 183, 184–85, 189, 216–17, 237, 260n39, 261n40; seeks revenge for Stoics, 149, 172–73, 175; as senator, 26, 28, 44, 145–46, 148, 173; serious illness (c. AD 97) of, 180, 182–83, 188; sexuality and, 114–15; snow imagery and, 62; spring/fountain at Torno and, 116, 117, 118, 123, 127, 210; statues in Como of, 19, 206, 231–32, 234; Stoicism and, 93–94, 95–96, 97, 99–101, 136, 146, 149, 171–72, 182; strict routine of, 164–66; thought processes of, 164–65; Tiber and, 203–4, 210; Trajan and, 27, 28–29, 204–5, 206–11, 216, 217, 219–20, 221, 222–23, 225–28, 276n25; on travel, 122; treatment of slaves, 74–75; and trial of Stoics, 144, 145–46, 171–72; view of natural world, 101, 109, 137–39, 230; views on art, 130; views on suicide, 99–101, 140, 141–42, 188–89; wine drinking and, 199; see also homes and estates of Pliny; letters of Pliny; Tuscan villa and estate (near Perugia)
Plutarch, 90
poetry, 110–13, 114–16, 163; literary game between Pliny and Tacitus, 166–67; of Percy Shelley, 117
poisons, 97, 99; antidotes, 98n
Polidori, John, 117
Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, 225
Polyxena (Trojan princess), 90
Pompeia Celerina, 194, 276n25
Pompeii, 4, 7, 8, 12, 186; excavations at (eighteenth-century), 41–42; Fiorelli’s casts of the dead at, 41–42, 80; ‘House of the Golden Bracelet,’ 43
Pompey the Great, 98n, 217–18, 235
Pomponianus (friend of Pliny the Elder), 7–8, 10
Pomponius Secundus, 24, 87
Pontus (in Asia Minor), 23, 70, 98n, 106, 222
Poppaea (wife of Nero), 25, 143, 236
Portus, near Ostia, 210
Poseidonius (Stoic), 92
postal system, 219
Praetorian Guard, 23, 27, 53, 174, 175, 271n35
Praxiteles (sculptor), 161, 162
precious stones, 30, 65, 96, 158, 159–60
Priam, King, 90
Priscus, Marius, 81–83
Prometheus, 160
Prometheus Unbound (Shelley), 118
Prusa (Bursa), 219–20
Publicius Certus, 173, 175
Punic Wars, 87, 108, 212, 235
Pythagoreanism, 92, 95
Quintilian, 47, 134, 135
Rectina (friend of Pliny the Elder), 6
Regulus, Marcus Aquilius, 48–50, 50n, 132–33, 138, 145, 148, 170–71, 172, 227, 229, 250n49
religion: festivals, 43, 70–71, 73–75, 123, 177–78; Pliny as Interpreter of Bird Signs, 206; Pliny’s Temple of Ceres, 177–78, 205; Roman gods, 4, 5, 14, 43, 57–58, 70, 92, 123; Stoic view of, 92; suicide and, 53; Vestal Virgins and, 89–90, 91–92, 257n40