The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete
not but be conducted with the strictest regard to the public welfare.
The reform, which was begun in the late reign, he prosecuted with the
most ardent application; and, had he lived for a longer time, it is
probable that his authority and example would have produced the most
beneficial effects upon the manners of the Romans.
During the reign of this emperor, in the seventy-ninth year of (475) the
Christian era, happened the first eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which has
ever since been celebrated for its volcano. Before this time, Vesuvius
is spoken of, by ancient writers, as being covered with orchards and
vineyards, and of which the middle was dry and barren. The eruption was
accompanied by an earthquake, which destroyed several cities of Campania,
particularly Pompeii and Herculaneum; while the lava, pouring down the
mountain in torrents, overwhelmed, in various directions, the adjacent
plains. The burning ashes were carried not only over the neighbouring
country, but as far as the shores of Egypt, Libya, and even Syria.
Amongst those to whom this dreadful eruption proved fatal, was Pliny, the
celebrated naturalist, whose curiosity to examine the phenomenon led him
so far within the verge of danger, that he could not afterwards escape.
PLINY, surnamed the Elder, was born at Verona, of a noble family. He
distinguished himself early by his military achievements in the German
war, received the dignity of an Augur, at Rome, and was afterwards
appointed governor of Spain. In every public character, he acquitted
himself with great reputation, and enjoyed the esteem of the several
emperors under whom he lived. The assiduity with which he applied
himself to the collection of information, either curious or useful,
surpasses all example. From an early hour in the morning, until late at
night, he was almost constantly employed in discharging the duties of his
public station, in reading or hearing books read by his amanuensis, and
in extracting from them whatever seemed worthy of notice. Even during
his meals, and while travelling in his carriage upon business, he
prosecuted with unremitting zeal and diligence his taste for enquiry and
compilation. No man ever displayed so strong a persuasion of the value
of time, or availed himself so industriously of it. He considered every
moment as lost which was not employed in literary pursuits. The books
which he wrote, in consequence of this indefatigable exertion, were,
according to the account transmitted by his nephew, Pliny the younger,
numerous, and on various subjects. The catalogue of them is as follows:
a book on Equestrian Archery, which discovered much skill in the art; the
Life of Q. Pomponius Secundus; twenty books of the Wars of Germany; a
complete treatise on the Education of an Orator, in six volumes; eight
books of Doubtful Discourses, written in the latter part of the reign of
Nero, when every kind of moral discussion was attended with danger; with
a hundred and sixty volumes of remarks on the writings of the various
authors which he had perused. For the last-mentioned production only,
and before it was brought near to its accomplishment, we are told, that
he (476) was offered by Largius Licinius four hundred thousand sesterces,
amounting to upwards of three thousand two hundred pounds sterling; an
enormous sum for the copyright of a book before the invention of
printing! But the only surviving work of this voluminous author is his
Natural History, in thirty-seven books, compiled from the various writers
who had treated of that extensive and interesting subject.
If we estimate this great work either by the authenticity of the
information which it contains, or its utility in promoting the
advancement of arts and sciences, we should not consider it as an object
of any extraordinary encomiums; but when we view it as a literary
monument, which displays the whole knowledge of the ancients, relative to
Natural History, collected during a period of about seven hundred years,
from the time of Thales the Milesian, it has a just claim to the
attention of every speculative enquirer. It is not surprising, that the
progress of the human mind, which, in moral science, after the first dawn
of enquiry, was rapid both amongst the Greeks and Romans, should be slow
in the improvement of such branches of knowledge as depended entirely on
observation and facts, which were peculiarly difficult of attainment.
Natural knowledge can only be brought to perfection by the prosecution of
enquiries in different climates, and by a communication of discoveries
amongst those by whom it is cultivated. But neither could enquiries be
prosecuted, nor discoveries communicated, with success, while the greater
part of the world was involved in barbarism, while navigation was slow
and limited, and the art of printing unknown. The consideration of these
circumstances will afford sufficient apology for the imperfect state in
which natural science existed amongst the ancients. But we proceed to
give an abstract of their extent, as they appear in the compilation of
Pliny.
This work is divided into thirty-seven books; the first of which contains
the Preface, addressed to the emperor Vespasian, probably the father, to
whom the author pays high compliments. The second book treats of the
world, the elements, and the stars. In respect to the world, or rather
the universe, the author’s opinion is the same with that of several
ancient philosophers, that it is a Deity, uncreated, infinite, and
eternal. Their notions, however, as might be expected, on a subject so
incomprehensible, are vague, confused, and imperfect. In a subsequent
chapter of the same book, where the nature of the Deity is more
particularly considered, the author’s conceptions of infinite power are
so inadequate, that, by way of consolation for the limited powers of man,
he observes that there are many things even beyond the power of the
Supreme Being; such, for instance, as the annihilation of his own
existence; to which the author adds, the power (477) of rendering mortals
eternal, and of raising the dead. It deserves to be remarked, that,
though a future state of rewards and punishments was maintained by the
most eminent among the ancient philosophers, the resurrection of the body
was a doctrine with which they were wholly unacquainted.
The author next treats of the planets, and the periods of their
respective revolutions; of the stars, comets, winds, thunder, lightning,
and other natural phenomena, concerning all which he delivers the
hypothetical notions maintained by the ancients, and mentions a variety
of extraordinary incidents which had occurred in different parts of the
world. The third book contains a general system of geography, which is
continued through the fourth, fifth, and sixth books. The seventh treats
of conception, and the generation of the human species, with a number of
miscellaneous observations, unconnected with the general subject. The
eighth treats of quadrupeds; the ninth, of aquatic animals; the tenth, of
birds; the eleventh, of insects and reptiles; the twelfth, of trees; the
thirteenth, of ointments, and of trees which grow near the sea-coast; the
fourteenth, of vines; the fifteenth, of fruit-trees; the sixteenth, of
forest-trees; the seventeenth, of the cultivation of trees; the
eighteenth, of agriculture; the nineteenth, of the nature of lint, hemp,
and similar productions; the twentieth, of the medicinal qualities of
vegetables cultivated in gardens; the twenty-first, of flowers; the
twenty-second, of the properties of herbs; the twenty-third, of the
medicines yielded by cultivated trees; the twenty-fourth, of medicines
derived from forest-trees; the twenty-fifth, of the properties of wild
herbs, and the origin of their use; the twenty-sixth, of other remedies
for diseases, and of some new diseases; the twenty-seventh, of different
kinds of herbs; the twenty-eighth, twenty-ninth, and thirtieth, of
medicines procured from animals; the thirty-first and thirty-second, of
medicines obtained from aquatic animals, with some extraordinary facts
relative to the subject; the thirty-third, of the nature of metals; the
thirty-fourth, of brass, iron, lead, and tin; the thirty-fifth, of
pictures, and observations relative to painting; the thirty-sixth, of the
nature of stones and marbles; the thirty-seventh, of the origin of gems.
To the contents of each book, the author subjoins a list of the writers
from whom his observations have been collected.
Of Pliny’s talents as a writer, it might be deemed presumptuous to form a
decided opinion from his Natural History, which is avowedly a compilation
from various authors, and executed with greater regard to the matter of
the work, than to the elegance of composition. Making allowance,
however, for a degree of credulity, common to the human mind in the early
stage of physical (478) researches, he is far from being deficient in the
essential qualifications of a writer of Natural History. His
descriptions appear to be accurate, his observations precise, his
narrative is in general perspicuous, and he often illustrates his subject
by a vivacity of thought, as well as by a happy turn of expression. It
has been equally his endeavour to give novelty to stale disquisitions,
and authority to new observations. He has both removed the rust, and
dispelled the obscurity, which enveloped the doctrines of many ancient
naturalists; but, with all his care and industry, he has exploded fewer
errors, and sanctioned a greater number of doubtful opinions, than was
consistent with the exercise of unprejudiced and severe investigation.
Pliny was fifty-six years of age at the time of his death; the manner of
which is accurately related by his nephew, the elegant Pliny the Younger,
in a letter to Tacitus, who entertained a design of writing the life of
the naturalist.
TITUS FLAVIUS DOMITIANUS.
(479)
I. Domitian was born upon the ninth of the calends of November [24th
October] [795], when his father was consul elect, (being to enter upon
his office the month following,) in the sixth region of the city, at the
Pomegranate [796], in the house which he afterwards converted into a
temple of the Flavian family. He is said to have spent the time of his
youth in so much want and infamy, that he had not one piece of plate
belonging to him; and it is well known, that Clodius Pollio, a man of
pretorian rank, against whom there is a poem of Nero’s extant, entitled
Luscio, kept a note in his hand-writing, which he sometimes produced, in
which Domitian made an assignation with him for the foulest purposes.
Some, likewise, have said, that he prostituted himself to Nerva, who
succeeded him. In the war with Vitellius, he fled into the Capitol with
his uncle Sabinus, and a part of the troops they had in the city [797].
But the enemy breaking in, and the temple being set on fire, he hid
himself all night with the sacristan; and next morning, assuming the
disguise of a worshipper of Isis, and mixing with the priests of that
idle superstition, he got over the Tiber [798], with only one attendant,
to the house of a woman who was the mother of one of his school-fellows,
and lurked there so close, that, though the enemy, who were at his heels,
searched very strictly after him, they could not discover him. At last,
after the success of his party, appearing in public, and being
unanimously saluted by the title of Caesar, he assumed the office of
praetor of the City, with consular authority, but in fact had nothing but
the name; for the jurisdiction he transferred to his next colleague. He
used, however, his absolute (480) power so licentiously, that even then
he plainly discovered what sort of prince he was likely to prove. Not to