Pliny the Elder

Pliny the Elder, Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23 or 24–79), was a Roman officer, administrator and encyclopedist. Born at Como, he served as a cavalry commander in Germany, practiced law under Nero, held a series of procuratorships in the provinces under Vespasian and ended as commander of the fleet at Misenum. He read and dictated at every spare moment, and of his many works only the Natural History survives, thirty-seven books on the cosmos, geography, humankind, animals, plants, medicine, metals, stones and art that remained a standard reference for fifteen hundred years. He died during the eruption of Vesuvius, as his nephew Pliny the Younger recorded.