Pliny the Elder

Scholars have long mined Pliny's (23-79 AD) Naturalis Historia for insights into thinking about nature in Roman times, but few have considered it as a work of literature itself. Here European and American classicists discuss such aspects as Pliny the Elder's attitude to warfare, luxury and the creation of a good consumer, philosophy and science in Naturalis Historia, the encyclopedaedic addressee, the Naturalis Historia and the Letters of the Young Pliny, and the Vita Plinii. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Roy K Gibson, Ph.D. (1993) in Classics, University of Cambridge, is Professor of Latin at the University of Manchester. He has published extensively on Augustan poetry, and is co-editor with Ruth Morello of Re-imagining Pliny the Younger (Arethusa 36.2, 2003), and co-author also with Ruth Morello of Reading the Letters of Pliny the Younger: an Introduction (Cambridge, 2011).Ruth Morello, Ph.D. (1994) in Classics, Cornell, is Lecturer in Classics at the University of Manchester. She has published extensively on historiographical texts of the early imperial period and - in addition to co-editing with Roy Gibson Re-imagining Pliny the Younger (Arethusa 36.2, 2003), and co-authoring also with Roy Gibson Reading the Letters of Pliny the Younger: an Introduction (Cambridge, 2011) - has co-edited with Andrew Morrison Ancient Letters (Oxford, 2007).Contributors: Rhiannon Ash, Mary Beagon, Cynthia Damon, Aude Doody, Andrew Fear, Roy Gibson, Eugenia Lao, Ruth Morello, Valerie Naas, Ernesto Paparazzo, Clemence Schultze, Michael Reeve.