Emperor Vespasian showed him great favour; and Titus was also his friend. Vespasian made him commander of the fleet. In a.d. 79 he was at Misenum, when the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that covered Herculaneum and Pompeii happened. While immersed in his studies on the 24th August, his sister called his attention to a remarkable cloud of singular shape and varying colours which darkened the sky. This excited his curiosity. Wanting to examine it more nearly, he embarked in a small vessel, and advanced nearer Vesuvius, contrary to the advice of some sailors who had fled from the impending danger. Though the vessel sailed forward amid showers of hot cinders and stones, and was exposed to the danger of being left aground by the retreating sea, he was still self-possessed and calm enough to note down observations respecting the phenomenon. Pliny went to Pomponianus at Stabiæ, who was about to set sail in terror; cheered his spirits, retired to rest at night, and slept; but was awakened by Pomponianus because cinders were filling up the court of the house. He and his friend then left the house and made for the sea, with the intention of embarking if possible. But the waters were too agitated. Pliny then lay down on a sail His companions, terrified by flames and sulphur, ran away; and when his slaves helped their master to rise he fell down suffocated. Thus he became a victim to his insatiable love of knowledge. The historical, rhetorical, and grammatical works of Pliny are lost; and the only one preserved is his "Historia Naturalis," divided into thirty-seven books, which is a sort of encyclopædia, containing miscellaneous observations on natural history properly so called, astronomy, meteorology, mineralogy, botany, geography, zoology, human inventions and institutions: the fine arts, &c., are also included. The first book contains an epistle to Titus, to whom the work is dedicated, and a table of the contents of the remaining ones. The second book relates to astronomy and meteorology. The third, fourth, fifth, and sixth are geographical. From seven till eleven inclusive treat of zoology. From twelve to nineteen treat of general botany; from twenty to twenty-seven of medical botany. The twenty-eighth book refers to medicines derived from the human body and from land animals; the twenty-ninth and thirtieth to the history of medicine and to magic; the thirty-first to the medicinal virtues of several waters; and the thirty-second to the medical properties of fishes and other aquatic animals. The thirty-third and thirty-fourth refer to metals, statues, and statuaries; the thirty-fifth to painting; the thirty-sixth to marble and other stones used in building; and the thirty-seventh to precious stones. If there be a plan in the work it is not closely followed, for the writer digresses more or less into collateral subjects. The materials were drawn from a great number of writers, about one hundred in number; and from two thousand volumes. The author himself states that he has given twenty thousand important things. A natural history so compiled is undoubtedly a valuable production, preserving numerous facts and beliefs of antiquity. The industry of the author was unwearied and prodigious. He occupied all his leisure minutes in writing; and abridged his hours of sleep with the same object. His thirst for knowledge was unquenchable. Though he filled public offices and situations unfavourable for reading, he managed to get time for study. He was ever gathering knowledge out of books with wonderful assiduity. In thus accumulating from others' treasures he showed no originality or genius. His own talents must have been very moderate, else he would not have been satisfied with the work of compiling. Nor was his judgment good. He did not sift his materials with critical sagacity. Nor was he even master of them, so as to put them in his own shape, or fashion them with skill into a well-digested whole. Credulous and superstitious, he mixed up ridiculous things with matters of interest and importance. He must not, however, be censured for what he probably could not do. Rather should he be commended for what he has done. He has given us a work of comprehensive encyclopædic character, containing a collection of observations from the entire kingdom of nature, as well as the departments of art; all the more valuable for being drawn from numerous writings no longer extant. The style of Pliny possesses strength, vigour, and condensed brevity. It is evidently the effect of labour and polish. It has both point and antithesis. But Horace's maxim is applicable to it: Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio. The best edition of Pliny's Natural History is Sillig's, Hamburg and Gotha, 1851, &c. If has been translated into German by Grosse, Fritsch, and Külb; into French by Cuvier, Letronne, &c.; and into English by Holland. Other translations into Dutch, Italian, Spanish, and Arabic exist.—S. D.
PLINIUS, Caius Cæcilius Secundus, commonly called the Younger, son of C. Cæcilius and Plinia, sister of the preceding, was born at Comum a.d. 62. His father dying young, his mother and her son lived with the elder Pliny, who adopted his nephew. Under the guardianship of C. Plinius Secundus he received an excellent education, and was early devoted to learning. He became an orator, and pleaded in the forum; then he served in Syria as a tribune, and became acquainted with the Stoic Socrates, as well as Artemidorus. Returning to Rome, he filled the office of prætor at the age of thirty-one. After refusing every public office under Domitian, he entered into the service of the state again under Nerva and Trajan; the latter of whom appointed him consul, a.d. 100. Two years after he went to Bithynia and Pontus as proprætor, and gave general satisfaction in his administration. His death happened in 110. Pliny was a man of cultivated mind, noble in disposition, generous, benevolent, and faithful in his friendships. Of his wealth he spent much in works of beneficence and taste. He built temples, instituted educational measures for the benefit of youth, treated his slaves kindly, and lived a virtuous, useful life. Like his uncle, he did not enjoy good health. He was twice married, but had no children. His extant works are a "Panegyricus on Trajan," written in strains of adulation, and by no means a very favourable specimen of treatises belonging to the class; and a collection of "Epistolæ," in ten books. This latter is valuable for the information it gives about the author himself and his times. The language of these letters is good and select, showing marks of careful elaboration, and the talent of writing in an agreeable style. The tenth book is the most valuable, and best known, consisting of letters from Pliny to Trajan, and from the latter to Pliny. Here both correspondents appear in a favourable light; the emperor even more so than his governor in Bithynia, as far at least as the measures recommended towards the christians are concerned. The best edition of the Panegyric alone was published by Gierig, 8vo, 1796. The same editor published the letters, 1800-1802, 2 vols. Gierig also edited both together, 1806, 2 vols.; but a better edition is Gros's, Paris, 1838. There are German translations of the letters by Schmidt (third edition by Starck, 1819) and Schaefer (1824, second edition); of the Panegyric by Wiegand (1796) and Hoffa (1837); and of both by Schott (five volumes, 1835). The epistles were rendered into English by Lord Orrery and Melmoth.—(Gierig, Ueber das Leben, den moralischen Charakter und den scriftstellerischen Werth des jüngern Plinius, 1798; and Held, Ueber den Werth der Briefsammlung des jüngern Plinius, 1833.)—S. D.
PLOOS VAN AMSTEL, Cornelis, a distinguished Dutch amateur engraver and collector, was born at Amsterdam in 1726. He was a man of wealth, leisure, and cultivated taste, and he formed an almost unrivalled collection of drawings and engravings, chiefly of the great masters of the Netherlands. His own engravings consist of imitations of drawings by the old masters, admirably executed in colours by printing with several plates. Of these he issued in 1765 a series of forty-six prints, and afterwards several more, making in all about a hundred; but very few impressions were taken. In 1821 Mr. C. Josi published in London an edition of Ploos van Amstel's "Imitations," consisting of only one hundred copies royal folio, at forty guineas a copy. Ploos van Amstel died at Amsterdam, on the 3rd of March, 1800. His collection, with the exception of the Rembrandt etchings, was shortly after sold by auction.—J. T—e.
PLOT, Robert, LL.D., Mowbray herald extraordinary, and a zealous lover of antiquities and natural history, was born in 1641 at Borden in Kent, where he subsequently inherited from his father the manor of Sutton-Barne. He was educated at Wye school, at Magdalene college, and at University college, Oxford. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1677, and being appointed secretary in 1682, he superintended the publication of the Philosophical Transactions from No. 143 to 166. He became in 1683 the first keeper of the Ashmolean museum by the appointment of the founder, and the vice-chancellor of the university made him the first reader in chemistry at Oxford. He resigned these two offices in 1690, having become secretary to the earl marshal in 1687. King James II., in the last year of his reign, made Dr. Plot royal historiographer, and in 1695 a new office in the Herald's college was created for him, that of registrar of the court of honour. At the same time he was named
