The Plinys www.misterconnor.org

Who They? Pliny the Elder (b. Gaius Plinius Secundus, AD 23 – 79) was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, a naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and friend of the emperor Vespasian. Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, (61 – c. 113), better known as Pliny the Younger, was a lawyer, author, and magistrate. Pliny's uncle, Pliny the Elder, helped raise and educate him.

Why are they relevant to us? In 79 CE they were both living at Misenum in modern-day Campania.

What did They do? Spending most of his spare time studying, writing, and investigating natural and geographic phenomena in the field, Pliny the Elder wrote the encyclopedic Naturalis Historia (Natural History), which became a model for encyclopedias. Pliny the Younger wrote hundreds of letters, of which 247 survive and are of great historical value. Some are addressed to reigning emperors or to notables such as the historian Tacitus.

Roman Intellectual Icon Pliny the Younger, wrote of his uncle in a letter to the historian Tacitus: For my part I deem those blessed to whom, by favour of the gods, it has been granted either to do what is worth writing of, or to write what is worth reading; above measure blessed those on whom both gifts have been conferred. In the latter number will be my uncle, by virtue of his own and of your compositions.

Death of Pliny the Elder Pliny the Younger refers to Tacitus’s reliance upon his uncle's book, the History of the German Wars. Pliny the Elder died in AD 79, while attempting the rescue, by ship, of a friend and his family, in Stabiae, from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which already had destroyed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The wind caused by the sixth and largest pyroclastic surge of the volcano’s eruption did not allow his ship to leave port, and Pliny probably died during that event.

The Skinny Pliny the Elder was an iconic Roman intellectual. His research into natural philosophy led to his Naturalis Historia, a forerunner of the first encyclopedias. Pliny the younger was about eighteen at the time of the eruption. His letters are amongst the most important records of the event in existence. Pliny the Elder died whilst trying to rescue a friend and their family.

Sources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pliny_the_Younger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pliny_the_Elder