Pliny the Elder

Pliny's "Naturalis Historia" a brilliant and sophisticated encyclopaedia of the scientific, artistic, philosophical, botanical and zoological riches of the ancient world has had a long career in the footnotes of historical studies. This is a phenomenon born of the sense that the work was there to consult, or to use, as a resource to aid investigation of specific technical issues or passages, of Quellenforschung, or of delimited topic areas. The contributors to the present volume both represent and join a new generation of critics who have begun to try to read this monumental text, and by examining the dominant motifs which give shape and order to the work to construct frameworks within which we may understand and interpret Pliny s overarching agenda.