Gaius Plinius Secundus was a first century Roman writer, known by the name Pliny the Elder to differentiate him from his nephew and adopted son Pliny the Younger. His best known work, and the only one preserved in its entirety, is Naturalis Histori or Natural History. Pliny belonged to the equestrian order and held various military and administrative positions throughout his life, combining them with studies and research on natural, ethnographic...