LIFE AND WRITINGS OF PLINY.

He wrote a continuation of the “Roman History” of Aufidius Bassus, but during the time of Tiberius, he judiciously suspended its publication. During the reign of Nero, who appointed him his procurator in Nearer Spain, he was not improbably honoured with equestrian rank. It was during his sojourn in Spain that the death of his brother-in-law, C. Cæcilius, left his nephew, Plinius Cæcilius Secundus (the author of the Letters), an orphan. Immediately upon his return to Rome, A.D. 70, he adopted him, receiving him and his widowed mother into his care.

Having been previously known to Vespasian during the German wars, he was admitted into the number of his most intimate friends and obtained an appointment at court, the nature of which is not known; but Rezzonico conjectures that it was in connection with the imperial treasury. Though Pliny was on intimate terms also with Titus, to whom he dedicated his Natural History, there is little ground for the assertion, sometimes made, that he served under him in the Jewish wars. His account of Palestine clearly shows that he had never visited that country. It was at this period that he published his continuation of the History of Aufidius Bassus.

From the titles which he gives to Titus in the dedicatory preface, it is quite clear that his Natural History was published A.D. 77, two years before his death.

In A.D. 73 or 74, he had been appointed by Vespasian prefect of the Roman fleet at Misenum, on the western coast of Italy. It was to this elevation that he owed his romantic death, somewhat similar, it has been remarked, to that of Empedocles, who perished in the crater of Mount Etna. The closing scene of his active life, occurring simultaneously with the destruction of Herculaneum and Pompeii, cannot be better described than in the language employed by his nephew in an Epistle to his friend Tacitus the historianPliny the Younger, Epistles, Book 6, Epistle 16:—“My uncle was at Misenum, where he was in personal command of the fleet. On the ninth day before the calends of SeptemberAugust 24th, about the seventh hour (1 P.M.), my mother, observing the appearance of a cloud of unusual size and shape, mentioned it to him. After reclining in the sun, he had taken his cold bath; he had then again lain down and, after a slight repast, applied himself to his studies. Immediately upon hearing this, he called for his shoes, and ascended a spot from which he could more easily observe this remarkable phenomenon.