Pliny: Natural History, Vol. I (Loeb)

However, among these topics implied by the title, Pliny includes substantial essays on human inventions and institutions (Book VII), as well as minor digressions on similar subjects interspersed throughout various parts of the work. He claims in his Preface that the work deals with 20,000 matters of importance, drawn from 100 selected authors, to whose observations he added many of his own. Some of the latter he indicated as they occurred, and there are undoubtedly others not so labeled; even so, they form only a small fraction of the work, which is primarily a second-hand compilation of the works of others. In selecting from these sources, he showed little judgment or discrimination, including the false with the true at random. His selection is colored by his love of the marvelous, his low opinion of human ability, his consciousness of human wickedness, and his mistrust of Providence. Moreover, his compilations show little methodical arrangement and are sometimes unintelligible because he fails to understand his authority, or because he provides incorrect Latin names for things treated by his authorities in Greek.

Nevertheless, it is a mistake to underrate the value of his work. He is diligent, accurate, and free from prejudice. Though he lacked significant first-hand knowledge of the sciences and was not himself a systematic observer, he had a naturally scientific mind and an unaffected, absorbing interest in his subjects. If he gives as much attention to what is merely curious as to what is of essential importance, this curiosity has incidentally preserved much valuable detail, especially regarding the arts. Moreover, anecdotes that used to be rejected by critics as erroneous and even absurd have now, in many cases, been corroborated by modern research.