Pliny: Natural History, Vol. I (Loeb)

The book is valuable as an anthropological document: it is a storehouse of scattered facts exhibiting the history of man’s reaction to his environment—the gradual growth of accurate observation, systematic nomenclature, and classification; in other words, the growth of Natural Science.

Pliny’s own general attitude toward life, like that of other educated men of his day, may be styled a moderate and rational Stoicism.

A vivid account of his authorship, written by his nephew, may be appended here. The younger Pliny, in reply to an inquiry from a friend who greatly admired his uncle, gives (Epistulae III, v) a full list of his works, numbering seven in all and filling 102 libri (volumes). Of these, the Naturae historiarum libri triginta septem original: "thirty-seven books of natural histories" is the latest. He calls it (§ 6) opus diffusum, eruditum, nec minus varium quam ipsa natura original: "a work as vast, learned, and varied as nature itself"; and he proceeds to describe how a busy lawyer, engrossed in important affairs and a friend of princes, managed to find time for all this writing (§ 7):

“He had a keen intelligence, incredible devotion to study, and a remarkable capacity for doing without sleep. His method was to start during the last week of August, rising by candlelight long before daybreak—not to take omens original: "auspices", but to study. In winter, he started work at 1:00 or at latest 2:00 a.m., and frequently at midnight. He was, in fact, a very ready sleeper, sometimes nodding off in the middle of his studies and then waking up again. Before dawn, he used to wait on the Emperor Vespasian, who also worked during the night, and then he went off to the duty assigned to him.