Pliny: Natural History, Vol. I (Loeb)

PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY

PREFACE, 16–20

17 We have gathered 20,000 noteworthy facts—for as Domitius Piso says, it is not books but store-houses that are needed—by perusing about 2,000 volumes, very few of which are handled by students due to the abstruseness of their contents. We have included these in 36 volumes, drawn from one hundred select authors, adding many facts that were either ignored by our predecessors or discovered through more recent experience.

18 We do not doubt that many things have escaped us as well; we are but human, and we are occupied by our duties. We pursue this interest in our spare time—that is, at night—lest any of you should think that the night hours have been given to idleness. The days we devote to you, and we weigh our need for sleep against our health, content with this reward alone: that while we are "dallying" (in the phrase of M. Varro) with these trifles, we are adding hours to our life.

19 For of a certainty, to be alive is to be awake. Because of these reasons and difficulties, I dare not make any promises; indeed, the very words I am writing to you are supplied by yourself. This guarantees my work and establishes its value; many objects are deemed extremely precious simply because they are dedicated to the temples.

20 As for your father, your brother, and yourself, we have dealt with you all in a regular book, the History of our own Times, which begins where Aufidius's history leaves off. Where is this work, you ask? The draft has long been finished and is in safe keeping; in any case, it was my resolve to entrust it to my heir...