The name is derived from the type genus Apium, which was originally used by Pliny the Elder circa 50 AD for a celery-like plant.

Another early reference to Amber was Pytheas ( 330 BC ) whose work " On the Ocean " is lost, but was referenced by Pliny.

Pliny is presenting an archaic view, as in his time amber was a precious stone brought from the Baltic at great expense, but the Germans, he says, use it for firewood, according to Pytheas.

Earlier Pliny says that a large island of three days ' sail from the Scythian coast called Balcia by Xenophon of Lampsacus is called Basilia by Pytheas.

It is possible that Pliny refers to an island named Basilia (" kingdom " or " royal ") in On the Ocean by Pytheas.

However, it is clear he was familiar with the works of Virgil and with Pliny the Elder's Natural History, and his monastery also owned copies of the works of Dionysius Exiguus.

It might be connected with " glowing coals ", or " fire ", but it could equally go back to, or be influenced by, the Latin name Brundisium of the city of Brindisi ( aes Brundusinum, meaning " copper of Brindisi ", is attested in Pliny ).

Much of the early development of purification methods is described by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia.

There are few direct testimonies to the language of the Cimbri: Referring to the Northern Ocean ( the Baltic or the North Sea ), Pliny the Elder states: " Philemon says that it is called Morimarusa, i. e. the Dead Sea, by the Cimbri, until the promontory of Rubea, and after that Cronium.

Yet, given that Pliny had not heard the word directly from a Cimbric informant, it cannot be ruled out that the word is in fact Gaulish instead.

This diagnosis is mainly attributed to Caligula's irritability and his " stare " as described by Pliny the Elder.

Aelian's anecdotes on animals rarely depend on direct observation: they are almost entirely taken from written sources, often Pliny the Elder, but also other authors and works now lost, to whom he is thus a valuable witness.

It is remarkable that the composition of this league does not reflect that of the Latin people who took part in the Latiar or Feriae Latinae given by Pliny and it has not as its leader the rex Nemorensis but a dictator Latinus.

Also in Roman times, some Essenes settled on the Dead Sea's western shore ; Pliny the Elder identifies their location with the words, " on the west side of the Dead Sea, away from the coast ... the town of Engeda " ( Natural History, Bk 5. 73 ); and it is therefore a hugely popular but contested hypothesis today, that same Essenes are identical with the settlers at Qumran and that " the Dead Sea Scrolls " discovered during the 20th century in the nearby caves had been their own library.

The earliest allusion to pandeism found to date is in 1787, in translator Gottfried Große ’ s interpretation of Pliny the Elder ’ s Natural History:

Here Gottfried says that Pliny is not Spinozist, but ' could be called a Pandeist ' whose Nature or God ' is not a being separate from the world.

One of the earliest encyclopedic works to have survived to modern times is the Naturalis Historia of Pliny the Elder, a Roman statesman living in the 1st century AD.

Although many of the mining methods are now redundant, such as hushing and fire-setting, it is Pliny who recorded them for posterity, thereby helping us understand their importance in a modern context.

Also often advanced as a possible context for 1 Peter is the trials and executions of Christians in the Roman province of Bithynia-Pontus under Pliny the Younger.

For biblical scholar John Knox, the use of the word “ name ” in 4: 14-16 is the “ crucial point of contact ” with that in Pliny ’ s letter.

In addition, many scholars in support of this theory believe that there is content within 1 Peter that directly mirrors the situation as portrayed in Pliny ’ s letter.

But by the 1st century AD, Pliny the Elder was in a position to claim that everyone agrees on the spherical shape of Earth, although there continued to be disputes regarding the nature of the antipodes, and how it is possible to keep the ocean in a curved shape.

The earliest written references that have survived relating to the islands were made by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History, where he states that there are 30 " Hebudes ", and makes a separate reference to " Dumna ", which Watson ( 1926 ) concludes is unequivocally the Outer Hebrides.

Pliny may have mentioned them, although there is some debate as to the exact nature of the stone he referred to as Adamas ; In 2005, Australia, Botswana, Russia and Canada ranked among the primary sources of gemstone diamond production .< ref >

After his death, Domitian's memory was condemned to oblivion by the Roman Senate, while senatorial authors such as Tacitus, Pliny the Younger and Suetonius published histories propagating the view of Domitian as a cruel and paranoid tyrant.

There is some discrepancy as to the people to which it belonged at contact: Pliny expressly assigns it to the Hirpini ; but Livy certainly seems to consider it as belonging to the Samnites proper, as distinguished from the Hirpini ; and Ptolemy adopts the same view.

Statements by ancient authors such as Caesar, Strabo and Pliny the Elder have been controversially interpreted as supporting this view, but these are too vague or ambiguous to be of much geographical value.

Histor's ability to transport himself and Pliny through time (" as the crow flies ") to view past events would be used to satirise current affairs, and the script would be peppered with deliberately weak but dense nautical-and bird-related multiple puns, which would increase in volume and weakness as the series progressed.

After Mauritania became a Roman province in 40 AD, the Roman governors made frequent expeditions into the Gaetulian territory to the south, and the official view seems to be expressed by Pliny ( v. 4.

His most important works include a study of Roman citizenship based on his doctoral thesis, a treatment of the New Testament from the point of view of Roman law and society, and a commentary on the letters of Pliny the Younger.

Pliny, another physician from this time, valued nobility and a quiet and inconspicuous disposition in a midwife.

Pliny points out that in his own time the Eridanos had become wrongly identified with the Padus.

Pliny the Elder writes that, in his time, the best location in Egypt for capturing this animal was in the Saite nome ; the animal could still be found along the Damietta branch after the Arab Conquest in 639.

Its cultivation spread into the Mediterranean world by way of Iran from Syria: Pliny in his Natural History asserts that pistacia, " well known among us ," was one of the trees unique to Syria, and in another place, that the nut was introduced into Italy by the Roman consul in Syria, Lucius Vitellius the Elder ( consul in Syria in 35 AD ) and into Hispania at the same time by Flaccus Pompeius.

It seems to have received a colony in the time of Augustus, whence we find mention in inscriptions of the Ordo et Populus splendidissimae Coloniae Augustae Himeraeorum Thermitanorum: and there can be very little doubt that the Thermae colonia of Pliny in reality refers to this town, though he evidently understood it to be Thermae Selinuntiae ( modern Sciacca ), as he places it on the south coast between Agrigentum ( modern Agrigento ) and Selinus There are little subsequent account of Thermae ; but, as its name is found in Ptolemy and the Itineraries, it appears to have continued in existence throughout the period of the Roman Empire, and probably never ceased to be inhabited, as the modern town of Termini Imerese retains the ancient site as well as name.

Pliny the Elder indeed, mentions its name ( Selinus oppidum ), as if it still existed as a town in his time, but Strabo distinctly classes it with extinct cities.

Pliny described it as a colony, the only on the island in his time, suggesting that there was previously no town on the spot, but merely a fort or castellum.

While this was probably just folk etymology made popular by Pliny the Elder, it was well known by the time the term came into common use.

Strabo speaks of it as one of the places on the north coast of Sicily which, in his time, still deserved the name of cities ; and Pliny gives it the title of a Colonia.

Pliny is known for his hundreds of surviving letters, which are an invaluable historical source for the time period.

Pliny also came into contact with many other well-known men of the period, including the philosophers Artemidorus and Euphrates during his time in Syria.

It was at this time that Pliny became closer to his uncle Pliny the Elder.

According to Pliny the Elder and his citation by Gaius Julius Solinus, the sea voyage time from Atlantis crossing the Gorgades to the islands of the Ladies of the West ( Hesperides ) is around 40 days.

It is certain therefore that Thurii was at this time still a place of some importance, and it is mentioned as a still existing town by Pliny and Ptolemy, as well as Strabo.

This was the state of things in the time of Trajan, when Pliny the Younger was appointed governor of the combined provinces ( 109 / 110 – 111 / 112 ), a circumstance to which historians are indebted for valuable information concerning the Roman provincial administration.

According to Pliny the Elder, human sacrifice in Ancient Rome was abolished by a senatorial decree in 97 BCE, although by this time the practice had already become so rare that the decree was mostly a symbolic act.

According to Pliny the Elder, human sacrifice was formally banned during the consulship of Publius Licinius Crassus and Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus in 97 BCE, although by this time it was so rare that the decree was largely symbolic.

In the embroilment between Philip V of Macedonia and the Romans, Thasos submitted to Philip, but received its freedom at the hands of the Romans after the Battle of Cynoscephalae ( 197 BC ), and it was still a " free " state in the time of Pliny.

Pliny records that Arria's son died at the same time as Caecina Paetus was quite ill. She apparently arranged and planned the child's funeral without her husband even knowing of his death.

Pliny the Elder, notes that although emmer was called far in his time formerly it was called adoreum ( or " glory "), providing an etymology explaining that emmer had been held in glory ( N. H. 18. 3 ), and later in the same book he describes its role in sacrifices.

Mentioned as Burchana fabaria ( island of beans ) by both Strabo and Pliny the elder, Borkum by the time of Charlemagne the island was part of a larger island called Bant, which consisted of the present day islands of Borkum, Juist and the western part of Norderney.

Further sculptures attributed to Polykleitos are the Discophoros (" Discus-bearer "), Diadumenos (" Youth tying a headband ") and a Hermes at one time placed, according to Pliny, in Lysimachia ( Thrace ).