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.

This image of a fully mature " Venus rising from the sea " ( Venus Anadyomene ) was one of the iconic representations of Aphrodite, made famous in a much-admired painting by Apelles, now lost, but described in the Natural History of Pliny the Elder.

According to The Natural History " by Pliny the Elder:

According to Suetonius who had cited from Pliny the Elder, Agrippina had borne to Germanicus, a son called Gaius Julius Caesar who had a lovable character.

She was a beautiful and reputable woman and according to Pliny the Elder, she had a double canine in her upper right jaw, a sign of good fortune.

According to Pliny the Elder, in 467 BCE a large meteorite landed near Aegospotami.

The amphisbaena has been referred to by the poets, such as Nicander, John Milton, Alexander Pope, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and A. E. Housman, and the amphisbaena as a mythological and legendary creature has been referenced by Lucan, Pliny the Elder, Isidore of Seville, and Thomas Browne, the last of whom debunked its existence.

< div align = right >-- Pliny the Elder.

He might also have been influenced by the name of a legendary island mentioned in The Natural History by Pliny the Elder.

The accounts of historians Herodotus, Pliny the Elder, and Strabo suggest that boats were being used for commerce and traveling.

He knew patristic literature, as well as Pliny the Elder, Virgil, Lucretius, Ovid, Horace and other classical writers.

The Roman geographer Pliny the Elder ( ca.

* Pliny the Elder Naturalis Historia ( ca.

The earliest bestiary in the form in which it was later popularized was an anonymous 2nd century Greek volume called the Physiologus, which itself summarized ancient knowledge and wisdom about animals in the writings of classical authors such as Aristotle's Historia Animalium and various works by Herodotus, Pliny the Elder, Solinus, Aelian and other naturalists.

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

Composting as a recognized practice dates to at least the early Roman Empire since Pliny the Elder ( AD 23-79 ).

Pliny the Elder notes that several of them were richer than Crassus, the richest man of the Republican era.

The event was witnessed by Pliny the Elder:

According to Pliny the Elder in Achaea, the garland worn by the winners of the sacred Nemean Games was also made of celery.

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.

He began the aqueducts Aqua Claudia and Anio Novus, which Pliny the Elder considered engineering marvels.

All surviving sources, except Pliny the Elder, characterize Caligula as insane.

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.

Pytheas's account was noted later by other writers including Pliny the Elder and Diodorus Siculus.

Pliny gives the circuitus reported by Pytheas as 4875 Roman miles.

" The passage does not give enough information to determine which cubit Pliny meant ; however, any cubit gives the same general result.

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.

The account which Pliny gives of it is that Agoracritus contended with Alcamenes ( another distinguished disciple of Phidias ) in making a statue of Venus ; and that the Athenians, through an undue partiality towards their countryman, awarded the victory to Alcamenes.

Pliny the Elder also gives us some statements about Abnoba ( Natural History, 4. 79 ).

A summary of Classical sources on the Seres ( Greek and Roman name of China ) ( essentially Pliny and Ptolemy ) gives the following account:

On the other hand, Pliny, who also drew from Megasthenes ' work, gives even larger numbers of 600, 000 infantry, 30, 000 cavalry, and 9, 000 war elephants:

Pliny gives a list of female artists and their paintings.

Pliny the Elder gives a good account of the methods used in Spain, presumably based on his own observations.

Pliny gives a list of his works ; among them a Rape of Persephone, Victory in a Quadriga, Apollo and Artemis, and Cybele seated on a Lion.

It is no coincidence that he gives numerous references to the earlier author, Pliny the Elder and his Naturalis Historia.

Pliny the Elder, in his book " Natural History " writes: " The physician Apollodorus, in the work in which he wrote recommending King Ptolemy what wines in particular to drink -- for in his time the wines of Italy were not generally known -- has spoken in high terms of that of Naspercene in Pontus, next to which he places the Oretic, and then the Aeneatian, the Leucadian, the Ambraciotic, and the Peparethian, to which last he gives the preference over all the rest, though he states that it enjoyed an inferior reputation, from the fact of its not being considered fit for drinking until it had been kept six years.

Although much of the work was compiled by judicious use of written sources, Pliny gives an eye witness account of gold mining in Spain where he was stationed as an officer.

A summary of Classical sources on the Seres ( essentially Pliny and Ptolemy ) gives the following account:

Pliny the Elder gives a dramatic account in his Naturalis Historia of the method, possibly derived from his experiences in Spain.

Pliny the Elder gives us the names of nine of these islands — Aegialia, Cotonis, Thyatira, Geoaris, Dionysia, Cyrnus, Chalcis, Pinara, Mystus.